Saxon kings

A list of Saxon kings. Shamelessly stolen from here.

Offa (757-796)
Egbert, King of Wessex (802-839)
Ethelwulf (839-856)
Ethelbald (856-860)
Ethelbert (860-866)
Ethelred (866-871)
Alfred The Great (871-899)
Edward The Elder (899-924)
Athelstan (924-939)
Edmund I (939-946)
Edred (946-55)
Edwy (955-959)
Edgar (959-975)
Edward II The Martyr (975-979)
Ethelred II The Unready (979-1013 and 1014-1016)
Sweyn (1013-1014)
Edmund II Ironside' (Apr - Nov 1016)
Canute The Great' (1016-1035)
Harold Harefoot (1035-1040)
Hardicanute (1035-1042)
Edward III The Confessor (1042-1066)
Harold II (Jan - Oct 1066)
Edgar Atheling (Oct - Dec 1066)

I'm getting more interested in this period because it looks like a very fertile setting for stories because of the ceaseless conflict at work. For a start that romans had left and that meant a power vacuum that the kings, some of whom were little more than robber barons, tried to fill.

Plus there was the threat of invasions from Vikings and others - and that ended in 1066 with the conquest.

Alongside this goes the gradual conversion to Christianity and its wholesale pinching of earlier pagan beliefs. Given that there must be lots of people looking for their place in the world or just trying to extend their power.

There is also the great source of the Exeter Book to call on to get a sense of place and time. I've read some excerpts from it and the feeling of the times it gives is eerie.