Penda of Mercia

Penda
Penda
	Stained glass window, depicting the death of Penda at the Battle of the Winwaed, Worcester Cathedral
King of Mercia
Reign	c. 626 – 655 AD or c. 633 – 655 AD or c. 642 – 655 AD
Predecessor	Cearl
Successor	Peada
Born	c. 606
Died	15 November 655 (aged 48–49); Possibly the Cock Beck, at the Battle of the Winwaed
Spouse	Cynewise
Issue	Peada; Wulfhere; Æthelred; Merewalh; Cyneburh; Cyneswith
Dynasty	Iclingas
Father	Pybba
Religion	Pagan

Penda (died 15 November 655)^[1] was a 7th-century king of Mercia, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom in what is today the Midlands. A pagan at a time when Christianity was taking hold in many of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Penda took over the Severn Valley in 628 following the Battle of Cirencester before participating in the defeat of the powerful Northumbrian king Edwin at the Battle of Hatfield Chase in 633.^[2]

Nine years later, he defeated and killed Edwin's eventual successor, Oswald, at the Battle of Maserfield; from this point he was probably the most powerful of the Anglo-Saxon rulers of the time, laying the foundations for the Mercian Supremacy over the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. He repeatedly defeated the East Angles and drove Cenwalh the king of Wessex into exile for three years. He continued to wage war against the Bernicians of Northumbria. Thirteen years after Maserfield, he suffered a crushing defeat by Oswald's successor and brother Oswiu and was killed at the Battle of the Winwaed in the course of a final campaign against the Bernicians.

^ Manuscript A of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle gives the year as 655. Bede also gives the year as 655 and specifies a date, 15 November. R. L. Poole (Studies in Chronology and History, 1934) put forward the theory that Bede began his year in September, and consequently November 655 would actually fall in 654; Frank Stenton also dated events accordingly in his Anglo-Saxon England (1943).¹ Others have accepted Bede's given dates as meaning what they appear to mean, considering Bede's year to have begun on 25 December or 1 January (see S. Wood, 1983: "Bede's Northumbrian dates again"). The historian D. P. Kirby suggested the year 656 as a possibility, alongside 655, in case the dates given by Bede are off by one year (see Kirby's "Bede and Northumbrian Chronology", 1963). The Annales Cambriae gives the year as 657. Annales Cambriae at Fordham University
^ Bede gives the year of Hatfield as 633 (along with the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle); if the theory that Bede's years began in September is employed (see Note 1), then October 633 would actually be in 632, and this dating has sometimes been observed by modern historians such as Stenton (see Note 8). Kirby suggested that the year may have actually been 634, accounting for the possibility that Bede's dates are one year early (see Note 1). Bede gives the specific date of Hatfield as 12 October; Manuscript E of the Chronicle (see Note 10) gives it as 14 October.

[fn_1-1] Manuscript A of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle gives the year as 655. Bede also gives the year as 655 and specifies a date, 15 November. R. L. Poole (Studies in Chronology and History, 1934) put forward the theory that Bede began his year in September, and consequently November 655 would actually fall in 654; Frank Stenton also dated events accordingly in his Anglo-Saxon England (1943).¹ Others have accepted Bede's given dates as meaning what they appear to mean, considering Bede's year to have begun on 25 December or 1 January (see S. Wood, 1983: "Bede's Northumbrian dates again"). The historian D. P. Kirby suggested the year 656 as a possibility, alongside 655, in case the dates given by Bede are off by one year (see Kirby's "Bede and Northumbrian Chronology", 1963). The Annales Cambriae gives the year as 657. Annales Cambriae at Fordham University

[fn_2-2] Bede gives the year of Hatfield as 633 (along with the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle); if the theory that Bede's years began in September is employed (see Note 1), then October 633 would actually be in 632, and this dating has sometimes been observed by modern historians such as Stenton (see Note 8). Kirby suggested that the year may have actually been 634, accounting for the possibility that Bede's dates are one year early (see Note 1). Bede gives the specific date of Hatfield as 12 October; Manuscript E of the Chronicle (see Note 10) gives it as 14 October.

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