Tag: Mercia

The Saxon Settlement of Tamworth in the 800s

The Saxon Settlement of Tamworth in the 800s

Like Lichfield and Repton, Tamworth has long been known to be a capital of the Saxon Mercian kingdom. Visitors today will find a more modern castle, which variously dates from the end of Saxon England up to the Victorian era, and one which is crammed with fascinating detail, from the herringbone wall beneath it to the beautiful Tudor windows of the great hall.

On a visit in 2021, I can also inform you that it currently had a third of the fabulous Staffordshire Hoard on display and an excellent museum filled with all things Saxon. (I believe it still holds some of the Staffordshire Hoard). Castles, if they were built in the late Saxon period, and some of them were, would have been constructed from wood. It was only later that they came to be built or rebuilt in stone, as we recognise them today.

A view of the oldest part of Tamworth Castle, dating to after the end of Saxon England

Today’s castle wouldn’t have existed in the 820s and 830s. Indeed, it’s proven to be very difficult for archaeologists to determine where the original settlement of Tamworth lay, no doubt, because much of it has been overbuilt, just as in most places where habitation has been almost continuous. A fire in 1345 might well have destroyed any remaining wooden dwellings, making the endeavour even more difficult.

Map showing the location of Tamworth, at the heart of the Saxon kingdom of Mercia. It is close to Lichfield, another important location, and to Repton where, for a period, the ruling family were buried.

It has been possible to reconstruct Tamworth in the 900s, when it was designated a ‘burh,’ a defensive settlement in which the local population could seek shelter from the Viking raiders behind its walls. (I can’t find the image at the moment).

But it is possible to imagine how Saxon Tamworth might well have looked in the 800s, when the Eagle of Mercia Chronicles takes place. The rivers, The Tame and the Anker, run in front of the current castle, and there’s a slight rise, on which I used to spend many happy hours running up and down the steps, with flowers blooming in the flower beds. From there, it would have been possible to see a reasonable distance south. The river would have been put to good use, and the remains of a water mill have been found and dated to the later Saxon period. Houses would have been built from wood, wattle and daub with thatched roofs, and there would have been workshops as well as residential dwellings. At the centre of the settlement would have been a lord’s hall. While this hasn’t been found in Tamworth, it could have measured upwards of 24 metres long by 6 metres wide. It’s believed it was also surrounded by a defensive ditch. Somewhat sheltered, as the road to Lichfield is uphill, it would have been a pleasant, and I assure you, on the right day, very warm, location for Mercian kings to have lived within. It was close to Watling Street too, allowing easy access to the rest of Mercia.

View of Tamworth castle from the bridge
The famous Herringbone wall (I think it’s famous, anyway).
The Tudor window from the outside
The Tudor window from the inside
The wall walkway
View from the bridge crossing the river
Another view from the bridge over the river

Check out the ‘offical’ Tamworth Castle website.

Read more about The Eagle of Mercia Chronicles.

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Mercia: Exploring the Heartland of Saxon England and Its Lasting Influence

Having written more books than I probably should about the Saxon kingdom of Mercia, and with more planned, I’ve somewhat belatedly realised I’ve never explained what Mercia actually was. I’m going to correct that now.

Having grown up within the ancient kingdom of Mercia, still referenced today in such titles as the West Mercia Police, I feel I’ve always been aware of the heritage of the Midlands of England. But that doesn’t mean everyone else is.

Where was Mercia?

Simply put, the kingdom of Mercia, in existence from c.550 to about c.925 (and then continuing as an ealdordom, and then earldom) covered the area in the English Midlands, perhaps most easily described as the area north of the River Thames, and south of the Humber Estuary – indeed, nerdy historians, and Bede, call the area the kingdom of the Southumbrians, in contrast to the kingdom of the Northumbrians – do you see what Bede did there?

While it was not always that contained, and while it was not always that large, Mercia was essentially a land-locked state (if you ignore all the rivers that gave easy access to the sea), in the heartland of what we now know as England.

Map of Early England, showing the location of Mercia for the post What was the ancient kingdom of Mercia?

What was Mercia?

Mercia was one of the Heptarchy—the seven ancient kingdoms that came to dominate Saxon England – Mercia, Wessex (West Saxons), the East Angles, Essex (East Saxons), Sussex (South Saxons) and Kent.

Map showing the settlement of England in about the year 600, showing Mercians, Angles, Saxons and Kent
User:Hel-hama, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons

In time, it would be one of only four to survive the infighting and amalgamation of the smaller kingdoms, alongside Northumbria, the kingdom of the East Angles, Mercia, and Wessex (the West Saxons).

The End of Mercia?

Subsequently, it has traditionally been said to have been subsumed by the kingdom of Wessex, which then grew to become all of ‘England’ as we know it.

This argument is subject to some current debate, especially as the king credited with doing this, Athelstan, the first and only of his name, might well have been born into the West Saxon dynasty but was potentially raised in Mercia, by his aunt, Lady Æthelflæd, and was, indeed, declared king of Mercia on the death of his father, King Edward the Elder in July 924, and only subsequently became king of Wessex, and eventually, king of all England.

Map of Britain in the tenth century, showing Mercia, Wessex, Kent and the kingdom of York.

Mercia’s kings

But, before all that, Mercia had its own kings. One of the earliest, and perhaps most well-known, was Penda, in the mid-7th century, the alleged last great pagan king. (Penda features in my Gods and Kings trilogy). Throughout the eighth century, Mercia had two more powerful kings, Æthelbald and Offa (of Offa’s Dyke fame), and then the ninth century saw kings Wiglaf and Coelwulf II (both of whom feature as characters in my later series, The Eagle of Mercia Chronicles and the Mercian Ninth Century), before the events of the last 800s saw Æthelflæd, one of the most famous rulers, leading the kingdom against the Viking raiders.

The Earldom of Mercia

And even when the kingdom itself ceased to exist, it persisted in the ealdordom and earldom of Mercia, (sometimes subdivided further), and I’ve also written about the House of Leofwine, who were ealdormen and then earls of Mercia throughout the final century of Saxon England, a steadfast family not outmatched by any other family, even the ruling line of the House of Wessex.

In fact, Mercia, as I said above, persists as an idea today even though it’s been many years since the end of Saxon England. And indeed, my two Erdington Mysteries, are also set in a place that would have been part of Mercia a thousand years before:) (I may be a little bit obsessed with the place).

Image shows the 6 book cover titles in the Tales of Mercia series of interconnected tales by historical fiction author MJ Porter
The Tales of Mercia
Timeline of MJ Porter's Tales of Mercia series, starting with the Dark Age Chronicles and ending with The Earl of Mercia's Father

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Æthelfest 2023 and a trip to Tamworth, in the heart of Mercia

The statue of Æthelflæd and a young Athelstan, the future king of England, at Tamworth Castle

It is possible that I couldn’t have picked a hotter weekend to venture from my coastal location to the heart of the former Mercian kingdom, but that didn’t stop the event from being fantastic.

Æthelfest, a celebration of all things Saxon, with an emphasis on Æthelflæd, the lady of Mercia, and the anniversary of her death, which occurred on 12th June 918, included author talks (of which I gave one), a reenactment camp, music in the bandstand, and even some ‘have a go archery’, of which I was brilliant – of course. I met Annie Whitehead, who also writes about Mercia, and managed to snag a place on one of her very popular talks.

Regrettably, it was super toasty while I was there, and so I massively applaud the re-enactors who even managed to have a battle with all their equipment on.

Tamworth Castle currently houses some of the Staffordshire Hoard, and it was great to see it in all its shining glory, although I didn’t take any photos of it. But, I did get some snaps of the coins they have in the museum and also had an Athelstan coin struck by the re-enactors.

It’s to be hoped that the event proved popular and will be repeated.

While I was there, I also took the opportunity to visit the ‘strange little building’ close to where I grew up, and which has been so instrumental in my desire to write about Saxon England, and particularly Mercia.

While I’ve not written about Lady Æthelflæd (yet), I have written about her daughter and the events immediately after her mother’s death, when Lady Ælfwynn succeeded to the kingdom of Mercia, but only for a short amount of time, in The Lady of Mercia’s Daughter and A Conspiracy of Kings – which feature on my bookmark below:)

If you fancy checking out the books, you can find The Lady of Mercia’s Daughter here.

A huge thank you to Tamworth Castle for inviting me to the event. And if I met you there, do please say hello.

The River Thames in the Saxon period

In Eagle of Mercia, young Icel and his allies are busily guarding the River Thames against a potential Viking raider attack. The Viking raiders certainly made use of the many rivers running through England at the time (and throughout the British Isles), but the river was also significant as a very definitive and solid boundary between the Saxon kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia, which to the west, where the River Thames doesn’t flow, was continued by the earthworks known as the Wansdyke.

London, now the capital of the United Kingdom, wasn’t always as important as we might assume, and indeed, it wasn’t ever the capital of Wessex or Mercia. These two kingdoms fought most fiercely over the settlement. It wasn’t even overly important to the Romans, either. And this is why I’ve perhaps been remiss in not truly considering its significance. As rivers have changed their course over the years, so has the River Thames. And what’s most fascinating about the River Thames is that, seemingly for long periods during the Saxon era, it wasn’t navigable, as we might expect it to have been. 

Map of Early England by Flintlock Covers

‘During this period, as perhaps as other times, there may well have been a division between use of the Thames in its today reach and use of it above the tidal head. Paleoenvironmental evidence suggests that a relative drop in river levels during the Roman period meant that the tidal head was perhaps as low as Londinium itself, but that it (and thereby the range of easy navigability) generally moved upstream during the Anglo-Saxon period. This trend was not, however, uniform, and there were also brief periods (such as the late tenth to eleventh centuries) when the tidal reach shifted back downstream again.’ p. 271

It seems then, that when considering London, or Londinium/Lundenwic/Londonia, we also need to be mindful of the era in the Saxon period that we’re writing about. For the first Viking age,

‘A combination of the seasonal (and presumably climatic) unreliability of riverine travel and  the need on many occasions to travel upstream cannot have made it easy for the Vikings to use the Thames for shock offensives… and there is no clear example of a Viking force travelling by water up the Thames further than Fulham.’ p.278

Clues to how passable the River Thames might have been can be traced.

‘Without the construction of bridges, the river would have been impassable except by ferry, from its estuary as far as the lowest fording point, perhaps as low as Halliford near Shepperton, and between the various fording points. Even where the middle and upper stretches could be forded, such crossings were not guaranteed to be easy. Lechlade and Cricklade, two potentially treacherous upper Thames crossings, severely affected by flooding in winter were named Old English (ge)lad ‘difficult river crossing.’ p.279

As with all things, we should be wary of assuming that current conditions would have been prevalent in the past. The River Thames certainly falls into that category. So while, yes, it was certainly a decisive boundary between the Saxon kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia, on occasion, it wouldn’t have been as decisive as at others. This, I find fascinating, and just another of those ‘facts’ travellers to the Saxon era should be wary about. While we know (hopefully not a spoiler) that London was attacked in the 840s and 850s, prior to this, it might well have been impossible for the Viking raiders to attack in the way they were used to. This, perhaps, accounts for why they chose more coastal locations, such as the Isle of Sh.

Map by Flintlock Covers for Wolf of Mercia

(Quotes taken from Beyond the Burghal Hidage by Baker and Brookes)

Read Eagle of Mercia now.

https://books2read.com/EagleofMercia