Offa of Mercia

And if it is, I mean, that's quite significant.

Right, so Ethelbert was, of course, Ethelbert II we're talking about, who was King of East Anglia during the 8th century, and he was murdered on the 20th of May, 794, on the orders of King Offa of Mercia.

Now, Paul, little side note here.

Go on.

So Tamworth was the capital of Mercia, so we had lots of Saxon kings and queens here.

Offa had a palace, supposedly, in the area, which is... what we call we have a replica mead hall upstairs now yeah where we've got some of the suffragette hoard that's based off where where they think um it would have been where st edward's church is they think that's what potentially where alfred's palace is obviously it was a wooden structure so they've never been able to find it archaeology wise but um in records yeah we know it was there

I mean, those pieces from the Staffordshire Hall, they're incredible.

I mean, the detail is absolutely amazing.

She was making sure, just as Alfred had done, to make sure that history was on her side.

Yeah, and Tamworth, I believe it was the capital under Offa.

Yeah, Offa had a very strong connection with Tamworth and the church there.

And now I might be mistaken about this, but the St Edith's Church, St Edith's Church in Tamworth, very great place, worth going there.

In fact, that's where the commemoration was held.

There was in Mercia in recent times a certain valiant king who was feared by all the kings in neighbouring states around.

His name was Offa, and it was he who had the great rampart made from sea to sea between Britain and Mercia.

Note.

Offa's Dyke, between Wales and England.

End of note.

His daughter, named Edburga, was married to Bertrick, king of the West Saxons, who immediately, having the king's affections and the control of almost all the kingdom, began to live tyrannically like her father, and to execrate every man whom Bertrick loved, and to do all things hateful to god and man and to accuse all she could before the king and so to deprive them insidiously of their life or power and if she could not obtain the king's consent she used to take them off by poison as is ascertained to have been the case with a certain young man beloved by the king, whom she poisoned, finding that the king would not listen to any accusation against him.

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Stories of the Saints by Candlelight by Vera Charlesworth Barclay the fourth day a gorgeous day of steady hot sun that made the sea sparkle like a million diamonds scattered on a great stretch of blue blue satin the tide was very far out leaving a golden stretch of sand that simply asked to be tunnelled into and dug into holes and trenches and castles the cubs all got into their bathing costumes the cubs costumes were mostly bare and spent the whole morning burrowing like moles into the sand and getting cool in the sea when they felt like it akela tried to write something very important but the cubs didn't seem to think it was nearly as important as akela did and not much writing got done after dinner and rest when the tide had come up like a great green monster swallowing up the shore and clutching with foamy fingers at the rocks akela hired a boat and took half the cubs at a time for a row while the other half ran along the shore ready to scramble in when their turn came the wind had got up and out to sea there were no end of white horses shaking their manes and galloping after each other do you know what white horses are they are the white crests of the waves that break out all over the sea on windy days some of the white horses came galloping close in to shore and the cubs had a very exciting time landing to give the others a turn this is how they did it one large cub rolled up his shorts as far as they would go and stood ready in the bow akela then turned the boat shoreward suddenly and pulled at the oars for dear life and all the cubs helped by cheering crash scrunch the boat went ashore the cubs in the bow leapt out and held her nose steady while every one else scrambled out a few white horses jumped over the stern and made things a bit wet but nobody minded in scrambled the next boatful of cubs and with a good shove the boat was out again a very little make-believe and you were lifeboat men landing survivors from a wreck there was to be a long and very exciting story to-night so the cubs bustled down to the stable extra early and were undressed before you could say jack robinson in fact terry began to undress in the street and was out in the stable-yard in his night-shirt before akela and the last cub had got through the gate tell us a long long long one begged the cubs we aren't a bit sleepy let it last till midnight i'll tell as long as the candle lasts said akela sticking a stump of a candle on the ledge the cubs curled up and the candle-light fell in a golden flicker on their ruddy sunburnt faces fifteen pairs of eyes were fixed on akela you couldn't hear a straw rustle only the faint swish shah of the white horses breaking on the shore broke the stillness now we are going back back back into a thousand years ago began akela and the cubs gave a wriggle of satisfaction and prepared to take that mighty journey with the greatest ease the story of st edmund king and martyr now we are going back back back into a thousand years ago and more we shall stay in england but it is a strange wild england covered with deep mysterious green forests where speckled deer roam about and on moonlit nights you can hear the wolves howling the englishmen of these days are nearly as fierce as the wolves if you met one coming down a forest path i believe you'd be a bit afraid of him with his fierce eyes and shaggy head of hair his round shield and sharp spear a good many of these englishmen are still heathens but st benedict's monks have been hard at work for the last few hundred years turning the wild country into the beautiful england we know and the fierce cruel saxons into brave christian knights with kindly noble hearts as well as fearless spirits well in a part of the country called east anglia there lived an old king called offa he was a christian and descended from a line of brave and noble kings called the offings poor old offa was very sad because he felt he was getting old and he thought that when he died the royal line of offings would end for he had no son to succeed him as a matter of fact he had got a son but many years before god had called this boy to give up all thoughts of worldly glory and become a holy hermit giving up his life to prayer when god calls a man to serve him and him alone he does not let the world suffer by his loss god had a plan of his own for replacing offa's hermit son by one of the most glorious kings that ever reigned in england and it is the wonderful story of how he was found and of his thrilling adventures as the young king of east anglia that i am going to tell you to-night well something perhaps it was a whisper from the holy spirit made old king offa feel that if he prayed very hard he might in some wonderful way obtain an heir to his throne in those days when people wanted to pray very hard and show god they really wanted a thing and really believed he would give it them they used to do what they called going on a pilgrimage it was like doing instead of only saying a great prayer for the whole long dangerous journey was one act of faith and devotion or of thanksgiving so old offa set out on a pilgrimage to the very best place you could pilgrimage to the land where our blessed lord lived and died where there are still the very same rocky paths his blessed feet touched the same mountains and lakes his eyes rested on the very hill where his precious blood poured down from the cross dyeing the grass and the little white daisies red somehow the king felt that if he could go and pray where our lord had prayed he would get some wonderful answer so he started off crossed the blue sea and landed on the opposite coast now god is so ready to grant the prayers of people who have so much love and faith that he sometimes answers almost before they have asked that's what happened with the old king his way lay through saxony the kingdom of his cousin achmund one day he rode up with his men-at-arms to the court and decided to spend a few days there achmund of course welcomed his cousin and received him joyfully to the palace well as king offa sat resting on one of the low couches covered with the skins of wild beasts that achman had killed in the chase there was a light footfall outside the chamber the heavy curtain was drawn back from the doorway and there stood before him a tall slim boy of thirteen with fair hair truthful blue eyes and a face tanned with the sun and wind of his open-air life something seemed to jump up in the old king's sad heart oh if only that noble boy were his son his heir he was a true uffing what a king he would make for east anglia in the next few days offa and the king's son edmund became great friends edmund took upon himself the job of looking after his old cousin and seeing that he had all he needed and enjoyed his visit at the court and offa watched edmund with a feeling of love and interest such as he would have had for his own son he saw that the boy was brave and clever a good shot with his bow able to throw a spear straight and ride a horse he saw that he was loved by all and always ready to do good turns and put the wishes of others before his own but he saw something that pleased him more that edmund was a true loyal christian in all the excitement of the chase and the gaiety of the court his first thought was of god to serve him and please him to keep from all sin for his sake the more uffa saw of edmund the more he felt sure that god had led him to this court that he might find his heir still though it seemed as if his request was already granted he did not give up his pilgrimage but decided to press on if only as an act of thanksgiving to god before starting once more on his way the king called edmund aside taking a gold ring from his finger he put it on edmund's hand and told him that if it were god's will this might some day mean great things for him then he said good-bye and rode away towards the east young edmund must often have wondered what it was that god held in store for him and as he looked at the gold ring on his finger i feel sure he used to promise god that whatever it was he would do his best to fulfil his holy will Well, old Offa reached Palestine all right.

His heart thrilled with joy and love as he saw the very village where Jesus was born and where the shepherds came that early Christmas morning to adore the little newborn king.

He remembered the three kings of the East who came plodding along on their camels, bearing gifts for Mary's little son.

And Alfred is...

Offa was a famous Bretwalder in Mercia.

And Alfred, he's more on the way towards being a king of the English, but fundamentally he controls most of southern England and down through Cornwall.

And as you go up further north, you have more and more people who he normally has some control over, but basically they just pay homage to him.

The amount, the weight of metal in there was accurate in terms of what it said on the coin itself.

I mean, here in the UK in 750, King Offa put his face on it in order to establish what a pound was, a pound of sterling silver.

But eventually the coin, somebody came up with the idea to do milling around the edge so that it would... was not so easy to be clipped.

Bank of England came up with the idea of paper currency, which moved more efficiently as currency rather than the money, keep the money in the vault so it doesn't wear out from people handling it or getting lost and things of that nature.

Whoever was King of Mercia was really the big man in England.

The mighty King Offa, who built these massive ditches and earth walls along the border to keep the Welsh out, was probably the greatest Anglo-Saxon king before Alfred.

But we know next to nothing about him except when he sort of, um, overlaps with other bits of European history where, where people were keeping proper record.

And some time around sort of 789, Charlemagne, Charles the Great, King of the Carolingians, this great warrior king who had created essentially the Kingdom of France, uh, but dominated the whole of Western Europe.

He was the most powerful person in Europe with a huge empire.

He proposed, uh, that his son Charles should marry one of Offa's daughters, and Offa came back and said, "That's a great idea.

How about also my son Ecgfrith marries your daughter Bertha?" And Charlemagne was not happy about this at all.

He threw a complete wobbly, broke off contact with Britain, uh, and, and forbade English ships from landing in his ports.

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character was beheaded, where Offa had supposedly consented to give his daughter to Ethelbert in marriage.

Why he changed his mind and deprived him of his head, historians do not know.

Now, I show this because it's entertaining to me.