History (Penda Dies)

This timeline is originally by Theophilus.

At the POD the pagan king Penda of Mercia was killed by Oswald of Northumbria, instead of the latter being killed and dismembered by the former at the Battle of Maserfield on August 5, 642. Oswald never became a martyr. Northumbria became lead kingdom of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy thirteen years earlier. Oswald appointed his brother Oswiu as ruler of northern Mercia, but allowed Peada, son of Penda, to rule southern Mercia.

On November 15, 655, Peada and his brothers attempted to reclaim their patrimony at the Battle of the Winwaed. They were killed by the forces of Oswiu and his relative Talorcan, king of the Picts. Oswiu, who had succeeded his brother in Northumbria, now controlled northern and central England and had inimicable foes in the Welsh prince, allies of Penda and Peada. In 661, the Northumbrians and Mercians raided Wessex.

In 664, the Pope sent Wilfrid as the representative of the Roman church to the Synod of Whitby in order to combat the Northumbrian spreading of the Celtic rite. Oswiu accepted the Roman calculation of Easter and succeeded in recieving a Papal endorsement of the rule of all of England similar to that which the newly Catholic Franks had once recieved. Oswiu died in 670, but his son Ecgfrith defeated and killed Aescwine of Wessex in 675.

This conquest left Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex under Ecgfrith, with the subkingdom of Lindsey and the kingdom of East Anglia as Northumbrian vassals. The earls of Wessex who did not shift their loyalties to Ecgfrith fled to the still pagan Kingdom of Sussex or to the Christian kingdom of Kent. The kings of Kent, the king of Sussex, the king of Essex, the king of Sussex, the king of the Isle of Wight, and the remaining nobility of Wessex formed a military alliance called the Alliance of Kent, over which the king of Kent presided as anti-Bretwalda to Ecgfrith's role as Bretwalda. The Alliance of Kent felt that they were not sufficiently powerful to oppose Ecgfrith. The Alliance of Kent, therefore, negotiated with the Franks for military aid.

The newly united Frankish kingdoms were willing to provide aid, but insisted that the South Saxons and the Wight Islanders convert or be dropped from the Alliance of Kent. The king of Sussex refused and slaughtered many of the resident West Saxons. The remaining West Saxons fled to Kent, from which a joint Kentish, West Saxon, and Frankish force, devastated Sussex, which was declared territory of the king of Kent. Some of the Frankish nobles were granted lands in Sussex. Christian Kentish noblemen settled on Wight and on the adjacent coast as advisors and supporters of the king of Wight. The combined army then recovered Wessex, although Wessex was now subordinate to Hlothere, King of Kent. The territory which King Hlothere dominated (Kent, Sussex, Essex, Wessex, and Wight) was called Southtames. King Hlothere of Kent recieved Papal acknowledgement of his overlordship of Southtames.

At first, the kingdom of Southtames was threatened by its northern neighbor. Since the Northumbrian expansion south had suffered a reversal, in 684 Ecgfrith sent a nobleman by the name of Berht on an expedition to Ireland. Berht succeeded in carving out a small Northumbrian territory in Ireland. In 685, Ecgfrith attempted a northern expansion in person, but was ambushed and slain by the Picts at Nechtansmere. Ecgfrith's death left the Northumbrian house without legitimate heirs. Berht established an officially independent (if small) kingdom in Ireland. Although the Northumbrians accepted Ecgfrith's illegitimate half-brother Aldfrith as king, this recognition came at the cost of recognizing the formal division of England at the Severn and the Thames valleys.

At the same time, the noblemen of Southtames lost an opportunity to expand northward due to their own internal quarrels. In early 685, Eadric, killed his own father Hlothere and became King of Kent. In 686, Mul, brother of Caedwalla, the Warrior Bishop of Winchester, killed Eadric and seized the throne of Kent for himself.

In 687, Theuderic, King of the Franks, who had previously been a mere puppet of Pepin II, Mayor of the Palace of the Kingdom of Neustria, opposed Pepin II. Mul, the West Saxon King of Kent, supported Pepin, but Wihtred, son of Hlothere, supported Theuderic. Pepin decisively defeated Theuderic. This battle was the last time the Merovingians challenged the Mayors of the Palace, the true rulers of the Franks. Wihtred survived the battle, but when he returned home, he discovered that Aldfrith, King of Northumbria, had taken advantage of the absence of so many Anglo-Saxon nobles and installed his own candidate, Oswine, as king of Kent. Wihtred thereupon retreated to Wight, where he had lived while his father was alive. Wihtred befriended the West Saxon nobleman Ine, who won the throne of Kent for Wihtred in 690. The partnership of Ine and Wihtred lasted from 690 until the latter's death in 725.

The coin of the northern kingdom was the saldy, of which 120 made a pound.