Mercian Period |
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The Mercia History page covers the following topics
Where is Mercia ?
It might be that much of Outer Mercia also corresponded to the Romano - British tribal lands of the Coritani. Beyond this were the numerous tribal lands of Middle Anglia proper around the Wash and the marshes which feed the Wash. To the north were the North Mercians which covers Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire between the High Peak and the Trent and eastern Staffordshire.
Where is Tomsaetia
Early Mercian Period - Up to PendaEarliest Settlement of Anglian People
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| As to when the Anglian occupation began is a point of much dispute. What seems to have happened is that the occupation had two main points of entry, the Humber and the Wash and Welland valley. There may have been Anglian settlements doted around the Romano - British landscape by the late 4th century - perhaps earlier. What appears to be clear is that by the 5th century the settlement was in full flow. There are a number of English burials and cremation sites doted along the Trent and Welland valley to suggest that the population of the settlers was increasing. |
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As to the relationship with the native Romano-British there is
little direct evidence. What archaeological evidence there is
suggests a very unclear picture. In the Lower Trent valley there
is some suggestion from place name analysis that the Romano - British and
Anglian settlers started to live along side one another. At the
Roman town at Ravenstone,
there is evidence of Anglian occupation into the 5th
century. This is a similar pattern developing in many old Roman
towns - whilst the settlers had a considerable effect on the
indigenous population many of the older ways of life continued.
Perhaps the biggest single difference between the two groups of
people was that the Romano
- British were Christian and the Anglians were not. It has
been suggested that old religious sites survived at places like
Wall and maybe Burton on
Trent. If this is the case then the Romano - British way of
life didn't disappear completely.
Of equal importance would appear to be means of communication.
The Trent and Welland would appear to be suitable means of
transportation for so far but after this the new settlers would
have to move over land. Here the Roman road network must have
played a part. The Roman road from Colchester to Leicester and perhaps Chester
would have proved a suitable means to gain access to the interior
of the new land. There is some evidence that the new settlers
followed the existing road network into the country. If this is
the case then the Roman network was an important means by which
the settlers gained access to the whole of what was to become
Mercia.
The name Mercia also suggest that the people that occupied the
area were at the limit of the English settlement. Mercian means
border people - thus this would suggest that the people of Mercia
were bordering onto the Romano
- British. Again place name analysis would suggest that there
was a surviving British population through out Mercia.
The new settlers probably moved into varying levels of
development. In the river valleys there no doubt was a well
developed Romano - British farm system. Around Mancetter there
was a large industrial complex which provided pots for a large
part of the Midlands and beyond. If the Romano - British land
usage in other parts of the country is a guide then much of the
land around the Roman town at Ravenstone
would have had a number of estates doted about. There is some
suggestion that this might be the case in the Market Bosworth
area were a villa has been discovered. It might be that the area
which became the Measham/Donisthorpe
enclave was a similar development. There is an amount of
Roman pottery found at Bramborough.
The way that the land was also lumped together in one close knit
area would also indicate that it might have been a series of
estates in a much earlier era than the late dark ages period.
Whatever the position much of what was to become the Mercian home
land was already developed by the Romano - British. The old
historical model of the area - that of dense woodlands sparsely
populated appears to be mistaken. The new Anglian settlers moved
into much more developed countryside than had previously
suspected.
| As the settlers occupied the land they no doubt displaced the local population. They might also have intermingled with the local population - perhaps taking local women as brides. The powerful families started to assert themselves and by the end of the 6th century were starting to gather their power and expand. The first known king of the Mercians was Cearl - who reigned around the end of the 6th century and whose daughter married into the Northumbrian royal family. However, Cearl's family didn't appear to cement the power and with his death the power moved to a new family - the family which would produce most of the most powerful kings of Mercia. This was the family of Penda . Penda was the first significant Mercian king who was able, by military conflict, to expand the boundaries of Mercia. This was a time of swinging power shifts and consolidation of the English settlers. In the south the Saxon kingdoms of Wessex, Essex and Sussex were forming. The Jute kingdom of Kent was already in place. To the north the Northumbrian kingdom was forming and in the central England Mercia was consolidating. In just 2 centuries the English settlers had moved from interlopers to becoming the dominate group within what was to be known as England. |  The claimed family tree from Wermunda to
Penda. It should be noted that the authenticity of this
is dubious. |
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As to the Mercian's relationship with the other peoples of England there is much debate. What is not in disputes is that by the 7th century the powerful kingdoms which would shape the history of England for the next 500 years were coming into existence and Mercia, under Penda, was set to become one of the most powerful.
Mercian Ascendancy - Aethelbald and Offa
The road to the power of powerful and best known of Mercian Offa was not an easy one. Kingship in the 7th century was as much about conquest and rewarding retainers as any wider strategic consideration. An old or failing king could quickly be replaced by another member of the royal family and it was not unusual for an eventual King to have spent some of his formative life in banishment or on the run from other members of his family. Of equal importance to this ever changing world was the alliances that were formed with other kingdoms - in many occasions cemented by the marriage of a royal daughter to an eligible son. So whilst the sons battled each other for the dominance of the kingdom the daughter played an equally important role in ensuring alliances didn't fall apart too quickly.
The development of the Mercian aristocracy was equally influenced by the placement of family members into the service of the church. The Mercians were some of the last to convert to Christianity but by the 8th century a number of sons and daughters of the royal line were prominent members of the church. An example of this was Wulfhere, Mercian king in the mid to late 7th century. Two of his sons, Wulhad and Ruffin, who had them Murdered at Stone (Staffs) after he had apostatised, were seen perhaps not as saints but certainly significant religious figures. They had been baptised by St. Chad and so reinforced their religious significance. Another example of this was St. Werburga who was Wulfhare's daughter. By the turn of the century the Mercian royal family and the church were potent combination and intermingled interests.
To see the importance of kingship during this period you only have to look at the treasures found at Sutton Hoo. This is seen as the burial of a contemporary of Penda, King Redwald, and dates to around 625. Interestingly, most of the successors to Redwald's kingdom were murdered by Penda and so the wealth that had produced the Sutton Hoo treasures were now directly contributing the wealth of Mercia or at least the Kings. Clearly to be a king in 7th century England was a well rewarded position. However, it was always precarious and most died in battle.
After Wulfhare had been slain the Mercian kingdom passed between his sons and cousins. His aunt Sexaburga was married into the Wessex royal family and many of the descendants of his uncle Eowa had been banished to the marshes of east Anglia. One such royal cousin was Aethelbald who spent some time with St. Guthlac at Crowland. Guthlac himself was of the royal family of Mercia but had turned to the church. By 716 however, Aethelbald was king and the power of the Mercian kingdom was passed to the Eowa branch .
Aethelbald - The Mercian Bretwalda
Aethelbald was many things. He was a womaniser who was not beyond defiling nuns and then paying the penalty but he undoubtedly earned the title of Bretwalda or king of the Britons. He reinforced the Mercia Ascendancy and brought new areas under his control. He was probably the most powerful king in England and controlled most of the area from Kent up the Humber. For all this power he met the fate of most of his ancestors - he was murdered by his body guard at Seckington in 757.
Offa.
Aethelbald's power was matched by the king who won the power struggle that followed his death. Offa, by the end of the year, was king of the Mercians. The next 40 years saw the continued growth of Mercian powers and influence. It also saw Offa trying to ensure that the power struggles of the Mercian of the past would not effect his son's chance of inheriting the kingdom. He went about this in a typical late 8th century fashion - murdering all of the likely candidates within his family.
Beyond this destruction of the Mercian aristocracy Offa by the end of his reign was honoured through England and beyond. King Charliemange sent him a letter which described him as '… his dearest brother…' thus indicating that Offa's position was well understood beyond England. Offa used the power of the church to his own advantage. He ensured that Lichfield became an Archbishopric and many of the church councils were headed by Offa himself. His continued battles with the Welsh lead to his most famous monument Offa's Dyke which stretches the length of the English and Welsh borders.
By Offa's death in 796 Mercia was at the height of it's power and influence. Tamworth was the capital of a large kingdom and the lands of the Tomsaetia must have been the heart of this kingdom. Many of the advantages of wealth and power no doubt flowed to the area. The churches at Repton and Lichfield must have been endowed beyond the wildest hopes of their founders. The church at Breedon still has some of the sculptures dating from this period embedded into the wall of the latter church building.
| The final legacy of Offa's reign was the instability his pogrom against his relatives was meant to stop. By the end of the year his son Ecgfrith was dead and the kingdom of Mercia passed to the third branch of the Mercia royal family - the descendants of Sexaburga. These descendants, whoever, were as much Wessex men as Mercians - thus the decline of Mercia started and the power of Wessex started to grow. |  |
Mercian Decline
Perhaps it was only natural that after such powerful kings as Aethelbald and Offa anyone who followed would have difficulty surpassing their achievements. This is what happened with the kings of Mercia. It wasn't that they were particularly unsuccessful kings but rather times were changing. By the start of the 9th century new threats were starting to present themselves from across the North Sea. This however is not to under estimate the achievements of Cenwulf who increased the Mercian influence in Wales and his brother Ceolwulf virtually annexed Wales and was styled Emperor in his own charters. However, the peak of Mercian was passing and an example would be the removal of the Archbishopric from Lichfield. With Cenwulf's death the power was moving away from Mercia to Wessex.
This is not suggest that the development of Mercia was bankrupt but rather that it was not as great as it had been before. By the mid 9th century Wessex was interfering Mercia affairs and Wiglaf had to regain the kingdom from them. His grandson, St. Wystan, reflected the politics of the time - murdered after a dispute over the marriage of his widowed mother. He was buried at Repton and his tomb became a shrine.
By now the threat of Danish invasion was becoming ever more important to Mercia and the final blow to Mercia was struck in 873 when the Danish army wintered at Repton. Burghred, the Mercian king, had been driven out and fled to Rome where he died.
No one will ever know exactly what this army did but it is clear it destroyed a great deal of the Mercian culture. Compared to Wessex and Northumbria there is little in the way of Mercian charters or other written materials. The devastation wrought by these invaders appears to have been total. Mercia as a power dwindled, it's lands divided between the English and Danish halves. The next century would see continued campaigns to try and re unite Mercia under an English king. This was not successfully achieved until the 11th century when the Anglo Danish king Cnute brought stability.
But what of the ordinary Mercian - how did this 200 year period of growth effect them ? The simple answer is that no one will probably know. With very little in the way recorded evidence to suggest any development the picture is almost blank. Tamworth, by the reign of Offa was a flourishing town with a highly sophisticated mill on the River Tame. Over 90% of the settlements in the area of the Mease valley probably were in existence and no doubt were thriving. The area was criss-crossed with Roman roads and track ways which probably even at this time carried considerable trade. The salt which was conveyed from Cheshire signifies a market system in action. Coinage starts to appear by the reign of Offa which again would indicate trade was increasing. All this would make you assume that the 200 years had seen a growth in the wealth of the ordinary people of the Mease Valley area along with their more powerful masters.
Danelaw and Earldom
The biggest influence on the Pre Norman world of the Tomsaetia was the arrival of the Danish settlers from the late 9th century onwards. From this point onwards the lands of the Tomsaetia were divided into English and Anglo Danish Mercia. It is a point of debate amongst historians as to the effect of this division. What can be clearly stated is that it split the homeland of the Mercians into two. After the Danish army wintered at Repton part of it marched to Cambridge - possibly through the study area as the Roman road to Leicester and then beyond takes you directly to Cambridge. Thus any devastation would have been greater as this army - whatever it's size moved through the area as opposed to just wintering in the area.
 The counties of the Midlands with the supposed Danelaw boundary superimposed. |
The dividing line between
the two parts of Mercia cuts through the whole of the
study area as well as the Tomsaetia. If name place
analysis is correct the picture was somewhat more
confusing. The Danish settlers appear to have settled in
a broad arch around the Measham/Donisthorpe
enclave - much of this land would have been heath or
waste land. This might suggest that the settlements of
the enclave might have actually have still nominally
belong to English Mercia as opposed to Anglo Danish
Mercia. |
In the early days it must have been uncomfortable for the English Mercians in the area. Much of the Danish army of Derby may have been settled in the Repton Wapentake and the Ashby Wolds area. There are two reasons to suspect this. Firstly, Tamworth was still an important Mercia centre and would have offered a threat to Derby. The main routes from Tamworth to Derby have to pass the upland area that is much of the Repton Wapentake - thus providing for early warning of an advancing army. Secondly, as mentioned earlier many of the place names in the area have Danish or Scandinavian names. Thus the Measham/Donisthorpe enclave would have been in the middle of a struggle between two opposing factions.
To illustrate this point it is worth noting that c868 king Aethelred of Wessex and his brother, Alfred the Great, marched to Nottingham to help the Mercians fight the Danish army. The most direct route from Tamworth to Nottingham is via the probable Roman road from Tamworth to Sawley. Again to protect this approach to Nottingham the plantation of settlers in the Ashby Wolds/Repton Wapentake area would have helped
The general view is that the Danish settlers and their army caused considerable destruction to the fabric of Mercian life. To a degree this is true, few Mercian documents and charters have survived nor have other works of art which undoubtedly existed. Set against this is the tantalising possibility that the Danes were not as destructive as assumed. An early 10th century charter for Breedon on the Hill talks about granting land to the monastery - however it doesn't mention that the monastery had had to be reformed. So perhaps the Danish settlers were not as destructive as was once suspected.
By the turn of the century the English Mercians were once more trying to gain control of Anglo Danish Mercia. Aethelflaida, the lady of the Mercians, lead conquests from Tamworth into the heartland of Anglo Danish Mercia and by 918 both Derby and Leicester were both under her control. After her death in 918 the conflict continued.
However, in 924, Aethelstan became king of Wessex and Mercia. He was first adopted by the Mercians having spent much of his formative years with his aunt Aethelflaida. Aethelstan's influence in the area must have been considerable - an example being his reception of Sithric, King of Northumbria at Tamworth in January 926. This meeting was marked by Aethelstan giving his sister in marriage to Sithric. By the end of his reign in 940 he was the undisputed king of the island of Britain.
After Aethlestan's death the instability of the early part of the century returned. In c943 Olaf Guthfrithson attacked Tamworth and was later besieged at Leicester by the Wessex king Edmund - who by now assumed kingship of Mercia as well. As part of the booty of the raid was the capture of Wulfrun. She was the matriarch of the next great Mercian family - who over the next 60 years gained control of most of the Mease Valley and Repton Wapentake. The size of this land holding can be see in the will of Wulfric Spot - who was probably Wulfrun's son. He controls large amounts of land in the not only in the Trent Valley area but as far a field as the Whiral and Chester.
So again the people of the Tomsaetans were once more under a unified family. It is far from clear as to whether Wulfric Spot was ever earl of Mercia and interestingly he died in 1010 fighting the Danes. By his death the land of the Tomsaetans was firmly under English Mercian control.
Cnute And The Earl Of Mercia
One of the first known earls of Mercia was Eadric Streonia. He was made earl by the new king of England Cnute - however, Eadric didn't last for long and by the end of 1017 he was killed. It is ironic that the first real unified Mercia came about as a result of actions of an Anglo Danish king. When Cnute was fighting for the Kingdom of England he would not let his Scandinavian army start to pillage the countryside until they were into English England i.e. until they had crossed the Watling street. This might have meant that villages such as Chilcote were spared but Clifton Campville were plundered by the Danes. However, such reading of history might be somewhat simplistic and the local picture was probably far more complicated. Undoubtedly, Cnute didn't want to upset the Anglo Danish Mercians. A further indicator of this is the suspected rendezvous of Aelfgifu and Cnute in 1013. If this is correct then it shows that the Anglo Danish Mercians as well as the English Mercians sort some alliance with Cnute as Aelfgifu was the niece of Wulfric Spot
The Rise Of The Leofric Family
The reign of Eadric Streonia was short lived and by the end of 1017 he was dead and soon to be replaced by Leofric. Leofric was from a different family to that of Wulfrun. He was probably from the lands of Hwicce in the lower Seven valley and whilst within greater Mercia was not of true Mercian stock. His most famous act was to be defied by his wife Godiva (Godgifu ) at Coventry. The family of Leofric represented that last throws of the Mercian aristocracy and lasted until the final Mercian rebellions of the immediate post conquest period.
Leofric established an abbey at Coventry and a large amount of land was given to it - including land at Packington. When he died he was replaced by his son Aelfgar who had married into the older Mercian family of Wulfrun. By the time of the conquest Aelfgar controlled most of the land that had been mentioned in the will of Wulfric Spot some 60 years earlier.
By the Norman conquest Mercia was a complicated land of English and Anglo Danish traditions. Tomsaetia was thus divided into Hides and Hundreds in the area around Tamworth and Coventry and Carucates and Wapentakes in the Repton area. Slavery was part of daily life in the English part but absent in the Danish part. Tamworth was still an important centre of the whole Tomsaetia. It was a Port and burh - thus being the only place where certain markets could take place. It was also a mint. However, when contrasted to the might of the 7th and 8th century Mercia was no more a force to reckon with. The final flash of this power was in the rebellion of 1068 when the earls Edwin and Morcar, sons of Aelfgar, fought king William. This lead to much of Tomsaetia to be ravaged by William's troops and the final defeat of the rebellion at Chester. The final connection with the developing Anglo Norman world may have been the marriage of Lucy, who might have been the daughter or niece of Aelfgar, into the powerful Norman family of the earl of Chester. Thus the Wapentake of Repton passed from the Mercian control to the new control of the Norman barons.