A HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE 



His death was of great importance to Mercia, for it removed the great 

 obstacle to the spread of Christianity in the kingdom, which had already 

 begun in the marriage of Penda's son Paeda to Oswy's daughter. 



After the victory of the Winwaed Oswy was virtually master of Mercia. 

 His son-in-law Paeda was under-king of the portion of the kingdom south of 

 the Trent, but he apparently kept Northern Mercia in his own hands. 9 

 Paeda did not enjoy even this limited authority for long, as next year he was 

 murdered, and in 658 Oswy was expelled and Wulfhere reigned once more 

 over an independent Mercia. 



From the time of Wulfhere dates the bishopric of Lichfield. The 

 first three Mercian bishops had no cathedral, no 'sedes,' they were missionaries; 

 but St. Chad, the great bishop, whom Wilfrid recommended to Wulfhere, 

 fixed his head quarters, and built a small church and monastery near the 

 junction of Ryknield and Wading Streets in 669, 10 a centre which would 

 give him easy access in every direction into his province. 



The Mercian kings of the end of the seventh and the beginning of the 

 eighth century are not of great importance, and do not concern our county 

 history except that Ceolred, who died in 716, was buried at Lichfield, 11 but 

 from his death dates the period of the greatest glory of the kingdom under 

 the two long reigns of Ethelbald and Offa, when it seemed as if the consoli- 

 dation of England was to be worked out by Mercia instead of Wessex, and as 

 if Lichfield rather than Winchester or London would be the capital of 

 England. But Mercia at the end of Ethelbald's reign sustained a grievous 

 defeat at Burford at the hands of Wessex, and her supremacy over that 

 kingdom then apparently passed away for ever. 



His successor Offa, who reigned from 757 to 796, loomed more largely 

 in the eyes of his European contemporaries than any previous king in 

 Britain. Hadrian I, writing to Charles the Great, calls Offa ' rex Anglorum,' 

 and Charles himself, in his famous letter, writes as ' the king of the Eastern 

 Christians,' to the ' mightiest king of the Western Christians.' 



Offa, like many of the Mercian kings, was fond of the fertile valleys of 

 the Dove and the Trent ; indeed, it was in such districts that nearly all the 

 ancient towns that attained greatness were built, provided they also afforded 

 means of defence and commanded the country around. Tamworth enjoyed 

 all these advantages, and is called by Offa in a grant of land to Worcester 

 Cathedral, dated 781,' his royal palace.' 12 



Cenwulf, the successor of Offa, maintained the greatness of Mercia for a 

 time, but in 827 the kingdom had to submit to Egbert, and though retaining 

 her own kings, they were only under-kings who received their crowns from 

 their West Saxon overlords. 13 



The kings of Mercia, under the overlordship of Wessex, continued to 

 hold their Witans, and there is a record of one held at Tamworth in 840 by 

 Berhtwulf on Easter Day, but the business transacted there did not concern 

 Staffordshire. 1 * 



Between 872 and 875 the Vikings marched through Mercia, dethroned 

 Burhred, who retired to Rome, and set up a puppet Ceolwulf in his stead. 



Hodgkin, Political Hist, of Engl. i, 173. 10 Bede, Hist. Eccl. iv, 3. 



11 Henry of Huntingdon, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), in. " Birch, Cart. Sax. i, 334. 



11 Freeman, Norman Conq. (ed. 2), i, 40. " Birch, Cart. Sax. ii, 4-5. 



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