ABSTRACT
T h e fragm entary natu re o f the w ritten sources which limits the trea tm ent o f the problem o f settlem ent similarly affects the ques tion o f its w ider setting. N ot until Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, writ ten in the early eighth century, is there an account o f conditions in these islands sufficient to give anything like a continuous picture o f the kingdom s and churches o f England. B ede’s prim ary concern was with ecclesiastical conditions, but he threw light also on the political natu re o f the so-called H eptarchy. His overriding purpose, however, was to show the success o f the missionary enterprises that were d irected to the pagan G erm anic kingdom s o f England in the course o f the late sixth and early seventh centuries, and it is only incidentally that he advanced knowledge o f the social and economic conditions o f England, o r o f the relationships between England and the C ontinent in these fields.
