Eowa of Mercia
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Eowa (or Eawa) (d. 642) was a son of the
Mercia la, Merciorum regnum , conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia , common_name=Mercia , status=Kingdom , status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879)Client state of Wessex () , life_span=527–918 , era=Heptarchy , event_start= , date_start= , ye ...
n king
Pybba Pybba (570?–606/615) (also Pibba, Wibba, or Wybba) was an early King of Mercia. He was the son of Creoda and father of Penda and Eowa. Unusually, the names Pybba and Penda are likely of British Celtic, rather than Germanic, origin. His dat ...
and a brother of the Mercian king
Penda Penda (died 15 November 655)Manuscript A of the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' gives the year as 655. Bede also gives the year as 655 and specifies a date, 15 November. R. L. Poole (''Studies in Chronology and History'', 1934) put forward the theor ...
; he was possibly King of Northern Mercia, as the 8th-century ''
Historia Brittonum ''The History of the Britons'' ( la, Historia Brittonum) is a purported history of the indigenous British (Brittonic) people that was written around 828 and survives in numerous recensions that date from after the 11th century. The ''Historia Bri ...
'' reports that he was co-ruler with his brother Penda.


Battle of Maserfield

''Historia Brittonum'', Chapter 65, notes that "
enda Enda is an Irish given name. Though predominantly a male name, it can refer to a man or a woman. It may refer to: * Enda of Aran (died c. 530), Irish saint * Enda Barrett (born 1987), Irish hurler * Enda Bonner (born 1949), Irish politician * ...
fought the battle of Cocboy, in which fell Eawa, son of Pybba, his brother, king of the Mercians, and Oswald, king of the North-men, and he gained the victory by diabolical agency." The ''Annales Cambriae'' (644) mentions " e battle of Cogfry in which Oswald king of the Northmen and Eawa king of the Mercians fell." These two sources state that Eowa was a king of the Mercians himself at the time of the
Battle of Maserfield The Battle of Maserfield () was fought on 5 August 641 or 642 (642 according to Ward) between the Anglo-Saxon kings Oswald of Northumbria and Penda of Mercia, ending in Oswald's defeat, death, and dismemberment. The location was also known as ...
(or Cogwy), in which he was killed, on August 5 of what was probably the year 642. The later Mercian kings Æthelbald,
Offa Offa (died 29 July 796 AD) was King of Mercia, a kingdom of Anglo-Saxon England, from 757 until his death. The son of Thingfrith and a descendant of Eowa, Offa came to the throne after a period of civil war following the assassination of Æt ...
and
Ecgfrith Ecgfrith ( ang, Ecgfrið) was the name of several Anglo-Saxon kings in England, including: * Ecgfrith of Northumbria, died 685 * Ecgfrith of Mercia Ecgfrith was king of Mercia from 29 July to December 796. He was the son of Offa, one of the m ...
were descended from Eowa; the period of their rule began in 716 following the death of Penda's grandson
Ceolred Ceolred (died 716) was King of Mercia from 709 to 716. Mercia at the end of the 7th century By the end of the 7th century, England was almost entirely divided into kingdoms ruled by the Anglo-Saxons, who had come to Britain two hundred years ...
and ended with Ecgfrith's death in December 796. It was in the battle of Maserfield that
Oswald of Northumbria Oswald (; c 604 – 5 August 641/642Bede gives the year of Oswald's death as 642, however there is some question as to whether what Bede considered 642 is the same as what would now be considered 642. R. L. Poole (''Studies in Chronology an ...
was defeated and killed by the Mercians under Penda. Eowa also died in that battle, although little is known about this. It has been suggested that Eowa may have been a co-ruler of the Mercians alongside Penda, or possibly even superior in status to Penda at this time (if so, this could explain why the ''Historia Brittonum'' seems to date Penda's reign from the battle of Maserfield), and that he may have been subject to Oswald and fighting as his ally in the battle."The Formation of the Mercian Kingdom", in S. Bassett's ''The Origins of Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms''. It is possible that it was customary among the Mercians until this time for there to be more than one king, and Penda and Eowa may have ruled over the southern and northern Mercians respectively. Neither
Bede Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom o ...
, in his ''
Ecclesiastical History of the English People The ''Ecclesiastical History of the English People'' ( la, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum), written by Bede in about AD 731, is a history of the Christian Churches in England, and of England generally; its main focus is on the conflict be ...
'', nor the ''
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' is a collection of annals in Old English, chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the ''Chronicle'' was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alf ...
'' mentions Eowa's participation or death at Maserfield, or his previously being a Mercian king, but the ''Chronicle'' later mentions him when tracing the descent of Æthelbald and Offa. Nicholas Brooks wrote that, if Eowa is considered to have ruled during the period between roughly 635 and Maserfield, this could account for an obscure recorded Welsh raid into Mercian territory, during which it is said that no mercy was shown to "book-holding monks". Brooks noted that if Eowa was a Northumbrian puppet, there would be the possibility that Oswald may have made moves to promote Christianity in Mercia at this time, thus accounting for the presence of monks in what was still a pagan kingdom. Since Penda is known to history as an ally of the Welsh, this along with the presence of monks makes it seem unlikely that the raid could have taken place during his rule.


Descendants

The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' records the lineage of two Mercian kings of Eowa's blood, Æthelbald and
Offa Offa (died 29 July 796 AD) was King of Mercia, a kingdom of Anglo-Saxon England, from 757 until his death. The son of Thingfrith and a descendant of Eowa, Offa came to the throne after a period of civil war following the assassination of Æt ...
: "Aethelbald was Alweo's offspring, Alweo Eawa's offspring, Eawa Pybba's offspring...", Later, it gives the lineage of Eowa's great-great-grandson Offa, who ruled from 757 to 796 and was descended from Osmod rather than Eowa's other son Alweo: "That Offa was Thingfrith's offspring, Thingfrith Eanwulf's offspring, Eanwulf Osmod's offspring, Osmod Eawa's offspring, Eawa Pybba's offspring, Pybba Creoda's offspring, Creoda Cynewald's offspring, Cynewald Cnebba's offspring, Cnebba Icel's offspring, Icel Eomer's offspring, Eomer Angeltheow's offspring, Angeltheow Offa's offspring, Offa Wermund's offspring, Wermund Wihtlaeg's offspring, Wihtlaeg Woden's offspring".


See also

*
Kings of Mercia family tree The Kingdom of Mercia was a state in the English Midlands from the 6th century to the 10th century. For some two hundred years from the mid-7th century onwards it was the dominant member of the Heptarchy and consequently the most powerful of the ...


Notes and references


External links

* {{Kings of Mercia 642 deaths Mercian monarchs Anglo-Saxons killed in battle 7th-century English monarchs Year of birth unknown Anglo-Saxon warriors Monarchs killed in action House of Icel