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Episode Description
Offa, king of Mercia from 757 to 796, was the most powerful and successful Anglo-Saxon ruler of pre-Viking England. Today Offa is probably best remembered for Offa's Dyke, a massive 150 mile long earthwork that runs along the border of England and Wales. But Offa's contribution to the creation of the kingdom of England goes far beyond that. Offa was the heir to more than a century of Mercian military success that established a Mercian hegemony over England between the Humber River to the north and the river Thames to the south. In this episode, Professor Rory Naismith, author of Offa, King of the Mercians, explains how Offa extended Mercian domination over southern England and transformed the Mercian hegemony into a "greater Mercia" ruled directly by the king. In so doing, Offa provided a model of governance for the tenth-century kings of Wessex, Athelstan and his successors, in their creation of a unified kingdom of "England."
Rory Naismaith, Offa, King of the Mercians (Yale University Press, 2026)
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Intro and exit music are by Alexander Nakarada
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