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| common_name = Mercia
| status = Kingdom
| status_text = Independent kingdom (527–879)<br/>[[Client state]] of [[Wessex]] (
| life_span = 527–918
| era = [[History of Anglo-Saxon England|Anglo-Saxon England]]
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| date_start =
| year_start = 527
| event_end = Annexed by the
| date_end =
| year_end = 918
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| p3 = Kingdom of Lindsey
| flag_p3 =
| s1 =
| flag_s1 =
| border_s1 = no
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| image_flag =
| image_map = Mercian Supremacy x 4 alt.png
| image_map_caption = The Kingdom of Mercia (thick line) and the kingdom's greatest extent during the [[Mercian Supremacy]] (green shading)
| national_motto =
| national_anthem =
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|14=• [[Surrey]]
|15=• [[Warwickshire]]
|
|17=• [[Yorkshire]]}}
{{Collapsible list
|framestyle=border:none; padding:0; <!--Hides borders and improves row spacing-->
|title=[[Wales]]
|1=• [[
|2=• [[
| footnotes =
| demonym = Mercian
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| HDI_year =
}}
'''Mercia''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|m|ɜr|ʃ|i|ə|,_|-|ʃ|ə|,_|-|s|i|ə}},<ref>Roach & Hartman, eds. (1997) ''English Pronouncing Dictionary'', 15th edition. (Cambridge University Press). p. 316; see also J.C. Wells, ''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary'' and Upton et al., ''Oxford Dictionary of Pronunciation for Current English''.</ref><ref>'{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/116678 |title=Mercian, ''n''. and ''adj.'' |encyclopedia=[[Oxford English Dictionary]] |edition=3rd |date=September 2001 |access-date=3 October 2020 }}</ref> {{lang-ang|Miercna rīċe}}, "kingdom of the border people"; {{lang-la|Merciorum regnum}}) was one of the three main [[Angles (tribe)|Anglic]] kingdoms founded after [[Sub-Roman Britain]] was settled by [[Anglo-Saxons]] in an era called the [[Heptarchy]]. It was centred on the [[River Trent]] and its tributaries, in a region now known as the [[Midlands]] of [[England]].
The [[royal court]] moved around the kingdom without a fixed capital city. Early in its existence [[Repton]] seems to have been the location of an important royal estate. According to the ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'', it was from Repton in 873–874 that the [[Great Heathen Army]] deposed the King of Mercia. Slightly earlier, [[Offa of Mercia|King Offa]] seems to have favoured [[Tamworth, Staffordshire|Tamworth]]. It was there where he was crowned and spent many a Christmas.
For 300 years (between 600 and 900), known as [[Mercian Supremacy]] or the "Golden Age of Mercia", having annexed or gained submissions from five of the other six kingdoms of the [[Heptarchy]] ([[Kingdom of East Anglia|East Anglia]], [[Kingdom of Essex|Essex]], [[Kingdom of Kent|Kent]], [[Kingdom of Sussex|Sussex]] and [[Wessex]]), Mercia dominated England south of the [[Humber]] estuary. During [[King Offa]]'s reign, a [[Offa's Dyke|dyke]] was created as the boundary between Mercia and the Welsh kingdoms. [[Nicholas Brooks (historian)|Nicholas Brooks]] noted that "the Mercians stand out as by far the most successful of the various early Anglo-Saxon peoples until the later ninth century",<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |last=Brooks |first=N. |title=The formation of the Mercian kingdom |editor-first=Steven |editor-last=Bassett |encyclopedia=The Origins of Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms |location=Leicester |year=1989 |page=159}}</ref> and some historians, such as [[Sir Frank Stenton]], believe the unification of
[[Peada of Mercia|King Peada]] converted to Christianity around 656. The [[Diocese of Mercia]] was founded in this year, with the first bishop ([[Diuma]]) based at [[Repton]]. The religion was firmly established in the kingdom by the late 7th century. After 13 years at Repton, 669 AD, [[Chad of Mercia|Saint Chad]] (the fifth bishop) moved the bishopric to [[Lichfield]] and, in 691 AD, the Diocese of Mercia became the [[Diocese of Lichfield]]. There has been a diocese based in the city ever since. For a brief period between 787 and 799 or 803 the diocese was an [[archbishop of Lichfield|archbishopric]]. The current bishop, [[Michael Ipgrave]], is the 99th since the diocese was established.
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[[File:Staffordshire hoard annotated.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Staffordshire Hoard]], discovered in a field in [[Hammerwich]], near [[Lichfield]] in July 2009, is perhaps the most important collection of [[Anglo-Saxon]] objects found in [[England]]]]
Mercia's exact evolution at the start of the [[Anglo-Saxons|Anglo-Saxon]] era remains more obscure than that of [[Northumbria]], [[History of Kent|Kent]], or even [[Wessex]]. Mercia developed an effective political structure and was [[Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England|Christianised]] later than the other kingdoms.<ref name="Cambridge466">{{harvp|Thacker|2005|p=466}}</ref> Archaeological surveys show that [[Angles (tribe)|Angles]] settled the lands north of the [[River Thames]] by the 6th century. The name "Mercia" is [[Mercian Old English]] for "boundary folk" (see [[Welsh Marches]]), and the traditional interpretation is that the kingdom originated along the frontier between the native [[Wales|Welsh]] and the Anglo-Saxon invaders. However, [[Peter Hunter Blair]] argued an alternative interpretation: that they emerged along the frontier between [[Northumbria]] and the inhabitants of the [[River Trent|Trent river valley]].{{sfn|Hunter Blair |1948|
Although its earliest boundaries remain obscure, a general agreement persists that the territory that was called "the first of the Mercians" in the [[Tribal Hidage]] covered much of south [[Derbyshire]], [[Leicestershire]], [[Nottinghamshire]], [[Northamptonshire]], [[Staffordshire]] and northern [[Warwickshire]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Brooks |first=Nicholas |title=Anglo-Saxon myths: state and church, 400–1066}}<br />{{cite book |last=Hill |first=D.|title=Atlas of Anglo-Saxon England |location=Oxford |year=1981 |at=map 136 }}<br />{{cite book |last=Hooke |first=Della |title=Anglo-Saxon Territorial Organisation: The Western Margins of Mercia |publisher=University of Birmingham, Dept. of Geography |series=Occasional Paper 22 |year=1986 |pages=1–45}}</ref>
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The earliest person named in any records as a [[List of monarchs of Mercia|king of Mercia]] is [[Creoda of Mercia|Creoda]], said to have been the great-grandson of [[Icel of Mercia|Icel]]. Coming to power around 584, he built a fortress at [[Tamworth, Staffordshire|Tamworth]] which became the seat of Mercia's kings.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingListsBritain/EnglandMercia.htm|title=Kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxons - Iclingas & Mercians|last=Kessler|first=P L|website=www.historyfiles.co.uk|language=en|access-date=2018-09-25}}</ref> His son [[Pybba]] succeeded him in 593. [[Cearl of Mercia|Cearl]], a kinsman of Creoda, followed Pybba in 606; in 615, Cearl gave his daughter Cwenburga in marriage to [[Edwin of Northumbria|Edwin]], king of [[Deira (kingdom)|Deira]], whom he had sheltered while he was an exiled prince.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yIdG9MbuK38C&pg=PA135|title=Ancestral Secrets of Knighthood|first= Brian Daniel |last=Starr|publisher=BookSurge Publishing|year=2007|isbn=978-1419680120|page=135}}</ref>
The Mercian kings were the only Anglo-Saxon [[Heptarchy]] ruling house known to claim a direct family link with a pre-migration Continental Germanic monarchy.<ref>Jolliffe, J. E. A. ''The Constitutional History of Medieval England from the English Settlement to 1485'' London 1961 p. 32</ref>
===Penda and the Mercian Supremacy===
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===Loss of independence===
When Æthelflæd died in 918, Ælfwynn, her daughter by Æthelred, succeeded as "Second Lady of the Mercians", but within six months Edward had deprived her of all authority in Mercia and taken her to Wessex.<ref name=Costambeys/> Edward was succeeded as king of the Anglo-Saxons by his eldest son [[Æthelstan]] ({{reign | 924 | 939}}), who had been brought up in Mercia, and he was immediately accepted as king, but not in Wessex until the following year. In 927 he conquered Northumbria and thus became the first king of all England.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first=Sarah|last =Foot |publisher = Oxford University Press | encyclopedia= Oxford Dictionary of National Biography | accessdate=28 August 2021 | title=Æthelstan (Athelstan) (893/4–939), king of England | year = 2011| url =http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/833?docPos=2 | doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/833 }}</ref> Mercia briefly regained a political existence separate from Wessex in 955–959, when Edgar became king of Mercia, and again in 1016, when [[Cnut]] and [[Edmund Ironside]] divided the English kingdom between themselves, with Cnut taking Mercia.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.deremilitari.org/resources/sources/knytlinga.htm |title=Knut's Invasion of England in
== Mercian Old English ==
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The [[saltire]] as a symbol of Mercia may have been in use since the time of [[Offa|King Offa]].<ref name=autogenerated1>{{cite news| url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-12991778 | publisher=BBC News | title=Photo-gallery: Saxon trail across Mercian Staffordshire | date=7 April 2011}}</ref> By the 13th century, the saltire had become the [[attributed arms]] of the Kingdom of Mercia.<ref>College of Arms Ms. L.14, dating from the reign of [[Henry III of England|Henry III]]</ref> The [[coat of arms|arms]] are [[blazon]]ed ''Azure, a saltire Or'', meaning a gold (or yellow) saltire on a blue field. The arms were subsequently used by the [[St Albans Cathedral|Abbey of St Albans]], founded by King Offa of Mercia. With the dissolution of the Abbey and the incorporation of the borough of [[St Albans]] the device was used on the town's corporate seal and was officially recorded as the arms of the town at an [[heraldic visitation]] in 1634.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.civicheraldry.co.uk/herts.html |title=Civic heraldry of England and Wales – Hertdordshire |publisher=civicheraldry.co.uk |access-date=15 January 2008 |archive-date=16 October 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081016085818/http://www.civicheraldry.co.uk/herts.html |url-status=dead}}</ref>
The saltire is used as both a flag and a coat of arms. As a flag, it is flown from [[Tamworth Castle]], the ancient seat of the Mercian Kings, to this day.<ref name=autogenerated1 />
[[File:Mercia flag.jpg|alt=Mercia flag created by community groups hung over the motte of Tamworth castle to celebrate Athelstan 1100|250px|right|thumb|Giant Mercia flag on Tamworth castle created by community groups in 2024]] The flag also appears on street signs welcoming people to [[Tamworth, Staffordshire|Tamworth]], the "ancient capital of Mercia". It was also flown outside [[Council House, Birmingham|Birmingham Council House]] during 2009 while the [[Staffordshire Hoard]] was on display in the city before being taken to the [[British Museum]] in London. The cross has been incorporated into a number of [[coat of arms|coats of arms]] of Mercian towns, including [[Tamworth, Staffordshire|Tamworth]], [[Leek, Staffordshire|Leek]] and [[Blaby]]. It was recognised as the Mercian flag by the [[Flag Institute]] in 2014.<ref>[https://www.flaginstitute.org/wp/flags/mercia/ Flag Institute: Mercia, St Alban's Cross].</ref> The silver double-headed eagle surmounted by a golden three-pronged Saxon crown has been used by several units of the [[British Army]] as a heraldic device for Mercia since 1958, including the [[Mercian Regiment]]. It is derived from the [[attributed arms]] of [[Leofric, Earl of Mercia]] in the 11th century.<ref>A.L. Kipling and H.L. King, ''Head-dress Badges of the British Army'', Vol. 2, reprinted, Uckfield, 2006</ref> It is worth noting, however, that Leofric is sometimes attributed a black, single-headed eagle instead.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ngw.nl/int/gbr/c/coventry.htm |title=Heraldry of the world - Coventry |publisher=ngw.nl |access-date=17 May 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080628051751/http://www.ngw.nl/int/gbr/c/coventry.htm|archive-date=28 June 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
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