This is a review of a book entitled “Mercia and the making of England”, by Ian Walker. This is the first and perhaps only book dedicated to telling the story of that shadowy Angle Kingdom. Walker takes great pains to note that Mercia, due to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle being a West Saxon affair, had its history played down or passed over. Walker try’s to redress this in his book.
However…..
As a student of this kingdom I would say that Walker’s book leaves a lot to be desired. For one thing, an aspect of Mercian history that is fairly well documented is the late pagan period of King Penda and his dynasty, arguably the longest dynasty in Mercia. Furthermore Walker, for reasons unknown, himself passes over Penda’s brother Peada, his sons Wulfhere and Aethelred. Wulfhere has just about as much written of him in the Chronicle as does Offa. He also myopically focuses on what he calls the C and B dynasties of Cenwulf and Burhred. Though he is quite capable of postulating ideas about who was related to whom by the first letter of their name, something I find silly, he totally ignores contemporary Mercian royal lineage lists as if they are all nonsense or made up.
He says nothing of Offa’s connection to Penda or Offa’s predecessor Aethelbold. Yet he try’s to show how king Cenwulf, who followed Offa after Offa’s son Ecgfrith died, was really related to Beornred who had been deposed by Offa. I know that all this sounds cryptic and horribly confusing. And it is to anyone who does not know the situation of 7th-9th century Mercia. Walker, in his illustrated Mercian lineages only shows these two C and B dynasties. This is ridiculous to me since the previous dynasty of Penda was the one that forged a unified Mercia that was internally stable enough to allow his descendants to take over most of Britain.
Walkers book, in my opinion is superficial where it needs to by deep and try’s to be deep where there is no depth to plumb. This is not to totally dis his book. There are some really astute points to be made about the Mercian~Wessex alliance against the Vikings and also about what you can tell about a king and kingdom by its coinage. But really it offered no great insight or information that I did not already know.
Here is some information that is not in this so-called book about Merica. Using Walker’s letter idea here is my “P” dynasty:
K. Penda died 655
His brother was Eowa who was father of Alweo, who was the father of K. Aethelbald 716-757
Eowa’s other son Cneba was the father of Thringsfirth, who was the father of K. Offa 757-796
Penda’s son Peada became king in 655-659
Penda’s other son Wulfhere became king in 659-675
Penda’s last son Aethelred became king in 675-704
Aethelred’s son Cenred then became king 704-709
When Cenred abdicated Aethelred’s other son Ceolred became king 709-716
After Ceolred died, “in a drunken frenzy” according to Boniface, his cousin Aethelbald, who was in exile retunred and took the throne and reigned for 40 years.
When Aethelbald was finally murdered another clan tried in vane to take the throne but was gotten rid of by another member of the P dynasty namely Offa Thringsfrithson, son of Cneba, son of Eowa, brother of Penda, who himself was the son of K. Pybba, the first true king of Mercia!!!!!
So Ian Walker you can talk to me whenever you want to have a discussion of Mercia.
My sources are:
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 9th-10th Century
Historia Ecclesiastica Anglorum by Bede 7th Century
Historia Brittonum by 9th Century
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