Summary: Ok, so recently we’ve chatted about some cultural matters and I’ve also given you a broad overview of the failed dynastic politics of Northumbria and where this is all headed. But we really didn’t cover too much of what was going on elsewhere. We hinted at it, but I’m sure you’re curious about the other heavy hitter in England. Mercia. As Northumbria lost steam faster than a boy band approaching its 30’s… Were the Mercians going through a similar collapse? Well, sort of. Financially they seemed to be doing pretty well, and based on charters it seems that they even had control of London at least for part of this period (though that wouldn’t last because London seemed to change hands faster than a mortgage backed security). But over all, their economy seemed to be doing ok. Dynastically, though, things seemed a little tense. Much like in Northumbria, we have largely been talking about a single family ruling in Mercia for the last 100 years. The line of Penda. So you would be forgiven if you thought the royal house of Mercia were the Pendingas. But they weren’t. Penda wasn’t the founding member of the royal house. The dynasty was the Iclingas. And there were many other nobles active in the Midlands who had a connection to their dynastic founder. And some had an even strong claim. In particular, you had the family of Eowa. Do you remember Eowa? He was the older brother of Penda who ruled Mercia for a while and might have shared rule with Penda for a time. Penda and his line didn’t even come into their own until Eowa died at the battle of Maserfield. So what we’re driving at is that the line of Penda didn’t have the exclusive right to rule, and after nearly 100 years of dominance, it seems that other families wanted to get involved. In particular, the descendants of Eowa thought it was their turn to rule. And King Ceolred son of AEthelred recognized this danger, and soon after he took the throne in 709, he exiled the scion of the line of Eowa, a teenager named AEthelbald. Problem solved. He couldn’t very well rule if he didn’t even live in the Kingdom. AEthelbald, outmaneuvered, retreated to the Fens along with his supporters. And it was there that he became friends with St. Guthlac (a name that might sound familiar since he was referenced in our Staffordshire Hoard episodes). And this will become a significant friendship in his life. But I want to tell you a little bit about St. Guthlac because he’s an interesting character… So Guthlac was a mercian noble who lived exactly the sort of life that you would expect a Mercian noble to live. Basically, he was rather violent. Ok, he was a lot violent. Once he reached his teenaged years, he gathered a warband of his own, armed them, and then went to war. We’re told that he avenged “his grudges on his enemies, and burned their city, and ravaged their towns, and widely through the land he made much slaughter, and slew and took from men their goods.” And that’s what his own scribe had to say about him. So yeah, he was violent. But he eventually decided to change his ways and became a monk at Ripon. But by the time that AEthelbald met him, he had retreated from his monastery and was living as a hermit in the Fens.
