Why does the map stop at 1922?

Because that is the last time the border moved. Most of Ireland left the United Kingdom as the Irish Free State and six counties in the north stayed, which is the border on the map today.

How accurate are the Anglo-Saxon borders?

The coastline is real map data. The borders inside it are approximate, and the board says so: a frontier in 878 was a river, a road and a stretch of nobody's, not a line on a survey, and every atlas draws it approximately too. The one line we do know is Watling Street, which Alfred's treaty with Guthrum names.

Where is Northumbria?

Under the Danelaw on the 878 board. The Danes took York in 866 and the southern half of Northumbria with it, and what was left in the far north was not ruling itself for long. Simplifying it to the Danelaw is what a primary map has room for.

Why is Wales several kingdoms and then one thing?

Because it was. Gwynedd, Powys, Dyfed and others were separate kingdoms that were never a single Welsh country, which is why the label says the Welsh kingdoms until 1284, when Edward I annexed them to the English crown.

Kingdoms of Britain

History · Year 3–Year 6

Wessex, Mercia and the Danelaw, all the way to the United Kingdom.

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About the kingdoms

One map, six dates. Pick a year on the toolbar and the same coastline is coloured by who ruled what: Alfred's Wessex, Mercia and the Danelaw in 878, one kingdom of England by 927, Wales annexed in 1284, Great Britain in 1707, the United Kingdom in 1801, and the border drawn in 1922. Tap a territory to name it and read one line about it.

It is coloured by CROWN rather than by country, and that is what makes stepping through it worth doing. Coloured by country, four of the six boards would be the same picture: England has been England-shaped since 927. Coloured by who ruled it, every step is a visible change, which is what actually happened. That is why 1707 and 1801 are separate boards at all: the shapes are identical and Ireland's colour is the event.

The coastline is real and the borders inside it are not, and the board says so. The coast is projected from Natural Earth's public domain data, the same map the UK map tool uses, and every territory is cut to it: so wherever a kingdom's edge is coastline, it is exactly as accurate as the map. Where one kingdom met another inland, it is approximate, because no dataset has a ninth-century Mercian border and nobody knows where it was to within a county. The two earliest boards carry a note saying so.

One border on the 878 board is not a guess. Alfred's treaty with Guthrum names Watling Street, the Roman road from London towards Chester, so the line between English and Danish law really was about where the map draws it.

1066 is not one of the six, and it is the date every class knows, so it is worth saying why: nothing on this map changed. The same England, the same Scotland, the same Wales, and a new king. A class that has only ever met 1066 tends to assume it is when Britain was made, and it is a hundred and forty years after England was.

How to use it on your whiteboard

1Pick a year on the toolbar. The map is redrawn for that date.
2Tap a territory to name it. What it was is written under the map.
3Tap Show all to put every name up at once, and Hide to take them off.
4Step from 878 to 927 and ask the class what happened to the Danelaw.
5Step from 1801 to 1922 and ask them which part of Ireland stayed, and why the border is where it is.

Questions

Why does the map stop at 1922?: Because that is the last time the border moved. Most of Ireland left the United Kingdom as the Irish Free State and six counties in the north stayed, which is the border on the map today.
How accurate are the Anglo-Saxon borders?: The coastline is real map data. The borders inside it are approximate, and the board says so: a frontier in 878 was a river, a road and a stretch of nobody's, not a line on a survey, and every atlas draws it approximately too. The one line we do know is Watling Street, which Alfred's treaty with Guthrum names.
Where is Northumbria?: Under the Danelaw on the 878 board. The Danes took York in 866 and the southern half of Northumbria with it, and what was left in the far north was not ruling itself for long. Simplifying it to the Danelaw is what a primary map has room for.
Why is Wales several kingdoms and then one thing?: Because it was. Gwynedd, Powys, Dyfed and others were separate kingdoms that were never a single Welsh country, which is why the label says the Welsh kingdoms until 1284, when Edward I annexed them to the English crown.