“Anno 757. Ethelbald rex Merciorum a suis tutoribus fraudulenter interfectus est. Eodem vero anno Merci bellum inter se civile inierunt. Bearnred in fugam verso, Offa rex victor extitit.”—Simeon Dunelm: 757.
Also,
See Matthew Westminster, who states that Ethelbald perished in battle with Cuthred king of the West-Saxons, “in loco qui Sachêda dicitur,” to whom Beorred succeeded.
He further states,
“Anno gratiæ DCCLVIII gens de regno Merciorum contra regem suum Beornredum insurgens pro eo quod populum non æquis legibus sed per tyrannidem gubernaret, convenerunt in unum omnes tam nobiles quam ignobiles et, Offa duce, adolescente strenuissimo, ipsum a regno expulerunt. Quo facto unanimi omnium consensu predictum Offam in regem tam Clerus quam populus coronarunt.”
Offa is made out to be the eighteenth in descent from Woden, who was the sixteenth from Noah!—Matt. West., p. 274–5.
V. also Holinshed’s Hist., b. 6. ch. 1., A. D. 755.—Hoveden’s Annal. in Savile’s Collection, 409.—Hen. Huntingdon, ib. 342. Ingr. Sax. Chron., A. D. 755.
No sooner had Offa been established, not less by the hearts of his subjects than by the acts of his power or the will of his predecessor, upon the throne of Mercia, than he applied himself to the duties of a barbaric sovereign, confirming his dominions and extending the limits of his territory. Brave and ambitious, endowed with personal vigour and mental abilities unequalled by any of his age and country, he gradually directed his powers against the neighbouring sovereigns. Circumstanced as the Saxon kingdoms in Britain were, nothing could be more easy than to find a pretext for offence; and whether we suppose, with the Monk of St. Alban’s, that Offa was instigated in his ambitious views by his wife Cynedritha, or believe that he simply acted on the defensive against the confederate monarchs of Deira, East-Anglia, Kent, Sussex, and Wessex, certain it is that his wars with these opponents terminated to his glory and their disgrace. At Feldhard in East-Anglia, the superiority of Offa’s forces was first made manifest. Within two years after this engagement he won the spolia opima in the decisive conflict at Otteford, near Sevenoaks, with the troops of Kent. And not long subsequently, he routed the combined forces of his enemies under the command of Cynewulf—himself a celebrated warrior—at Bensington, or Benson, (about twelve miles on the London side of Oxford,) the Villa Regia of the West Saxons, and dismantled the fortifications which their monarch had in vain striven to preserve.
After such specimens of prowess on the part of the Mercian king, it is no marvel that the kings of Deira and of Sussex should seek a distant and friendly land as the scene of their operations against the successful Offa. They sought refuge and assistance at the court of Marmodius, king of Wales; and against the Britons accordingly Offa next directed his arms. Aided by their native fastnesses these new opponents afforded protracted resistance on the western boundary of his kingdom, and with them and their Saxon allies he had many and severe engagements. Owing to the craft of Marmodius he met with some reverses in his first campaign, and on one occasion narrowly escaped with his life. Eventually, however, his good genius prevailed. He annexed to Mercia the east of Wales as far as the Wye, planted the subject territory with Anglo-Saxons, and built the wall known by the name of Offa’s Dyke,[5] about one hundred miles in extent, from the æstuary of the Dee to the mouth of the first-mentioned river.
[5] The following is the substance of Offa’s war with the Britons, as collected from Speed’s Chronicle. Their king at this period was Marmodius. The West-Saxons, in their struggles with Offa, had found in Marmodius an ally. On the discomfiture of Kenwolfe, (k. of W. S.) Offa marched to the borders of Wales. Previous letters and explanations had passed between the two monarchs, and the negociations were still, by the artifice of Marmodius, prolonged. “A stratagem (in the words of our authority) to protract time, and work upon advantage.” In this interim of compliments the Mercian king built a fortified dyke or ditch, commencing at Basingwark in Flintshire, and ending near Bristow at the fall of the Wye, and forming, in its utmost length, a barrier of about one hundred miles between the two kingdoms. “Marmodius, who openly bare saile to this wind, and seemed to winke at Offa’s intent, secretly called a council of state, wherein he declared how the act there in working would soon prove the bane of liberty unto their country, and the marke of dishonour to themselves and posterity for ever, therefore his advice was that by some stratagem it might be staid by time.” Accordingly, having secretly collected their allies the Saxons “both of the South, West, and North, upon St. Stephen’s day, at night, they suddenly brake down the banke of this fortification, filling up again great part of the ditch, and in the morning most furiously rushed into Offa his court, putting a great number to the sword who were more intent and regardful to the feast than to any defence from their cruel and merciless swords.” The effect of this successful stratagem was a short superiority on the side of the Britons. Offa’s army was routed, and himself in imminent danger. But his return was speedy, and his revenge decisive. He made their hostages his vassals and slaves, and entering Wales with a large army, conquered Marmodius, “and all his associates in the field.”