This latter kingdom was dismembered from that of Kent, and comprehended Essex, Middlesex, and part of Hertfordshire.

That of the East Angles, the counties of Cambridge, Suffolk, and Norfolk; Mercia was extended over all the middle counties, from the banks of the Severn to the frontiers of these two kingdoms.
[FN [z] Math.West.Huntington, lib.

2.] The Saxons, soon after the landing of Hengist, had been planted in Northumberland; but, as they met with an obstinate resistance, and made but small progress in subduing the inhabitants, their affairs were in so unsettled a condition, that none of their princes for a long time assumed the appellation of king.

At last, in 547 [a], Ida, a Saxon prince of great valour [b], who claimed a descent, as did the other princes of that nation, from Woden, brought over a reinforcement from Germany, and enabled the Northumbrians to carry on their conquests over the Britons.

He entirely subdued the county now called Northumberland, the bishopric of Durham, as well as some of the south- east counties of Scotland; and he assumed the crown under the title of King of Bernicia.