Penda of Mercia

Penda was king of Mercia and one of the most powerful rulers in seventh-century Britain. He allied with Cadwallon of Gwynedd to defeat Edwin of Northumbria and later killed Oswald at Maserfield. Although remembered as a pagan opponent of Christian kings, he permitted Christian preaching among people under his authority. He was defeated and killed by Oswiu at the Battle of the Winwaed in 655.

Penda appears across Edoardo Albert’s Northumbrian novels as the formidable Mercian rival to Edwin, Oswald and Oswiu. Fiction often casts him as the last great pagan king, but that label can conceal his flexible alliances and the political rather than purely religious basis of his wars. His long success makes him essential to any account of how Mercia emerged as a major power.