The Kings of Hitchin

Hitchin – a town that always seems to be on the fold of the map, not quite in the Anglia TV region, not quite in the London area, just annoyingly out of range of most of the London local radio stations, straddling the line between Heart’s Luton and Bedford radio transmitter areas – the list goes on and on. And when I was looking at a map of the ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, it was the same old story – Hitchin seemed to be at the “triple-point” between Mercia, Anglia and Essex, and later right on the border between Danelaw and Wessex!

So a bit of investigation was needed: which kingdom (or kingdoms) was Hitchin actually in during these times? This chart shows not only who was the “King of Hitchin” during Anglo-Saxon times but also in the pre-Roman era of the Ancient Britons (the tribe of the Catuvellauni in Hitchin’s case), and way back to the earliest legendary kings, as named by Geoffrey of Monmouth and others (BC dates are, of course, pretty much guesswork and may differ from those given in other sources).

Also included are some of the less-well-known monarchs, who often get omitted from “official” lists because they were never actually crowned, but I have included them for completeness. Examples include Lady Jane Grey (1553), who you have probably heard of, and King Louis (1216) and Edgar the Outlaw (1066), who you may not have. I have also included sub-kings and regents, lists of the Roman emperors during the times when Britain was part of the Roman Empire and the Roman governors of Britannia at the time.