The two best early sources of
information on Penda of Mercia are The
Ecclesiastical History of the English People by Bede and the History of the Britons, written by
Nennius. The latter author wrote in more detail about Penda, yet, in his own
way, Bede clearly characterized the
man’s bloody reign.
Even though King Penda was
never a major focal point of any of Bede’s chapters, readers cannot help but
notice that the man’s name had a habit of appearing whenever Bede described the
death of other 7th-century kings. To set the scene, imagine Bede writing about
a saintly Christian king of Northumbria—then, seemingly out of nowhere, Penda
arrives with an army and slaughters the opposing king in a bloody battle. That
is the general way King Penda’s name appears in Bede’s History. Even so, Bede had to write down Penda’s name quite often.
After all, Penda’s military campaigns led to the deaths of at least five
separate kings.
Penda became the ruler of
Mercia (English midlands) in the 620s or early 630s, after the death of King
Ceorl (or Cearl) of Mercia. When he ascended to the Mercian throne, not all was
to his liking. Although Penda was the ruler of Mercia, Northumbria was technically
in control of the region. Despite being subservient to the Kingdom of Northumbria
and not yet officially holding the title “king,” Penda did not give up on his
own ambitions.
Upon becoming ruler of
Mercia, Penda immediately moved for independence. He began by making strong alliances while
also attacking weak targets. In this way, Penda seized Hwicce (approximately
Gloucestershire) from the Kingdom of Wessex and formulated a powerful alliance
with Cadwallon, the king of Gwynedd. In 633 CE, the combined forces of
Cadwallon and Penda faced King Edwin of Northumbria in the Battle of Hatfield
Chase. During the battle, King Edwin was killed, throwing Northumbria into
instability. With the Northumbrians in chaos, Cadwallon proceeded to ravage the
Northumbrian countryside, and Penda succeeded in asserting himself as the
independent king of Mercia.
Next, in the 630s or possibly
the 640s, King Penda set his sights on East Anglia. There, King Ecgric and the
retired (but respected) King Sigebert of East Anglia defended against the Mercian
advance. Nevertheless, Penda’s campaign was a great success, and both Ecgric
and Sigebert were slain, bringing Penda’s monarch kill-count to at least three.
Around this time, a new ruler
in Northumbria was quickly bringing his kingdom back to order. Oswald, a nephew
of the slain King Edwin, had returned from exile and claimed the throne of
Northumbria. In 634, he killed Penda’s ally, Cadwallon of Gwynedd, and brought
the Kingdom of Northumbria back to normalcy. After the initial threats to his
kingdom were defeated, King Oswald eventually set out for revenge against
Mercia. In 642, King Oswald and the Northumbrians met Penda and his allies in a
battle near Owestry, in Shropshire. King Oswald died in the battle, with Penda killing
his fourth known king. Following the battle, Penda seized even more
Northumbrian land, including the regions of modern Elmet and Lindsey.
With Northumbria momentarily put
back in its place, King Penda sought out opportunities in the various kingdoms
that bordered his realm. He attacked Wessex and East Anglia, again, and in his
campaign against the latter kingdom, he killed his fifth king, this time it was
the East Anglian King Anna, who met his end around 654.
Riding upon this wave of
successive victories, King Penda likely was feeling invincible. After all, in
his military campaigns Penda had killed a minimum of five kings, with two
from Northumbria and three from East Anglia. Nevertheless, King Penda wanted even more
and decided to launch another military campaign against his greatest rival, the
Kingdom of Northumbria. As the proverb goes, those who live by the sword, die
by the sword. This saying applied perfectly to King Penda. Spending almost his
entire reign in perpetual war, King Penda ultimately died on the battlefield.
In 655, King Penda led his army against King Oswiu of Northumbria, brother of
the slain King Oswald. The two forces finally clashed at the Battle of the
Winwaed River. After asserting Mercia’s independence and making his kingdom a
major power in Britain, King Penda died in battle somewhere near Leeds.
Written by C. Keith Hansley.
Top picture attribution: (Anglo-Saxon helmet from the Sutton Hoo ship burial,
c. 7th century, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).
- Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People (and relevant letters), translated by Leo Sherley-Pride, R. E. Latham and D. H. Farmer (Penguin Classics, 2003).
- http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/adversaries/bios/penda.html
- http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Kings-Queens-of-Mercia/
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Penda
- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/11/15/on-this-day-britains-last-great-pagan-king-is-struck-down-by-chr/
- http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/term_details.aspx?bioId=180596
- http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/people_penda.html
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