Tamworth, United Kingdom

The settlers established themselves in "an open meadow by the Tame" which they called Tomworðig. Nearby they established an "enclosed estate" called Tomtun – Tame-town – fortified with a palisade wall. These people called themselves the Tomsaete: Tame-settlers. Tomtun was initially "not much more than a fortified manor". The settlement straddled the River Anker and contained a "large hall for public gatherings" as well as individual homes and agricultural buildings such as stables and granaries. The Lords of Tame-Settlers quickly became wealthy and Tamworth was thus able to be fortified further.

The Tomsaete were a military tribe; however, soldiers eventually reached an age where they retired from military duty and were then allotted parcels of land to farm, manage and defend. Fertile lands surrounding the rivers were allotted first, then the hill lands; this land spreading further and further, spreading the power and influence of the tribes. The Tomsaete were one of countless tribes "all vying for power and influence", however the Lords of the Tomsaete came to control and to "dominate" the area known as English Midlands. The tribes initially ruled through unions and alliances of leading families and there is evidence of contact with families across England and also back in the Anglo-Saxon homelands. However, this "warlord" form of government developed and the Tomsaete's lands became a Kingdom with a single leader.

The Tomsaete lived in the heartland of what by the late 6th century had become the Kingdom of Mercia, the largest of the kingdoms in what is now England. A fortress built by King Creoda would later, under King Penda in the 7th century, become the most powerful. The King was not static and would not have a single residence; instead he travelled round his territories "to be seen by his people, to give legal judgments, to reward loyalty and to try offenders". Tamworth was probably a stopping place on the royal circuit, becoming a royal vill from the seventh century, with an early minster church and river crossing. It was fortified as a burh in the late 8th century, with an earthen rampart and timber palisade surrounded by a ditch.

By the end of the 8th century it had been established by King Offa of Mercia (757–796) as the stable centre of royal power for his expanding political ambitions – more like a capital than had previously been seen anywhere in Anglo-Saxon England. One of the earliest surviving written records mentioning Tamworth dates from Offa's reign; a grant of land to monks at Worcester dating from 781, signed by Offa, King of Mercia, addressed from his royal palace at Tamworthie. Offa built what was described as a Royal palace at Tamworth, however this was almost certainly a timber and thatch construction (as were most buildings in Anglo-Saxon England) which left little physical trace, and so the location of Offa's palace has never been identified, although excavations north of Bolebridge Street in 1968 revealed what appeared to be the outline of a large Saxon building.

Between 790 and 850 Tamworth was the main location for the signature of Mercian royal charters. In 868 the Great Heathen Army invaded England and in 874 they drove out King Burgred, who fled to Rome. Tamworth was then a frontier town between Viking ruled east Mercia and Anglo-Saxon ruled west Mercia until 913, when Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, made Tamworth her capital, and re-fortified the town against Viking attacks. Æthelflæd led a successful military campaign to win back territory from the Danes, driving them back to their stronghold at Derby which was then captured. She died at Tamworth on 6 June 918.

During the reign of Æthelstan (924–939) the Kingdom enjoyed a period of relative peace and prosperity. In Tamworth church in 926, a sister of King Æthelstan, perhaps Saint Edith of Polesworth, was married to Sitric Cáech, the squint-eyed Norse King of York and Dublin. It was during this period that a mint was established at Tamworth producing silver coins, many stamped with the name of a local moneyer called Manna. Many coins produced in Tamworth during this period have appeared in Scandinavian museums, as much of it was used to pay Danegeld, a tribute paid in an attempt to buy off invading Vikings. This however proved fruitless, as following Æthelstan's death in 939, Tamworth was again plundered and devastated by Viking invaders led by Sitric's son Olaf (later called Amlaíb Cuarán). It was soon recovered and rebuilt by Æthelstan's successors, but Tamworth never regained its pre-eminence as a Royal centre.

In the early 10th century the new shires of Staffordshire and Warwickshire were created, and Tamworth was divided between them, with the county border running through the town centre along the streets of Gungate, Church Street, Silver Street and Holloway, with the castle on the Warwickshire side of the border. The reason for this division was probably so that the town would be divided between the two separately administered Hundreds of Offlow and Hemlingford to ensure that sufficient manpower would be available to man the town's defences.