Mercian Supremacy

• Brown, Farr, Wormald: source problem - '"the absence of contemporary Mercian apologist"
• r. 757-96

Presented Image of Self

• Image widely circulated on coinage
• Wife, Cynethryth, also had her own coinage with her image
• Dyke = statement of power

• First move = gain Hastings (Surrey & Sussex) = "soft underbelly of Kent"
  • V. important for controllowing trade through London, and the church through Canterbury
• Took over moneyers
  • E-A moneyer Wilred struck coins of Beonna (king of EA until 760), but later for Offa
  • Wormald: Offa's "coins are much the finest and most numerous of the period"
  • Somewhere between 2-10 million of Offa's coins in circulation
  • Keynes: Offa's introduction of a new heavier penny was an attempt to bring the English weight to the same standard set by Charlemagne in the early 790s
  • William: gold dirhams minted in Offa's name could also suggest continental trade?

• Charlemagne's letter of 796 describes trade relationship between England and the Holy Roman Empire - 'black stones' (Rhineland lava-stones for querns?)
• Also promises an arrangement to protect each others' merchants
• Charlemagne's trade embargo on Offa
  • Europe's first trade tready? But probs enforced on v. ad hoc basis if at all!
  • Wormald: must have been a weapon calculated to hurt

• More centralised, clear subordination - starts throwing his weight around

• Hwicce after 777 - 'regulus' and 'sub-regulus' (petty kings & sub-petty king) started being used
• Osmund, King of Sussex - 770 charter referred to as 'king' but in 772 only a 'dux'
• Ealhmund = last known native King of Kent - last grant in 784
• ASC: had Æthelberht, King of East Anglia, beheaded in 794
• Redistributed land of sub-kings
  • Egbert of Kent had one of his land grants revoked by Offa, because "it was wrong tha his thegn should have presumed to give land...without his witness"

• BUT only ever 'rex Merciorum', never 'rex brittaniae' like Æthelbald

• Presented himself to continentl links as the only king in England
  • Roman legates went straight to Offa's court to meet "the senators of the land, along with Jaenberht...and the other bishops" - no suggestion that other kings should take part

Dyke

• Asser: built "from sea to sea"; is actually 64 miles long (not quite sea to sea)
  • Looking East, closing off West
• ASC: oppressed the Welsh in 778 and 784
  • A base for launching incursions into Wales? Also a statement of power over Wales? Way of controlling the locals

Marriage Alliances

• Marriage alliances in Wessex and Northumbria
  • Daughters married to Æthelred of Northumbria and Beohtric of Wessex
  • Wormald: might "denote his superiority even over these kingdoms"
    • Wessex esp. seems to have cooperated afterwards => successful?
    • Less evidence that Offa actually had control beyond an alliance of equals in Northumbria
• Failed attempt at marriage alliance with Charlemagne
  • Offa wanted parity/equality of status, Charlemagne didn't

• Wrote directly to the Pope to establish a new archbishoprice at Lichfield in 787
  • Sidelining Jaenberht, Archbishop of Canterbury
• 770s appearance of a coinage of Bishop Eadberht of London
  • Williams: "a temporary userpation of Canterbury's minting rights"

• Land reclamations
  • Charter of 781 from Synod of Brentford, has Offa reclaiming land from Church of Worcester, around Bath, Stratford, Stour in Ismere

• Contact with Pope Leo III to create a new archbishopric at Lichfield in 787
  • Apparently "testified...that it was the united wish and unanimous petition of you all...on account of the vast size of your lands", despite there being a lot of opposition in the Church, etc. - e.g. 'contentious' Synod of 787
  • Presenting himself as the only king of England
• Charlemagne also directed his anger a Offa at everyone "from the island of Britain and the English race"

• Close links with Charlemagne
  • Addresses Offa as "my dear brother" in his letter
  • Alcuin tells Offa that Charlemagne "has often spoken to me of you in a most loving and loyal way, and in him you certainly have a most faithful friend"
• Clearly a personal connection, as well as a trading relationship between their countries

Succession problems

• Tried to found a dynasty - annointed son Ecgfrith before death
  • Very imperial, emulating Charlemagne
  • Trying to institutionalise kingship and make it more stable
• Alcuin: "how much blood the father shed to secure the kingdom for his son", this "proved the undoing, not the making of [Ecgfrith's] reign"
• Ultimately unsuccessful - Ecgfrith died v. shortly after Offa (ASC)
  • Few heirs left => instability

• Mercian supremacy was dependent on thier charisma - kingship
• Brown and Farr: the reasons for the collapse of the Mercians upremacy in the 9th cent. was "an almost inevitable result of the overbearing methods employed in its construction", but the "Mercian iron gauntlet" was nevertheless an affective method of maintaining supremacy in the short term not v. secure

Resurfacing of Kings

• Kentish monarchy resurfaced after Offa's death
• ASC 829 King Egbert (of Wesex) conquered the kingdom of the Mercians and evrything osuth of the Humber

• Had not really been any very strong kings south of the Humber since 725/6 with the death of Wihtred of Kent and the departure of Ine of Wessex
  • Resurface of stronger kings?

Key Themes/Notes/Ideas

• Geography important for supremacy - in the centre of England, so could control all the areas around them, access to English channel and major trading routes, e.g. Humber, Thames