On 29th July 796 AD King Offa of Mercia died. This was the man who caused to be built the eponymous Dyke, who corresponded with Charlemagne, who issued international currency and who was acknowledged as Bretwalda, the High King. His wife Cynethryth was the only Anglo-Saxon Queen known to issue her own coinage.

Offa came to the throne following the death of his cousin Athelbald, who was killed by his own men in 755 AD, and after driving out Beornred who had briefly tried to take the throne which resulted in a civil war in the kingdom.  According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle:

“Athelbald, king of the Mercians, was slain at Segeswalde [Secklington], and his corpse was taken to Repton and there buried. His kingdom was usurped by the tyrant Beornred, who held it for a short time with neither peace nor comfort, and then lost his throne and life  together. Beornred was succeeded in the kingdom by Offa, grandson of a cousin of Athelbald, king of the Mercians.”

A later continuation of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History notes

“where he was treacherously murdered at night by his own bodyguards.”

Offa was the son of Thingfrith, who was the son of Eanulf. He was supposedly descended from Eowa, the brother of King Penda of Mercia.

Offa had to rebuild his kingdom from the chaos, including re-establishing control over the Hwicce and Magonsate (West Midlands), Lindsey (East) and the Middle Angles.

He quickly asserted control over London in order to support his commercial interests and issued new coinage from there to emphasise his power. In the 760s he took Kent and followed by Sussex in 771 AD. He fought against a Kentish uprising in 776 AD at Otford but had recovered the south-east of England by 785 AD.

However, he did not have the support of Janberht, Archbishop of Canterbury (see 12^th August), which would have caused him difficulties. Nevertheless he patronised a number of monasteries across his kingdom, such as Medeshamstede and Crowland, and founded others or took control of existing houses. His conflict with Janberht resulted in him persuading the Pope to allow special privileges including the creation of a new Archbishopric at Lichfield.

Although his commercial activities would have been welcome to many, the Church saw him as interfering and overstepping the boundaries between Church and state. The Synod at Chelsea in 787 AD, which saw the establishment of the See of Lichfield, was known as the “contentious synod.” Roger of Wendover tells us what happened:

“Pope Adrian sent legates into Britain to renew the faith which Augustine had preached. They were honourably received by the kings with the clergy and people, and reared a fair structure on the firm foundation of the faith, the grace of Christ co-operating with them.

They held a council at Chalchuthe, when Jainbert, archbishop of Canterbury, resigned a portion of his episcopal jurisdiction to the archbishop of Lichfield. In that council also, Offa, the most potent king of the Mercians, caused his eldest son Egfrid to be solemnly crowned king; he was a pious and noble-minded youth, and reigned from that time conjointly with his father unto the end of the latter’s life.”

Furthermore, under his religious programme Offa founded St Albans Abbey, probably in the early 790s. Roger of Wendover goes into great details about how Offa had a vision which led him to disinter Alban, and then go to Rome to arrange the canonisation of Alban and to obtain papal blessing for the foundation of the Abbey. Possibly Offa wished to promote the cult of a saint to rival that of Augustine at Canterbury. Offa is also one of the possible founders (another candidate is Ine of Wessex) of the Schola Saxonum in Rome.

His relationships with other independent kingdoms varied. He married his daughters strategically, to Wessex and Northumbria. Wessex probably submitted to him as a sub-king after the death of Cynewulf, but there is no record that Northumbria did the same.

King Alfred’s biographer, the Welshman Asser, tells us that “a certain vigorous king called Offa … had a great dyke built between Wales and Mercia from sea to sea.” The attribution is supported by name evidence, although the length is now thought to be “only” 103 km. It was an impressive project requiring significant resources and control to build. Offa also constructed a number of burhs which were taken up and developed further by Alfred over a century later. It is not thought they were planned as strategically as Alfred’s nor that Offa understood their commercial opportunities.

In 792 AD he was supposed to have assassinated Athelberht of East Anglia, his son-in-law, at the instigation of his queen. Roger of Wendover embellishes magnificently in his chronicle:

“At the same time, Athelbert, king of the East-Angles, son of king Ethelred, left his territories, much against his mother’s remonstrances, and came to Offa, the most potent king of the Mercians, beseeching him to give him his daughter in marriage. Now Offa, who was a most noble king, and of a most illustrious family, on learning the cause of his arrival, entertained him in his palace with the greatest honour, and exhibited all possible courtesy, as well to the king himself as to his companions. On consulting his queen Quendritha, and asking her advice on this proposal, she is said to have given her husband this diabolical counsel, “Lo,” said she, ” God has this day delivered into your hands your enemy, whose kingdom you have so long desired; if, therefore, you secretly put him to death, his kingdom will pass to you and your successors for ever.” The king was exceedingly disturbed in mind at this counsel of the queen, and, indignantly rebuking her, he replied, “Thou hast spoken as one of the foolish women ; far from me be such a detestable crime, which would disgrace myself and my successors;” and having so said, he left her in great anger. Meanwhile, having by degrees recovered from his agitation, both the kings sat down to table, and, after a repast of royal dainties, they spent the whole day in music and dancing with great gladness. But in the meantime, the wicked queen, still adhering to her foul purpose, treacherously ordered a chamber to be adorned with sumptuous furniture, fit for a king, in which Athelbert might sleep at night. Near the king’s bed she caused a seat to be prepared, magnificently decked, and surrounded with curtains ; and underneath it the wicked woman caused a deep pit to be dug, wherewith to effect her wicked purpose. When king Athelbert wished to retire to rest after a day spent in joy, he was conducted into the aforesaid chamber, and, sitting down in the seat that has been mentioned, he was suddenly precipitated, together with the seat, into the bottom of the pit, where he was stifled by the executioners placed there by the queen ; for as soon as the king had fallen into the pit, the base traitors threw on him pillows, and garments, and curtains, that his cries might not be heard ; and so this king and martyr, thus innocently murdered, received the crown of life which God hath promised to those that love him. As soon as this detestable act of the wicked queen towards her son-in-law was told to the companions of the murdered king, they fled from the court before it was light, fearing lest they should experience the like fate. The noble king Offa, too, on hearing this certainty of the crime that had been wrought, shut himself up in great grief in a certain loft, and tasted no food for three days. Nevertheless, although he was counted guiltless of the king’s death, he sent out a great expedition, and united the kingdom of the East-Angles to his dominions. St. Athelbert was ignominiously buried in a place unknown to all, until his body, being pointed out by a light from heaven was found by the faithful and conveyed to the city of Hereford, where it now graces the episcopal see with miracles and healing powers.”

Certainly Athelberht’s shrine was very popular, but it is more likely that he rebelled against Offa and was executed for his pains as the story of the assassination cannot be dated earlier than the 11th or 12th centuries. The earliest version has him beheaded by Offa.

Offa seems to have modelled himself on his great contemporary on the Continent, Charlemagne, and for this he gained the warm approval of Alcuin of York who was one of the most influential members of Charlemagne’s court. However, there is no sense of him being an equal to Charlemagne and his suggestion that Ecgfrith might marry Charlemagne’s daughter Bertha was met with outrage and caused a break in diplomatic relations.

He died on 29th July 796 AD and was buried at Bedford, which he had founded, but his story was not yet quite over. According to Roger of Wendover he suffered the ignominy of his tomb being washed away by the river in flood.

“Offa, the magnificent king of the Mercians, having nearly completed his most noble monastery, died, according to the opinion of many, in the town of Offley (in Hertfordshire), and his body is said to have been conveyed to the town of Bedford, and to have been buried in a royal manner in a certain chapel outside the city, situated on the bank of the river Ouse. It is reported by nearly all the people of that neighbourhood, even to the present day, that the aforesaid chapel, from decay and the violence of that river, was precipitated, together with the king’s tomb, into the stream; and that the sepulchre is now seen by bathers in the summer time deep beneath the waters, but though it has been sought with the greatest diligence, yet, as if by a fatality, it cannot be found.”

Offa was succeeded by his son Ecgfrith, whom he had groomed for kingship at great effort, but who reigned only 141 days and died of a sickness.

Offa’s legacy was of personal achievement and power rather than national advancement. King Alfred referred to Offa’s Law Code and Athelstan bequeathed a sword which had belonged to Offa to his brother Edmund in his will. However, Offa did not seem to have a vision of uniting the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms or of doing more than ensure his own success and that of his son.

Edward the Elder was the son of Alfred the Great succeeded his father as King when Alfred died in 899 AD.

Edward was the second of five legitimate children born to Alfred and Ealhswith; two boys and three girls. His arguably more famous sister Athelflaed was the eldest child by a few years. He was born around 875 AD, the precise date not being known making him still a toddler when Guthrum and his Danes came to Wessex in the winter of 875-6 AD and took Wareham. He was also still very young when the family had to hide at Athelney in the Somerset Levels from January-May 878 AD.

Edward grew up in a time of constant Viking attacks and battles. Like his elder sister he would have learned from his father’s victories and mistakes. He was noticeably less lenient or trusting in his negotiations when he was King than Alfred was, and developed his father’s system of burhs (fortified settlements located at strategic points around the kingdom) to great strategic advantage.

As he grew, throughout the 880s and 890s, he would have been surrounded by the scholars and churchmen at his father’s cosmopolitan court where Alfred’s educational and cultural reforms were being realised, and the security brought by the burhs and the new standing army made apparent. Alfred’s early warships would also have contributed to the king’s ability to resist attack. Some of the scholars at this time later served Edward as King, such as Plegmund, the Archbishop of Canterbury. According to Asser in his Life of Alfred, Edward and his younger sister Alfthryth learned the Psalms and made use of books under the care of tutors and nurses at the court.

As an atheling (prince) Edward would have followed his father around the kingdom and attended court when he was old enough, learning the skills he would need as king and witnessing charters. He was also given military command. In 893 AD Edward led a force against the Viking raiding army at Farnham, joining the local fyrd (militia) and driving the Vikings off. According to the Chronicle of Athelweard Edward had been leading a force elsewhere and then arrived to join the attack at Farnham, turning the course of the battle. Edward pursued the Vikings back to Thorney, in Mercian territory, and was joined by Athelred, ealdorman of Mercia who was his brother-in-law through marriage to Athelflaed. The Vikings were then under siege until the Anglo-Saxons had to withdraw because the fyrd had reached the end of its term of service, leaving Edward with only his personal retinue behind – another valuable lesson for the future king about logistics and planning.

It is possible that later in the decade Edward acted as a sub-king in Kent; he certainly had strong support from Kent in later years.

Edward’s marriages are not entirely clear. There were three women in his life: Ecgwynn, Alfflaed and Eadgifu. His relationship with Ecgwynn may not have been an approved marriage by the Church, and the lack of clarity may be related to the politics around the succession of their son, Athelstan. Alfred seems to have seen Athelstan as a potential future heir, and this may have been related to his fosterage in the Mercian Court in preparation for a role there.

When Alfred died in 899 AD Edward succeeded to the throne and was crowned on 8^th June 900 AD in a service conducted by Plegmund, probably at Kingston-upon-Thames on the borders of Wessex and Mercia.

Although Alfred had tried to make the transition to his son’s rule as smooth as possible, Edward faced rebellion from his cousin Athelwold on the basis that Alfred had stolen Athelwold’s right to succession when his father (and Alfred’s brother) King Athelred had died in 871 AD. Alfred’s succession had been based on the fact the Athelred’s sons were both very young children and not suitable to rule; Athelred’s elder son had died by 899 AD.

Athelwold seized the royal manors at Wimborne (where his father Athelred was buried) and Twynham. He also abducted a nun. It is possible this was actually Edward’s sister Athelfgifu who was Abbess at Shaftesbury as marriage to her would strengthen Athelwold’s claim to the throne; if not she would have been important in some way to help his claim. However, he had misjudged his case, no one came to join him and Edward pursued him in force perhaps more quickly than anticipated. This was to be typical of Edward; he was quick and decisive in his actions. Athelwold escaped under the cover of night and went to Northumbria where he built up strong support in the kingdom, becoming supposedly (according to the Annals of St Neots) “King of the Danes” in less than two years. It is possible that the coins of this date with the name “Alwaldus” may be his.

In 902 AD Athelwold was back, landing in Essex, presumably with the support of the Eohric, the king of East Anglia on a promise of reward in Mercian territory. They moved into Mercia first heading west towards Dorset, pillaged in Wiltshire and then withdrew back to East Anglia. This may have been due to lack of support in the surrounding country or better information about relative troop sizes. Edward followed them deep into East Anglian territory but then had to call off the pursuit. The Kentish fyrd was separated from the main body of Edward’s forces and Athelwold took his chance to attack them. This became known as the Battle of the Holme, on 13th December 902 AD, late in the fighting season. Edward is said to have sent seven messages to the Kentish fyrd to re-join the main troop but this did not happen. The Kentish men were outnumbered but fought hard; in the end they were all slaughtered, but Athelwold himself was also killed along with Eohric and a number of Anglo-Danish warlords.

With the threat to his regime now removed Edward finished his father’s project of building the New Minster at Winchester. His mother Ealhswith died on 5^th December 902 AD and eventually she and Alfred were moved from their resting places to the New Minster after its completion around 903 AD. Relations with the Old Minster were frosty for some time until Frithustan became Bishop.

The key aspect of Edward’s later reign was his relationship with Mercia and his campaign against the Danelaw to unite the various kingdoms under Wessex.

In 906 AD Edward agreed the Peace of Tiddingford with a number of Danish warlords, updating the agreement between Alfred and Guthrum. This peace held for three years before the Mercian raid on Bardney.

Athelred and Athelflad had been transferring their power base away from Tamworth to Gloucester, where they built a new Minster. This removed their primary power base from the border with the Danelaw. However, the new foundation at Gloucester clearly needed an important relic to attract pilgrims and enhance its status. They decided they needed the relics of Oswald held at Bardney, formerly in Mercia but now in the Danelaw. So in 909 AD they went and got them in a raid violating the Peace of Tiddingford. The Danes retaliated, aware that Edward was preoccupied with his fleet in Kent. Like Athelwold before them, they under-estimated the speed and decisiveness of his reaction.

Sometime on the 5^th or 6^th August 910 AD they met at the Battle of Tettenhall. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records:

“In this year the Angles and the Danes fought at Teotanheal on the ‘eighth of the ides of August [6th Aug.], and the Angles obtained the victory. And that same year Aethelflaed built the fortress at Bremesbyrig.”

Athelred had been suffering ill-health for some years and he died in 910 AD. From this time on Athelflaed is called the “Lady of the Mercians” and leads her people until her death in 918 AD.

Athelflaed and Edward now constructed a series of burhs across England as defence against the Vikings. Although seemingly acting independently their activities complement each other with devastating effect. Edward’s strategic mind and organisational ability made him a force to be reckoned with, and he developed the strategies used by his father. Edward’s burhs were not just defensive fortifications; they became an offensive technique for establishing a presence in enemy territory and consolidating his hold upon it. He also adapted continental practice of building twin burhs across a river to control traffic. Building a burh would have required an army of labourers to create the fortification, and he would then have needed to garrison it before he moved on.

In 918 Athelflaed died, and the partnership ended. Uniquely, Alfwynn, the only child of Athelred and Athelflaed, became the first, and so far the only, English woman to inherit a throne from her mother.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle record the events around the death of Athelflaed:

“918 AD: This year, in the early part of the year, by God’s help, she peacefully got into her power the fortress at Leicester, and the greater part of the army which owed obedience thereto became subject to her ; and the people of York had also covenanted with her, some having given a pledge, and some having bound themselves by oath, that they would be at her command. But very shortly after they had become so, she died at Tamworth, twelve days before Midsummer [12th June] the eighth year of her having rule and right lordship over the Mercians ; and her body lies at Gloucester, within the east porch of St.Peter’s church.

AD. 919. This year also the daughter of Aethelred, lord of the Mercians, was deprived of all dominion over the Mercians, and carried into Wessex, three weeks before mid-winter: she was called Aelfwyn.”

Edward removed his niece from Mercia and she disappears from the record. From that time he is King of both kingdoms, and continued to expand into the Danelaw. It is perhaps surprising that Athelstan did not at this time become lord or ealdorman of Mercia.

In 919 AD Edward also separated from his second wife, Alfflaed and married Eadgifu of Kent, daughter of Sigehelm, ealdorman of Kent, who had been killed at the Battle of Holme. He may have wished to secure the succession, despite having two sons by Alfflaed already, as well as six daughters. However, he had a further three or four children with his third wife, including Edmund and Eadred who later succeeded their half-brother Athelstan as kings.

Edward also gained the submission of the Welsh kings and fortified his western borders, presumably against the greater threat of the Irish Vikings. Then he fortified the border to the north-east against the Vikings in York, followed by the submission of all the major leaders in the north, including the Scots, Northumbrians and people of Strathclyde.

In 924 AD he was in Chester dealing with a rebellion, and on 17^th July, having completed his task, he died at Farndon-on-Dee south of Chester. It is not clear if it was related to an injury from the fighting at Chester or in pursuing the Welsh back across the border.

His heir, Alfweard, then died on 1^st August and eventually Athelstan gained the throne.

Edward is called “Elder” to distinguish him from Edward the Martyr and Edward the Confessor. Today Edward the Elder is a somewhat overlooked King of that name compared to the Confessor and the Martyr, but the leadership he showed during the Viking incursions helped forge the vision of England. It was not inevitable that he should have succeeded as he did; things were still very much in the balance. Sir Frank Stenton was of the opinion that he led

“one of the best sustained and most decisive campaigns in the whole of the Dark Ages.”