Coenwulf: The Last Mercian Overlord
In this episode we look at the reign of the last king of the Mercian Supremacy: Coenwulf. We look at how he rebuilt a fractured Mercian dominion in the wake of Offa's death, how he struggled to incorp...
3 Aug 202220min
Tamworth: Aachen-on-Tame
Tamworth in Staffordshire proudly announces it's history as 'capital of the kingdom of Mercia' to all who visit. In this episode we look at the history of the town and how it's origins as a major roya...
20 Juli 202211min
Offa and the Dream of Empire
Offa of Mercia is one of the great figures of Anglo-Saxon history. Casually known in English textbooks, his true greatness is often only alluded to. He was a great visionary king who aspired to remake...
6 Juli 202229min
Athelbald the State Builder
Athelbald of Mercia was yet another Anglo-Saxon king to return from exile and rejuvenate a stagnating kingdom. More than any king we've discussed so far, he fundamentally altered the way politics in h...
22 Juni 202222min
The Heirs of Penda
After Penda's death in 655, Mercia faced a grim future. Cowed by a dominant Northumbria and ruled by a puppet king there seemed to be little hope for the people of march. But, in the shadows, nobles p...
9 Juni 202226min
King Penda
Penda's career is one of the most dramatic in Anglo-Saxon history yet very little is known about him apart from what others tell us about him. In this episode I cut through the uncertainty to give you...
25 Maj 202226min
The Origins of Mercia
Mercia, the kingdom which grew out of the English Midlands, dominated England south of the Humber from the 620s until its final fall in the late 800s. It was a military and cultural powerhouse for muc...
11 Maj 202222min
Northumbrian Collapse
The collapse of Northumbria in the ninth century was a result of long standing crises being compacted by the sudden arrival of a new threat the likes of which they could not have imagined. The memory ...
26 Apr 202231min
