Everything about Offa Of Mercia totally explained
Offa (died July 796) was the King of
Mercia from 757 until his death. Offa was the son of Thingfrith and a descendant of
Eowa, a brother of King
Penda of Mercia, who had ruled over a century before. Offa came to the throne after a period of civil war following the assassination of
Æthelbald, defeating
Beornred, another claimant to the throne. In the early years of Offa's reign it's likely that he consolidated his control of midland peoples such as the
Hwicce and the
Magonsæte. After 762, he took advantage of instability in the
kingdom of Kent to establish himself as overlord and was in control of
Sussex by 771, though his authority didn't remain unchallenged in either territory. In the 780s he extended his power over most of southern England, allying with
Beorhtric of Wessex, who married Offa's daughter
Eadburh, and regaining complete control of the southeast. He also became the overlord of
East Anglia, and had King
Æthelberht II of East Anglia beheaded in 794, perhaps for rebelling against him.
Offa was a Christian king, but came into conflict with the Church, and in particular with
Jaenberht, the
Archbishop of Canterbury. Offa managed to persuade
Pope Adrian I to divide the archdiocese of Canterbury in two, creating a new archdiocese of Lichfield. This reduction in the power of Canterbury may have been motivated by Offa's desire to have an archbishop consecrate his son
Ecgfrith of Mercia as king, since it's possible Jaenberht refused to perform the ceremony, which took place in 787.
Many surviving coins from Offa's reign carry elegant depictions of him and the artistic quality of these images exceeds that of the contemporary Frankish coinage. Some of his coins carry images of his wife,
Cynethryth—the only Anglo-Saxon queen ever depicted on a coin. Only three gold coins of Offa's have survived: one is a copy of an
Abbasid dinar of 774, and carries Arabic text on one side of the coin, with "Offa Rex" on the other side. The gold coins are of uncertain use but may have been struck to be used as alms or for gifts to Rome.
Many historians regard Offa as the most powerful
Anglo-Saxon king before
Alfred the Great. His dominance never extended to
Northumbria, though he did marry a daughter,
Ælfflæd, to the Northumbrian king
Æthelred I in 792. His reign was once seen by historians as part of a process leading to a unified England, but this is no longer the majority view. In the words of a recent historian: "Offa was driven by a lust for power, not a vision of English unity; and what he left was a reputation, not a legacy." Offa died in 796 and was succeeded by his son,
Ecgfrith, who reigned for less than five months before
Coenwulf of Mercia became king.
Background and sources
In the first half of the eighth century, the dominant Anglo-Saxon ruler was King
Æthelbald of Mercia, who by 731 had become the overlord of all the provinces south of the river
Humber. Æthelbald was one of a number of strong Mercian kings who ruled from the mid-seventh century to the early ninth, and it wasn't until the reign of
Egbert of Wessex in the ninth century that Mercian power began to wane.
The power and prestige that Offa attained make him one of the most significant rulers in the
Early Medieval British Isles, though no contemporary biography of him survives. That power can be seen at work in
charters dating from Offa's reign. Charters were documents which granted land to followers or to churchmen and were witnessed by the kings who had the authority to grant the land. A charter might record the names of both a subject king and his overlord on the witness list appended to the grant. Such a witness list can be seen on the
Ismere Diploma, for example, where Æthelric, son of king Oshere of the Hwicce, is described as a "
subregulus", or subking, of Æthelbald's.
Bede, an eighth century monk and chronicler wrote a history of the English church called
Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum; the history only covers events up to 731, but as one of the major sources for Anglo-Saxon history it provides important background information for Offa's reign.
Offa's Dyke, most of which was probably built in his reign, is a testimony to the extensive resources Offa had at his command and his ability to organise them. Other surviving sources include a problematic document known as the
Tribal Hidage, which may provide further evidence of Offa's scope as a ruler, though its attribution to his reign is disputed. A significant corpus of letters dates from the period, especially from
Alcuin, an English deacon and scholar who spent over a decade at
Charlemagne's court as one of his chief advisors, and corresponded with kings, nobles and ecclesiastics throughout England. These letters in particular reveal Offa's relations with the continent, as does his
coinage, which was based on
Carolingian examples.
Ancestry and family
Offa's ancestry is given in the
Anglian collection, a set of genealogies that include lines of descent for four Mercian kings. All four lines descend from
Pybba, who ruled Mercia early in the seventh century. Offa's line descends through Pybba's son
Eowa and then through three more generations: Osmod, Eanwulf, and Offa's father, Thingfrith. Æthelbald, who ruled Mercia for most of the forty years before Offa, was also descended from Eowa according to the genealogies: Offa's grandfather, Eanwulf, was Æthelbald's second cousin. Æthelbald granted land to Eanwulf in the territory of the Hwicce, and it's possible that Offa and Æthelbald were from the same branch of the family. In one charter, Offa refers to Æthelbald as his kinsman; and Headbert, Æthelbald's brother, continued to witness charters after Offa came to power.
Offa's wife was
Cynethryth, whose ancestry is unknown. The couple had a son,
Ecgfrith, and four daughters: Ælfflæd,
Eadburh, Æthelburh, and Æthelswith. It has been speculated that Æthelburh, who became an abbess, was the abbess of that name who was a kinswoman of King Ealdred of the Hwicce. There are, however, other prominent women named Æthelburh at that period. It is possible that Offa didn't gain the throne until 758, however, since a charter of 789 describes Offa as being in the thirty-first year of his reign.
The conflict over the succession suggests that Offa needed to re-establish control over Mercia's traditional dependencies, such as the Hwicce and the
Magonsæte. Charters dating from the first two years of Offa's reign show the Hwiccan kings as
reguli, or kinglets, under his authority; and it's likely that he was also quick to gain control over the Magonsæte, for whom there's no record of an independent ruler after 740. Offa was probably able to exert control over the
kingdom of Lindsey at an early date, as it appears that the independent dynasty of Lindsey had disappeared by this time.
Little is known about the history of the
East Saxons during the eighth century, but what evidence there's indicates that both London and Middlesex, which had been part of the kingdom of Essex, were finally brought under Mercian control during the reign of Æthelbald. Both Æthelbald and Offa granted land in Middlesex and London as they wished; in 767 a charter of Offa's disposed of land in
Harrow without a local ruler as witness. It is likely that both London and Middlesex were quickly under Offa's control at the start of his reign. The East Saxon royal house survived the eighth century, so it's probable that the kingdom of Essex retained its native rulers, but under strong Mercian influence, for most or all of the eighth century.
It is unlikely that Offa had significant influence in the early years of his reign outside the traditional Mercian heartland. The overlordship of the southern English which had been exerted by Æthelbald appears to have collapsed during the civil strife over the succession, and it isn't until 764, when evidence emerges of Offa's influence in Kent, that Mercian power can be seen expanding again.
Kent and Sussex
Offa appears to have exploited an unstable situation in Kent after 762. Kent had a long tradition of joint kingship, with east and west Kent under separate kings, though one king was typically dominant. Prior to 762 Kent was ruled by
Æthelberht II and
Eadberht I; Eadberht's son Eardwulf is also recorded as a king. Æthelberht died in 762, and Eadberht and Eardwulf are last mentioned in that same year. Charters from the next two years mention other kings of Kent, including
Sigered,
Eanmund and
Heahberht. In 764, Offa granted land at
Rochester in his own name, with Heahberht on the witness list as king of Kent. Another king of Kent,
Egbert, appears on a charter in 765 along with Heahberht; the charter was subsequently confirmed by Offa. Offa's influence in Kent at this time is clear, and it has been suggested that Heahberht was installed by Offa as his client. It may be that Offa was the effective overlord of Kent from 764 until at least 776. The limited evidence for Offa's direct involvement in the kingdom between 765 and 776 includes two charters of 774 in which he grants land in Kent; but there are doubts about their authenticity, so Offa's intervention in Kent prior to 776 may have been limited to the years 764–765.
The
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that "the Mercians and the inhabitants of Kent fought at
Otford" in 776, but doesn't give the outcome of the battle. It has traditionally been interpreted as a Mercian victory, but there's no evidence for Offa's authority over Kent until 785: a charter from 784 mentions only a Kentish king named
Ealhmund, which may indicate that the Mercians were in fact defeated at Otford. The cause of the conflict is also unknown: if Offa was ruling Kent before 776, the battle of Otford was probably a rebellion against Mercian control. and his actions have been seen as going beyond the normal relation of overlordship and extending to the annexation of Kent and the elimination of a local royal line. After 785, in the words of one historian, "Offa was the rival, not the overlord, of Kentish kings". Mercian control lasted until 796, the year of Offa's death, when
Eadberht Praen was temporarily successful in regaining Kentish independence.
Ealhmund was probably the father of
Egbert of Wessex, and it's possible that Offa's interventions in Kent in the mid-780s are connected to the subsequent exile of Egbert to Francia. The Chronicle claims that when Egbert invaded Kent in 825, the men of the southeast turned to him "because earlier they were wrongly forced away from his relatives". This is likely to be an allusion to Ealhmund, and may imply that Ealhmund had a local overlordship of the southeastern kingdoms. If so, Offa's intervention was probably intended to gain control of this relationship and take over the dominance of the associated kingdoms.
The evidence for Offa's involvement in the
kingdom of Sussex comes from charters, and as with Kent there's no clear consensus among historians on the course of events. What little evidence survives that bears on Sussex's kings indicate that several kings ruled at once, and it may never have formed a single kingdom. It has been argued that Offa's authority was recognized early in his reign by local kings in western Sussex, but that eastern Sussex (the area around Hastings) submitted to him less readily.
Simeon of Durham, a twelfth-century chronicler, records that in 771 Offa defeated "the people of Hastings", which may record the extension of Offa's dominion over the entire kingdom. However, doubts have been expressed about the authenticity of the charters which support this version of events, and it's possible that Offa's direct involvement in Sussex was limited to a short period around 770–771. After 772, there's no further evidence of Mercian involvement in Sussex until c. 790, and it may be that Offa gained control of Sussex in the late 780s, as he did in Kent.
East Anglia, Wessex and Northumbria
In East Anglia,
Beonna probably became king in about 758. Beonna's first coinage predates Offa's own, and implies independence from Mercia. Subsequent East Anglian history is quite obscure, but in 779
Æthelberht II became king, and was independent long enough to issue coins of his own. In 794, according to the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, "King Offa ordered King Æthelberht's head to be struck off". Offa minted pennies in East Anglia in the early 790s, so it's likely that Æthelberht rebelled against Offa and was beheaded as a result. Accounts of the event have survived in which Aethelberht is killed through the machinations of Offa's wife Cynethryth, but the earliest manuscripts in which these possibly legendary accounts are found date from the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and recent historians don't regard them with confidence. The legend also claims that Æthelberht was killed at Sutton St. Michael and buried four miles (6 km) to the south at
Hereford, where his cult flourished, becoming at one time second only to Canterbury as a pilgrimage destination.
To the south of Mercia,
Cynewulf came to the throne of
Wessex in 757 and recovered much of the border territory that Æthelbald had conquered from the West Saxons. Offa won an important victory over Cynewulf at the
Battle of Bensington (in
Oxfordshire) in 779, reconquering some of the land along the Thames. No indisputably authentic charters from before this date show Cynewulf in Offa's entourage, Offa's currency was used across the West Saxon kingdom, and Beorhtric had his own coins minted only after Offa's death. In 789, Beorhtric married
Eadburh, a daughter of Offa; Some historians believe that the Chronicle's "three years" is an error, and should read "thirteen years", which would mean Egbert's exile lasted from 789 to 802, but this reading is disputed. Eadburh is mentioned by
Asser, a ninth-century monk who wrote a biography of
Alfred the Great: Asser says that Eadburh had "power throughout almost the entire kingdom", and that she "began to behave like a tyrant after the manner of her father". Whatever power she'd in Wessex was no doubt connected with her father's overlordship. Egbert took the throne of Wessex after Beorhtric's death in 802.
If Offa didn't gain the advantage in Wessex until defeating Cynewulf in 779, it may be that his successes south of the river were a necessary prerequisite to his interventions in the southeast. In this view, Egbert of Kent's death in about 784 and Cynewulf's death in 786 were the events that allowed Offa to gain control of Kent and bring Beorhtric into his sphere of influence. This version of events also assumes that Offa didn't have control of Kent after 764–765, as some historians believe.
Offa's marital alliances extended to
Northumbria when his daughter
Ælfflæd married
Æthelred I of Northumbria at
Catterick in 792. However, there's no evidence that Northumbria was ever under Mercian control during Offa's reign.
The best known relic associated with Offa's time is
Offa's Dyke, a great earthen barrier that runs approximately along the border between England and
Wales. It is mentioned by the monk
Asser in his biography of Alfred the Great: "a certain vigorous king called Offa…had a great dyke built between Wales and Mercia from sea to sea". The dyke hasn't been dated by archaeological methods, but most historians find no reason to doubt Asser's attribution. Early names for the dyke in both Welsh and English also support the attribution to Offa. Despite Asser's comment that the dyke ran "from sea to sea", it's now thought that the original structure only covered about two-thirds of the length of the border: in the north it ends near
Llanfynydd, less than five miles (8 km) from the coast, while in the south it stops at Rushock Hill, near
Kington in
Herefordshire, less than fifty miles (80 km) from the
Bristol Channel. The total length of this section is about sixty-four miles (103 km).
The construction of the dyke suggests that it was built to create an effective barrier and to command views into Wales. This implies that the Mercians who built it were free to choose the best location for the dyke. Alternatively it may be that these settlements had already been retaken by the Welsh, implying a defensive role for the barrier. The effort and expense that must have gone into building the dyke are impressive, and suggest that the king who had it built (whether Offa or someone else) had considerable resources at his disposal.
Church
Offa ruled as a Christian king, but despite being praised by Charlemagne's advisor, Alcuin, for his piety and efforts to "instruct [hispeople] in the precepts of God", he came into conflict with
Jaenberht, the
Archbishop of Canterbury. Jaenberht had been a supporter of Egbert II of Kent, which may have led to conflict in the 760s when Offa is known to have intervened in Kent. Offa rescinded grants made to Canterbury by Egbert, and it's also known that Jaenberht claimed the monastery of Cookham, which was in Offa's possession.
In 786
Pope Adrian I sent
papal legates to England to assess the state of the church and provide canons (ecclesiastical decrees) for the guidance of the English kings, nobles and clergy. This was the first papal mission to England since
Augustine had been sent by Pope
Gregory the Great in 597 to convert the Anglo-Saxons. The legates were George, the
Bishop of Ostia, and Theophylact, the
Bishop of Todi. They visited Canterbury first, and then were received by Offa at his court. Both Offa and
Cynewulf, king of the West Saxons, attended a council where the goals of the mission were discussed. George then went to Northumbria, while Theophylact visited Mercia and "parts of Britain". A report on the mission, sent by the legates to Pope Adrian, gives details of a council held by George in Northumbria, and the canons issued there, but little detail survives of Theophylact's mission. After the northern council George returned to the south and another council was held, attended by both Offa and Jaenberht, at which further canons were issued.
In 787, Offa succeeded in reducing the power of Canterbury through the establishment of a rival
archdiocese at Lichfield. The issue must have been discussed with the papal legates in 786, although it isn't mentioned in the accounts that have survived. The
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports a "contentious synod" in 787 at Chelsea, which approved the creation of the new archbishopric. It has been suggested that this synod was the same gathering as the second council held by the legates, but historians are divided on this issue.
Hygeberht, already Bishop of
Lichfield, became the new
archdiocese's first and only archbishop, and by the end of 788 he received the
pallium, a symbol of his authority, from Rome. The new archdiocese included the sees of Worcester, Hereford, Leicester, Lindsey, Dommoc and Elmham; these were essentially the midland Anglian territories. Canterbury retained the sees in the south and southeast.
The few accounts of the creation of the new archbishopric date from after the end of Offa's reign. Two versions of the events appear in the form of an exchange of letters between
Coenwulf, who became king of Mercia shortly after Offa's death, and
Pope Leo III, in 798. Coenwulf asserts in his letter that Offa wanted the new archdiocese created out of enmity for Jaenberht; but Leo responds that the only reason the papacy agreed to the creation was because of the size of the kingdom of Mercia. Both Coenwulf and Leo had their own reasons for representing the situation as they did: Coenwulf was entreating Leo to make London the sole southern archdiocese, while Leo was concerned to avoid the appearance of complicity with the unworthy motives Coenwulf imputed to Offa. These are therefore partisan comments. However, both the size of Offa's territory and his relationship with Jaenberht and Kent are indeed likely to have been factors in Offa's request for the creation of the new archdiocese. Coenwulf's version has independent support, with a letter from Alcuin to
Archbishop Æthelheard giving his opinion that Canterbury's archdiocese had been divided "not, as it seems, by reasonable consideration, but by a certain desire for power". Æthelheard himself later said that the award of a pallium to Lichfield depended on "deception and misleading suggestion".
Another possible reason for the creation of an archbishopric at Lichfield relates to Offa's son, Ecgfrith. After Hygeberht became archbishop, he consecrated Ecgfrith as king; the ceremony took place within a year of Hygeberht's elevation. It is possible that Jaenberht refused to perform the ceremony, and that Offa needed an alternative archbishop for that purpose. The ceremony itself is noteworthy for two reasons: it's the first recorded consecration of any English king, and it's unusual in that it asserted Ecgfrith's royal status while his father was still alive. Offa would have been aware that Charlemagne's sons,
Pippin and
Louis, had been consecrated as kings by Pope Adrian, and probably wished to emulate the impressive dignity of the Frankish court. Other precedents did exist:
Æthelred of Mercia is said to have nominated his son
Coenred as king during his lifetime, and Offa may have known of Byzantine examples of royal consecration. When Jaenberht died in 792, he was replaced by Æthelheard, who was consecrated by Hygeberht, now senior in his turn. Subsequently Æthelheard appears as a witness on charters and presides at synods without Hygeberht, so it appears that Offa continued to respect Canterbury's authority.
A letter from Pope Adrian to Charlemagne survives which makes reference to Offa, but the date is uncertain; it may be as early as 784 or as late as 791. In it Adrian recounts a rumour that had reached him: Offa had reportedly proposed to Charlemagne that Adrian should be deposed, and replaced by a Frankish pope. Adrian disclaims all belief in the rumour, but it's clear it had been a concern to him. The enemies of Offa and Charlemagne, described by Adrian as the source of the rumour, are not named. It is unclear whether this letter is related to the legatine mission of 786; if it predates it, then the mission might have been partly one of reconciliation, but the letter might well have been written after the mission.
Offa was a generous patron of the church, founding several churches and monasteries, often dedicated to St Peter. Among these was St Albans Abbey, which he probably founded in the early 790s. Control of religious houses was one way in which a ruler of the day could provide for his family, and to this end Offa ensured (by acquiring papal privileges) that many of them would remain the property of his wife or children after his death.
Either Offa or
Ine of Wessex is traditionally supposed to have founded the
Schola Saxonum in Rome, in what is today the Roman
rione, or district, of
Borgo. The Schola Saxonum took its name from the militias of Saxons who served in Rome, but it eventually developed into a hostelry for English visitors to the city.
European connections
Offa's diplomatic relations with Europe are well documented, but appear to belong only to the last dozen years of his reign. In about 789, or shortly before, Charlemagne proposed that his son Charles marry one of Offa's daughters, most likely Ælfflæd. Offa countered with a request that his son Ecgfrith should also marry Charlemagne's daughter Bertha: Charlemagne was outraged by the request, and broke off contact with Britain, forbidding English ships from landing in his ports. Alcuin's letters make it clear that by the end of 790 the dispute was still not resolved, and that Alcuin was hoping to be sent to help make peace. In the end diplomatic relations were restored, at least partly by the agency of Gervold, the abbot of
St Wandrille.
Charlemagne sought support from the English church at the
council of Frankfurt in 794, where the canons passed in 787 at the
second council of Nicaea were repudiated, and the heresies of two Spanish bishops,
Felix and
Elipandus, were condemned. In 796, Charlemagne wrote to Offa; the letter survives and refers to a previous letter of Offa's to Charlemagne. This correspondence between the two kings produced the first surviving documents in English diplomatic history. Charlemagne's letter also refers to exiles from England, naming Odberht, who was almost certainly the same person as
Eadberht Praen, among them.
Egbert of Wessex was another refugee from Offa who took shelter at the Frankish court. It is clear that Charlemagne's policy included support for elements opposed to Offa; in addition to sheltering Egbert and Eadberht he also sent gifts to
Æthelred I of Northumbria.
Events in southern Britain to 796 have sometimes been portrayed as a struggle between Offa and Charlemagne, but the disparity in their power was enormous. By 796 Charlemagne had become master of an empire which stretched from the
Atlantic Ocean to the
Great Hungarian Plain, and Offa and then Coenwulf were clearly minor figures by comparison.
Government
The nature of Mercian kingship isn't clear from the limited surviving sources. There are two main theories regarding the ancestry of Mercian kings of this period. One is that descendants of different lines of the royal family competed for the throne. In the mid-seventh century, for example,
Penda had placed royal kinsmen in control of conquered provinces. Alternatively, it may be that a number of kin-groups with local power-bases may have competed for the succession. The sub-kingdoms of the
Hwicce, the
Tomsæte, and the unidentified Gaini are examples of such power-bases. Marriage alliances could also have played a part. Competing magnates, those called in charters "dux" or "princeps" (that is, leaders), may have brought the kings to power. In this model, the Mercian kings are little more than leading noblemen. Offa seems to have attempted to increase the stability of Mercian kingship, both by the elimination of dynastic rivals to his son Ecgfrith, and the reduction in status of his subject kings, sometimes to the rank of ealdorman. He was ultimately unsuccessful, however; Ecgfrith only survived in power for a few months, and ninth-century Mercia continued to draw its kings from multiple dynastic lines.
There is evidence that Offa constructed a series of defensive
burhs, or fortified towns; the locations are not generally agreed on but may include Bedford, Hereford, Northampton, Oxford, and Stamford. In addition to their defensive uses, these
burhs are thought to have been administrative centres, serving as regional markets and indicating a transformation of the Mercian economy away from its origins as a grouping of midland peoples. The
burhs are forerunners of the defensive network successfully implemented by Alfred the Great a century later to deal with the Danish invasions. However, Offa didn't necessarily understand the economic changes that came with the
burhs, so it isn't safe to assume he envisioned all their benefits. Offa's Kentish charters show him laying these same burdens on the recipients of his grants there, and this may be a sign that the obligations were being spread outside Mercia. These burdens were part of Offa's response to the threat of "pagan seaman".
Offa issued laws in his name, but no details of them have survived. They are known only from a mention by Alfred the Great, in the preface to Alfred's own law code. Alfred says that he's included in his code those laws of Offa,
Ine of Wessex and
Æthelberht of Kent which he found "most just". The laws may have been an independent lawcode, but it's also possible that Alfred is referring to the report of the legatine mission in 786, which issued statutes that the Mercians undertook to obey.
Coinage
At the start of the eighth century,
sceattas were the primary circulating coinage. These were small silver pennies, which often didn't bear the name of either the moneyer or the king for whom they were produced. To contemporaries these were probably known as pennies, and are the coins referred to in the laws of
Ine of Wessex. This light coinage (in contrast to the heavier coins minted later in Offa's reign) can probably be dated to the late 760s and early 770s. A second, medium-weight coinage can be identified before the early 790s. These new medium-weight coins were heavier, broader, and thinner than the pennies they replaced,
Some coins from Offa's reign bear the names of the archbishops of Canterbury, Jaenberht and, after 792, Æthelheard. Jaenberht's coins all belong to the light coinage, rather than the later medium coinage. There is also evidence that coins were issued by
Eadberht, who was bishop of London in the 780s and possibly before. Offa's dispute with Jaenberht may have led him to allow Eadberht coining rights, which may then have been revoked when the see of Lichfield was elevated to an archbishopric.
The medium-weight coins often carry designs of high artistic quality, exceeding that of the contemporary Frankish currency.
Offa's queen, Cynethryth, was the first and only Anglo-Saxon queen ever named or portrayed on the coinage, in a remarkable series of pennies struck by the moneyer Eoba. These were probably derived from contemporary coins from the reign of the
Byzantine emperor
Constantine VI, who minted a series showing a portrait of his mother, the later Empress
Irene, though the Byzantine coins show a frontal bust of Irene rather than a profile, and so can't have been a direct model.
Around the time of Jaenberht's death and replacement with Æthelheard in 792-3, the silver currency was reformed a second time: in this "heavy coinage" the weight of the pennies was increased again, and a standardised non-portrait design was introduced at all mints. None of Jaenberht's or Cynethryth's coins occur in this coinage, whereas all of Æthelheard's coins are of the new, heavier weight.
There are also surviving gold coins from Offa's reign. One is a copy of an
Abbasid dinar struck in 774 by Caliph
Al-Mansur, with "Offa Rex" centred on the reverse. It is clear that the moneyer had no understanding of
Arabic as the Arabic text contains many errors. The coin may have been produced in order to trade with Islamic
Spain; or it may be part of the annual payment of 365 mancuses that Offa promised to Rome. There are other Western copies of Abbasid dinars of the period, but it isn't known whether they're English or Frankish. Two other English gold coins of the period survive, from two moneyers, Pendraed and Ciolheard: the former is thought to be from Offa's reign but the latter may belong either to Offa's reign or to that of Coenwulf, who came to the throne in 796. Nothing definite is known about their use, but they may have been struck to be used as alms.
Although many of the coins bear the name of a moneyer, there's no indication of the mint where each coin was struck. As a result the number and location of mints used by Offa is uncertain. Current opinion is that there were four mints, in Canterbury, Rochester, East Anglia and London. Some of his charters use the title "Rex Anglorum", or "King of the English", and this has been seen as a sweeping statement of his power. There is debate on this point, however, as several of the charters in which Offa is named "rex Anglorum" are of doubtful authenticity. They may represent later forgeries of the tenth century, when this title was standard for kings of
England. Many historians regard Offa's achievements as second only to
Alfred the Great among the Anglo-Saxon kings. Offa's reign has sometimes been regarded as a key stage in the transition to a unified England, but this is no longer the general view among historians in the field. In the words of Simon Keynes, "Offa was driven by a lust for power, not a vision of English unity; and what he left was a reputation, not a legacy."
Death and succession
Offa died in 796, on either the 26 or 29 July, and was buried in Bedford. He was succeeded by his son, Ecgfrith, but according to the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Ecgfrith died after a reign of only 141 days. A letter written by Alcuin in 797 to a Mercian ealdorman named Osbert makes it apparent that Offa had gone to great lengths to ensure that his son Ecgfrith would succeed him. Alcuin's opinion is that Ecgfrith "has not died for his own sins; but the vengeance for the blood his father shed to secure the kingdom has reached the son. For you know very well how much blood his father shed to secure the kingdom on his son." It is apparent that in addition to Ecgfrith's consecration in 787, Offa had eliminated dynastic rivals; no close male relatives of Offa or Ecgfrith are recorded, and Coenwulf, Ecgfrith's successor, was only distantly related to Offa's line.
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Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://offa_of_mercia.totallyexplained.com">Offa of Mercia Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
