Offa and the Mercian Wars by Chris Peers

Author:Chris Peers [Peers, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: English Kings, Offa, England, Mercia
ISBN: 9781781599921
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2012-11-29T16:00:00+00:00

Offa’s Pedigree

So who was this Offa? The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle follows its usual practice with prominent rulers by breaking off its narrative to insert a long genealogy. Offa’s father, we are told, was Thingfrith, son of Eanwulf, son of Osmod, son of Eowa, son of Pybba. Eowa, of course, we have encountered before: he was the brother of Penda who was killed at the Battle of Maserfelth in 642. An interesting analysis of the Mercian royal family tree suggests that there was a long-running struggle for the throne among at least three different branches of the family, who can be identified because their candidates bore names beginning with a particular letter of the alphabet (D. Dumville, in Bassett). This is not as far-fetched as it sounds, as series of alliterative names are quite common in Anglo-Saxon genealogies. Thus Offa’s opponent Beornred would have belonged to a line which later came to power with kings Beornwulf, Beorhtwulf and Burgred in the ninth century.

A rival ‘C’ family, descended from Penda’s brother Coenwealh, may also have re-emerged after Offa’s death in the reign of Coenwulf (798 – 821). Unfortunately, however, there is no evidence apart from the names that most of these men were related to each other at all, and Offa’s own genealogy shows that the tradition of alliteration was not universal. This theory therefore gives us no real insight into the realities of Mercian power politics, and the best that can be said is that Offa was related, if distantly, to both Penda and Aethelbald, and so presumably had a valid claim to the throne by the prevailing rules of succession. But there must have been plenty of other candidates with at least as good a title, so Offa’s pedigree would have been of no value if he had not been able to prove himself the most fitted to rule, if necessary by force of arms.

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