Mercia and the making of England - Ian W Walker

The role of King Alfred and his successors in the defence of Wessex against the Vikings, in the recovery of lost territory and in the forging of a unified English kingdom is widely known. However, less is known about the part played in these crucial events by the Mercians - the neighbours and rivals of the West Saxons, who occupied central England. This text re-examines the events of the mid-8th to late-10th centuries to provide a balanced account of the period.;Traditionally, historians have focused on the decline of Mercia and the rise of Wessex, but Ian Walker reveals that, despite dynastic disputes and invasion, Mercia remained a powerful kingdom even after the long, successful reign of Offa. Moreover, he shows how the very real threat of Viking dominance persuaded Mercia and Wessex to co-operate as equals against a common enemy, making marriage alliances, launching joint campaigns, building fortresses and working in parallel to restore control over areas under Viking occupation. There was therefore a long period of co-existence and co-operation between Mercian leaders such as Aethelred and the redoubtable Lady Aethelflaed (the only woman to rule an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in her own right) and the rulers of Wessex such as Alfred the Great and Edward the Elder.;The author goes on to trace how the unified kingdom of England came about partly because of this process, and partly because a number of dynastic accidents, not, as is traditionally argued, because of West Saxon conquest. England was very much a new kingdom, a "rex anglorum", rather than a greater Wessex, and without Mercia, it might never have been established.