The Mercian Chronicles with Max Adams: Chalke History Festival Special

·43 min·4 clips

Historian Max Adams reveals why Mercia is the missing piece in Anglo-Saxon history, piecing together fragments like a film editor.

This episode features historian Max Adams returning to discuss his new book 'The Mercian Chronicles: King Offa and the Birth of the Anglo-Saxon State.' Adams begins by explaining why Mercia represents a gap in historical understanding—there are no surviving narrative sources like Bede's works for Mercia. He describes Mercia as a confederation of Midlands peoples including the Hwicce and Middle Anglians, with core lands around the upper Trent River. The discussion focuses on how Mercian kings established England's first medieval state through unprecedented dynastic stability, with Kings Æthelbald and Offa reigning for a combined 80 years. Adams details how monasteries became economic engines, trading salt from Droitwich, wool, and fine textiles along river networks. He explains the complex relationship between monarchy and church, where religious institutions served as both spiritual centers and economic powerhouses. The conversation covers Mercian administrative innovations like the burgh system of fortified towns that predated Alfred's similar system. Adams analyzes political conflicts, particularly King Æthelbald's attempts to extract services from churches, leading to synods at places like Gumley. He discusses Mercia's relations with other kingdoms through marriage alliances and diplomacy, including Offa's fraught relationship with Charlemagne. The episode examines Offa's Dyke as both engineering achievement and political statement. Adams concludes by explaining how Viking invasions exploited Mercia's trade networks and how Wessex eventually controlled the historical narrative, diminishing Mercia's legacy. The interview ends with personal questions about Adams' musical interests as relaxation from historical research.

As heard by us

A Mercian history built from fragments, trade goods, and the records that did not survive.

Max Adams uses this History with Jackson discussion to open up Mercia, the stretch of pre-Norman conquest history that resists neat framing. He builds the picture from what survives: a Kentish king's gifts to Boniface, imported lava quern stones, books moving to the continent,…

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Press play if Mercia sounds like the missing chapter you keep meaning to fill.

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