A HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE 



knowing her capacity allowed her the widest discretion, but not absolute 

 independence. 



In the midst of so much warfare it is pleasant to be able to turn for a 

 moment to a work of construction in which the creation of the county of 

 Stafford formed part. Mercia, during its existence as a kingdom, was 

 arranged in five regions, none of which bore the name of shire, one of them 

 being ' Mercia proper with its bishopric of Lichfield and its royal city of 

 Tamworth.' 23 These five regions represent the early settlements out of which 

 the Mercian kingdom was created by Penda and his immediate predecessors, 

 and which Theodore of Tarsus arranged as dioceses before their several 

 nationality had been forgotten. After the reconquest from the Danes they 

 were rearranged as shires and named after their chief towns by Edward the 

 Elder, 8 * and in this they differed from the counties of Wessex, which keep to 

 this day the names and boundaries of the principalities founded by the first 

 successors of Cerdic. 



In the year 924 Edward the Elder died and was succeeded by his son 

 Athelstan ' the glorious,' who, shortly after he came to the throne, had an 

 interview with Sihtric, the Danish king of the Northumbrians, at Tarn- 

 worth. 25 There Athelstan gave him his sister in marriage, in return for 

 which Sihtric probably promised to become a Christian, but he is said to 

 have repudiated both wife and religion before his death in the next year. 



Edmund his brother succeeded Athelstan in 940. 



In the first year of Edmund's reign Anlaf (Sihtric's son) after besieging Hamton without 

 result turned his army towards Tamworth, and having laid waste the surrounding country 

 met Edmund with his army. But there was no battle, for the two archbishops appeased 

 both kings and prevented it, and peace was accordingly made. 26 



This peace lasted about a year, for in 943 Anlaf ' took Tamworth by storm 

 and great slaughter was made on either side, and the Danes had the victory 

 and led away great booty with them.' 27 



On Edmund's approach, however, they retired to Leicester, and in 944 

 Anlaf was driven out of Northumbria and appears no more on the scene. 28 



In 957 England was divided between Edwy and Edgar, owing to the 

 dissatisfaction of the people with the former's misgovernment, and Mercia, 

 including of course Staffordshire, was again separated from Wessex and 

 given to Edgar, 29 but as Edwy died in 959 the arrangement was short-lived. 



In 987 the Danes commenced anew series of invasions, and Mercia was 

 ruled at this time by two men whose traitorous conduct is one of the puzzles 

 of our history, Elfric and Edric ' Streona,' who did their best to render the 

 resistance of England futile and the task of the Danes easy. 



Staffordshire, however, seems for some time to have escaped the terrible 

 ravages which the rest of the country now suffered, but in 1013 Edmund 

 Ironside and Uhtred of Northumbria ravaged Shropshire, Cheshire, and 

 Staffordshire, because those counties had refused to help them against the 

 Danes. 30 



* Stubbs, Const. Hist. (ed. 4), i, 123. " Ibid. 



" Angl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 85. M Symeon of Dur. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 93. 



" Angl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 89. * 8 Hodgkin, op. cit. i, 340. 



" Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 460. 



30 Freeman, Norman Cony. \, 415, and Roger of Hoveden, Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 80. 



22O 



