Origins
Mercia was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom founded by some of the Germanic tribe of the Angles (in their own tongue Engles) based in the Midlands of what is now England sometime in the 6th century. The Angles had come to Great Britain from it is thought, what is now Denmark and Northern Germany, specifically Schleswig-Holstein where there is an area still known as Angeln (J.N.L. Myres, The English Settlements, page 45). They were first mentioned in Tacitus' Germania (written about 98 CE) where they are named as part of the Suebi confederation along with six other Germanic tribes that he classified as the Ingvaeonic tribes. These tribes were bound together in a worship of the Goddess Nerthus.
There follow in order the Reudignians, and Aviones, and Angles, and Varinians, and Eudoses, and Suardones and Nuithones; all defended by rivers or forests. Nor in one of these nations does aught remarkable occur, only that they universally join in the worship of Herthum; that is to say, the Mother Earth. Her they believe to interpose in the affairs of man, and to visit countries. In an island of the ocean stands the wood Castum: in it is a chariot dedicated to the Goddess, covered over with a curtain, and permitted to be touched by none but the Priest. Whenever the Goddess enters this her holy vehicle, he perceives her; and with profound veneration attends the motion of the chariot, which is always drawn by yoked cows. Then it is that days of rejoicing always ensue, and in all places whatsoever which she descends to honour with a visit and her company, feasts and recreation abound (Gordon translation Germania)
Pliny writing about the Germanic tribes in his Natural History (written about 77 CE), does not mention the Anglii or Angles, but does refer to the Ingaevones; a confederation he has as consisting of the Cimbri, Teutons and Chauci. Tacitus includes the Anglii amongst the Ingaevones, as a folk descended from Ing, son of Mannus in his Germania. Ptolemy also mentions the Angles in his work Geography (written about 150 CE), though his information as to where they were located seems at odds with everyone else (J.N.L. Myres, The English Settlements, page 50).
Foundations in Denmark
In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Penda's line is given as "Penda was the son of Wybba, Wybba of Creoda, Creoda of Cynewald, Cynewald of Cnebba, Cnebba of Icel, Icel of Eomer, Eomer of Angelthew, Angelthew of Offa, Offa of Wearmund, Wearmund of Whitley, Whitley of Woden." We are further told in The Life of St. Guthlac the Icelingas were what the family of the rulers of Mercia called themselves. The Icelingas, the "royal family" of Mercia, as can be seen from Penda's genealogy traced its origins back to a semi-historical King Offa, who lived in Denmark in the 4th or 5th century. Offa is mention in the Anglo-Saxon poem Widsið, the epic Beowulf, and his tale is told in detail by Saxo in his History of the Danes (Gesta Danorum). A synopsis of Saxo's version of the tale follows: Offa was a simpleton, or thought such by his father Wermund. Wermund thus got him a wife (whom we know from Beowulf to be Módþryð) that was the daughter of King Freawin, governor of the men of Sleswik. The idea being that Freawin could help Offa reign if need be. Shortly thereafter Freawin was killed in single combat by a king of Sweden named Athisl, and Wermund fostered his two sons, Ket and Wig.1 The sons later challenged Athisl to a duel, thus killing him in vengeance for their father. After that the Saxons came to Wermund, thinking him old and infirm, and requested he surrender his kingdom to them. Wermund refused, but the Saxons said that their king would not fight a blind man (meaning Wermund). At this point, Offa begged to speak. Wermund asked who had spoke and his men said it was Offa. Wermund said it was enough the foreigners mocked him much less his household, but gave leave for all to speak. Whereupon Offa spoke saying that the kingdom had a king and an heir, and he would fight the prince and whatever bravest comrade he could find. The Saxons laughed at this thinking it idle boasting, but once they had left, Wermund tried to outfit Offa with armor and the sword Skrep "Sharp." The armor was too small due to Offa's size, but Skrep, Offa could not shatter as he had every sword he wielded before. Offa then faught the prince and the prince's champion and slew them both. According to Saxo, nothing more was said of the disgrace of Freawine's two sons both fighting Athisl, and slaying him, and it was the end of the taunts from the Saxons. According to Danish historian Sweyn Aageson (writing a little before Saxo) Offa had been struck dumb by the dishonor of Freawine's sons double teaming Athisl, and that by defeating the two Saxons he had restored honor to the Angles.
The lines from Widsið concerning Offa confirm this tale and are given below:
Ane sweordemerce gemærde
wið Myrgingumbi Fifeldore
heoldon forð siþþan
Engle ond Swæfe, swa hit Offa geslog.
With one sword
the border was set with the Myrgings
by
Fifeldor; Since it has been held
by the Angle and Swabian as where Offa
fought.
Finally, in Beowulf we are told the tale of Módþyrð marrying Offa:
Hæreþes dohtor; næs hio hnah swa þeah,
ne to gneað
gifa Geata leodum,
maþmgestreona. Mod þryðo wæg,
fremu
folces cwen, firen ondrysne.
Nænig þæt dorste deor
geneþan
swæsra gesiða, nefne sinfrea,
þæt hire an dæges eagum starede,
ac him
wælbende weotode tealde
handgewriþene; hraþe seoþðan
wæs
æfter mundgripe mece geþinged,
þæt hit sceadenmæl
scyran moste,
cwealmbealu cyðan. Ne bið swylc cwenlic þeaw
idese to
efnanne, þeah ðe hio ænlicu sy,
þætte freoðuwebbe feores
onsæce
æfter ligetorne leofne mannan.
Huru þæt onhohsnode
Hemminges mæg;
ealodrincende oðer sædan,
þæt hio leodbealewa
læs gefremede,
inwitniða, syððan ærest wearð
gyfen
goldhroden geongum cempan,
æðelum diore, syððan hio Offan
flet
ofer fealone flod be fæder lare
siðe gesohte;
ðær hio syððan well
in gumstole, gode, mære,
lifgesceafta
lifigende breac,
hiold heahlufan wið hæleþa brego,
ealles moncynnes mine gefræge
þone selestan
bi sæm tweonum,
eormencynnes. Forðam Offa wæs
geofum ond
guðum, garcene man,
wide geweorðod, wisdome heold
eðel sinne; þonon Eomer woc
hæleðum to helpe,
Hemminges mæg,
nefa Garmundes, niða cræftig.
Haereth's daughter. Nor humble her ways,
nor grudged she
gifts to the Geatish men,
of precious treasure. Not Thryth's pride showed
she,
folk-queen famed, or that fell deceit.
Was none so daring that durst
make bold
(save her lord alone) of the liegemen dear
that lady full in the
face to look,
but forged fetters he found his lot,
bonds of death! And
brief the respite;
soon as they seized him, his sword-doom was spoken,
and
the burnished blade a baleful murder
proclaimed and closed. No queenly
way
for woman to practice, though peerless she,
that the weaver-of-peace
from warrior dear
by wrath and lying his life should reave!
But Hemming's
kinsman hindered this. --
For over their ale men also told
that of
these folk-horrors fewer she wrought,
onslaughts of evil, after she
went,
gold-decked bride, to the brave young prince,
atheling haughty, and
Offa's hall
o'er the fallow flood at her father's bidding
safely sought,
where since she prospered,
royal, throned, rich in goods,
fain of the fair
life fate had sent her,
and leal in love to the lord of warriors.
He, of
all heroes I heard of ever
from sea to sea, of the sons of earth,
most
excellent seemed. Hence Offa was praised
for his fighting and feeing by
far-off men,
the spear-bold warrior; wisely he ruled
over his empire.
Eomer woke to him,
help of heroes, Hemming's kinsman,
Grandson of Garmund,
grim in war.
(Grummere translation)
From all of these we can surmise that Offa the Angle was a brave and honor bound king who gave freely to his men, was able to tame Módþyrð, and was a great warrior in single combat. His name was remembered in a variety of sources that survived, and no telling how many tales of him were lost. Offa is alone in that of the mortal kings listed in the Anglo-Saxon genealogies that lived prior to the invasion of Great Britain (most of whom are not mentioned once outside the genealogies), he is mentioned in several surviving texts composed over at least a six hundred year span. It was his prestige that perhaps the Mercian royal houses inherited, and in the case of Penda, Wulfhere, and Offa the Mercian, his qualities as a warrior as well.
Icelingas, First Kings of East Anglia?
From Offa to Penda we are at much of a loss on the Mercian royal house. The origins of Mercia are lost in the period of the Anglo-Saxon migrations to Great Britain from 420 CE to 600 CE. Scholars and laymen can therefore only speculate based on later clues as to how the Englisc came to be in what became the kingdom of Mercia. Many scholars based on place names, medieval sources, and archaeological evidence believe that the Icelingas first came to East Anglia. The Flores Historiarum, a chronicle began in the 13th century covering events from "the Creation" to 1235 CE, states: "....pagans came from Germany and occupied East Anglia... some of whom invaded Mercia and fought many battles with the British; but as their leaders were many, their names are missing. (selection of the Historiarum quoted from Zaluckyj, Mercia: the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Central England, page 13)." Place name evidence in East Anglia may seem to indicate this is fact. John Morris feels that the ruling dynasty of Mercia for most of its history, the Icelingas, were displaced from East Anglia by its historically ruling dynasty, the Wuffingas. Within East Anglia are place names that seem to be named for Icel, the ancestor of the Icelingas, such as Ickleton in Cambridgeshire, Icklingham in Suffolk, and Hickling in Norfolk (Morris, The Age of Arthur, page 272). J. N. L. Myres also pointed out these places as well as Ickleford in Hertfordshire (J.N.L. Myres, The English Settlements (Oxford History of England) page 185) Morris holds that the Icelingas moved from their centers in East Anglia into the Midlands (Morris, The Age of Arthur, page 272)2. To further this argument, the Wuffing dynasty is recorded in the Flores Historiarum as not beginning to rule in East Anglia until 571 CE. This would make them late comers to the area, if they had not arrived long before that.
It is estimated (based on the number of generations away from known kings) that Icel, founder of the Iceling dynasty lived about 520 CE, and that his son Cnebba was alive about 540 CE. Icel is commonly held by scholars to have been the first of his line in Britain (based on the idea that the Mercian kings trace to their lineage to him and little else). A Cnebba is recorded as dying in battle between West Saxon kings Ceawlin and Cutha, and Æðelbert of Kent in 568 CE on the side of Æðelbert (though he is listed as only an ealdorman and not a king).. If this Cnebba is Cnebba Iceling, then it is possible his death gave the Wuffingas the opening they needed to take East Anglia. Further, archaeological evidence seems to indicate that Germanic peoples were in East Anglia as early as the fourth century. Cremation graves of apparently Angle mercenaries serving the Romans have been found outside Caister-by-Norwich along with other early remains to indicate a an early Germanic presence in the region (Martyn J Whittock, The Origins of England: 410 to 600, p. 164). Finally, many scholars have commented on the division of East Anglia into Norfolk and Suffolk (the "north folk" and "south folk") and have assumed that it must have meant that it was settled by two different groups, or a single group ruled separately by different rulers. Therefore the scenario is often put forth that the Icelingas ruled Norfolk, and the Wuffingas, Suffolk. Alas, with no true hard evidence, all we can say is that the Icelingas may have been in East Anglia at one time, and potentially migrated from there to the Midlands.
Migrations to the Midlands
It is very likely that Angle settlers may have followed the Welland river valley into the Midlands. Other Angles may have migrated into the Midlands via the Wash or through the old kingdom of Lindsey. Another route using the Ickneid Way and the Thames is perhaps indicated by the place name Ickleford in Hertfordshire, as well other place name evidence further west in Oxfordshire (discussed below). Archaeology seems to confirm that Mercia was settled from East Anglia and Lindsey with pure cremation cemeteries (cemeteries with no inhumation at all) leading from East Anglia and Lindsey into the Midlands along the Welland river valley, along the Ickneid Way, and up the Trent. Such typical Anglian grave goods as sleeve clasps are found only in graves in East Anglia, the east Midlands, Yorkshire, and Lincolnshire. Cruciform broaches are found in other areas, but are concentrated in roughly the same area (Sam Lucy, The Anglo-Saxon Way of Death, page 133). This would seem to indicate that at least some of the Anglo-Saxon peoples of Mercia were in some way related to those of East Anglia and Lindsey, and thus had migrated from those places. Other scholars feel that Mercia may have been settled from the lands of Northumbria.
"Thus the beginnings of Bernicia as well as of Deria, Lindsey, and Mercia: must be sought, in greater or less degree, among the Humbreness of the Humber Basin" (J.N.L. Myres, The English Settlements (Oxford History of England) page 175)
The only real obstacle to believing that Mercia was settled from the Northeast were the then still surviving British kingdoms of Elmet and Ebrauc (York) blocking easy access to the Midlands from Northumbria. It is most likely that settlement came in part from many areas; Lindsey and East Anglia in the east being the biggest contributors, the Saxons to the South also migrating to a lesser degree, and Bernicia and Deria in the northeast providing a small number of immigrants to the Midlands. What is clear is that Mercia when it enters history was comprised of many minor peoples, as well as a few subkingdoms. This can be shown by an early document called the Tribal Hidage. This document is thought variously as being a general land assessment of the Mercian kings to being a tributary list of the Northumbrian kings (see Zaluckyj's Mercia: the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Central England pages 17-19 on the ideas behind the origins of the document). The Tribal Hidage lists 35 kingdoms, subkingdoms, and tribal groupings with land areas ranging from as small as 300 hides3 up to Mercia proper and East Anglia being listed with 30,000 hides each. The Tribal Hidage can be seen at: http://www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth/library/oe/texts/hidage.html
The Foundation of Mercia
According to the 18th century scholar David Hume (based on earlier works such as Flores Historiarum, Historia Anglorum, and Chronica Majora), Creoda, grandfather of Penda and great grandson of Icel founded the kingdom of Mercia in 585 CE (David Hume, The History of England). The medieval chronicles Flores Historiarum, Historia Anglorum, and Chronica Majora all agree that Creoda came to power as a result of the battle of Fehtan Leag in 584 CE between the West Saxons and Britons. This battle has been placed in a wood near to Stoke Lyne 11 miles southeast of Banbury in Oxfordshire (Zaluckyj, Mercia: the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Central England, page 21). None of the chronicles are clear as to how or why this battle brought Creoda to power. Zaluckyj suggests that this battle, which caused a great loss for both the Saxons and Britons created a power vacuum that Creoda stepped in to fill (Zaluckyj, Mercia: the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Central England, page 22). This idea is as good as any, and if the site of the battle is indeed near Stoke Lyne, then it would have been near the Iceling migration trek towards what was to be Mercia (click on the map below). The other possibility is that the West Saxon kings were not facing Britons, but instead Angles, and that the king that defeated them (or at least fought them to a pyrrhic victory) was none other than Creoda himself. In favor of this, there is a place called Crubridge (Creoda's Bridge) to the west of Oxford and not far from the what is thought to be the battle site. A Creoda is listed in some versions of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as an ancestor of West Saxon kings, and while this is sometimes thought to be an error (and if it is the Mercian Creoda, it most likely is an error), it could be that it was a remembrance of a time when Creoda had overlordship over the Gewis (the ancestors of Wessex).
There are other places named for the early Mercian kings in a direct line to the west. Some feel Credenhill, an old hill fort in modern Herefordshire was named for Creoda, while Pybba, his son had other sites named for him in Warwickshire and Worcestershire (Pepwell and Pepper Wood amongst others). Penda is thought to have places named for him in Gloucestershire and Staffordshire (Pinbury and Pendeford) (Zaluckyj Mercia: the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Central England, page 22). Most place name evidence would place Creoda as arriving in the southwest of what was to be Mercia (actually the subkingdom of Hwicce) with his descendants moving towards the more settled areas around the Trent. Other than that, nothing is known of Creoda or his son Pybba. Creoda's death is placed at 593 CE due to an entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for that year listing the death of a Cryda. There was also a man named Creoda that founded Lindsey's dynasty, and it is often held that he is one and the same as Creoda Iceling. Even less is known of Pybba, who is not named at all in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. His reign is commonly given as being between 593 and 597 CE (Zaluckyj Mercia: the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Central England, page 21). There is place name evidence for him to the west of what we think of as Mercia proper (such as Peplow in Shropshire), as well as the place names for him amongst the Hwicce as shown above, but beyond that he is nothing more than a name. Similarly, Penda is first associated with the area of the Hwicce, an Anglo-Saxon tribal grouping located in what is now modern Gloucestershire. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle he fought the West Saxons near Cirencester in AD 628. If this place name evidence is to be trusted, when taken along with the evidence of Penda's first battle site, it could show that the Icelingas' were the first to expand the kingdom beyond Staffordshire and establish the boundaries of what was to become Mercia. Or it could show their original seat of power in Mercia was not in Staffordshire, but in an area to the south of it, and that a rival dynasty, that of Cearl, the first Mercian king mentioned in any early historical document (and seemingly unrelated to the line of Penda and Eowa) had control of the Trent valley. Eowa and Penda may have taken the Trent valley upon Cearl's death sometime between 616 and 626 CE (perhaps been the cause of his death even). With no real evidence to go on, such is merely idle speculation of an interesting nature. It could be that the Icelingas had been in the area of Staffordshire since settling in the Midlands, and new settlements founded in the southeast were simply being named for their kings.
It is with King Cearl that Mercia enters the historical record. Cearl is named as having married his daughter Cwenburga to Edwin, King of Deria by Bede. Not much is known of Cearl. It is not clear whether he was an Iceling or of a separate dynasty. The earliest sources are silent on him, and later ones have him a cousin of Pybba. It could be he usurped Pybba's throne when Eowa and Penda were too young to rule. Or it may be that he was legitimately elected king to avoid a child king. It is also possible that he was only a reagent acting on their behalf. The final possibility (and with so little information, the possibilities may be endless) is he may have been a puppet of either the kingdoms of Deria or Bernicia. This may be entirely possible according to J.N.L. Myres:
"...it may well be that Penda was the first of his line to consolidate this movement, for in the Historia Brittonum he is described as the king who first separated the Mercians from the Regnum Nordorum.... There is furthermore, a duality of settlement in Mercia which suggests that eventual unity was not achieved until a comparatively late date. The earliest Mercian people are represented by the cremation cemeteries on the right bank of the middle Trent and on its southern tributaries. In Bede's day the Trent it self separated these five thousand families of the southern Mercians from the seven thousand families of the northern Mercians beyond the river. There is a marked archaeological contrast between the two areas. North of the river cremation cemeteries, so common to the south, are conspicuously absent." (J.N.L. Myres, The English Settlements (Oxford History of England) page 185)
Indeed it could be that the northern Mercians with their inhumation rites were Northumbrian derived, while the southern Mercians with their cremation rites so like East and Middle Anglia, were derived from the east. Thus Cearl may have been of Northumbrian origin, and therefore this was the reason he was not counted amongst the Icelingas. Pure cremation cemeteries outside of East Anglia and the Midlands are rare, and indeed in most of Britain, even areas settled by Angles such as the Northumbrian kingdoms, inhumation or mixed rite cemeteries are the rule (Sam Lucy, The Anglo-Saxon Way of Death, page 133). This could indicate that the northern Mercians were fundamentally a different people from those of the southern Mercians with rulers of their own separate from the Icelingas. Alternately, N.J. Higham holds that Cearl may have been an overking in his own right with a very extensive Mercia reaching almost to the size it did under Penda (Higham, An English Empire: Bede and the Early Anglo-Saxon Kings, page 7). While this is possible, it is surely not likely as Elmet would not have been able to maintain independence so long with a strong English presence directly to the South. That is not to say Cearl may not have had considerable territory. It is to say the Midlands of that time is a mystery to us politically. It could be Cearl had only the area immediately around Lichfield and Tamworth traditionally thought of as the core of Mercia. It could also be that he had an early empire stretching from the borders of East Anglia, Essex, and Sussex in the east all the way to the Welsh border with the Thames as a southern border and the southern borders of Elmet as the northern. However, were that the case, certainly more would have been said of him, if not in the Anglo-Saxon sources, then the Welsh ones.
The short passage in Bede's Ecclesiastical History regarding Cearl's daughter's marriage to Edwin would seem to indicate Edwin spent some of his time in exile in Cearl's court. This would be unlikely if there was not some relationship between Mercia and Deria. Cearl is thought by some scholars to have died at the battle of Chester which took place around 616 CE, although there is no documented evidence of his death other than his disappearance from the historical record (Zaluckyj's Mercia: the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Central England, pages 26-27). There are several clues that Cearl may have been dead by this time. The first and foremost is the appearance of Edwin in Redwald's court around 625 or 616 CE, when before he was safely in Mercia and the Welsh kingdoms. Second, he is not mentioned as having any activities after 616 CE in any of the medieval annals or earlier sources. It is thought that Æðelfrið, king of Northumbria may have assumed control of Mercia until his own death in 616 CE in battle with Redwald (Zaluckyj Mercia: the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Central England, pages 26-27 ). As Cearl's son in law Edwin was then king of Northumbria, several scenarios could account for Cearl's disappearance from history other than death. It could be he submitted to Æðelfrið and then ruled as a vassal king of Edwin when Edwin took the throne of Northumbria and died a natural death around 628 CE or that he did die at Chester, and upon Æðelfrið's death, Edwin assumed rule of Mercia himself (his wife was after all Cearl's daughter, and his heirs, Cearl's grandsons). The latter would certainly explain why Penda along with Cadwallon attacked Edwin in 633 CE. Regardless, Cearl was probably most certainly dead by the time of Penda's victory at Cirencester in 628 CE, or else he would have had a hand in it.
Mercia Rising
Penda's victory at Cirencester in 628 CE documented in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is the earliest recorded action of one who may have been the greatest Mercian king ever. There are several indications that Penda may not have been king of the Mercians at this time. Bede refers to Penda merely as a great warrior of the royal house of Mercia and places Penda's kingship as starting in 633 CE with his victory over Edwin (Zaluckyj's Mercia: the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Central England, page 28). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle also neglects to refer to him as king in regards to this victory, although it traces the start of his reign to 626 CE (as does William of Malmesbury). Neinnus' History of the Britains as well as the Welsh Annales Cambriae begin Penda's reign with his victory over Oswald at Maserfelth in 642 CE (Zaluckyj Mercia: the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Central England, page 33). The answer to this dilemma in various dates for his ascension to the throne may be that Penda was king of the Hwicce (or an area just north of the Hwicce) beginning in 626 CE, and not yet king of Mercia its self. This would make sense if Edwin had assumed control of Mercia (or at least the northern part of it) upon Æðelfrið's death. Then in 633 CE with the death of Edwin (whom Bede did list as a Bretwalda having control over all other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms save Kent), Penda was able to co-rule Mercia with his brother Eowa. Finally, with Eowa's death at Maserfelth in 642 CE, Penda could be counted as sole king of Mercia. If such is the case, then the various dates for Penda's ascension to kingship are easily explained as he could be said to have ascended to kingship on three separate occasions. The first ascension would have been to the kingship of the Hwicce or (or another subkingdom in the area) in 626 CE which gave him the power to negotiate with the West Saxon kings (and perhaps even get a bride out of the deal as Cynewise is thought to have been a West Saxon princess due to her name). The second ascension would have taken place with the death of Mercia's overlord Edwin in 633 CE when he would have made Mercia independent of any other kingdom. However, as this ascension was with Eowa, he may not have been counted as king of Mercia, indeed he may have been thought but a subking. Regardless, he would not have been seen as Mercia's sole ruler. Finally, after Maserfelth in 642 CE, would have came his third ascension, when Penda would have taken control of the areas ruled by his deceased brother Eowa, and been sole king of Mercia.4
After, the battle of Cirencester, we next see Penda acting with Cadwallon against Edwin in the battle of Haðfelð or Hatfield in 633 or 634 CE, fought according to Bede on October 12th. There were many reasons for this battle, not the least in that it is entirely possible that Edwin was Mercia's overlord. There is evidence for Edwin having overlordship of Mercia in statements by Bede to the effect that Edwin held reign over all areas of Great Britain but Kent, then there is Cearl's disappearance from the historical record with no Mercian king to fill the vacuum until Penda in 626 CE, and finally the dating of Penda's ascension according to some sources as not being until 633 CE. Not only may have Edwin been Penda's overlord, but his sons, Osfriþ and Eadfriþ, were Cearl's grandsons, and possibly his only heirs. The two sons together created a potential threat to the Iceling dynasty, a dynasty that may have seen its position usurped first by Cearl, and then by the Northumbrian kings Æðelfrið and Edwin respectively. It is entirely possible that by the time of the battle of Hatfield, unless Cearl was a relation of some kind of Pybba, there had not been an Iceling king on the throne of Mercia for 36 years. Another theory is that Cearl was deposed by Æðelfrið, and Pybba or Eowa put in his place (Higham, An English Empire: Bede and the Early Anglo-Saxon Kings, page 9). Thus Penda would have seen Edwin as an enemy. The problem with this is that Penda seemed to view all Northumbrian kings as enemies, and indeed his attacks on Æðelfrið's line (Oswald and Oswiu) were more vicious than those conducted against Edwin.
According to Zaluckyj amongst others, Cadwallon had his own reasons for wanting to attack Edwin.
If the tradition is true that Edwin had for a while been fostered by Cadwallon's father, Cadfan of Gwynedd, Cadwallon's later personal hatred of the Northumbrian king is understandable when one reads that Cadwallon had been besieged off Anglesey and forced into exile in Ireland, probably at Edwin's instigation. It is little wonder that the Welsh termed Edwin 'the deceitful'....(Zaluckyj Mercia: the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Central England, page 28)
Edwin had spent his youth in exile, according to legend, in Gwynedd and Powys, and then perhaps Mercia at the court of Cearl whose daughter he married. His final year or two of exile were spent in the court of Redwald of East Anglia. Bede dedicated much of his Eccleciastical History to Edwin's conversion, and nearly glowered over Edwin's every achievement. Meanwhile, Penda has been reviled as a cutthroat and murderer. In truth, Edwin was perhaps the far more treacherous of the two. As glowering as Bede's account of him is, the Welsh accounts are as condemning. Edwin conquered Elmet and expelled its ruler Ceredig, despite that ruler having sheltered his nephew Hereric from Æðelfrið. While it is claimed Hereric was poisoned by Ceredig this is somehow doubtful as it would have been foolhardy for a weaker British kingdom to have done such a crime. He then invaded Gwynedd, which had given Edwin himself shelter, and reduced it to a vassal state. Edwin, therefore had a history of betraying those whom had protected him in times of need (see the Annales Cambriae, Nennius' Historia Brittonum, the Welsh Triads, Reginald of Durham’s Life of Oswald, as well as Bede for Edwin's activities against the British). In 626 CE, according to Bede he marched on Wessex in revenge for an assassination attempt, and won a battle against Cwichelm of Wessex. Edwin was therefore master of the North, and easily threatened the South by marching an army into Wessex its self. If anyone perhaps deserved the title of Bretwalda, he certainly did. The battle of Hatfield was therefore one of those momentous events in early English history, a battle that easily changed the course of history for what was to be England.
The location of the battle has been traditionally named by scholars as being Hatfield Chase near Doncaster. Recent arguments have been put forth for another Hatfield around Cuckney near Mansfield, Nottinghamshire as the site of the battle (Zaluckyj Mercia: the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Central England, page 29). The evidence for this Hatfield are convincing as there is in the direct locality of it, Edwinstowe (a village named presumably for Edwin), whose church it is thought traditionally Edwin's headless body was brought to. A few miles west of it is St. Edwin's Cross, a cross erected on what is thought to be the site of the old St. Edwin's Chapel (Zaluckyj Mercia: the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Central England, page 30). In addition, the church of St. Mary's in Cuckney is the location of a mass burial found in the1950s and not dated. Between Cuckney and Edwinstowe are places named Hatfield Grange and Hatfield Farm (Zaluckyj Mercia: the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Central England, page 30). Either location would be reasonable for a battle between kings of Mercia and Northumbria with the Welsh involved. Edwin died in the battle as did his son, Osfrið, while his other son, Eanfrið was taken hostage by Penda, and later was killed at his court. All the early histories agree that the results of the battle were to throw Northumbria into disarray. Edwin's queen Aðelberht and her children and grandson fled with the priest Paulinus to Kent. Cadwallon meanwhile ravaged the country side, putting to death all of Englisc origin according to Bede. Æðelfrið's son, Eanfrið took reign of Bernicia whilst Osric, Edwin's cousin took the throne of Deira. Osric led an attack on Cadwallon but died in the process, while Cadwallon killed Eanfrið. Oswald then returned and did battle with Cadwallon, defeating him at Hexham in 634 CE. It is unknown what Penda was doing during this time. It is possible that he returned to Mercia to consolidate his own power, or he may have remained in the field with Cadwallon. In all probability he returned to Mercia before Cadwallon did battle with Osric as there is no mention of his presence.
From this point on, Penda became active in expanding Mercia (perhaps in some cases such as East Anglia, trying to regain 'ancestral' lands). Between 633 and 642 CE, he tried to keep East Anglia under his subjugation killing kings Sigebert and Egric in battle. Sigebert reigned from about 634 - 638 CE when he retired to a monastery as he was a devote Christian. His brother Egric then took the throne. Around 641 or 642 CE, Penda attacked East Anglia, and the folk demanded Sigebert lead the army (according to Bede he had been a valiant leader at one time). When he refused they physically threw him out of the monastery and took him to the army. However, Sigebert insisted on carrying only a staff, and thus died in battle as did his brother Egric. Anna then came to the throne of East Anglia only to be killed by Penda as well.
Penda's next appearance in history is at the battle of Maserfield on August 5, 642 CE against Oswald according to both the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and Bede. The battle is assumed to have been fought near Old Oswestry, Shropshire largely based on Medieval traditions. Another site that has been suggested is at Wigan in Lancashire (Zaluckyj Mercia: the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Central England, page 32). Either way the battle would appear to be in Powys very close to Mercian territory, or in Powys its self making Oswald the aggressor, and Penda merely acting on his own behalf or that of his ally Cynddylan. Oswald spent much of his life in exile in the Scottish kingdom of Dal Riatha, where he had fled after his father Æðelfrið's death, not returning until 634 CE. It was there he was baptized, and thus when he came to the throne of Northumbria, he brought Celtic Christianity with him. Bede had him a Bretwalda, although it is clear Penda never submitted to him, and questionable if any of the other Anglo-Saxon kings did. He married the West Saxon King Cynegils' daughter, Cyneburh, and perhaps supported Anna's succession to the throne of East Anglia. On the battle its self there are not many details. It is told by Bede that Penda: "commanded his head, hands, and arms to be cut off from the body, and set upon stakes." This has been seen as a pagan ritual, although it must be noted that Edwin's head was also taken, and there it would seem by Cadwallon, a Christian. In the later Middle Ages, the punishment for sedition (speech against the King of England) was loss of one's heads and hands. Potentially, this may have been the reason for Penda doing such a ritual. It took Oswiu, Oswald's brother a year to retrieve the body. Oswald was then made a saint and martyr by the Christians of the time, and he is one of the few early Christian saint kings for which such adoration was legitimately deserved. We have no record of wrongs done by him (other than invading Mercia or Powys) as we do other early Christian Anglo-Saxon kings. Also killed at this battle was Penda's brother Eowa.
Eowa is a mystery for whom there are hardly any clues. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle does not mention him in regards to the battle of Maserfield, nor does Bede. His name does not occur in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, until the entry for 716 when it tells the descent of Æthelbald, king of Mercia. For all we know he may have ruled Mercia from of 616 CE when Ceorl disappears from the scene to this death at Maserfield, a rather long reign, not to have been mentioned, but all surviving records are Northumbrian and West Saxon. It would be easy for a Mercian king in such a poorly recorded era to fail to be mentioned.
Penda is next recorded as driving Cenwealh of Wessex from his kingdom in both the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and by Bede. Both Bede and the Chronicle state that Cenwalh had put away his wife, Penda's sister, and taken another as wife, and this was the reason for Penda's attack. This took place in 645 CE according to the Chronicle. Cenwalh fled to Anna's court in East Anglia, where he accepted Christianity, but returned to Wessex in 647 or 648 CE. After his death in 672 CE, his queen Seaxburga reigned for a year. It is not known whether she was Penda's sister, or if this was Cenwalh's second wife. Considering he was able to return to Wessex without further aggression from Penda, Seaxburga may have been Penda's sister. According to Henry of Huntington, Penda then drove Anna from East Anglia in 651 CE. Anna then returned to his kingdom, only to be slain in battle by Penda, at which time Penda turned his armies into Northumbria (Zaluckyj Mercia: the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Central England, page 34). Anna's successor, his brother Æðelhere died at the battle of Winwæd fighting for Penda according to Bede. According to Bede, that same year Penda attempted to attack Bamburgh, and unable to take it by force, set it to fire. Bishop Aidan then prayed, and the winds shifted the fire back on the Mercians, where upon they retreated. It was during this time also however that Peada, Penda's son was raised to subking of the Middle Angles, and married Oswiu's daughter Alhflæd. Oswiu's son married Penda's daughter Cyneburh. Zaluckyj points out that marriages between royal families usually were to cement an alliance or to at least ensure neutrality (Zaluckyj Mercia: the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Central England, page 35). According to Bede, Penda even allowed Christian priests to be sent into the area of the Middle Angles, and allowed Peada to convert. Yet hostilities flared up once again between Penda and Oswiu. According to Bede, Oswiu had to hand over his son Ecgfrið into the care of Penda's queen Cynewise, and tried to bribe Penda into not attacking Northumbria. The details of this political situation have no doubt been lost.
Penda finally sent an army into Northumbria and on November 15, 655 CE (or possibly 654 CE), the battle of Winwæd took place, it is thought by scholars near what is now Leeds. According to Bede, Penda took with him 30 legions, so the army must have been immense. Penda's guide into the area was Oswiu's own nephew, Æðelwold, king of Deira. He however withdrew from the battlefield at the last instant. Bede goes on to say that there had been great rains and the river Winwæd was flooded so more were drowned than died by the sword. No one is certain why the battle took place. Kirby holds that it may have been that Oswiu was treating Peada's domain as if his own (Kirby, The Earliest English Kings, pages 93-94). Zaluckyj feels it may be because overlordship of southern England had been passing back and forth between Penda and Oswiu (Zaluckyj Mercia: the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Central England, page 35). A more sinister reason may lie behind the words accredited to Penda by Bede; "They were contemptible and wretched who did not obey their God, in whom they believed" (Jane translation). It could be that Oswiu in some way was trying to get out of whatever agreement was made with Penda regarding the marriages of their children, or had actively violated the agreement. Oswiu had, according to Bede, ordered his cousin Oswine, king of Deira murdered. And the fact that Peada's death is attributed to his own wife, Oswiu's daughter (and therefore sanctioned by Oswiu) makes one wonder whether Oswiu was the most honest person in the world.
With Penda's death, the last of the truly powerful Heathen kings was dead. Sussex and the Isle of Wight remained to be converted, while Essex would return to Heathenry along with other kingdoms in times of distress. But none of these Heathen kingdoms would ever reach the power of Mercia under Penda. The aftermath of the battle was that Mercia fell for a short time under Northumbrian rule. Peada was allowed to rule part of the kingdom, while Oswiu took the other part. Peada did not rule long as he was murdered during Easter tide by his wife according to Bede. According to Zaluckyj, it may have been a Mercian coup due to Peada perhaps having gone Northumbrian (Zaluckyj Mercia: the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Central England, page 35). However, Wulfhere, Peada's brother did not take power for some time, and Oswiu assumed direct control. It therefore is best perhaps to see the murder as the cause of those whom benefited first from it, the Northumbrians.
Penda in a Different Light
Penda has long been seen as the "ultimate evil" by many historians in contrast to the "good" Christian kings. The truth of the matter is, he was, as a warlord, perhaps no better or worse than his Christian peers of the time. Indeed, while Oswiu was responsible for the murder of his cousin and perhaps that of his son in law; Penda is accredited with only one such murder, that of a late enemy's son held hostage by him. Even then, we do not know the circumstances of the murder, whether perhaps Eanfrið had attempted a coup, tried to kill Penda himself, tried to escape, or died of natural causes and Bede merely thought it was murder. Of all the murders committed by early Anglo-Saxon kings discussed by Bede, he gives the least amount of details on Eanfrið's death. Penda being Mercian and a pagan, there was no reason for Bede to give a clearer and perhaps more honest picture of what occurred between Eanfrið and Penda. Unlike Edwin, Penda is never recorded as attacking those who had aided him. Other Anglo-Saxon kings of the period also had their own skeletons in the closets, and when compared, Penda seems to be no better or worse than most of them. Indeed, some of the statements about him show what today folks might consider very modern thinking, an attitude of religious tolerance. In a time when Heathen practices were already being banned, and kings such as Earconbert of Kent were ordering all idols be destroyed, Penda allowed both the Heathen and the Christian religions to exist peacefully side by side. In Bede's words quoted above about Penda finding those that did not obey their god contemptible shows that perhaps Penda himself understood a bit about Christianity, and therefore was not been lacking in the wisdom to show tolerance. He certainly, through his interaction with the Welsh, had an opportunity to learn about Christianity. This too showed his tolerance, in that he was the first historically recorded English king to ally himself with the Welsh. Religious and ethnic differences had to be set aside for such alliances to have survived. Zaluckyj mentions in her work, Mercia: the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Central England Brooks' view on Penda:
It has been suggested by Brooks that if the later demise of Mercia and Penda's paganism had 'not combined to prevent his memory from being cultivated', his memory might have been passed down to us in lines of English poetry 'like some early El Cid, as a great war leader who had made nonsense of the ethnic and religious divisions of his day.'
As it was Penda left a great legacy to Mercia in the form of his children, three of whom were kings of Mercia (Peada, Wulfhere, and Æðelred), and potentially one a king of the Magonsæte (Merewalh, though most scholars question the claim), as well as four daughters revered as saints (Cyneburh, Cyneswið, Edburga of Bicester, and Edith of Aylesbury), and another that was the mother of a saint (Wilburh, mother of St. Osið). Thus his contribution to English culture cannot easily be ignored.
1. Freawin and Wig both appear in the West Saxon genealogies as grandfather and father of Gewis, the semi-mythical ancestor of the kings of the Gewis (the early West Saxons). Saxo's own version of the West Saxon genealogy differs significantly though in that he names Aloc and Angenwit in Freawine and Wig's place.
2. It must be noted that Morris and Myres were not the first to feel that some of these places may have been named for the Icelingas; from Bosworth - Toller's An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary comes the following entry for Iclingas:
Iclingas; pl. The name of a Mercian family to which St. Guthlac belonged :- Hé was ðæs yldestan and ðæs æðelstan cynnes ðe Iclingas wǽron genemnede he [Guthlac's father] was of that chiefest and noblest race that were called Iclings, Guthl. 1 ; Gdwin. 8, 4. [Icelingtun (Ickleton in Cambridgeshire?) occurs Cod. Dipl. Kmbl, iv. 300, 24; and there is Icklingham in Suffolk.]
3. A hide could be between 40 and 120 acres, the determining factor being a hide was the land it took to feed a single family. Therefore in areas with rich land, 40 acres seem to have been the standard, while most often a hide was rated at 120 acres.
4. All of this can be drawn from Bede, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Neinnus' History of the Britains, and the Annales Cambriae; all fairly early sources. The only true flaw I can see with the idea of three separate ascensions for Penda, is that there is no evidence, no sentence in any early source that states Penda was king of the Hwicce, Magonsæte, or other southern subkingdoms or minor kingdoms besides Mercia its self. The only time he is named other than king of Mercia, may be a clue to Penda's later overlordship (he was truly a Bretwalda whether named by Bede or not) in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle when he is referred to not as King of Mercians but as King of the Southumbrians (which would seem to indicate he was ruler of all lands south of the Humber). Yet, in favor of Penda as king of the Hwicce or another group in that area, there are many places named for Creoda, Pybba, and Penda in Warwickshire and Gloucestershire, and there is evidence of a Germanic presence in Hwicce in the 5th century. Indeed, instead of Hwicce being settled from the Trent river valley, or from the south by the West Saxons (as it is popularly held to have been settled) it may have been settled at an earlier date from the east. A. H. Smith holds to the view that Hwicce was settled from the Midlands, and was an Anglian and not a Saxon conquest (Zaluckyj's Mercia: the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Central England, page 102-103). The basis for assuming it was a Saxon conquest has been in the West Saxon victory of Dyrham in 577 CE over the kings of Bath, Cirencester, and Gloucester, followed by a victory at Fehtan Leag in 584 CE in Oxfordshire. This is favored by Stenton in his Anglo-Saxon England. The problem with this idea is that Bath and Cirencester both rest in the southern portion of Hwicce with Gloucester not much farther north, and a victory over their kings does not necessarily mean the territory to the north opened up to the West Saxons, anymore than Penda and Cadwallon's defeat of Edwin at Hatfield opened up Northumbria to Mercian and Welsh settlement. In addition, Fehtan Leag was nearly a stalemate, and indeed may not have even been fought against Britons but Angles. It is entirely possible then that Penda spent his younger days in Hwicce as its ruler before moving northeast to reclaim his family's lands.
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