The Heptarchy

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: if the answer is longer than the question, you should consider asking it the other way round:

"What collective name was coined in the 16th century, for the seven Anglo–Saxon kingdoms that were unified into the Kingdom of England in the early 10th century?"

A rather wordy question, perhaps, but it has a lot of extra information, and it has a one-word answer (if you don't count the definite article).

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