Heavenfield

I was listening* to Harry Potter recently and letting my mind wonder about where the story could go from its ending. So St Mungo’s hospital crept into these imaginations and it occurred to me how aptly named St Mungo’s is because you see in legend St Mungo treated Merlin’s madness. Perhaps I should back up a bit and explain…

First of all we need to get a little naming terminology straight. “Mungo” is the northern name for St Kentigern, patron saint of Glasgow. It means something like ‘my beloved’. Of course JK Rowling began writing the first Harry Potter novel in Edinburgh where Mungo/Kentigern lore also has a foundation. According to the legends of St Kentigern, he was the son of a daughter of Lot of Lothian and Owain Rheged (Bonedd y Sant), as I wrote about here. Edinburgh is the largest city in the district of Lothian.

The name Merlin also has a complicated history. As we know him today, Merlin is a creation of Geoffrey of Monmouth, who in his Life of Merlin linked his creation Merlin with Myrddin Wyllt of northern lore. In the Old Welsh ‘Dialogue of Myrddin and his sister Gwenddydd’ the equation of Myrddin Wyllt and Llallogan/Llallawc/Lailoken is made the most specific and the story lines dovetail to suggest that Lailoken may have been the original inspiration for Myrddin Wyllt/Merlin.

Now Myrddin Wyllt/Laioken is considered to be a half-mad prophet who stirs up trouble and can never seem to live among people for very long, preferring to live alone in the forest. The story of Myrddin Wyllt explains this as a product of watching or participating in the battle of Arfderydd where 3 or 7 of his brothers die; in effect he has post-traumatic stress syndrome.

“573: The battle of Arfderydd between the sons of Eliffer [Peredur and Gwrgi] and Gwenddolau son of Ceido; in which battle Gwenddolau fell; Merlin went mad” (Annals Cambriae)

The battle of Arfderydd is famous in Welsh lore (traids) for the length of the siege of Gwenddolau’s fortress; his warband is one of three most famous warbands in the triads for fighting on a fortnight after their lord was dead. Under such circumstances, it is likely to have been especially bloody. Ironically the victors, the sons of Eliffer of the Great Retinue, themselves died when they were abandoned by their own warband on the night before a battle with Ida (of Bernicia).

There are a variety of tales of Myrddin’s/Laioken’s prophecies which all of course come true. In the Life of Kentigern, Lailoken’s grief at the death of Kentigern causes him to prophesy of three other deaths within a year, King Rhydderch of Strathclyde, a chieftain Morthec, and his own. In multiple tales Myrddin/Lailoken gives a prophecy on his own triple death, usually by stabbing, drowning and hanging, and then tells how it happened. A version of this story prophesying the deaths of King Rhydderch and a local leader makes it into the last chapter of the Life of Kentigern by Joscelin of Furness. In Geoffrey’s Life of Merlin, several of Merlin’s adventures are similar to those of Kentigern in the Life of Kentigern, including Kentigern’s saving the honor of Rhydderch’s queen in his famous salmon miracle (reflected in the coat of arms of the city of Glasgow).

* My nephews passionately argue that listing to Harry Potter on tape (or now iPod) is cheating, but I assure them that I read plenty and don’t need to do it for practice. I find it a good mental diversion while doing boring chores… besides Jim Dale’s reading is marvelous.

**Apple trees are often linked to the otherworld or otherworldly figures in Celtic lore. In some poems of Myrddin, he sings his prophecy from up in an apple tree. Avalon means Isle of Apples.

Osfrith was the eldest son of Eadwine of Deira and Cwenburh, daughter of Ceorl of Mercia is today’s Person of the Week. He was born while Eadwine was in exile running from Æthelfrith of Bernicia. He returned to Deira with his father in c. 616.

Osfrith was baptized with King Eadwine on 12 April 627 in the hastily built chapel of York by Bishop Paulinus with the rest of his extended family. Before 633, Osfrith was married and had a son named Yffe. His son Yffe was born sometime between 627 and 633. He was baptized by Bishop Paulinus as an infant (but not with the rest of the family in 627).

Osfrith took part in Eadwine’s battles against King Cadwallon of Gwynedd. He was slain before his father in the battle of Hatfield Chase on 12 October 633.

After his death, Osfrith’s family fled to Kent with his stepmother Queen Æthelburgh, his minor siblings, and Bishop Paulinus. His stepmother Æthelburgh arranged for his son Yffe to be sent with her son young Uscfrea into fosterage with her cousin King Dagobert I of Austrasia, Neustria and Burgundy out of fear of her brother King Eadbald of Kent and King Oswald of Bernicia/Northumbria. Both boys died in childhood and were buried in a Frankish church.

Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Book II Chapters 14 & 20.

Œthelwald son of Oswald has always been a figure of controversy. Everything we know of him comes from Bede’s Ecclesiastical History. Beginning with Bede himself memories of Œthelwald have been viewed in slanted hindsight. Bede has his known biases for a united Northumbria (Bernicia + Deira), for which Œthelwald is a spoiler, and against Mercia in general and Penda in particular. We in turn too often share Bede’s biases and look back with a hindsight colored by not only Northumbria’s golden age but norms of later medieval expectations. We can not forget that a united Northumbria was not a real reality until the reign of Ecgfrith (670-685) and really only cemented in the long, peaceful reign of Aldfrith (685-704). I’ve discussed the process of Northumbrian ethnogensis before (here and especially here).

After a lot of thought, I don’t think that Œthelwald was anyone’s puppet. I don’t think he was ‘placed’ there by anyone. I do think that he was a compromise candidate whom both the Deiran nobles and Oswiu of Bernicia could live with. This suggests that the Deiran nobles had likewise accepted Oswald as King of Deira, as the nephew of Edwin. Oswald and his son Œthelwald were the grandson and great grandson of King Aelle, Edwin’s father. Oswiu on the other hand, had no Deiran blood that we know of; I have argued against his being the son of Acha sister of Edwin elsewhere. Oswiu shows every indication of taking direct control when he could, as he did in Mercia after Penda’s death and probably in Lothian early in his reign. The fact that he faced ‘rebellion’ by three successive kings of Deira– Oswine, Œthelwald and his own son Alchfrith– really suggests to me that the nobles/ealdormen of Deira really never accepted Oswiu has their king. After his son’s rebellion, Oswiu appears to have taken direct control over Deira for about only the last five years of his 28 year reign.

There have been some speculations about Œthelwald’s age and mother. If he was the son of Cynegils’ daughter then he would have only been about 17 when he became king in about 651, but I have argued elsewhere that it is quite possible that he was born during Oswald’s exile. Oswald was about 30 years old when he came home to Bernicia and could have easily had several children, as his brother Eanfrith already did and as Edwin had during his exile.

The one thing we do know for sure about Œthelwald is that he had close ties to the church of Lindisfarne, as we would expect for Oswald’s son. We know that the four brothers, Cedd, Cælin, Cynebill, and Chad were all closely tied to the church in Deira. Cælin was the personal priest of Œthelwald and his family and he mediated the donation of Lastingham to his brother Bishop Cedd. It is interesting that Bede claims that Œthelwald mainly came to know Cedd through his brother Caelin, since as a pupil of Aidan’s you would think that Œthelwald would have known him. Yet, Cedd had long been a missionary away from Bernicia and Deira, so it is possible that Oethelwald and Cedd had not known each other well before 651. I do think that is likely that the church of Lindisfarne helped Œthelwald come to the throne of Deira. They certainly could have helped the Deiran nobles contact Œthelwald if he was not in Deira before Oswine’s death (and I think it is unlikely he would have been an ally of Oswine, unless he had a major falling out with his uncle before 651). After Oswine’s murder and Aidan’s death heartbroken over Oswine, Lindisfarne would not have been very high on Oswiu or his sons, and supporting a son of Oswald would have seemed like the best option.

Anyway, Œthelwald is remembered diplomatically as the patron of Lastingham where he intended for himself and his family to be buried. The brothers of Lastingham must have stressed this to Bede for it to be included in the History. Bede doesn’t tell us where Œthelwald was buried but it is possible that some of his family was indeed buried at Lastingham. The stress on Œthelwald’s family does suggest that he was old enough to have a family. Alternatively it could just be Lastingham’s way of stressing that they would have been a major monastery for this king, as York was for Edwin, Whitby was Oswiu & Edwin, Wearmouth-Jarrow was for Ecgfrith, and probably Lindisfarne for Oswald (and Aldfrith?).

The last we hear of Œthelwald is during Penda’s last campaign into Bernicia in the fall of 655. Bede tells us that Œthelwald had acted a guide for Penda’s army into Bernicia and later refused to take part in the battle of Winwæd on November 15th, 655. For this Bede branded him a traitor, a claim surely influenced by Bede’s desire to project a united Northumbria. Accompanying Penda’s army into Bernicia would likely have been enough for a Bernician patriot to consider him a traitor, though it is perhaps hard to see how he could have refused Penda. It would have been suicide for a single king to have stood in the way of Penda’s army. We already knew from Oswine’s encounter with Oswiu that Deira did not have an imposing enough army to stand up to Oswiu’s forces, so it is unlikely that they could have faired better against Penda’s massive Southumbrian-British coalition. His decision to pull his army out of the fray at Winwæd may speak as much to the the shock of Oswiu’s attack as anything else. Was it a moment of indecision or had Penda’s alliance begun to fray enough that he would not side with him? Penda’s army must have still been very formidable for Œthelwald not to try to switch sides and fight for his uncle. It also tells us that Œthelwald may have been unwilling to fight against his own kinsmen (as Æthelhere of East Anglia probably did against his brother Anna). Bede tells us that the river in flood was a major factor in Oswiu’s victory as Mercians and their allies drowned trying to escape and we might also guess that an early death of Penda may have contributed to the loss. If the dominant king of a grand army was killed early, then military discipline probably would have fell as each unit would only then be concerned about its escape.

Œthelwald’s fate is left unknown. We don’t hear that he was executed, as Lastingham might have remembered. I doubt they would have been ashamed of another Deiran king who died for not fighting like Oswine. Indeed, it would have further vilified Oswiu in line with Deiran sympathies. It seems likely to me that Iona would have recorded Œthelwald’s death if it had occurred at Winwæd, as they recorded Penda’s death (Annals of Ulster). I tend to think that not hearing anything about his fate may mean that he was exiled. The mysterious fates of King Oswiu’s nephew Oethelwald and his son Alchfrith, who also disappears after a rebellion, are certainly two on my list of ‘things I would like to know’!

Æthelhere of East Anglia is an interesting figure. He was the brother and successor of King Anna son of Enni. He had a one year reign from c. 654 to November 655, when Bede specifically says that he died at the battle of Winwæd.

“The battle was joined and the heathen were put to flight or destroyed; of the thirty royal ealdormen who had come to Penda’s help nearly all were killed. Among them was Æthelhere, brother and successor to Anna, king of the East Angles and the cause of the war; he was cut down, having suffered the loss of all his thegns and followers. The battle was fought near the river Winwæd, which owing to heavy rains, had overflowed its channels and its banks to such an extent that many more were drowned in flight than were destroyed by the sword in battle.” (HE III.24, McClure & Collins, 1994:150)

This translation crediting the cause of the war to Æthelhere has been challenged. McClure and Collins (1994: 396) note that Prestwich saw it as beginning a new sentence and referring to Penda. This really doesn’t make sense though. Penda was clearly the leader of his forces, why go on to state that he was the ‘author of the war’? It has been noted elsewhere that Bede doesn’t give Penda the usual regnal summary or even specifically say that he died in the battle. This ambiguity makes Prestwich’s reading more tempting. However, the Liber Eliensis specifically contradicts this; it specifically says that Æthelhere instigated the war. “Amongst the slain was the very person who instigated the war, Æthelhere, the brother of Anna, king of East Angles, who became ruler in succession of him.” From this is it clear that the author of the LE read his copy of Bede’s History in such a way to make his own East Anglian king the cause or instigator of the war. So even in an East Anglian royal monastery there was no tradition to contradict this interpretation.

It seems very likely that Penda’s campaign into Northumbria in 655 was directly related to his war against Anna of East Anglia. Æthelhere would not be the first royal brother to turn to a traditional enemy to assist him in coming to the throne. His successor Æthelwold was a supporter of Lindisfarne’s missionaries, Bishop Cedd among the East Saxons. Æthelwold stood as godfather to King Swithelm of Essex, as his brother Anna had stood as godfather to Cenwealh of Wessex. It is unclear who baptized Cenwealh, uncharacteristically Bede doesn’t tell us. The Liber Eliensis claims that he was baptized, not surprisingly, by Bishop Felix who had come to East Anglia when Sigiberht returned from exile. Archbishop Honorius of Canterbury ordained a Bishop Berhtgisl (Boniface) of Kent for East Anglia before his death in September 653 (Bede, HE III:20), a year before the death of King Anna. McClure and Collins note that he remains bishop of East Anglia until 670. Experiencing a king who was willing to ally himself with pagan king Penda in a grab for power may have made Berhtgisl much more willing to cooperate with Lindisfarne if that alliance brought stability.

Anyway, it is clear that there was a close alliance between Bernicia and East Anglia before and after the death of King Anna. The strength of an alliance with King Anna is surely what made Æthelthryth an attractive bride for the much younger prince Ecgfrith. Æthelthryth and Ecgfrith were married in c. 661, during King Æthelwold’s reign (655-663) when Ecgfrith was only 15; presumably the marriage took place as soon as he was deemed old enough. Æthelwold was succeeded by his nephew Ealdwulf who reigned for nearly two generations (663-713). The succession of a nephew whose father had never been king (that we know of) might suggest that pleasing Northumbria was a factor in his succession. As the nephew of St Hild, he was also a matrilineal cousin of Queen Eanflaed of Northumbria. The year after Ealdwulf succeeded, King Oswiu of Northumbria took part in nominating the next Archbishop of Canterbury. Such close ties between Northumbria and East Anglia may explain the lengths that Mercian kings Æthelbald and Offa went to secure their hegemony over East Anglia in the next century.

Penda’s last campaign against Northumbria is one of the few scenes in Bede’s History where we can see Northumbrian propaganda exposed. At Penda’s siege of Oswiu in 655, Bede reports that Oswiu tried to offer a couple bribes to get out of the situation, first to Penda and then to God. Lets look at what Bede actually says:

“At length dire need compelled him to offer Penda an incalculable quantity of regalia and presents as a price of peace, on condition that he returned home and ceased his ruinous devastation of the provinces of his kingdom. But the treacherous king refused to consider his offer, and declared his intention of wiping out the entire nation from the highest to the humblest in the land. Accordingly Oswy turned for help to the mercy of God, who alone could save the land from its barbarous and godless enemy; and he bound himself with an oath, saying:’If the heathen refuses to accept our gifts, let us offer them to God.’ So he vowed that, if victorious, he would offer his daughter to God as a consecrated virgin and give twelve estates to build monasteries.” (Bede, Historia III:24, Farmer ed, p. 183)

It goes on to narrate Oswiu’s victory over Penda in the battle of Winwaed. Now the Historia Brittonum gives a different, garbled version.

“He slew Penda in the field of Gai, and now took place the slaughter of Gai Campi, and the kings of the Britons, who went out with Penda on the expedition as far as the city of Judeu*, were slain.

65. Then Oswy restored all the wealth, which was with him in the city, to Penda; who distributed it among the kings of the Britons, that is, Atbert Judeu. [Redistribution of Iudeu/Stirling] But Catgabail alone, king of Guenedot, rising up in the night, escaped together with his army, wherefore he was called Catgabail Catguommed. [Cadafael Battle Shierker)” (Historia Brittonum)

Ok, so the Historia Brittonum version is very garbled. I think this is mostly because the separate paragraphs have been copied/written to each make a separate point and there was little regard for putting them in the correct order. Paragraph 64 is a summary of Oswiu’s reign and it concludes with his victory over Penda and the slaughter of the British kings with Penda. That is fitting as it was Oswiu’s greatest achievement and responsible for all that followed after it.

I think the Cadafael paragraph is included so that King Merfyn (c. 825) could trash a rival as a battle shierker (Catguommed); it a pun on his name which means Battle-Prince (Cadafael) Battle Shirker (Catguommed) — sort of like Aethelred the Unred. I actually doubt that Cadafael abandoned Penda before a pending battle. Winwaed is usually placed somewhere in Elmet, and the Roman road toward Wales would have branched off before then, so it would have been natural for an army from Gwynedd to take the road over the mountains toward Chester rather than going down through the lowlands. Some of the lessor British warlords/’kings’ from say Powys may on the other hand have wished to stay with Penda as long as possible because they needed his support.

Normally, Bede’s version would trump all other versions, particularly from a text like the Historia Brittonum, but I just don’t buy it — the idea that Oswiu offered wealth turned down by Penda to God. It comes down to a couple of fundamental things:

1. You don’t crow about loot you don’t get! The Britons are bragging about the spoils they brought home. Note that Cadafael of Gwynedd and his army escaped from the battle and presumably brought their share of the loot home.
2. We are talking about completely different types of loot. Penda is being offered portable loot — gold, silver, jewels, and perhaps other portables as well, like livestock and slaves. Oswiu offers to God what Penda can’t carry away — land and his daughter (only if he defeats Penda). Livestock and slaves might have been just what slowed Penda’s army down enough that Oswiu could raise his army and catch up with them before they were inside Mercia.
3. The Annals Cambriae lists the death of Penda in 657 and in 658 “Oswy came and took plunder”. It could be that Oswy is just punishing the Britons for being allied with Penda (although he isn’t recorded as punishing other kings who came with Penda), or he could be trying to reclaim some or all of the loot that the Britons got home with. Reclaiming loot is particularly attractive if some of it had symbolic meaning.

Lets stop and consider what kind of immense loot Oswiu would have had to offer. Bamburgh and its kings had the accumulated wealth of kings Æthelfrith, Edwin, Cadwallon and Oswald. Æthelfrith, Edwin and Oswald had fallen on campaign away from home, so there was some hope that their wealth was passively taken by their successor. Cadwallon who had killed Edwin and taken Deira was killed by Oswald far from home and so Oswald likely reclaimed most of the Deiran wealth Cadwallon had taken from his camp. However, Aethelfrith, Edwin, and Cadwallon’s wealth had been immediately redistributed, Oswald had the ability by succession or conquest to collect it all at Bamburgh. Bede (HE III:16,17) also tells us that Penda had tried to capture Bamburgh rock before 651. Anglo-Saxons normally didn’t besiege fortresses, preferring open field battles. Consequently, Penda was unsuccessful in both the siege of Bamburgh in c. 650 and of Stirling in 655. Could Penda have been so persistent at trying to take the fortresses of Bernicia because they contained fabled wealth?

Getting back to Oswiu’s bribes, I don’t see any reason why Oswiu could not have tried both bribes. Paying off Penda to get him to leave and then not being able to stand the shame of it, mounting a rash attempt to catch up to Penda on his way home and ambush him. His offer to God stiffened his nerve to make such a rash assault. I’m sure afterwards Oswiu was convinced that had been God on his side; on paper it was a foolish attempt to take on Penda’s mighty army. Oethelwald’s refusal to take part in the battle, the early break up of Penda’s army, the flood swollen river, all turned in Oswiu’s favor and so he survived and died in his bed, an old man, undefeated.

As a side note, one of those 12 estates offered to God would have almost certainly been Whitby….so this story would have been preserved as part of Whitby’s foundation legend.

*Judeu/Iudeu has been identified with the site of Stirling castle. The city of Urbs Guidi may also be the same site. The evolution of the castle of Stirling has obliterated any early medieval archaeology that presumably lies under the current castle.

We often talk about how easy and bloodless the conversion of England was, and yet it seems to me that we ignore some pretty obvious royal martyrs. It is true that we don’t know of any missionaries who were martyred while at work, such as the Hewalds among the Old Saxons or Boniface among the Frisians. Yet, if we define a martyr as someone who dies because of his or her Christian actions then we have several royal martyrs. And if we have so many royal martyrs, how many regular folks must have been murdered/martyred for their beliefs?

Royal martyrs to about the year 869 when St Edmund of East Anglia (whose feast day is today) dies: (some of the names below are links)

• King Eorpwald of East Anglia (c. 633): killed by a heathen Ricberht; he kept Christianity out of the kingdom for three years until the kingdom was taken back by Eorpwald’s brother Sigibert.
• King Sigiberht of East Anglia (c. 640s): Died in battle because he had taken the vows of a monk and refused to carry a weapon.
• King Oswald of Bernicia and Deira (5 Aug 642): died defending his kingdom and therefore the kingdom of Christ he built therein. Considered a martyr early.
• King Oswine of Deira (15 Aug 651): executed for refusing to fight a battle he was doomed to loose. Questionable martyr, early records just call it an unjust murder. Veneration of Oswine does not seem to begin until his body was rediscovered by Earl Tostig in c. 1065.
• King Anna of East Anglia (c. 653): died in battle against pagan Penda of Mercia, the same king who slew Oswald of Bernicia and Deira. Bede talks about King Anna being very pious and the Addendum on Foillian calls him the “Divine Right Hand of God”. The Addendum specifically talks about him defending monasteries from Penda’s destruction, making him as much of a martyr as Oswald. There is some evidence of local veneration but it may have been wiped out during the Danish invasions.
• King Peada of South Mercia and Middle Anglia (656): Murdered with the help of his wife, Queen Alhflæd, daughter of King Oswiu of Northumbria “during the very time of the Easter festival.” Questionable martyr but we know very little about his death or Mercia during this period.
• King Sigiberht the Saint of East Saxons (c. 660s): Sigibert was murdered by two of his kinsmen. “When they were asked why they did it, they could make no reply except that they were angry with the king and hated him because he was too ready to pardon his enemies, calmly forgiving them for the wrongs they had done him, as soon as they asked his pardon. Such was the crime for which he met his death, that he had devoutly observed the gospel precepts.” (Bede, HE III:22)
• Princes Æthelred and Æthelberht of Kent (669): Murdered and considered saints immediately. Minister-in-Thanet was given to their sister Eormenburgh, wife of King Merewealh of the Magonsæte, as a blood price for their deaths. St. Mildrith was Eormenburgh and Merewealh’s daughter.
• Queen Osthryth of Mercia (697): Murdered by her own thanes; considered a saint at Bardney. Too little is known about her veneration to know if her murder was part of the reason for her veneration or if she was a founder saint due to her support of Bardney.
• King Ælfwald I of Northumbria (788): Murdered, considered a saint almost immediately.
  
• King Æthelberht II of East Anglia (794): Murdered by Offa of Mercia, considered a saint almost immediately. He is the patron saint of Hereford Cathedral.
• King Kenelm of Merica (811): Murdered at about age 25 and considered a martyr almost immediately. His legend has warped to such a degree there is no certainty on the facts of his death.
• King Edmund of East Anglia (869): Tortured and murdered by the Danes after being defeated in battle; considered a martyr and saint almost immediately. Unlike a recent History Channel episode (Barbarians II), there is no evidence that I know of that Edmund got the ‘bloody eagle’. This is another elaboration of the myth. The most common story of his martyrdom has him shot full of arrows like St. Sebastian.

Of course not all kings who met violent deaths are listed here. Edwin of Deira is a notable absence because he died at the hands of a Christian, Cadwallon of Gywnedd, in battle. Whatever the ultimate cause of Cadwallon’s ‘rebellion’ it is unlikely to have been due to Edwin’s Christianity or his bishop’s authority. There is no real evidence that Paulinus of York tried to take control of British churches. For the first couple Christian centuries many, if not most, kings died violent deaths, so this is not a matter of just being a violent death.

So what made some of these kings major saints, and others were nearly forgotten? The early spreading of veneration is of course a major boon to a burgeoning cult. If the veneration had spread west, as it did for Oswald, Æthelberht of East Anglia, and Edmund of East Anglia, then it is more likely to have survived Danelaw. But even before Danelaw there are some obvious differences. King Sigibert the Saint of Essex is a good example. Bede goes out of his way to show that Sigiberht is a saint, in obvious contradiction to the information he got that tried to claim that Sigiberht’s death was because he defied Bishop Cedd’s orders not to visit kinsmen who had made a marriage that the bishop did not approve. Bishop Cedd’s attitudes to royal saints are a vital piece of the puzzle and Lindisfarne in particular did not venerate royalty. Oswald became a saint in spite of Lindisfarne’s attitude. Recognition of martyrdom is very much in the eyes of the beholder and we are certainly influenced by our attitudes toward martyrdom when we evaluate the past.

For more information:

Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People. McClure and Collins, eds. Oxford UP, 1994.

Today is the anniversary of the battle of Winwæd near Leeds (15 Nov 655), where Penda of Mercia, the last great pagan Anglo-Saxon king, fell. It is a great tale that deserved to be told in heroic verse, but it wasn’t. The only clues to heroic legends on Penda’s last campaign come from the Welsh Historia Brittonum.

King and Kingdom Inseparable

Penda of Mercia was the ethnogenic figure for Mercia. In him, the origins and history of Mercia begin. Yes, Bede does record one previous Mercian king, Edwin’s father in law Ceorl, but the Mercians themselves considered their history to begin with Penda about a generation later. It is with Penda that all Mercian king lists begin. His lineage is the oldest Mercian royal geneaology. Most striking of all, the Historia Brittonum declares that Penda was the first to separate Mercia from northern English control.

In Penda all three ethnogenesis criteria are met, though not in the usual order or manner. Penda’s hegemony and family provide the Mercians with a common history and royal ancestry. All later Mercian territory could look back to a period when they were under Penda’s hegemony if not direct conquest. His victory at the battle of Maserfelth on 5 August 642 where Oswald of Northumbria was slain separated Mercia from northern English rule. He gave them their first real independence and was the first Mercian to have hegemonic power. It was the first recorded Mercian defeat of a traditional enemy. His death in the battle of Winwæd brought on Mercian conversion under the power of his slayer King Oswiu of Northumbria. Converting under the domination of a foreign power prevented the Mercians from having conversion as part of their national story. Mercian support of veneration for St. Oswald at Bardney, slain by Penda at Maserfelth, provided the Mercians with a royal saint and role model for their conversion, even if he was Northumbrian. Offa of Mercia was particularly generous to Oswald’s shrine at Bardney.

Penda the Man

Can we say anything about Penda the man? Yes, actually we can because Bede inadvertently tells us quite a bit about his character, and as do British sources.

“Now King Penda did not forbid the preaching of the Word, even in his own Mercian kingdom, if any wished to hear it. But he hated and despised those who, after they had accepted the Christian faith, were clearly lacking in works of faith. He said that they were despicable and wretched creatures who scorned to obey the God in whom they believed. All this started two years before Penda’s death.” (HE III:21, McClure & Collins, 1994:145)

So we know that Penda was a man of his convictions and hated hypocrites. Of course, Penda may have been giving his people specifically unsavory challenges to their faith. This also may indicate that there were missionaries in Mercia before those who accompanied his son Peada back to Middle Anglia. It is quite possible that some of those missionaries were British.

This brings us to the second facet of Penda’s character. He was willing and successful at making multi-ethnic, specifically British-English relationships. This also speaks to his toleration of Christianity because the Britons were overwhelmingly Christian. The first time Bede mentions Penda he is the junior partner of Cadwallon, King of Britons, where…

“A fierce battle was fought on the plain of Hatfield Chase on 12 October in the year of our Lord 633…In this war too, one of the sons, Osfrith, a warlike youth, fell before him while the other, Eadfrith, was compelled to desert to King Penda; the latter, in spite of an oath, afterwards murdered him, during the reign of Oswald.” (HE II:20, McClure & Collins, 1994:105)

We don’t know under what conditions the “deserter” Eadfrith was executed under but we can imagine that shortly after the death of Cadwallon and the rise of Oswald son of Aethelfrith that the Eadfrith was on the loosing end of a cost-benefit analysis. Regardless of what happened to Eadfrith, grandson of Coerl of Mercia, Penda’s close relationship with the Britons continues throughout his reign.

Bede tells us that for his final campaign into Northumbria Penda raised an army of 30 royal ealdormen including King Aethelhere, brother and successor of Anna, King of East Anglia, the cause of the war. He also had at least the men of Gwynedd [North Wales] and according to poetry some of the warlords of Powys.

“[64.] He[Oswiu] slew Penda in the field of Gai, and now took place the slaughter of Gai Campi, and the kings of the Britons, who went out with Penda on the expedition as far as the city of Judeu [Iudeu/Stirling], were slain.

[65.] Then Oswy restored all the wealth, which was with him in the city, to Penda; who distributed it among the kings of the Britons, that is, Atbert Judeu. [Redistribution of Iudeu/Stirling] But Catgabail alone, king of Guenedot[Gwynedd], rising up in the night, escaped together with his army, wherefore he was called Catgabail Catguommed [Battle Shirker].” (Historia Brittonum, Chapters 64b & 65a)

The translation of the online version of the HB used here leaves much to be desired but it is a rather confused passage. I believe that chapters 64 and 65 (here only shown in part) are each included in this very choppy history to make different points and the author didn’t really care about reconciling them. Nevertheless, it is explicit that Britons were slain fighting beside Penda and Cadafael (Catgabail), King of Gwynedd (probably Cadwallon’s successor) was ridiculed for leaving Penda before the battle of Winwaed/Campus Gai. In short, the Britons supported Penda and he respected them enough for Cadafael to leave his army without a fight, ie. Cadafael was not compelled by threat to be there. I think that it is possible that some parts of western Mercia became part of Penda’s kingdom peacefully. There are no battles recorded between Penda or his sons and the Britons. The Magonsæte and Wreconsæte may have come peacefully. Penda’s son Merewealh and his sons may have been instrumental in the Magonsæte’s gradual, peaceful annexation into Mercia. Of course, that doesn’t mean that later Welsh kings didn’t try to take it back.

Penda’s views on the British and Christianity have to be balanced with his reputation as a warrior king. He is also credited with killing more kings than any other in his age. He killed or took part in the deaths of Edwin of Deira in 633, (Osric and Eanfrith in 634?), Oswald of Bernicia/Northumbria in 642, Sigibert and Ecgric of East Anglia in c. 640-2, and Anna of East Anglia in c. 654. In addition to the execution of Eadfrith of Deira and driving Cenwealh of Wessex into exile. Cenwealh’s father and Oswald’s father in law, Cyngisl of Wessex dies in 642 as well, but we don’t know of what cause. Bede’s History and the ‘Nevelles Supplement to the Vita Fursei concerning Follian’ (written c. 650) both make it clear that Penda was willing to destroy Christian churches and monasteries during his campaigns against their kingdoms. The display he makes of Oswald’s corpse suggests that Penda may have been offering these dead Christian kings to his gods.

In Penda, we have a much more complicated figure than Bede’s History portrays. He also deserves much more scholarly attention.

Further reading:

Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People, McClure and Collins eds, Colgrave trans, 1994, Oxford UP.

Ziegler, Michelle (2006) “Through His Enemy’s Eyes: St Oswald in the Historia Brittonum.” The Heroic Age, Issue 9.

Pretty, Kate (1989) ‘Defining the Magonsæte’ p. 171-183; In: The Origins of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms. S. Bassett editor.

Gelling, Margaret. ( 1989) ‘The Early History of Western Mercia’ p. 184-201; In: The Origins of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms. S. Bassett editor.

Hart, Cyril. (1977) ‘The Kingdom of Mercia’, p. 43-62; In: Mercian Studies Ed. Ann Dornier, Leicaster University Press.

Paul Fouracre and Richard Gerberding, eds. (1996) Late Merovingian France: History and Hagiography 640-720. Manchester UP. (for translation of Follian Addendum)