| National Factbook |
| Flag: |
 |
| Nation Name: |
The Kingdom of Mercia |
| Leader Name: |
King Offa |
| Currency: |
Sceat |
| National Animal: |
Dragon |
| History: |
Mercia's exact evolution at the start of the Anglo-Saxon era remains more obscure than that of Northumbria, Kent, or even Wessex. Mercia developed an effective political structure and was Christianised later than the other kingdoms. Archaeological surveys show that Angles settled the lands north of the River Thames by the 6th century. The name "Mercia" is Mercian Old English for "boundary folk" (see Welsh Marches), and the traditional interpretation is that the kingdom originated along the frontier between the native Welsh and the Anglo-Saxon invaders. However, Peter Hunter Blair argued an alternative interpretation: that they emerged along the frontier between Northumbria and the inhabitants of the Trent river valley.
Although its earliest boundaries remain obscure, a general agreement persists that the territory that was called "the first of the Mercians" in the Tribal Hidage covered much of south Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Staffordshire and northern Warwickshire.
The earliest person named in any records as a king of Mercia is Creoda, said to have been the great-grandson of Icel. Coming to power around 584, he built a fortress at Tamworth which became the seat of Mercia's kings. His son Pybba succeeded him in 593. Cearl, a kinsman of Creoda, followed Pybba in 606; in 615, Cearl gave his daughter Cwenburga in marriage to Edwin, king of Deira, whom he had sheltered while he was an exiled prince.
The Mercian kings were the only Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy ruling house known to claim a direct family link with a pre-migration Continental Germanic monarchy.
The next Mercian king, Penda, ruled from about 626 or 633 until 655. Some of what is known about Penda comes from the hostile account of Bede, who disliked him – both as an enemy to Bede's own Northumbria and as a pagan. However, Bede admits that Penda freely allowed Christian missionaries from Lindisfarne into Mercia and did not restrain them from preaching. In 633 Penda and his ally Cadwallon of Gwynedd defeated and killed Edwin, who had become not only ruler of the newly unified Northumbria, but bretwalda, or high king, over the southern kingdoms. When another Northumbrian king, Oswald, arose and again claimed overlordship of the south, he also suffered defeat and death at the hands of Penda and his allies – in 642 at the Battle of Maserfield. In 655, after a period of confusion in Northumbria, Penda brought 30 sub-kings to fight the new Northumbrian king Oswiu at the Battle of Winwaed, in which Penda in turn lost the battle and his life.
The battle led to a temporary collapse of Mercian power. Penda's son Peada, who had converted to Christianity at Repton in 653, succeeded his father as king of Mercia; Oswiu set up Peada as an under-king; but in the spring of 656 he was murdered and Oswiu assumed direct control of the whole of Mercia. A Mercian revolt in 658 threw off Northumbrian domination and resulted in the appearance of another son of Penda, Wulfhere, who ruled Mercia as an independent kingdom (though he apparently continued to render tribute to Northumbria for a while) until his death in 675. Wulfhere initially succeeded in restoring the power of Mercia, but the end of his reign saw a serious defeat by Northumbria. The next king, Æthelred, defeated Northumbria in the Battle of the Trent in 679, settling once and for all the long-disputed control of the former kingdom of Lindsey. Æthelred was succeeded by Cœnred, son of Wulfhere; both these kings became better known for their religious activities than anything else, but the king who succeeded them in 709, Ceolred, is said in a letter of Saint Boniface to have been a dissolute youth who died insane. So ended the rule of the direct descendants of Penda.
At some point before the accession of Æthelbald in 716 the Mercians conquered the region around Wroxeter, known to the Welsh as Pengwern or as "The Paradise of Powys". Elegies written in the persona of its dispossessed rulers record the sorrow at this loss.
The next important king of Mercia, Æthelbald, reigned from 716 to 757. For the first few years of his reign he had to face two strong rival kings, Wihtred of Kent and Ine of Wessex. But when Wihtred died in 725, and Ine abdicated in 726 to become a monk in Rome, Æthelbald was free to establish Mercia's hegemony over the rest of the Anglo-Saxons south of the Humber. Æthelbald suffered a setback in 752, when the West Saxons under Cuthred defeated him, but he seems to have restored his supremacy over Wessex by 757.
In July 2009, the Staffordshire Hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold was discovered by Terry Herbert in a field at Hammerwich, near Brownhills and close to Lichfield in Staffordshire. Lichfield functioned as the religious centre of Mercia. The artefacts have tentatively been dated by Svante Fischer and Jean Soulat to around AD 600–800. Whether the hoard was deposited by Anglo-Saxon pagans or Christians remains unclear, as does the purpose of the deposit.
After the murder of Æthelbald by one of his bodyguards in 757, a civil war broke out which concluded with the victory of Offa, a descendant of Pybba. Offa (reigned 757 to 796) had to build anew the hegemony which his predecessor had exercised over the southern English, and he did this so successfully that he became the greatest king Mercia had ever known. Not only did he win battles and dominate Southern England, but also he took an active hand in administering the affairs of his kingdom, founding market towns and overseeing the first major issues of gold coins in Britain; he assumed a role in the administration of the Catholic Church in England (sponsoring the short-lived archbishopric of Lichfield, 787 to 799), and even negotiated with Charlemagne as an equal. Offa is credited with the construction of Offa's Dyke, which marked the border between Wales and Mercia.
Offa exerted himself to ensure that his son Ecgfrith of Mercia would succeed him, but after Offa's death in July 796 Ecgfrith survived for only five months, and the kingdom passed to a distant relative named Coenwulf in December 796. In 821 Coenwulf's brother Ceolwulf succeeded to the Mercian kingship; he demonstrated his military prowess by his attack on and destruction of the fortress of Deganwy in Gwynedd. The power of the West Saxons under Egbert (King of Wessex from 802 to 839) grew during this period, however, and in 825 Egbert defeated the Mercian king Beornwulf (who had overthrown Ceolwulf in 823) at Ellendun.
The Battle of Ellendun proved decisive. At this point, Mercia lost control of Kent, Sussex, Surrey, and possibly also Essex. Beornwulf was slain while suppressing a revolt amongst the East Angles, and his successor, a former ealdorman named Ludeca (reigned 826–827), met the same fate. Another ealdorman, Wiglaf, subsequently ruled for less than two years before Egbert of Wessex drove him out of Mercia. In 830 Wiglaf regained independence for Mercia, but by this time Wessex had clearly become the dominant power in England. Circa 840 Beorhtwulf succeeded Wiglaf.
In 852, Burgred came to the throne, and with Ethelwulf of Wessex subjugated North Wales. In 868 Danish invaders occupied Nottingham. The Danes drove Burgred from his kingdom in 874 and Ceolwulf II took his place. In 877 the Danes seized the eastern part of Mercia, which became part of the Danelaw.
Ceolwulf, the last king of Mercia, left with the western half, reigned until 879. From about 883 until his death in 911 Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians, ruled Mercia under the overlordship of Wessex. Alfred changed his title from 'king of the West Saxons' to 'king of the Anglo-Saxons' to reflect the acceptance of his overlordship of all southern England not under Danish rule. All coins struck in Mercia after the disappearance of Ceolwulf in c. 879 were in the name of the West Saxon king. Æthelred had married Æthelflæd (c. 870 – 12 June 918), daughter of Alfred the Great of Wessex (r. 871–899), and she assumed power when her husband became ill at some time in the last ten years of his life.
After Æthelred's death in 911 Æthelflæd ruled as "Lady of the Mercians", but Alfred's successor as King of the Anglo-Saxons, Edward the Elder (r. 899–924), took control of London and Oxford, which Alfred had placed under Æthelred's control. Æthelflæd and her brother continued Alfred's policy of building fortified burhs, and by 918 they had conquered the southern Danelaw in East Anglia and Danish Mercia. |
| Geography |
| Continent: |
Europe |
| Land Area: |
49,084.87 sq. km |
| Terrain: |
The area is predominantly low-lying and flat apart from isolated hills such as Turners Hill within the Black Country conurbation at 271 m (889 ft) and the Wrekin just south of Wellington in Telford at 407 m (1,335 ft). Upland areas lie in the west and north of the region with the Shropshire Hills to the west, close to the England–Wales border and the Peak District area of the southern Pennines in the north of the region. The Shropshire Hills reach a height of 540 m (1,771 ft) at Brown Clee Hill and includes the Long Mynd, Clee Hills and Stiperstones ridge. Wenlock Edge, running through the middle of the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), is a long, low ridge, which extends for over 15 miles (24 km). The Peak District reaches heights of between 300 m (1,000 ft) and 600 m (2,000 ft); Kinder Scout is the highest point at 636 m (2,086 ft). Further south, the Welsh border reaches over 700 m (2,000 ft) high, at Twyn Llech (Black Mountain), which at 703 m (2,306 ft) is thus the highest point in Herefordshire.
The Precambrian Malverns are formed of some of the oldest rock in England (dating from the Cryogenian period, at around 680 million years old) and extend for 8 miles (13 km) through two West Midlands counties (Worcestershire and Herefordshire) as well as northern Gloucestershire in the southwest. The highest point of the hills is the Worcestershire Beacon at 425 m (1,394 ft) above sea level (OS Grid reference SO768452).
The Cotswolds – designated an AONB in 1966. – extend for over 90 miles (140 km) through Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Somerset, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire. They reach a highest point of 330 m (1,082 ft) at Cleeve Hill.
Areas of lower hills, in the range 200 m (600 ft) - 300 m (1000 ft), include Charnwood Forest in Leicestershire, Cannock Chase in Staffordshire, and the Lincolnshire Wolds (100 m (300 ft) - 200 m (600 ft)); the latter having some prominence despite their modest altitude given their location in typically low-lying Lincolnshire near to the east coast.
Lincolnshire is the only coastal county in the Midlands as the region is bordered by Wales to the west. It is also where the Midlands' lowest points can be found as some places fall below sea level, with the lowest points being near Thorpe Tilney in North Kesteven and Stickford in East Lindsey.
|
| Highest Peak: |
Twyn Llech, 703 meters |
| Lowest Valley: |
North Kesteven, 0 meters |
| Climate: |
The Midlands has a temperate maritime climate, with cold, cloudy, wet winters and comfortable, mostly dry, mostly sunny summers. The temperature usually ranges from −0.4 °C (31.3 °F) during winter nights to 24.1 °C (75.4 °F) during summer days. Due to its geographical location, which is furthest away from the coast than anywhere else in England, it typically receives mostly light winds, with warm days and cold nights. Sometimes the Midlands can have very cold nights such as a minimum of −18.7 °C (−1.7 °F) in Pershore on 20 December 2010. The previous day had a maximum of only −8.2 °C (17.2 °F), also in Pershore. Hot days are also possible, such as a maximum of 34 °C (93 °F) in Pershore on 19 July 2006. There can also be very mild winters nights, such as in Bidford-on-Avon when the temperature at 6 pm was as high as 15.2 °C (59.4 °F) on 9 January 2015. At 8 am the following morning the temperature was still at 13 °C (55 °F). Both the highest and lowest temperature ever recorded in England were in the Midlands, the former on 19 July 2022 around Coningsby in Lincolnshire where it reached a maximum temperature of 40.3 °C (104.5 °F),[21] and the latter on 10 January 1982 around Newport in Shropshire where it dropped to a minimum of −26.1 °C (−15.0 °F).
|
| People & Society |
| Population: |
5,139,040 people |
| Demonym: |
Mercian |
| Demonym Plural: |
Mercians |
| Ethnic Groups: |
Saxons - 87.5%
Britons - 9.5%
Norse - 3.0% |
| Languages: |
Mercian Old English - 95.0%
Latin - 23.7%
Norse - 3.8% |
| Religions: |
Christianity - 78.4%
Paganism - 19.5%
Norse - 2.1% |
| Health |
| Life Expectancy: |
32 years |
| Obesity: |
1.7% |
| Alcohol Users: |
98.6% |
| Tobacco Users: |
0% |
| Cannabis Users: |
0% |
| Hard Drug Users: |
0% |
| Economy |
| Description: |
In 716, Aethelbald became King of Mercia, inheriting overlordship of Middlesex, Surrey and the Hwicce. Expansion under himself and his successors, Offa and Cenwulf, resulted in Mercia gaining overlordship over Sussex, Kent, East Anglia and, to a varying extent, Wessex. This political hegemony has been referred to as the ‘Mercian Supremacy’, and allowed the three rulers of the period to achieve real change in Southumbrian Britain. The economic effects of this included wider trade, both domestic and foreign.
Mercia engaged more seriously in continental trade than any other English kingdom of its day, and this trade grew throughout the eighth century. Coin finds reveal strong trade links with Frisia. Around 350 coins have been found in a hoard at Aston Rowant, Oxfordshire, from c710, roughly three-quarters of which were from the Rhineland. John Blair argues that this likely indicates Frisian merchants sailing up the Thames to trade directly in the Mercian heartland, likely seeking the raw materials deposited there, such as salt at Droitwich or iron from the Forest of Dean. David Hinton tells us that a series of ‘sceattas’ (in use from c680 to c760) have been found in the Low Countries, the Rhineland and Denmark. These reciprocal finds attest to mutual trade between Mercia and the continent in the first half of the century, and the volume of coins at Aston Rowant implies that this was on a significant scale.
There is also evidence of Offa’s trading with Francia. Frankish coins have been found in the core of the Mercian kingdom, including a silver denier of Pippin the Short (Frankish king 751-68). The coin was minted at Verdun: Hinton speculates that, since Verdun was a slave-trading hub, Offa may have traded Frankish slaves in exchange for, probably, raw materials. Charlemagne’s letter to Offa in 796 sheds further light: it allows English merchants the protection of Frankish law when in Charlemagne’s territory, and expects the reverse to apply in Offa’s lands. This shows that Mercian trade with Francia was significant enough to warrant an informal treaty on the subject and that it was of enough value to warrant legal arrangements to secure it.
However, Hinton notes that Mercia was less successful trading with Francia: despite what they can tell us, coins finds such as that at Repton are rare, even at emporia such as Southampton where imports from Francia presumably arrived, which implies a trade deficit against Mercia. Additionally, Charlemagne and Offa imposed mutual embargos when negotiations for a marriage between the two families failed, thus limiting the economic impact of Frankish trade. Even so, this indicates that the volume of trade was significant enough for an embargo to be a worthwhile sanction (trade had clearly been restored by the time of Charlemagne’s letter in 796), and the Mercian economy was evidently strong enough by the 780s to withstand an embargo. Thus, foreign trade was largely a success under Mercian kingship at this time. However, it is unclear the extent to which this was a royal achievement: the evidence makes it possible, if not probable, that it was enterprising merchants who established these connections, and kings later harnessed this trade once it was significant. This, combined with some evidence that royal intervention could be harmful, as in the case of Offa and Charlemagne, limits its significance as a royal achievement.
The Mercian kings of this period had real success in developing and harnessing domestic trade. This is most clearly indicated by coinage. Hinton’s analysis shows that many coin hoards have been found near transport routes: the aforementioned Aston Rowant, for example, lay near the Icknield Way, while ‘sceattas’ have been found near the Thames in Oxfordshire. This implies that both routes carried domestic trade: Blair posits that raw materials, wool and slaves from Mercia were transported to the emporia at London (via the Thames) and Ipswich (via the east-west Icknield Way). That the evidence for trade here is coinage demonstrates that Mercian kings were able to harness this trade, since John Campbell notes that Mercian kings likely took a cut from the minting of coins. Offa reformed the coinage of the realm early in his reign, producing new, uniform, silver coins with the king’s inscription. Inscribed coins were novel in this period, although Offa was not quite the first to implement them; their use tells us that, by Offa’s time, Mercian kingship had successfully harnessed the monetary economy to an unusual extent. Nicholas Higham and Martin Ryan note that the number of mints seems to contract after c750 to just 6: it is difficult to believe that this occurred without royal oversight, again suggesting royal control. However, as Hinton has argued, coin finds are scarce post-750, presumably because the new pure silver coins were too valuable for ordinary people. Thus, Offa and his successors clearly controlled what monetary economy there was, but this may have been restricted to mercantile activity, rather than ordinary everyday transactions.
There is also evidence that kings used tolls to harness the growing trade. Aethelbald granted by charter in 733 a toll exemption for one ship at London for the church of Rochester. This implies that, in London at least, kings were taking tolls from ships. London was a developing emporium of foreign trade in the eighth century, so it seems probable that, by 733, Mercian kings had successfully harnessed this trade through the collection of tolls. The charter also refers to “kings or nobles or tax-gatherers” as those who might infringe the charter by tolling the ship; that there were tax-gatherers suggests an organised approach to royal control of trade. Thus, the control of trade through currency and tolls was a clear economic success of eighth-century Mercia.
Eighth-century Mercia achieved much economic change. Coin-based evidence suggests reciprocal trade with Northern Europe, and a significant volume of trade with Francia. However, it is clear that Mercia was the poorer relation in the latter partnership, and the origins of these changes may well lie in mercantile rather than royal achievements. The kings also controlled much of the monetary economy to a degree new to Anglo-Saxon England, shown by the evidence of coinage and royal tolls. However, the scope of this was likely restricted to long-distance trade, both domestic and foreign. The Mercian kings did, however, succeed in increasing the volume of trade they controlled, and the extent of control they exercised.
|
| Average Yearly Income: |
$187.80 |
| Gross Domestic Product (GDP): |
$10,423,764,667.00 |
| GDP per Capita: |
$2,028.35 |
| Gross National Income (GNI): |
$6,684,125,280.00 |
| Industries: |
Industries in Mercia that contribute to the economy include agriculture, hunting, tannery, fishing, trade, weapons production, and timber. |
| Military |
| History: |
A fyrd was a type of early Anglo-Saxon army that was mobilised from freemen or paid men to defend their Shire's lords estate, or from selected representatives to join a royal expedition. Service in the fyrd was usually of short duration and participants were expected to provide their own arms and provisions |
| Soldiers: |
0 |
| Tanks: |
0 |
| Aircraft: |
1,425 |
| Ships: |
0 |
| Missiles: |
1 |
| Nuclear Weapons: |
0 |
| Last Updated: 05/11/2024 01:21 pm |
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