The Rise and Fall of Mercia

Mercia was the height of stability, and strength, in the hundred years before the reign of Alfred the Great, but why did that strength fade? By M.J. Porter.

Throughout the 700s, the ancient Saxon kingdom of Mercia was the powerhouse in Saxon England. The key to its success, as in the Saxon kingdoms of Northumbria and Wessex both before and after it, was the longevity of its kings. First, King Æthelbald, and then his successor, although not his descendant, King Offa, (who did claim descent from the seventh century pagan king Penda, or rather, his brother, Eowa).