Editing Offa of Mercia (section)

==Wales and Offa's Dyke==
{{main|Offa's Dyke}}
Offa was frequently in conflict with the various Welsh kingdoms. There was a battle between the Mercians and the Welsh at [[Hereford]] in 760, and Offa is recorded as campaigning against the Welsh in 778, 784 and 796 in the tenth-century ''[[Annales Cambriae]]''.<ref name=AC>Annales Cambriae, ''sub anno'' 760, 778 and 784.</ref><ref name=Stenton_214-5>Stenton, ''Anglo-Saxon England'', pp.&nbsp;214–215.</ref>

[[File:Offa's Dyke.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|left|Looking along [[Offa's Dyke]], near [[Knill]], [[Herefordshire]]]]

The best known relic associated with Offa's time is [[Offa's Dyke]], a great earthen barrier that runs approximately along the border between England and [[Wales]]. It is mentioned by the monk [[Asser]] in his biography of Alfred the Great: "a certain vigorous king called Offa&nbsp;... had a great dyke built between Wales and Mercia from sea to sea".<ref name=Asser_71>Asser, ''Alfred the Great'', ch.&nbsp;14, p.&nbsp;71.</ref> The dyke has not been dated by archaeological methods, but most historians find no reason to doubt Asser's attribution.<ref name=BEASE_341>Margaret Worthington, "Offa's Dyke", in Lapidge, ''Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England'', p.&nbsp;341.</ref> Early names for the dyke in both Welsh and English also support the attribution to Offa.<ref name=Stenton_213>Stenton, ''Anglo-Saxon England'', p.&nbsp;213.</ref> Despite Asser's comment that the dyke ran "from sea to sea", it is now thought that the original structure only covered about two-thirds of the length of the border: in the north it ends near [[Llanfynydd, Flintshire|Llanfynydd]], less than {{Convert|5|mi|0|spell=in}} from the coast, while in the south it stops at [[Rushock Hill]], near [[Kington, Herefordshire|Kington]] in Herefordshire, less than {{Convert|50|mi|spell=in}} from the [[Bristol Channel]]. The total length of this section is about {{Convert|64|mi}}.<ref name="BEASE_341"/> Other earthworks exist along the Welsh border, of which [[Wat's Dyke]] is one of the largest, but it is not possible to date them relative to each other and so it cannot be determined whether Offa's Dyke was a copy of or the inspiration for Wat's Dyke.<ref name=BEASE_468>Margaret Worthington, "Wat's Dyke", in Lapidge et al., ''Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England'', p.&nbsp;468.</ref>

The construction of the dyke suggests that it was built to create an effective barrier and to command views into Wales. This implies that the Mercians who built it were free to choose the best location for the dyke.<ref name=BEASE_341/> There are settlements to the west of the dyke that have names that imply they were English by the 8th century, so it may be that in choosing the location of the barrier the Mercians were consciously surrendering some territory to the native [[Celtic Britons|Britons]]<!--this seems a rather loaded, POV term-->.<ref name=Stenton_214>Stenton cites, for example, the village "Burlingjobb", in [[Powys]], not far from the south end of the dyke, as having a name unlikely to have risen as late as the 9th century. Stenton, ''Anglo-Saxon England'', p.&nbsp;214.</ref> Alternatively, it may be that these settlements had already been retaken by the Welsh, implying a defensive role for the barrier. The effort and expense that must have gone into building the dyke are impressive, and suggest that the king who had it built (whether Offa or someone else) had considerable resources at his disposal. Other substantial construction projects of a similar date do exist, however, such as Wat's Dyke and [[Danevirke]], in what is now [[Germany]] as well as such sites as [[Stonehenge]] from millennia earlier. The dyke can be regarded in the light of these counterparts as the largest and most recent great construction of the preliterate inhabitants of Britain.<ref name=TAS_120-1>Patrick Wormald, "Offa's Dyke", in James Campbell et al., ''The Anglo-Saxons'', pp.&nbsp;120–121.</ref>