KINGS, SAINTS, AND MONASTERIES IN PRE-VIKING MERCIA

Abstract

From the first, men and women of royal birth formed a distinctive, indeed preponderant, class among Anglo-Saxon saints. At first sight it would appear that Mercia, whose royal family was converted relatively late, lacked early royal cults of the distinction of those of Northumbria, Kent, and East Anglia. Nevertheless, a considerable number of Mercian kings, princes, and princesses achieved sainthood in the late 7th and early 8th centuries, albeit generally in obscure and localized circumstances. The 7th-century pagan king, Penda, was (or was reputed) the progenitor of many saints, including his son, Æthelred, his daughters, Cyneburg and Cyneswith, and his granddaughter, Werburg, and more doubtfully Edith and Eadburg, his supposed daughters, and Rumwold, Wulflad, Rufinus, Osyth, and Mildburg, his reputed grandchildren. In the 8th and 9th centuries Mercian interest in royal saints persisted. Æthelbald's relative, Guthlac, became the object of an important cult in the earlier 8th century, and two Mercian princes, Kenelm and Wigstan, attracted devotion in the 9th. Moreover, the Mercians accorded similar honours to members of other royal families: the Northumbrian king, Oswald, is a particularly notable example, but there were others, including the Northumbrian prince, Ealhmund (Alcmund), and the East Anglian king, Æthelberht.