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The kingdom best remembered for Offa and his famous dyke was not only a dominant power on the island of Britain in the eighth century, but also a significant player in early medieval European politics and culture. Although the volume focuses on the eighth and ninth centuries when Mercian power was at its height, it also looks back to the origins of the kingdom and forward to the period of Viking settlement and West Saxon reconquest. With state-of-the-art contributions from experts in palaeography, art history, archaeology, numismatics and landscape - as well as from historians - this book establishes a new baseline for Mercian scholarship, by covering the rise and fall of the kingdom, its major institutions, relations with other political entities as well as its visual and material culture.
The extraordinary history of Mercia and its rulers from the seventh century to 1066. Once the supreme Anglo-Saxon kingdom, it was pivotal in the story of England.
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Anglo-Saxon Mercia was a great power in its day, although many aspects of it have been shrouded in myth and mystery. However, recent discoveries, such as the Staffordshire Hoard and the Lichfield Angel, have shone a fascinating light into the world of Mercia and the Mercians. In Warriors, Warlords and Saints: The Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Mercia, author John Hunt uses this evidence to paint a vivid picture of this political and cultural powerhouse which, at the height of its influence, ruled over much of England, and reached out across Europe into the Middle East. The Mercians themselves were complex. They were a force capable of both great violence and great art, fostering the embryonic English Church and yet fighting bloody wars with the rival kingdoms of Wessex, Northumbria and East Anglia. The story of the Mercians is integral to the story of Anglo-Saxon England, from the end of Roman rule to the Norman invasion. It was a land peopled by ruthless kings, great ladies, brave warriors and famous saints who lived at a vital and compelling time in English history with Mercia at its heart.
In England in the eighth century, in the midst of the so-called Dark Ages, Offa ruled Mercia, one of the strongest Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. For over 30 years he was the dominant warlord in the territory south of the Humber and the driving force behind the expansion of Mercias power. During that turbulent period he commanded Mercian armies in their struggle against the neighboring kingdoms of Northumbria and Wessex and against the Welsh tribes. Yet the true story of Offas long reign and of the rise and fall of Mercia are little known although this is one of the most intriguing episodes in this little-recorded phase of Englands past. It is Chris Peerss task in this new study to uncover the facts about Offa and the other Mercian kings and to set them in the context of English history before the coming of the Danes.
This pioneering book re-examines the events of the mid-eighth to the mid-tenth centuries to provide a completely fresh and more balanced account of the period.
In this the second part of his four-volume military and political history of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom, Paul Hill follows the careers of Æthelflæd, Alfred the Great’s eldest daughter, and Edward the Elder, Alfred’s eldest son, as they campaigned to expand their rule after Alfred’s death. They faced, as Alfred had done, the full force of Danish hostility during the early years of the tenth century, a period of unrelenting turbulence and open warfare. But through their military strength, in particular their strategy of fortress building, they retained their hold on the kingdom and conquered lands which had been under Danish lords for generations. Æthelflæd’s forces captured Derby and...
Anglo Saxon Mercia was a great power in its day, although many aspects of it have been shrouded in myth and mystery. However, recent discoveries, such as the Staffordshire Hoard and the Lichfield Angel, have shone a fascinating light into the world of Mercia and the Mercians. In Warriors, Warlords and Saints: The Anglo Saxon Kingdom of Mercia, author John Hunt uses this evidence to paint a vivid picture of this political and cultural powerhouse which, at the height of its influence, ruled over much of England, and reached out across Europe into the Middle East. The Mercians themselves were complex. They were a force capable of both great violence and great art, fostering the embryonic English Church and yet fighting bloody wars with the rival kingdoms of Wessex, Northumbria and East Anglia. The story of the Mercians is integral to the story of Anglo Saxon England, from the end of Roman rule to the Norman invasion. It was a land peopled by ruthless kings, great ladies, brave warriors and famous saints who lived at a vital and compelling time in English history with Mercia at its heart.
Papers from a Conference held in Manchester in 2000. Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies This volume presents 16 papers from the conference entitled " thelbald and Offa: Two Eighth Century Kings of Mercia" held in Manchester in 2000 at the Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies.
The Anglo-Saxon period stretches from the arrival of Germanic groups on British shores in the early 5th century to the Norman Conquest of 1066. During these centuries, the English language was used and written down for the first time, pagan populations were converted to Christianity, and the foundations of the kingdom of England were laid. This richly illustrated new book - which accompanies a landmark British Library exhibition - presents Anglo-Saxon England as the home of a highly sophisticated artistic and political culture, deeply connected with its continental neighbours. Leading specialists in early medieval history, literature and culture engage with the unique, original evidence from...