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| THE ANGLO-SAXON KINGDOM of MERCIA | ||
[image: The main Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms circa A.D. 600] The Heptarchy (AD 600-800) is the name traditionally applied to the kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England in the period prior to the Danish conquests of the 9th cent. The term was probably first used by 16th-century writers who believed that in those early years England was divided into seven kingdoms—Northumbria, East Anglia, Mercia, Essex, Sussex, Wessex, and Kent. Actually the political and geographical divisions were neither so orderly nor permanent. At one time (c.600) there appear to have been as many as 12 independent states, but the number of kingdoms, their boundaries, and their political status shifted constantly throughout this period.
Mercia (Old English: Mierce, "border people") was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy, centered on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries in what is now the Midlands of England. Mercia's neighbors included Northumbria, Powys, the kingdoms of southern Wales, Wessex, Sussex, Essex, and East Anglia. The term survives today in the name of the West Mercia Constabulary, commercial radio station Mercia FM in Coventry, and also in two regiments of the British Army, the new Mercian Regiment, and the Royal Mercian and Lancastrian Yeomanry. The name of Mercia is used politically by the Mercian Nationalist Party and the Mercian Socialist Partywho campaign for increased autonomy and full devolution of the Midlands region from the United Kingdom.
Early history The earliest known king of Mercia was named Creoda, [see Kingsline] said to have been the great-grandson of Icel. He came to power about 585 and was succeeded by his son Pybba in 593. Cearl, a kinsman of Creoda, followed Pybba in 606; in 615, Cearl gave his daughter Cwenburga in marriage to Edwin, king of Deira whom he had sheltered while he was an exiled prince. The next Mercian king was Penda, who ruled from about 626 or 633 until 655. Some of what is known about Penda comes through the hostile account of Bede, who disliked him both for being an enemy king to Bede's own Northumbria, but also for being a pagan. However, Bede admits that it was Penda who freely allowed Christian missionaries from Lindisfarne into Mercia, and did not restrain them from preaching. After a reign of successful battles against all opponents, Penda was defeated and killed at the Battle of Winwaed by the Northumbrian king Oswiu in 655. The battle led to a temporary collapse of Mercian power. Penda was succeeded first by his son Peada, but in the spring of 656 Oswiu assumed control of the whole of Mercia after Peada's murder. A revolt in 658 resulted in the appearance of another son of Penda, Wulfhere, who ruled Mercia until his death in 675. Wulfhere was initially successful in restoring the power of Mercia, but the end of his reign saw a serious defeat against Northumbria. The next two kings, Æthelred and Cenred son of Wulfhere, are better known for their religious activities; the king who succeeded them (in 709), Ceolred, is said in a letter of Saint Boniface to have been a dissolute youth who died insane. So ended the rule of the direct descendants of Penda. At some point before the accession of Æthelbald, the Mercians conquered the region around Wroxeter, known to the Welsh as "The Paradise of Powys." Elegies written in the persona of its dispossessed rulers record the sorrow at this loss. The next important king of Mercia was Æthelbald (716 - 757). For the first few years of his reign he had to face the obstacles of two strong rival kings, Wihtred of Kent and Ine of Wessex. But when Wihtred died in 725, and Ine abdicated his throne the following year to become a monk in Rome, Æthelbald was free to establish Mercia's hegemony over the rest of the Anglo-Saxons south of the Humber. Because of his prowess as a military leader, he acquired the title of Bretwalda. Æthelbald suffered a setback in 752, when he was defeated by the West Saxons under Cuthred, but he seems to have restored his supremacy over Wessex by 757. Reign of Offa and rise of Wessex Offa exerted himself to ensure that his son Ecgfrith of Mercia would succeed him, but after his death in July 796, Ecgfrith survived for only five more months, and the kingdom passed to a distant relative named Coenwulf in December 796. In 821, Coenwulf himself was succeeded by his brother Ceolwulf, who demonstrated his military prowess by his attack on and destruction of the fortress of Deganwy in Powys. The power of the West Saxons under Egbert was rising during this period, however, and in 825 Egbert defeated the Mercian king Beornwulf (who had overthrown Ceolwulf in 823) at Ellendun. The Battle of Ellendun proved decisive. Beornwulf was slain suppressing a revolt amongst the East Angles, and his successor, a former ealdorman named Ludeca, met the same fate. Another ealdorman, Wiglaf, subsequently ruled for less than two years before being driven out of Mercia by Egbert. In 830, Wiglaf regained independence for Mercia, but by this time Wessex was clearly the dominant power in England. Wiglaf was succeeded by Beorhtwulf. Arrival of the Danes Contemporary references For knowledge of the internal composition of the kingdom of Mercia, we must rely on a document of uncertain age (late 7th century?), The Tribal Hidage, an assessment of the extent (but not the location) of land owned (reckoned in hides), and therefore the military obligations and perhaps taxes due, by each of the Mercian tribes and subject kingdoms by name. This hidage exists in several manuscript versions, some as late as the 14th century; it lists a number of peoples who have vanished, except for reminders in various placenames. See Kings Of Mercia
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References:
Discussion in Ken Dark, Britain and the End of the Roman Empire, (Stroud: Tempus, 2000), pp.32-7
^ Discussion in Martin Millett, The Romanization of Britain, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990) and in Philip Bartholomew 'Fifth-Century Facts' Britannia vol. 13, 1982 p. 260
^ Michael Jones and John Casey, 'The Gallic Chronicle Restored: A Chronology for the Anglo-Saxon Invasions and the End of Roman Britain', Britannia 19, (1988), pp.367-98; R.W. Burgess, 'The Dark Ages Return to Fifth-Century Britain: The 'Restored' Gallic Chronicle Exploded', Britannia 21, (1990), pp.185-195
^ David Dumville, 'Sub-Roman Britain: History and Legend', History 62, (1977), pp.173-92
^ See discussion in A.S. Esmonde Cleary, 'The Roman to medieval transition' in Britons and Romans: advancing an archaeological agenda. ed. S. James & M. Millett, (York: Council for British Archaeology, 2001)
^ John Davey, 'The Environs of South Cadbury in the Late Antique and Early Medieval Periods' in Debating Late Antiquity in Britain AD300-700. ed. Rob Collins & James Gerrard, (Oxford: British Archaeological Review, 2004)
^ A.S. Esmond Cleary, The Ending of Roman Britain, (London: Batsford, 1989), pp.138-139
^ Helena Hamerow, 'The earliest Anglo-Saxon kingdoms' in The New Cambridge Medieval History, I, c.500-c.700. ed. Paul Fouracre, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), p.265
^ See Kenneth Jackson, Language and History in Early Britain: A Chronological Survey of the Brittonic Languages, (Edinburgh, 1953) for a traditional introduction
^ Y Chromosome Evidence for Anglo-Saxon Mass Migration (2002), Michael E. Weale, Deborah A. Weiss, Rolf F. Jager, Neil Bradman and Mark G. Thomas: Molecular Biology and Evolution 19:1008-1021. Retrieved 4 May 2006
^ A Y Chromosome Census of the British Isles (2003), Cristian Capelli, Nicola Redhead, Julia K. Abernethy, Fiona Gratrix, James F. Wilson, Torolf Moen, Tor Hervig, Martin Richards, Michael P. H. Stumpf, Peter A. Underhill, Paul Bradshaw, Alom Shaha, Mark G. Thomas, Neal Bradman, and David B. Goldstein Current Biology, Volume 13, Issue 11, Pages 979-984 (2003). Retrieved 4 May 2006.
^ There are thought to have been three human population "refuges" in Europe during the Last Glacial Maximum. Oppenheimer pp. 102-103.
^ Cunliffe, 1995. Iron Age Britain p 7. ISBN 0713488395
^ There is some evidence that Y chromosome Haplogroup I, which occurs at similar frequencies around the North Sea coast may represent a mesolithic colonisation rather than an Anglo-Saxon migration as has been previously assumed. This haplogroup represents a migration from the Balkan refuge that may have traveled along inland European rivers rather than the Atlantic coast. Oppenheimer (2006). pp. 166-169 It is also postulated that the age of Germanic languages in England may be considerably older than previously thought, and that both mainland and English Belgae may have been Germanic speaking peoples and represented very closely related ethnic groups (or a single cross channel ethnic group). Oppenheimer (2006). pp. 268-307
^ F.M. Stenton, The Anglo-Saxons, 3rd edition, (Oxford: University Press, 1973), p.30
^ Lawrence James, Warrior Race, (London: Abacus. 2002), p.30
^ Michael Jones, The End of Roman Britain, pp.8-38.
^ See for instance E.A. Thompson, 'Britain, AD 406-410', Britannia 8, (1977), pp.303-18 and P. Bartholomew, 'Fifth-Century Facts', Britannia 13, (1982), pp.261-70
^ See discussion in Michael Jones, The End of Roman Britain, (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996), pp.256-7
^ Esmonde-Cleary, The Ending of Roman Britain, p.161
^ Michael Jones, The End of Roman Britain, esp. chapters 4 and 7
^ Davey, 'The Environs of South Cadbury', p.50
^ Gwenaël le Duc, 'The Colonisation of Brittany from Britain: New Approaches and Questions' in Celtic Connections: Proceedings of the Tenth International Congress of Celtic Studies. Volume One. ed. Black, Gillies and Ó Maolaigh, (East Linton: Tuckwell Press, 1999), ISBN 1-898410-77-1
^ Wendy Davies, 'The Celtic Kingdoms' in The New Cambridge Medieval History, Volume I, c.500-c.700. ed. Paul Fouracre, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp.255-61
^ Fletcher, Saint James's Catapult, ch. 1, note 61.
^ Ken Dark, Britain and the End of the Roman Empire, pp.150-192
^ Roger White & Philip Barker, Wroxeter: Life and Death of a Roman City, (Stroud: Tempus, 1998)
^ Leslie Alcock, Arthur's Britain: History and Archaeology AD 367 - 634, (Harmondsworth: Allen Lane, 1971), ISBN 0-7139-0245-0; Francis Pryor, Britain AD: A Quest for Arthur, England and the Anglo-Saxons. (Harper Collins, 2004), ISBN 0-00-718186-8
^ Davey, 'The Environs of South Cadbury', p.50
^ Jones, The End of Roman Britain, pp.186-243
P. H. Blair, An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England (1954, repr. 1962); F. M. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England (3d ed. 1971); D. M. Wilson, The Anglo-Saxons (rev. ed. 1971); D. J. V. Fisher, The Anglo-Saxon Age, 400–1042 (1973); G. R. Owen, Rites and Religions of the Anglo-Saxons (1985); M. J. Whittock, The Origins of England, 410–600 (1986).