Chad's burial March 2, 672

Summary. Chad was buried in a grave near a church called St Marys on a site with St Peters in 672. Several misunderstandings have occurred from Bede’s account.

     Until archaeological investigation in 2003 at the east end of the nave it was not known where Chad was buried. There were also misunderstandings of this site due to misleading translation of ambiguous texts.

Facts known

          The first four bishops of Mercia, c. 656-667/8, must have had their mother church-cathedral somewhere, but their locations are unknown.[1] King Wulfhere invited Bishop Wilfrid of Ripon, c. 667/8 to help him form a diocese for Mercia and together they approved a site at Licetfelda (later Licitfelda) for the sixth see in England; see the post, ‘Wilfrid, creator of the first cathedral.’ The site was said to be ‘paratum’, meaning prepared.[2] Then a new archbishop of Canterbury called Theodore, with the agreement of Wulfhere and possibly Oswiu, King of Northumbria, appointed Chad to be the 5th[3] bishop of Mercia. It would be unusual if there was no church in 669 when he arrived. At the time of Chad’s death in 672 it is recorded two churches were mentioned.[4]

AI enhanced Bishop Jaruman from a roundel in the presbytery tiled floor, holding an early, elaborate, church before Chad arrived. This very early church could not have been on the Lichfield site.

 

          The death of Chad was described by Bede, but the original text has been lost. The oldest copy known is the Moore Manuscript c. 737.[5] Being a copy could mean it  had errors.

       Moore manuscript passage, Historia Ecclesiastica page 156, fol. 74v and translation

           Archaeology in 2003[6] revealed Chad’s grave.[7] Bede stated Chad’s grave was near the church of St Mary, so it is presumed this cemetery church was not far from the east end of the nave or choir area where early burials have been uncovered. The passage also mentioned a church dedicated to the blessed apostle St Peter. The primary Early Medieval church was almost always dedicated to an apostle and especially Peter, the rock on which the church was built. A first church dedicated to St Peter is consistent with Biblical teaching and was the convention across Europe. Pairing of churches with the church of St Mary being secondary includes Canterbury, Ripon, Monkwearmouth, Glastonbury, Lindisfarne, Lastingham, Malmesbury, Hackness and Whitby.[8] If ever Lichfield had St Mary built first it would be significantly anomalous.[9] In pairs of churches with a saint’s shrine, the church was almost always west to the shrine. This follows the order at Glastonbury, Whithorn, Hexham, Wells, Worcester, Winchcombe, Ripon, Gloucester and possibly Bradford-on-Avon. Therefore, it is more likely the church of St Peter was at the west end of the nave. If Bishop Wilfrid was involved with organising, even dedicating the churches, it is most likely the church of St Peter was built first, then St Mary and after Chad’s death the shrine tower. The complex would then be a mynster (O.E. for minster).

 

AI rendition of pilgrims praying at Chad’s grave next to the cemetery church of St Marys

 

The mistranslation

Bede’s text was translated by Latinists with little or no knowledge of the history of the site and especially the archaeology of 2003. The conventional translation has been, Chad died on the 2nd of March, and was first buried by St. Mary's Church, but afterwards, when the church of the most holy prince of the apostles, Peter, was built, his bones were translated into it.[10] This version came from Charles Plummer, 1896.[11] This has been warped into, The cathedral established by St Chad, 669–72, was presumably the church dedicated to St. Mary near which he was buried. In 700 his remains were transferred to a funerary church, apparently dedicated to St. Peter. [12] The spurious date of 700[13] was added in the 14th century from a text that is wholly unreliable. There have been other translations which differ in small ways,[14] but all refer to a removal of bones to a church built later.

           The misunderstandings arise from the imperfect translation of ‘postmodum constructa ibidem’. Postmodum is imprecise in meaning and can mean afterwards (the usual interpretation) or presently or shortly. Alternatively, Latinists consulted by the author have suggested the following, “postmodum can be linked with different expressions in the phrase, and this affects the sense. Since it is obviously a contrast to primo (‘first burial’), it is likely to refer to the movement of the bones.” Another wrote, postmodum in the sentence could theoretically refer either to the time of the burial, Chad was buried at St Mary's his remains were subsequently transferred to St Peter's (unlikely), or instead to the relative timing of the construction of St Peter's. Normally, a comma would be either after or before postmodum to indicate the editor's interpretation; it would be interesting to know whether there were any marks in the original manuscript. The first interpretation seems to be the more natural one. but the second understanding is at least suggested at the same time. Which means it is more likely to refer to Chad’s bones being translated to a different position and not to refer to one church following after another church in a different position.

          Constructa is an unusual word; constructum is much more understood. Bede used the word constructa on three other occasions in his book and all refer to the building of memorial shrines to individuals and not to the building of churches. Namely, where King Oswald died on a battlefield, for Saint Fursa’s final resting place and in a letter to Abbot Mellitus from Pope Gregory giving instructions for building new shrines where there were heathen temples.[15] In the Vulgate Bible the word appears twice, in Nehemiah 3.16 it refers to a pool built next to the sepulchre of David and in Ephesians 2.21 it is to the making of the figurative Holy Temple of God. That is a total of six references where constructa was used for the building of some kind of shrine, sepulchre or metaphorical temple for remembrance; it appears to have a restricted and specific use. It is not a church or constructum. Chad’s relics were not translated into a church, but into a shrine.

There is little evidence of saints being buried within any church in the 7th-century. Pope Gregory’s Dialogues gave strong restrictions on church burial in Collectio Canonum Hibernensis of c.700. It explained cemetery churches like St Marys were at a distance from the main church. The cemetery was where ancestors were buried and that would be the prime site chosen by the dying. The church was the eucharistic space and the cemetery was the sepulchral space. Burial of bones in a church was unacceptable.

So, what was constructed on Chad’s grave? Bede’s text in the Moore copy has, Est autem locus idem sepulcri tumba lignea in modum domunculi. That is, at the same place of (Chad’s burial) was a sepulchre/shrine made of wood in the shape of a little house.[16] This is understood to mean a timber monument in the shape of a small roofed cell over the original grave. It is supported by Bede describing those who visited the sepulchre out of devotion being able to place their hands through an aperture and collect pulveris (a foramina shrine) meaning substrate. This is soil or sand around Chad’s original grave. It is the same as in the miracle at Maserfelth where people took soil from the place where King Oswald’s body fell in battle.[17]

  Ibidem has also been confused, since it means in the same place, that is ‘on the same spot’. It is confusing if buried near St Mary and then translated to St Peter on the same place, that is one church is built on another. We now know the burial was in a shrine tower, so it could mean the bones are recovered from the grave and placed on the surface within a ‘little house’ protecting the relics and all inside the shrine tower around the grave. This chimes with the idea that Offa’s shrine chest box with the Lichfield Angel, left end left side, being a replacement in the 8th-century for ‘the little wooden house’, does not have a floor.

 

So, bringing all together means the new explication is:

Chad died on March 2, 672 and was buried in a grave by the church of St Mary. This was on the same site of the main church of St Peter the Apostle. Sometime later, presumably two or three decades after his body had decomposed, his bones were retrieved and placed in a wooden ‘little house’ shrine on top of the grave site. This translation could have been around the year 700, so 28 years later. It could have been organised by Bishop Headda (never mentioned by Bede), but is more likely to have been organised by Bishop Wilfrid. Liturgy honouring Chad in the late 14th-century included a new feast, the Translation of St Chad. On the occasion of fixing Langton’s shrine for Chad in the Lady Chapel entrance in 1378, Bishop Stretton appears to want the new feast to include Chad’s translation in 700 as well.[18] The feast is mentioned in the 1420s. However, there is no reference and corroboration to translation of bones in the year 700, and the translation could instead refer to moving the bones to Langton’s shrine.

     The relics were then surrounded by a shrine chapel. The arrangement is similar to at least 6 sites in Ireland; remember Chad was in the Gaelic/Celtic/Hibernian church until three years before his death and at his death there were indications he was being remembered as a ‘Celtic’ saint.[19] One grave, offset to the north, inside a small, square building was a Celtic way to have a shrine.

Imagined Licitfelda.  On a sandstone outcrop north of a river and wetlands stood an early stone cathedral-church close to standing crosses, a saint's shrine chapel (which came later), and a small cemetery church, Close by were dwellings and small farm holdings. It was isolated for worship, but not far from old Roman roads. It had the attributes needed for settlement and features needed for baptism and spiritual reflection. 

AI rendition of shrine chapel of rough sandstone blocks, Roman shingle tiles and containing a stone sepulchre with an eternal flame. Close by is the cemetery chapel of St Mary. Late 8th-century

[1] Repton, St Michaels hill in Lichfield, and at the Early Medieval settlements along the river Trent have been suggested.

[2] Described in the biography of Bishop Wilfrid written by a monk at Ripon called Stephanus and published 712–3. Title was Victa Sancti Wilfridi I. Episcopi Eboracensis. It has been translated by B. Colgrave The life of Bishop Wilfrid by Eddius Stephanus (Cambridge: 1985). “He knew of a place in the kingdom of Wulfhere, King of the Mercians, his faithful friend which had been granted to him at Lichfield, and was suitable as an episcopal see either for himself, or for any other to whom he might wish to give it.”

[3] Ceollach’s consecration date is unknown. Before his death, he left or resigned his see and went to the monastery of Iona. It is thought he was in Mercia for less than a year and did not receive his pallium and become bishop. Wilfrid was in Mercia in 668-9 and could have been the 4th bishop of Mercia, if only nominally. If this is true, then Chad was the 5th bishop of Mercia.

[4] Bede, Historiam ecclesiasticam nostrae insulae ac gentis in libris V., c.731, Book 4, chapter 3.

[5] Bede, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum ('The Moore Bede') (Cambridge, University Library, MS Kk.5.16)

[6] W. Rodwell, Archaeological excavation in the nave of Lichfield Cathedral. Lichfield, Unpub. report in Lichfield Cathedral Library. (2003). Also W. Rodwell, Revealing the history of the Cathedral. 4. Archaeology of the Nave Sanctuary. 67th Annual Report to the Friends of Lichfield Cathedral held in Lichfield Cathedral Library. (2004). Also W. Rodwell, ‘The forgotten cathedral.’ Current Archaeology, (2006), 18, 1 (205), 9–17.

[7] The grave was within a shrine tower, approximately 7m x 7 m. externally and 5m x 5m internally; the east wall was indeterminate, but could have been a doorway. The floor was cobbled stone and offset to the north was a grave cut into the bedrock, 0.8m deep, c. 2m long and c.2m wide. See the post, ‘Chad's grave-the evidence’. In the 16th-century this translation was commemorated on Rogation Sunday.

[8] J. Blair, The church in Anglo-Saxon society (Oxford: 2005), 200. Also H. Gittos, Liturgy, architecture and sacred places in Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford: 2013) 94‑7.

[9] H. Gittos, (2013), 94.

[10] J. McClure and R. Collins, Bede. The Ecclesiastical history of the English People, (Oxford: 2008),178. Bede book four, chapter three.

[11] C. Plummer, (ed.), Venerabilis Bede Historiam Ecclesiasticam Gentis Anglorum, (Oxford:1896).

[12] M. W. Greenslade, A History of the County of Staffordshire, XIV, Lichfield: The place and street names, population and boundaries, 37–42. Lichfield: The Cathedral (London 1990), 37.

[13] This dating appeared in the ‘Lichfield Chronicle,’ initially called the ‘Book of Alan of Ashbourne, Vicar of Lichfield’, British Library MS Cotton Cleopatra D IX, started in 1323. Later published by Wharton in the Anglia Sacra see H. Wharton, Anglia Sacra, Volume 1. (London, 1691), 428. The source and detail for this date, January 700, and construction of a church are unknown. Sargent suggested St Peter’s church can be plausibly connected with a church built by Bishop Headda, see A. Sargent, Lichfield and the Lands of St Chad: creating community in Early Medieval Mercia (Hatfield: 2020), 53. If so, the church could have been built from the start of Headda’s episcopate, namely 691 onwards. Bede never mentions Headda and does not link a bishop with the construction of the church of St Peter.

[14] The earliest surviving translation of Bede by Thomas Stapleton, 1565,[14] described the existence of two churches at the time of Chad’s relics being translated (presumably sometime after 672). Namely, Chad was, ‘buried first by St. Mary’s Church, but afterward his bones were removed into the church of the most blessed Saint Peter chief of the apostles, the same church being finished.’

[15] J. McClure and R. Collins, Bede. The Ecclesiastical history of the English People (oxford: 2008). Oswald’s at Heavenfield, Book III Ch 2, 112; Fursey’s at Péronne, Book III, Chapter 19, 143; shrines replacing altars, Book 1, Chapter 30, 57.

[16] Ibid. 178.

[17] Ibid. 124. 

[18] Bodleian, Ashmole MS 794, f. 173v.

[19] Bede records, Book 4 Chapter 3, that a vision was recorded in which at Chad’s death the soul of his brother Cedd fetched the soul of Chad and this occurred in Ireland.

King Penda of Mercia deserves a statue

Summary. King Penda of Mercia ruled a growing kingdom that was more open, fairer, inclusive and diverse than most of the kings displayed on the west front of the cathedral. Although not a Christian his family were.

     It was not until the reign of King Penda, c.626–655, that the Mercian kingdom became a great English power.[1] His sons brought the kingdom together which then lasted with varying power for around 350 years. Bede described Penda as ‘a most energetic member of the royal house of Mercia, who ruled over that nation for twenty-two years (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle has 30 winters) with varying success’.[2] Yet a statue on the front of the cathedral was considered unwarranted by the Victorians and Bede considered him a pagan and together with the whole Mercian race an idolator.[3] Nennius wrote he was victorious through the arts of the Devil.[4] His death was written as being justified. Many writers, including recent ones, have little to say about him and sometimes start their history of Mercia with his sons.[5] There are few artistic images of the king and even confuse him with his son Peada. He deserves more and, perhaps, even a statue on the front of the cathedral.

AI rendition of King Penda of Mercia. His banner on his shield is imagined. His protective armour would be leather. He has a sword and seax dagger. He probably had scars from battles.

Penda was the first Mercian warlord to reign over a large English kingdom, but how he rose to power with hostility is obscure; blaming his heathenism will not do. He was the son of Pybba[6] (was he ever a king), thought to have been born c. 606, some quote a later date, able to trace his genealogy to Woden (most likely fabricated),[7] and married to Cynewise, who was either a West Saxon or Welsh princess. He had sons named Peada, Wulfhere and Æthelred, and daughters named Cyneburh, Cyneswith and possibly Cynethryth.[8] The name of Penda is obscure with no convincing Early Medieval or Brittonic etymology. His life history has been given in detail, but includes many uncertainties.[9] 

Documents show he killed five other Saxon kings[10] and was implicated in the death of two others. Bede and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles describe 8 campaigns against the Northumbrians, East Angles and West Saxons. On average he fought a battle or skirmish every three years of his reign; does this justify calling him a blood-thirsty warrior? His defeat of so many kingdoms and associated plundering, especially in Northumbria, suggest he amassed a large collection of treasure; is this the Staffordshire (Lichfield) Hoard.  Knowing his last battle included an army of 30 warbands, each with their royal leader, Bede called them duces regii, of which some were kings, shows he acquired power and status based on a confederation of sub-kingdoms.

His first known battle was with the West Saxons in 628 at Cirencester where he possibly gained control (imperium) or tribute from the Gloucestershire area. If his birth date is correct, that makes him 22 years old and now a recognised tribal leader. The area might indicate where he hailed from, though a little further north at Worcester has been suggested. He and his sons could have resided at Repton and this too might have been his homeland. Penda’s origins have been much considered with no conclusion.

He supported his brother-in-law, the Gwynedd King Cadwallon ap Cadfan, Bede called him King of the Britons, at the battle of Hatfield (Hæthfelth) Chase in October 633, thought to have been near Doncaster. King Edwin of Northumbria was killed and this could have meant any tribute was now reversed and paid to Penda. The kings of Lindsay, Lincolnshire, might also have been tribute givers. Penda captured Eadfrith, the son of Edwin, and gave an oath to keep him hostage, but a few years later Eadfrith was murdered on Penda's orders.[11] Between 635 and 642 there were no known conflicts involving the Mercians, they were formidable and feared.

On 5 August 642 he defeated the Northumbrians again and killed their King Oswald at the battle of Maserfield at a site thought to be Oswestry. This was in alliance with the Welsh King Cynddylan of Powys. The reason for this battle is unclear, but Oswald had penetrated deep into Mercia and, perhaps, Penda was defending his kingdom or that of the Welsh. It now encouraged him to greater hostility and he gained imperium in the south-east, east Anglia and southern parts of Northumbria. Greater Mercia was now feared over much of England (south coast of Wessex to the River Humber and perhaps beyond?) and was in a close alliance with Wales. Bede could not bring himself to describe Penda’s extensive proto-kingdom and covertly show his pagan gods were more effective at conquering. He omitted Penda from his list of kings wielding imperium over the southern English. Later Wessex accounts would not label him a bretwalda or chief-king. Yet Stenton expressed it as Penda the most formidable king in England.[12] As Tyler pointed out this was an imperium, not a regnum.[13] That is, Penda was an overlord receiving tribute and giving out gifts to his supporters and not a king in control of all matters.[14] His kingdom contained many sub-kingdoms each with their own royal leader. Penda never conquered, but instead subjugated.

AI rendition of King Oswiu from a floor roundel in the presbytery.

Penda’s final battle followed another invasion of Northumbria. He took a large warband with 30 royal leaders (duces regii triginta) in support. Why this occurred is unclear, perhaps, he was preventing the Northumbrian King Oswiu from reunifying his kingdom. 

AI imagined rendition of King Penda burning Bamburgh, Northumbria, 655.

He chased Oswiu northwards and besieged him at a place called Iudea.[15] Clearly, Oswiu was weak and avoiding any battle. The siege was once thought to be at Stirling, but is now more likely to have been a fortress placed on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth. Oswiu tried to escape by offering treasure, but in reality, it was tribute to Penda, described as “an incalculable and incredible store of royal treasures”, and according to Bede he did not take it. A Welsh monk, Nennius, writing in the 9^th century believed he took it.[16]

AI gen. rendition of King Oswiu carrying his royal treasure. Statue from the northwest doorway.

 According to Bede, Penda now returned southwards and reached the river Winwæd (or Uinued) where some sort of battle with Oswiu ensued on Monday, November 15 in 655, this date has been queried, and it resulted in Penda’s death. His defeat has been explained by being taken by surprise, by his army being weakened with defections, by drowning when the river flooded or by an act of God. Christian antiquarians saw it as the final demise of paganism[17].  It has been much written about.[18] Bede wrote more were drowned than destroyed by the sword in battle,[19] his account raises many strategic difficulties. Penda’s army was presumably much stronger; it had already chased Oswiu northwards and demanded a reward of treasure and Penda was now exiting Northumbria. We are told Oswiu re-gathered his military, chased Penda southwards, re-engaged him and exacted revenge; a story full of comeuppance and little sense. Bede tempered this reversal of fortune by adding the river was in flood; it was the reason why battles in November were avoided.

Penda drowning at Winwæd. Shaun Campbell –Scamps

 

          The location of Winwæd, a river, river crossing, or field by a river, has teased writers and many suggestions have been offered.[20] Here is another. Assuming Penda marched his army southwards along Roman roads taking the shortest route from Northumbria to Mercia suggests he travelled along Dere Street and then Ryknild Street. The line of this road is known from Boroughbridge in North Yorkshire and its passage southwards towards Wetherby. It probably crossed the river Wharfe at Newton Kyme or Tadcaster. From here the road is uncertain, but there is a short length of Roman Ridge Road that would take his army to Castleford, the Saxons called it Casterford, where a Roman ford crosses the river Aire. Winwæd has been interpreted to be the Old English words winnan, meaning strife and wæd, meaning ford and this describes the crossing at Castleford. Crossing was hazardous and was done on days when the water level was low, otherwise it led to strife, especially in November.

 

Location of the Roman ford crossing of the River Aire at Castleford. Not to be forded today.

 

Bede said the Winwæd was “in the region of Loidis” and this is most likely to be somewhere near Leeds and the Cock Beck. This is a tributary of the river Wharfe and where it crosses the York Road has been pinpointed and called Penda’s Fields. It is also likely, Loidis refers to the people of the river Aire, which then connects with Castleford.

 

The problem with Bede’s account of Penda’s battles is he avoids recognition that regicide was frequent and killing rivals often occurred. Dismembering your arch-rival was a convention, not some pagan practice. Christian kings also dispatched rivals in barbaric ways. It might have been a different narrative if Penda had been baptised, but there was no bishop or known church in Mercia in his time and it would have weakened his drive for power to have adopted his rival’s faith. Penda was behaving in ways common to other numerous pre-Christian kings. Despite this Penda allowed missionaries into his kingdom towards the end of his reign and appears to have had no objection, politically it had advantages, for his sons (and daughters?) being baptised. Moreover, Mercia remained a growing Christian community and unlike elsewhere this did not relapse. The charge of Penda being a Woden-worshipping heathen is an extrapolation. He was a warrior king defending and increasing his kingdom; acquiring territory in which he could wield some kind of dominance and exact tribute. His military success was based on knowing how to hold an army together and by combining units from across the kingdom.

At the height of his power, c. 650, many of his subjects owed tribute to Penda and would have had to visit his court. There is no record of this or where his court was located. It is quite possible his court moved around, an area within the boundaries of Northampton, Repton/Tutbury, Lichfield, Hereford and Worcester might be conjectured, that is, the kingdom of the Middle Angles.[21] Perhaps, this was an integrated collective of warrior-centres, that was absent in Northumbria and it had better inter-communication than in East Anglia and Wessex. Penda’s military advantage was in having cooperation from compliant sub-kings and superiority over ‘petty-kings.’

There is a good historical and sociological case for exchanging the statue of King William the Conqueror from the west front of the cathedral for one of Penda! There is evidence the Mercian culture under Penda’s kingship was more open, fairer, inclusive and diverse than ever it was with William.[22] Tyler expressed his court as probably multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-sectarian.[23] There is an account of Penda listening to his wife’s advice; women were often held to be equal to their husband and sons. Penda’s Mercia lasted centuries, whereas William’s Norman epoch, 1066–1154, did not last a century and it left a very divided country, with Lichfield marginalised. Penda might be in the list of disagreeable English monarchs, but he needs judging in the context of his time.

---

[1] F. M. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford and New York: 1989), 202.  

[2] J. McClure and R. Collins, Bede. The Ecclesiastical History of the English People (Oxford: 2008), 104; Historia Ecclesiastica (HE) Book 2, chapter 20. There is disagreement when his kingship started.

[3] Ibid 105, HE 2, 20.

[4] In Historia Brittonum, said to have been written by Nennius, c. 828.

[5] D. Tyler, ‘An early Mercian hegemony: Penda and over-kingship in the Seventh Century’. Midland History. (2005), 30, 1, 1–42.

[6] Somewhere between 594 and 603 King Pybba is thought to have conquered some part of Mercia. One record stated he had twelve sons.

[7] Anglo-Saxon Chronicles (except version E).

[8] William of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontificum Anglorum, early 12th-century, 214, chapter 180, has different spellings. In his Chronicles of the Kings, 72, chapter 4, he asserts another son called Merewalh.

[9] A. Whitehead, Mercia. The rise and fall of a kingdom. (Stroud: 2020), chapter 1; S. Zaluckyj, Mercia. The Anglo-Saxon kingdom of central England. (Logaston: 2001), chapter 3.

[10] Edwin of Northumbria in 633, Oswald of Northumbria in 642, Anna of East Anglia c.654, Ethelwulf, Anna’s brother and Ecgric , kinsman of Rædwald in 637. He had Eadfrith, son of Edwin, murdered, was implicated in the death of East Anglian kings, 636–7, and forced Cenwealh od Wessex into exile

[11] McClure and Collins (2008), 105. H. E. 2, 20.

[12] Stenton (1989), 83.

[13] Tyler (2005), 11.

[14] This might be the cause of his downfall. To keep giving, he had to keep receiving and this meant frequent plundering. See J. Cambell, The Anglo-Saxons, (London: 1982), 54–5.

[15] See Stenton, Anglo=Saxon England, 84, quoting Nennius.

[16] Taking tribute was the most likely reason for Penda’s advance on Northumbria. Penda would have had to offer gifts to his supporting kings and their warriors. Artefacts found in seventh-century barrow burials in the Peak District, the territory of the Pecsæte, are highly suggestive of gifts given and later buried according to Tyler (2005), 16.

[17] The overthrow of Penda meant the end of militant heathenism and the development of civilization in England is a paraphrased summary from Stenton. See Stenton (1989), 177.

[18] For a recent appraisal see P. Dunshea, ‘The road to Winwæd? Penda’s wars against Oswiu of Bernicia, c. 642 to c. 655. Anglo-Saxon England. (2016), 44, 1–16.

[19] Does this correlate to Moses and the Red Sea?

[20] A. Breeze, ‘Notes and documents. The Battle of the Uinued and the River Went, Yorkshire’, Northern History (2004), 41, 2, 377–383.

[21] Dumville expresses it as, “A Mercian over-kingdom has seemed to be the work almost of one man, King Penda, who emerges from Midland proto-history in league with Britons as an implacable opponent of Bernician and Deiran expansionism and a voracious conqueror of England between the Thames-Severn line and the Northumbrian frontier. ‘Greater Mercia’, as his construction has come to be known. See D. N. Dumville, ‘Origins of the Kingdom of the English’. In R. Naismith and D. A. Woodman (eds.), Writing, Kingship and Power in Anglo-Saxon England. (Cambridge: 2017), 71–121. ‘The Tribal Hidage,’ 7th–9th century, is essentially an assessment list of peoples in Middle-Anglia, up to twenty-three often tiny political units stretching in an arc from southern Lincolnshire to eastern Oxfordshire. It might be a later description of territory once the homeland of Penda.

[22] Tyler (2005), 2, considered Penda’s supremacy represented a flexible but essentially conservative reaction to the new strategies of power which Christian ideology and Christian churchmen were providing for other seventh-century kings.

[23] Ibid, 24.