Editing Middlesex (section)

===Origin and toponymy===
The county has its roots in the settlement of the [[Middle Saxons]].<ref name="auto"/> The extent of the province is not clear, and probably varied over time, but it is clear that it occupied at least the area of the current county and much of [[Hertfordshire]]. Although the province appeared to have come under the dominion of, and is only ever recorded as a part of the [[Kingdom of the East Saxons]], charter evidence shows that it was not part of their core territory. However, it is probable the county was independent at some point.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Stephenson |first=Carl |date=November 1944 |title=Anglo-Saxon England. By F. M. Stenton. [The Oxford History of England, edited by G. N. Clark.] Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1943. Pp. vii, 748. $7.50. |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-economic-history/article/abs/anglosaxon-england-by-f-m-stenton-the-oxford-history-of-england-edited-by-g-n-clark-oxford-the-clarendon-press-1943-pp-vii-748-750/2043C67699F9853C35D136AF5EC803DD |journal=The Journal of Economic History |language=en |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=216–217 |doi=10.1017/S0022050700081407 |issn=1471-6372}}</ref>

At times, Essex was ruled jointly by co-Kings, and it is thought that the Middle Saxon province is likely to have been the domain of one of these co-kings.<ref>Kings and Kingdoms of early Anglo-Saxon England, Chapter 3, Barbara Yorke, 1990, Routledge, {{ISBN|0-415-16639-X}}</ref> This link to Essex endured through the [[Diocese of London]], re-established in 604 as the East Saxon see, and its boundaries continued to be based on the [[Kingdom of Essex]] until the nineteenth century.

The name means ''territory of the [[middle Saxons]]''. The word is formed from the [[Old English]], 'middel' and '[[Seax]]e'<ref name=mills>{{Harvnb|Mills|2001|p=151}}</ref> ('Saxons') ({{abbreviation|cf.|compare}} [[Essex#History|Essex]], [[Sussex#Toponymy|Sussex]] and [[Wessex]]). In 704, it is recorded as ''Middleseaxon'' in an Anglo-Saxon chronicle, written in Latin, about land at Twickenham. The Latin text reads: "''in prouincia quæ nuncupatur Middelseaxan Haec''".<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=de Gray Birch |editor1-first=Walther |title=Cartularium Saxonicum: A Collection of Charters Relating to Anglo-Saxon History (Cambridge Library Collection – Medieval History) (Volume 1 |date=24 May 2012 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1108045070 |pages=163 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ysgq2XUV_KgC&q=%27in+prouincia+qu%C3%A6+nuncupatur+Middelseaxan+Haec&pg=PA163 |access-date=30 November 2018}}</ref>

The [[Saxon]]s derived their name, ''Seaxe'' in their own tongue, from the ''[[seax]]'', a kind of knife for which they were known. The seax appears in the heraldry of the English counties of [[Essex]] and Middlesex, each of which bears three seaxes in their ceremonial emblem, or rather the Tudor heralds' idea of what a seax looked like, portrayed in each case like a [[falchion]] or [[scimitar]]. The names 'Middlesex', 'Essex', '[[Sussex]]' and '[[Wessex]]', contain the name 'Seaxe'.