The Kingdom of Northumbria was a medieval Anglian kingdom in what is now northern England and south-east Scotland. The name derives from the Old English Norþan-hymbre meaning "the people or province north of the Humber", which reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary. Northumbria started to consolidate into one kingdom in the early seventh century. At its height, the kingdom extended from just south of the Humber to the River Mersey and to the Firth of Forth, in Scotland. Northumbria ceased to be an independent kingdom in the mid-tenth century. |  |