Many people know about Wessex, the 'Last Kingdom' of the Anglo-Saxons to fall to the Northmen, but another kingdom, Mercia, once enjoyed supremacy over not only Wessex, but all of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. At its zenith Mercia controlled what is now Birmingham and London ? and the political, commercial paramountcy of the two today finds echoes in the past.Those interested in the period will surely have heard of Penda, Offa, and Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians ? but remarkably there is no single book that tells their story in its entirety, the story of the great kingdom of the midlands. Historically, the records are in two halves, pre- and post-Viking, in the way they have been preserved. Pre-Viking, virtually all the source material was written by the victims, or perceived victims, of Mercian aggression and expansion. Post-Viking, the surviving documents tend to hail from places which were not sacked or burned by the Northmen, particularly from Wessex, the traditional enemy of Mercia. The inclusion of those records here allows for the exploration of Mercia post-924.Mercia ceased to be a kingdom when Alfred the Great came to power, but its history did not end there. Examining the roles of the great ealdormen in the anti-monastic reaction of the tenth century, through the treachery of Eadric Streona in the eleventh, and the last, brave young earls who made a stand against William the Conqueror, this book shows the important role the Mercians played in the forging of the English nation.
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Subtopic
British HistoryIndex
HistoryTable of contents
- Cover
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Sources and Abbreviations
- Chapter 1 - Penda the Pagan King
- Chapter 2 - The Origins of the Mercian Kingdom
- Chapter 3 - The Sons of Penda
- Chapter 4 - Æthelbald the Elusive King
- Chapter 5 - Offa the Great
- Chapter 6 - The Forgotten Kings
- Chapter 7 - Burgred and Ceolwulf II: The Last Kings of Mercia
- Chapter 8 - The Lord and Lady of the Mercians
- Chapter 9 - The Formation of ‘England’: Mercia Fades
- Chapter 10 - Ælfhere, the Mad Blast from the Western Provinces
- Chapter 11 - Wulfric, Eadric and Leofwine: Mercian Wealth and Power
- Chapter 12 - The House of Leofric
- Plates
- Epilogue From Supremacy to Obscurity
- Appendix I - The Danes in Mercia
- Appendix II - The Shiring of Mercia
- Notes
- Bibliography
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Yes, you can access Mercia by Annie Whitehead in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & British History. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.