Editing Offa of Mercia (section)

==Death and succession==
Offa died on 29 July 796,<ref name=Kirby_177>Kirby, ''Earliest English Kings'', p.&nbsp;177.</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=get&type=day&id=07290796 | title=July 29, 796: Death of King Offa of Mercia | publisher=anglo-saxons.net | work=Anglo-Saxons | access-date=12 April 2012| author=Miller, Sean}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia | url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11215c.htm | title=Offa | publisher=newadvent.org | encyclopedia=Catholic Encyclopaedia | year=2009 | access-date=12 April 2012 | author=Knight, Kevin}}</ref><ref name=BROWN_310>Brown & Farr, ''Mercia: An Anglo-Saxon Kingdom In Europe'', p. 310</ref> and may be buried in [[Bedford]], though it is not clear that the "Bedeford" named in that charter was actually modern Bedford.<ref name=EHD_468>Whitelock, ''English Historical Documents'', 79, pp.&nbsp;468–470.</ref><ref name=BEASE_133>Simon Keynes, "Cynethryth", in Lapidge, ''Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England'', p.&nbsp;133.</ref> In 1837 a Saxon coffin was unearthed in the graveyard of  [[St Mary's Church, Hemel Hempstead]]  which bore an inscription that it held the "ashes of King Offa of the Mercians".<ref>British Library Newspaper Archive , published in the Bucks Herald on the 20th August 1836.</ref>

He was succeeded by his son, [[Ecgfrith of Mercia]], but according to the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' Ecgfrith died after a reign of only 141 days.<ref name="Swanton_50">Swanton, ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', p.&nbsp;50.</ref> A letter written by [[Alcuin]] in 797 to a Mercian ealdorman named Osbert makes it apparent that Offa had gone to great lengths to ensure that his son Ecgfrith would succeed him. Alcuin's opinion is that Ecgfrith "has no died for his own sins; but the vengeance for the blood his father shed to secure the kingdom has reached the son. For you know very well how much blood his father shed to secure the kingdom on his son."<ref name="EHD_786">Whitelock, ''English Historical Documents'', 202, pp.&nbsp;786–788.</ref> It is apparent that in addition to Ecgfrith's consecration in 787, Offa had eliminated dynastic rivals. This seems to have backfired, from the dynastic point of view, as no close male relatives of Offa or Ecgfrith are recorded, and [[Coenwulf]], Ecgfrith's successor, was only distantly related to Offa's line.<ref name="Yorke_118">Yorke, ''Kings and Kingdoms'', p.&nbsp;118.</ref>