King Offa and Archbishop Higbert

Summary. Offa became king of Mercia in 757 and spent the next 35 years extending his kingdom to cover ⅓ of England. He arranged, 787, the Bishop of Lichfield to be an Archbishop. His son was made co-king in 788.

 

Offa

It is believed Offa, in his late 20s, became overlord of Mercia[i] in the year 757[ii] after a civil war in Mercia following the murder of King Æthelbald. He ruled a kingdom that wielded a supremacy over middle England for over a century, but Offa did not fully control until 764.[iii] A charter in 764 granting land near Rochester names him as ‘king of the Mercians’.[iv] By 765 he had gained control of the Kent Kingdom and then kept overlordship of this unsettled kingdom for the rest of his reign. Penda had conquered East Anglia in the 630s/640s and coins show Offa as REX or king with sometimes an M for Mercia, but it is unclear how much control he had over this old kingdom.[v] In 771, he subjugated the South Saxons in the Hastings area, by force of arms. London had been secured by Wulfhere in the 7th-century and Offa built on this using the port for commerce. He held many meetings in the area. In 779, he defeated a king of Wessex in battle and took control of the northern part of this large kingdom. He then gradually managed the rest of this kingdom with various contracts. A charter dated 787 named his wife and 4 offspring.[vi] Two of his daughters were married into the kingdoms of Wessex, 789, and Northumbria, 792.

By the 790s Offa ruled over a Greater Mercia, around ⅓ of modern England, over 45,000km².[vii] It stretched from the River Mersey and Humber to the south coast and from Offa’s Dyke to the Fens. From the 780s numerous coins call him Offa Rex and 43 charters name him King of the Mercians with precedence over names of sub-kings. His dominion was a confederation of sub-kingdoms and tribes having diverse arrangements with leaders willing to honour Offa as the pre-eminent ruler. A letter written 787x796 described him as the ‘glory of Britain’, decus Brittaniae.[viii] Eight charters called him King of the Angles/English, rex Anglorum. Offa claimed to be the king of the Angles people, but never a king of a country.[ix]  

AI rendition of the statue of Offa on the west front of Lichfield Cathedral. He is looking southwards to Rome whilst holding his Archbishop’s mitre.  

Possible size of Offa’s dominion, all to the right of the red line, in 790s.

      

    The core part of Mercian territory, the northern section of Offa’s dominion, was the Central Midlands. Offa held royal meetings at Hartlebury in Worcestershire, Barford in Warwickshire, Irthlingborough in Northamptonshire, Peterborough in Cambridgeshire, Gumley in Leicestershire and Tamworth in Staffordshire. There is no record of any synodal meeting in Lichfield. Offa fought only 3 major battles and all were outside north Mercia. There were many confrontations along Offa’s and Wat’s Dyke.[x] Offa’s power lay in being able to amass a large army very quickly and subdue by number. He also appeared powerful by determining events in numerous minsters. Hundreds of minsters were established in the late 7th and early 8th-century and Offa exerted control over many; 6-8 were named St Peter because of Offa. There are charters describing disputes with bishops and many involved lands being given in return for something favouring Offa. Offa pursued extremely active monastic politics.[xi] There are indications Offa also pursued an active monetary system producing coins for both merchants and ordinary people. In the 780s and 90s silver coins in number circulated especially on the eastern side of his kingdom. He increased trade through London, Dover and Ipswich to the continent.

 

Higbert

          In 786, two Italian papal delegates, George bishop of Ostia and Amiens and Bishop Theophylact of Todi, together with Abbot Wigbod of Trier as Charlemagne's representative, visited England and Offa took the opportunity of requesting the raising of his Bishop of Lichfield to be Archbishop[xii] and have his son consecrated as co-king.[xiii] The Bishop was Higbert or Hygeberht.[xiv] The first mention of Higbert was in 777 as a witness to an agreement leasing land by the Abbot of Medehamstede (Peterborough) to a local lord. This is the first known connection with Offa,[xv] and suggests Higbert was probably a Mercian. When Bishop Berthun of Lichfield died, c. 777/9, he was succeeded by Higbert in 779.[xvi] The dates and names of bishops given by Wharton in his Anglia Sacra are very confusing and admitted to be so. An earlier date of 765 for an archbishopric of Lichfield, with the pallium received in 766, is mentioned. In 787, he was elevated to be an archbishop, signing himself as Hygeberht or Hygebeorht. His see until 799 was much of Southumbria, an area from the Thames to the Humber.[xvii]

AI rendition of Hygeberht in a floor roundel in the presbytery. 

AI rendition of Archbishop Hygeberht (aged possibly 44) and King Offa (aged 57) signing a charter in 787.

Hygeberht's  signature on a charter, the third name, in 787. The five top signatures are, Ego Offa rex, Ego Ecgferth filius regis. Sig Hygeberhti arep., Sig Aethelheardi arep., Sig Ceolulfi epi. From BL Cotton MS Augustus II 97. The significance is Hygeberht is signed before Aethelheardi of Canterbury. These names are followed by ten other bishops, four abbots, and others.

 Hygeberht arċiepiscopus.  Hygeberht archbishop.

            The evidence for raising Higbert to be archbishop comes from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles and it is terse. The Laud Chronicle stated in 877 a ‘contentious synod’ occurred at Chelsea and Archbishop Iænberht gave up a part of his jurisdiction as a metropolitan, and Higbert was appointed Archbishop of Lichfield by Offa. And Ecgfrith was consecrated king. From this it is assumed:

·       The Archbishop of Canterbury objected to a reduction of his metropolitan.

·       Offa had already gained the acceptance of Pope Hadrian through the legatine visit the year before. If so, what was contentious about the synod?

·       It was Higbert who consecrated Ecgfrith.

·       The consecration took place at Lichfield.

 

  After Offa’s reign and Ecgfrith’s death, Higbert was demoted to be an abbot and Ealdwulf succeeded him at Lichfield,[xviii] 799-800. Higbert died sometime in or after 803.[xix]  In 800 or 801, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Winchester visited Pope Leo III and obtained permission to end the archbishopric of Lichfield and this was confirmed by synod in 803.[xx]  This meant for 12 to 14 years there was an archbishop for the enlarged Mercian part of Southumbria and based at Lichfield, 9 years being in Offa’s reign.

The Archiepiscopal See of Higbert according to William of Malmesbury in 1120, but is probably incorrect. Higbert and Offa could have had more control of much of the church in southern England, especially after the death of the Archbishop of Canterbury (Jaenberht) in 792, but this was short-lived,

 

Offa penny found at Elford. Courtesy of Yorkcoins.com

 

Alternative reasons for a third archbishopric.

          Pope Leo in his letter giving dissolution to the archbishopric in 801 stated that Offa’s request was because of ‘the vast size of your lands’. [xxi] Offa genuinely believed the growing church now needed 3 provinces. Furthermore, Offa consulted Alcuin in 792 when Iænberht of Canterbury died on who might consecrate a new archbishop which suggested he was not stuck with the notion it should be his Archbishop of Lichfield. Offa might not have had hidden motives, such as securing his legacy by making his son co-king, for having an archbishop.

          Some believe Offa was copying Charlemagne, Holy Roman Emperor of west and central Europe (Francia), who called Offa his dearest brother. In 781, Charlemagne had his two sons oil anointed by the pope. Presumably. Offa had Ecgfrith oil anointed by Higbert in 788 around the age of 14-17.

AI rendition of oil anointing Ecgfrith by Archbishop Higbert with King Offa, his wife Cynethryth, and daughters Æthelburh, Ælfflæd and Eadburh.

           Some believe Offa was simply grandstanding; another show of power. It must have been opulent and unprecedented.[xxii] Maybe, Offa thought his kingship needed further confirmation[xxiii] and this was a way of continuing his royal lineage.[xxiv] In this case Higbert is simply a titular head.  When Offa had Ethelbert, king of the East Angles, executed in 794, Higbert buried the body in Lichfield cathedral in the presence of his clerks and deacons.[xxv]

          The enmity between Offa and Iænberht raises the possibility that it was Iænberht who started the rumour that surfaced in about 784 that Offa planned to dethrone the pope, as part of a plan to discredit Offa in the Papal Curia and ensure that any suggestion from the Mercian king about changing the arrangement of bishoprics should fall on deaf (or enraged) ears.[xxvi] Offa could not work with Iænberht.

 

          Offa died, in his mid to late-60s, on 29 July 796, but his place of burial is unknown.[xxvii] It would be reasonable to think Archbishop Higbert officiated at his funeral just as he had for King Ethelbert two years previously. If so, it would be reasonable to assume this also was in Lichfield Cathedral and his remains would have been somewhere in the choir area.

          Ecgfrith, aged c.26, succeeded Offa, but died 141 days into his reign of an unknown cause. Strangely, Higbert does not appear in any of Ecgfrith’s charters

[i] Mercia means border, but that raises the question of border to what. Many interpretations of border have been conjectured and one is the border between the advancing Early Medieval tribes and the slowly disappearing Brittonic tribes. Another is Mercia contained extensive forests and the border was the area being cleared for farming. The people settled in the upper Trent River washlands including Licitfelda were in this border area. Bede used the word provincia.

[ii] The Parker Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 48, has the year as 755.

[iii] F. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, (Oxford: 1989), 206.

[iv] Anglo-Saxon charter 105. Has also the phrase regali prosapia indicating Offa is of royal stock.

[v] There is a story of Offa beheading an Anglian king, Æthelberht II, near Hereford to show his supremacy, but the narrative contains detail impossible to verify.

[vi] His wife is Cynethryth, son is Ecgfrith and daughters are Æthelburh, Ælfflæd and Eadburh. There might have been a 4th daughter called Ælfthryth.

[vii] R. Naismith, King of the Mercians Offa, (New Haven and London: 2026), 58.

[viii] Letter written by Alcuin, Epistolae, 64.

[ix] There are 12 forged 10th-century charters claiming Offa was the King of England, but the scribes of Offa’s court never saw him that way. It is an over statement to claim he was Rex Anglorum meaning King of England instead of King of the English. See R. Naismith (2026), 148-9, note 7.

[x] In the years 760, 778, 784, 795 and 796.

[xi] R. Naismith (2026), 180. See note 7.

[xii] C. J. Godfrey, ‘The Archbishopric of Lichfield’, Studies in Church History, (1964), 1, 145-53.

[xiii] The Parker Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, year 787, p. 52. Offa vowed to donate 365 mancuses each year to the papacy, to provide for poor people in Rome and provide lights for St Peter’s church. Was the donation in return for approval of an archdiocese?

[xiv] Anglo-Saxon Chronicle has his name as Hibbert.

[xv] H, Child, Hygeberht of Lichfield: Was He the Tool of the Mercian Kings? Retrospect Journal, (Edinburgh: 2024).

[xvi] At a Mercian council he attended that year at Hartleford he was styled electus praesul or bishop elect. H. Wharton, Anglia Sacra. (1691), 430 calls him Higberthus. He was the 14th Bishop of Lichfield.

[xvii] An estimated area used by M. W. Greenslade, 'Lichfield: History to c.1500', in A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 14, Lichfield, (London, 1990), 4-14. 

[xviii] William of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontificum Anglorum  Book 4, 311 (Cambridge: 1125), 467 has Ealdwulf being elevated to archbishop. Also, in William of Malmesbury, Chronicle of the kings of England. From the earliest period to the reign of King Stephen, c. 1090-1143; trans. J. Sharpe, 1769-1859; J. A. Giles, 1808-1884, (1887), “Yet rebellious against God, he (Offa) endeavoured to remove the archiepiscopal see formerly settled at Canterbury, to Lichfield, envying forsooth, the men of Kent the dignity of the archbishopric: on which account he at last deprived Lambert, the archbishop, worn out with continual exertion, and who produced many edicts of the apostolical see, both ancient and modern, of all possessions within his territories, as well as of the jurisdiction over the bishoprics. From pope Adrian, therefore, whom he had wearied with plausible assertions for a long time, as many things not to be granted may be gradually drawn and artfully wrested from minds intent on other occupations, he obtained that there should be an archbishopric of the Mercians at Lichfield, and that all the prelates of the Mercians should be subject to that province.” 80.

[xix] A. Williams, Hygeberht [Higbert], Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 2004.

[xx] The Decree of the church council at Clofesho abolishing the archbishopric of Lichfield is known from Cotton MS Augustus II 61. The list of witnesses begins with two names: Æthelheard of Canterbury, who signed as archbishop, while Ealdwulf attested this decree as bishop.

[xxi] T. Fuller, The Church History of Britain, (London: 1837), 160. Fuller explained Lichfield was ‘in the navel of the land’ (the centre of Offa’s kingdom). “The highest candlestick should be in the middle of the table.” For him, Canterbury was located at a remote corner.

[xxii] See the post ‘Second cathedral is Early Medieval’. A large basilical shaped church would have been appropriate for this grand occasion. The order of service is unknown. The next order for a coronation is thought to have been written in the mid-9th century and the second was for the coronation of Edward the Elder, reigned 899‑924, in the year 900. These services were disregarded in 1066, but reimagined for the coronation in 1953.

[xxiii] Unlike predecessors, Offa’s ancestry was not directly linked with earlier kings.

[xxiv] See N. Brooks, The early history of the Church of Canterbury: Christ Church from 597 to 1066. (Leicester Uni. Press: 1984), 118–126.

[xxv] See note 15.

[xxvi] N. Brooks (1984), 118-126.see note 24.

[xxvii] Matthew Paris, a 13th-century St Alban’s monk, recorded he was buried in a chapel by the River Great Ouse outside Bedford, but both chapel and tomb were destroyed in a flood. The text was Vitae duorum Offarum. Other sites have been conjectured.