Editing Mercia (section)

==History==

===Early history===
[[File:Staffordshire hoard annotated.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Staffordshire Hoard]], discovered in a field in [[Hammerwich]], near [[Lichfield]] in July 2009, is perhaps the most important collection of [[Anglo-Saxon]] objects found in [[England]]]]

Mercia's exact evolution at the start of the [[Anglo-Saxons|Anglo-Saxon]] era remains more obscure than that of [[Northumbria]], [[History of Kent|Kent]], or even [[Wessex]]. Mercia developed an effective political structure and was [[Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England|Christianised]] later than the other kingdoms.<ref name="Cambridge466">{{harvp|Thacker|2005|p=466}}</ref> Archaeological surveys show that [[Angles (tribe)|Angles]] settled the lands north of the [[River Thames]] by the 6th century. The name "Mercia" is [[Mercian Old English]] for "boundary folk" (see [[Welsh Marches]]), and the traditional interpretation is that the kingdom originated along the frontier between the native [[Wales|Welsh]] and the Anglo-Saxon invaders. However, [[Peter Hunter Blair]] argued an alternative interpretation: that they emerged along the frontier between [[Northumbria]] and the inhabitants of the [[River Trent|Trent river valley]].{{sfn|Hunter Blair |1948|pp= 119–121}}

Although its earliest boundaries remain obscure, a general agreement persists that the territory that was called "the first of the Mercians" in the [[Tribal Hidage]] covered much of south [[Derbyshire]], [[Leicestershire]], [[Nottinghamshire]], [[Northamptonshire]], [[Staffordshire]] and northern [[Warwickshire]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Brooks |first=Nicholas |title=Anglo-Saxon myths: state and church, 400–1066}}<br />{{cite book |last=Hill |first=D.|title=Atlas of Anglo-Saxon England |location=Oxford |year=1981 |at=map 136 }}<br />{{cite book |last=Hooke |first=Della |title=Anglo-Saxon Territorial Organisation: The Western Margins of Mercia |publisher=University of Birmingham, Dept. of Geography |series=Occasional Paper 22 |year=1986 |pages=1–45}}</ref>

The earliest person named in any records as a [[List of monarchs of Mercia|king of Mercia]] is [[Creoda of Mercia|Creoda]], said to have been the great-grandson of [[Icel of Mercia|Icel]]. Coming to power around 584, he built a fortress at [[Tamworth, Staffordshire|Tamworth]] which became the seat of Mercia's kings.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingListsBritain/EnglandMercia.htm|title=Kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxons - Iclingas & Mercians|last=Kessler|first=P L|website=www.historyfiles.co.uk|language=en|access-date=2018-09-25}}</ref> His son [[Pybba]] succeeded him in 593. [[Cearl of Mercia|Cearl]], a kinsman of Creoda, followed Pybba in 606; in 615, Cearl gave his daughter Cwenburga in marriage to [[Edwin of Northumbria|Edwin]], king of [[Deira (kingdom)|Deira]], whom he had sheltered while he was an exiled prince.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yIdG9MbuK38C&pg=PA135|title=Ancestral Secrets of Knighthood|first= Brian Daniel |last=Starr|publisher=BookSurge Publishing|year=2007|isbn=978-1419680120|page=135}}</ref>

The Mercian kings were the only Anglo-Saxon [[Heptarchy]] ruling house known to claim a direct family link with a pre-migration Continental Germanic monarchy.<ref>Jolliffe, J. E. A.  ''The Constitutional History of Medieval England from the English Settlement to 1485'' London 1961 p. 32</ref>

===Penda and the Mercian Supremacy===
{{Main article|Penda|Wulfhere|Æthelbald of Mercia|Mercian Supremacy}}

[[File:Kingdoms in England and Wales about 600 AD.svg|200px|left|thumb|Mercia and the main Anglo-Saxon kingdoms at about 600]]

The next Mercian king, [[Penda of Mercia|Penda]], ruled from about 626 or 633 until 655. Some of what is known about Penda comes from the hostile account of [[Bede]], who disliked him – both as an enemy to Bede's own [[Northumbria]] and as a [[Paganism|pagan]]. However, Bede admits that Penda freely allowed [[Early Christianity|Christian]] [[missionary|missionaries]] from [[Lindisfarne]] into Mercia and did not restrain them from preaching. In 633 Penda and his ally [[Cadwallon ap Cadfan|Cadwallon of Gwynedd]] defeated and killed Edwin, who had become not only ruler of the newly unified Northumbria, but [[bretwalda]], or high king, over the southern kingdoms. When another Northumbrian king, [[Oswald of Northumbria|Oswald]], arose and again claimed overlordship of the south, he also suffered defeat and death at the hands of Penda and his allies – in 642 at the [[Battle of Maserfield]]. In 655, after a period of confusion in Northumbria, Penda brought 30 sub-kings to fight the new Northumbrian king [[Oswiu of Northumbria|Oswiu]] at the [[Battle of Winwaed]], in which Penda in turn lost the battle and his life.<ref>{{harvp|Thacker|2005|p=465}}</ref>

The battle led to a temporary collapse of Mercian power. Penda's son [[Peada]], who had converted to Christianity at [[Repton]] in 653, succeeded his father as king of Mercia; Oswiu set up Peada as an under-king; but in the spring of 656 he was murdered and Oswiu assumed direct control of the whole of Mercia. A Mercian revolt in 658 threw off Northumbrian domination and resulted in the appearance of another son of Penda, [[Wulfhere of Mercia|Wulfhere]], who ruled Mercia as an independent kingdom (though he apparently continued to render tribute to Northumbria for a while) until his death in 675. Wulfhere initially succeeded in restoring the power of Mercia, but the end of his reign saw a serious defeat by Northumbria. The next king, [[Æthelred of Mercia|Æthelred]], defeated Northumbria in the [[Battle of the Trent]] in 679, settling once and for all the long-disputed control of the former [[kingdom of Lindsey]]. Æthelred was succeeded by [[Cenred of Mercia|Cœnred]], son of Wulfhere; both these kings became better known for their religious activities than anything else, but the king who succeeded them in 709, [[Ceolred of Mercia|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.<ref name="Cambridge466"/>

At some point before the accession of [[Æthelbald of Mercia|Æthelbald]] in 716 the Mercians conquered the region around [[Wroxeter]], known to the Welsh as [[Pengwern]] or as "The Paradise of Powys". Elegies written in the persona of its [[Cynddylan|dispossessed rulers]] record the sorrow at this loss.{{sfn|Evans | Fulton|2019| p= 41}}

[[File:Mercian Supremacy x 4.svg|500px|thumb|A series of maps that illustrate the increasing hegemony of Mercia during the 8th century]]The next important king of Mercia, Æthelbald, reigned from 716 to 757. For the first few years of his reign he had to face two strong rival kings, [[Wihtred of Kent]] and [[Ine of Wessex]]. But when Wihtred died in 725, and Ine abdicated in 726 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]]. Æthelbald suffered a setback in 752, when the West Saxons under [[Cuthred of Wessex|Cuthred]] defeated him, but he seems to have restored his supremacy over Wessex by 757.<ref>Sharon Turner, ''The history of the Anglo-Saxons from the earliest period to the Norman conquest'', Volume 1 (Philadelphia: Carey & Hart, 1841), p. 267</ref>

In July 2009, the [[Staffordshire Hoard]] of [[Anglo-Saxons|Anglo-Saxon]] gold was discovered by Terry Herbert in a field at Hammerwich, near Brownhills and close to [[Lichfield]] in Staffordshire.<ref>Leahy, Kevin; Bland, Roger (2009). ''The Staffordshire Hoard'', British Museum Press, pp. 4, 6</ref> Lichfield functioned as the religious centre of Mercia. The artefacts have tentatively been dated by Svante Fischer and Jean Soulat to the 7th–8th centuries.<ref>Svante Fischer and Jean Soulat, 
[https://finds.org.uk/staffshoardsymposium/papers/svantefischerandjeansoulat The Typochronology of Sword Pommels from the Staffordshire Hoard], The Staffordshire Hoard Symposium (March 2010).</ref> Whether the hoard was deposited by [[Anglo-Saxon paganism|Anglo-Saxon pagans]] or Christians remains unclear, as does the purpose of the deposit.<ref name="bbc">
{{cite news
|url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/staffordshire/8272058.stm
|title= Huge Anglo-Saxon gold hoard found
|publisher= [[News.bbc.co.uk]]
|access-date= 24 September 2009 | date= 24 September 2009
}}
</ref>

===Reign of Offa and rise of Wessex===
[[File:Anglo-Saxon Chronicle - Myrcna.jpg|thumb|left|A mention of Mercia in the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'']]
After the murder of Æthelbald by one of his bodyguards in 757, a civil war broke out which concluded with the victory of [[Offa of Mercia|Offa]], a descendant of Pybba. Offa (reigned 757 to 796) had to build anew the hegemony which his predecessor had exercised over the southern English, and he did this so successfully that he became the greatest king Mercia had ever known. Not only did he win battles and dominate [[Southern England]], but also he took an active hand in administering the affairs of his kingdom, founding [[market town]]s and overseeing the first major issues of gold [[coin]]s in Britain; he assumed a role in the administration of the Catholic Church in England (sponsoring the short-lived [[archbishopric of Lichfield]], 787 to 799), and even negotiated with [[Charlemagne]] as an equal. Offa is credited with the construction of [[Offa's Dyke]], which marked the border between Wales and Mercia.<ref>{{cite book |last=Davies |first=John |author-link=John Davies (historian) |title=A History of Wales |publisher=Penguin |orig-year=1993 |year=2007 |location=London |pages=65–66}}</ref>

Offa exerted himself to ensure that his son [[Ecgfrith of Mercia]] would succeed him, but after Offa's death in July 796 Ecgfrith survived for only five months, and the kingdom passed to a distant relative named [[Coenwulf of Mercia|Coenwulf]] in December 796. In 821 Coenwulf's brother [[Ceolwulf I of Mercia|Ceolwulf]] succeeded to the Mercian kingship; he demonstrated his military prowess by his attack on and destruction of the fortress of [[Deganwy]] in [[Gwynedd]]. The power of the [[Wessex|West Saxons]] under [[Egbert of Wessex|Egbert]] (King of Wessex from 802 to 839) grew during this period, however, and in 825 Egbert defeated the Mercian king [[Beornwulf of Mercia|Beornwulf]] (who had overthrown Ceolwulf in 823) at [[Ellendun]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/travellers/Camden/10|first=William|last=Camden|title=A Chronological description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland|year=1610|location=London|publisher=George Bishop and John Norton}}</ref>

The Battle of Ellendun proved decisive. At this point, Mercia lost control of [[Kingdom of Kent|Kent]], [[Kingdom of Sussex|Sussex]], [[Surrey#Formation of Surrey|Surrey]], and possibly also [[Kingdom of Essex|Essex]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Yorke |first=Barbara |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/26404222 |title=Kings and kingdoms of early Anglo-Saxon England |date=1990 |publisher=Seaby |isbn=1-85264-027-8 |location=London |pages=122 |oclc=26404222}}</ref> Beornwulf was slain while suppressing a revolt amongst the East Angles, and his successor, a former [[ealdorman]] named [[Ludeca of Mercia|Ludeca]] (reigned 826–827), met the same fate. Another ealdorman, [[Wiglaf of Mercia|Wiglaf]], subsequently ruled for less than two years before Egbert of Wessex drove him out of Mercia. In 830 Wiglaf regained independence for Mercia, but by this time Wessex had clearly become the dominant power in England. ''Circa'' 840 [[Beorhtwulf of Mercia|Beorhtwulf]] succeeded Wiglaf.<ref>Zaluckyj & Feryok, "Decline", pp. 238–239.</ref>

===Arrival of the Danes===
[[File:Midland Map - 5 Boroughs 912 Ad.svg|thumb|right|300px|The Five Boroughs and English Mercia in the early 10th century<ref>{{harvp|Falkus|Gillingham|1989|p=52}}; {{harvp|Hill|1981}}</ref>]]

In 852, [[Burgred]] came to the throne, and with [[Ethelwulf of Wessex]] subjugated [[North Wales]]. In 868 Danish invaders occupied [[Nottingham]]. The Danes drove Burgred from his kingdom in 874 and [[Ceolwulf II of Mercia|Ceolwulf II]] took his place. In 877 the Danes seized the eastern part of Mercia, which became part of the [[Danelaw]].<ref>Frank Stenton, ''Anglo-Saxon England'', Oxford University Press, 1971, p. 254</ref> Ceolwulf, the last king of Mercia, left with the western half, reigned until 879.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first= Sean |last= Miller |title= Ceolwulf II (fl. 874–879), king of the Mercians | encyclopedia= Oxford Dictionary of National Biography | publisher= Oxford University Press |year= 2004 |url= http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/39145?docPos=1|doi= 10.1093/ref:odnb/39145 }} {{ODNBsub}}</ref> From about 883 until his death in 911 [[Æthelred, Ealdorman of Mercia|Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians]], ruled Mercia under the overlordship of Wessex. Alfred changed his title from 'king of the West Saxons' to 'king of the Anglo-Saxons' to reflect the acceptance of his overlordship of all southern England not under Danish rule. All coins struck in Mercia after the disappearance of Ceolwulf in {{circa | 879}} were in the name of the West Saxon king.<ref>Stewart Lyon, The coinage of Edward the Elder, in N. J. Higham & D.H. Hill, Edward the Elder 899–924, London 2001, p. 67.</ref> Æthelred had married [[Æthelflæd]] ({{circa}} 870 – 12 June 918), daughter of [[Alfred the Great]] of Wessex ({{reign | 871 | 899}}), and she assumed power when her husband became ill at some time in the last ten years of his life.<ref name=Costambeys>
{{cite encyclopedia
 |first= Marios |last= Costambeys
 |title= Æthelflæd (Ethelfleda) (d. 918), ruler of the Mercians
 |encyclopedia= Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
 |publisher= Oxford University Press |year= 2004
 |url= http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/8907/?back=,52311
 |doi= 10.1093/ref:odnb/8907
|isbn= 978-0-19-861412-8
 }}{{Dead link|date= October 2019 |bot= InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted= yes }} {{ODNBsub}}
</ref>

After Æthelred's death in 911 Æthelflæd ruled as "Lady of the Mercians", but Alfred's successor as King of the Anglo-Saxons, [[Edward the Elder]] ({{reign | 899 | 924}}), took control of [[London]] and [[Oxford]], which Alfred had placed under Æthelred's control. Æthelflæd and her brother continued Alfred's policy of building fortified [[burh]]s, and by 918 they had conquered the southern Danelaw in East Anglia and Danish Mercia.<ref name=Costambeys/>

===Loss of independence===
When Æthelflæd died in 918, Ælfwynn, her daughter by Æthelred, succeeded as "Second Lady of the Mercians", but within six months Edward had deprived her of all authority in Mercia and taken her to Wessex.<ref name=Costambeys/> Edward was succeeded as king of the Anglo-Saxons by his eldest son [[Æthelstan]] ({{reign | 924 | 939}}), who had been brought up in Mercia, and he was immediately accepted as king, but not in Wessex until the following year. In 927 he conquered Northumbria and thus became the first king of all England.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first=Sarah|last =Foot  |publisher = Oxford University Press | encyclopedia= Oxford Dictionary of National Biography | accessdate=28 August 2021 | title=Æthelstan (Athelstan) (893/4–939), king of England  | year = 2011| url =http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/833?docPos=2 | doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/833  }}</ref> Mercia briefly regained a political existence separate from Wessex in 955–959, when Edgar became king of Mercia, and again in 1016, when [[Cnut]] and [[Edmund Ironside]] divided the English kingdom between themselves, with Cnut taking Mercia.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.deremilitari.org/resources/sources/knytlinga.htm |title=Knut's Invasion of England in 1015–16, according to the Knytlinga Saga |publisher=De Re Militari |access-date=17 October 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110926225350/http://www.deremilitari.org/resources/sources/knytlinga.htm |archive-date=26 September 2011 }}</ref> Mercia maintained its separate identity as an earldom until the [[Norman Conquest]] in 1066.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first=Ann|last = Williams|authorlink=| publisher = Oxford University Press | encyclopedia= Oxford Dictionary of National Biography | title=Ælfgar, earl of Mercia (d. 1062?) | year = 2004 | url =https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-178 | accessdate=  26 September 2021|doi= 10.1093/ref:odnb/178  | isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 }}</ref>