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During Wilfrid's lifetime Britain and Ireland consisted of a number of small kingdoms. Traditionally the [[English people]] were thought to have been divided into seven kingdoms, but modern historiography has shown that this is a simplification of a much more confused situation.<ref name=Hept>Keynes "Heptarchy" ''Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England''</ref> A late 7th-century source, the [[Tribal Hidage]], lists the peoples south of the Humber river; among the largest groups of peoples are the West Saxons (later [[Wessex]]), the [[Kingdom of the East Angles|East Angles]] and [[Mercia]]ns (later the Kingdom of Mercia), and the [[Kingdom of Kent]]. Smaller groups who at that time had their own royalty but were later absorbed into larger kingdoms include the peoples of [[Magonsæte]], Lindsey, [[Hwicce]], the [[Kingdom of Essex|East Saxons]], the South Saxons,<ref name=Kings9 /> the Isle of Wight, and the [[Middle Angles]].<ref name=Earliest5>Kirby ''Earliest English Kings'' pp. 5–7</ref> Other even smaller groups had their own rulers, but their size means that they do not often appear in the histories.<ref name=Kings9>Yorke ''Kings and Kingdoms'' pp. 9–11</ref> There were also native Britons in the west, in modern-day Wales and [[Cornwall]], who formed kingdoms including those of [[Dumnonia]], [[Kingdom of Dyfed|Dyfed]], and [[Kingdom of Gwynedd|Gwynedd]].<ref name=Conv37>Yorke ''Conversion of Britain'' p. 37</ref>
Between the Humber and [[Firth of Forth|Forth]] the English had formed into two main kingdoms, [[Deira]] and Bernicia, often united as the Kingdom of Northumbria.<ref name=Kings74>Yorke ''Kings and Kingdoms'' p. 74</ref> A number of Celtic kingdoms also existed in this region, including [[Craven in the Domesday Book|Craven]], [[Elmet]], [[Rheged]], and [[Gododdin]]. A native British kingdom, later called the [[Kingdom of Strathclyde]], survived as an independent power into the 10th century in the area which became modern-day [[Dunbartonshire]] and [[Clydesdale]].<ref name=Conv38>Yorke ''Conversion of Britain'' p. 38</ref> To the north-west of Strathclyde lay the Gaelic kingdom of [[Dál Riata]], and to the north-east a small number of Pictish kingdoms.<ref name=Kings83>Yorke ''Kings and Kingdoms'' pp. 83–86</ref> Further north still lay the great Pictish kingdom of [[Fortriu]], which after the [[Battle of Dun Nechtain]] in 685 came to be the strongest power in the northern half of Britain.<ref>Charles-Edwards "'Continuation of Bede" ''Seanchas'' pp. 137–145</ref><ref>Woolf "Dun Nechtain" ''Scottish Historical Review'' pp. 182–201</ref><ref>Woolf "Verturian hegemony" ''Mercia'' pp. 106–112</ref> The Irish had always had contacts with the rest of the British Isles, and during the early 6th century they immigrated from the island of Ireland to form the kingdom of Dál Riata, although exactly how much conquest took place is a matter of dispute with historians. It also appears likely that the Irish settled in parts of Wales, and even after the period of Irish settlement, Irish missionaries were active in Britain.<ref name=Yorke50>York ''Conversion of Britain'' pp. 50–56</ref>
Christianity had only recently arrived in some of these kingdoms.<ref name=Earliest2>Kirby ''Earliest English Kings'' p. 2</ref> Some had been converted by the [[Gregorian mission]], a group of Roman missionaries who arrived in Kent in 597 and who mainly influenced southern Britain. Others had been converted by the Hiberno-Scottish mission, chiefly Irish missionaries working in Northumbria and neighbouring kingdoms.<ref name=Conv123>Yorke ''Conversion of Britain'' pp. 123–124</ref> A few kingdoms, such as Dál Riata, became Christian but how they did so is unknown.<ref name=Conv114>Yorke ''Conversion of Britain'' pp. 114–115</ref> The native Picts, according to the medieval writer Bede, were converted in two stages, initially by native Britons under [[Saint Ninian|Ninian]], and subsequently by Irish missionaries.<ref name=Conv128>Yorke ''Conversion of Britain'' pp. 128–129</ref>
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