Not sure if this part messes with the pacing, but there we go
Chapter Titles From a History of the Anglish People
By Bede of Jarway
- CHAPTER XIV OSWINE APPOINTED HILDA OF HARTLEPOOL AS ABBESS OF STREANSALC ABBEY (657AD) (1)
- CHAPTER XV KING CENWALH OF WESSEX DEFEATSED THE DOMUNNI AT PEONNUM AND FORCEED THEM WEST (658AD) (2)
- CHAPTER XVI HOW ALDWYN OF GLOUWESTER BROUGHT THE CATHOLIC FAITH TO THE PEOPLES OF THE SOUTH WELSH VALLEYS AND HILLS
- CHAPTER XVII WILFRED, HAVING RETURNED FROM HIS TRAVELS INTO GAUL, FOUNDED THE ABBEY AT EORFORWIC (664AD) (3)
Excerpt from History of Britain for Schools by Aedelbert Steiner
Published by Sovereign Books, 1935
Chapter 4:
Following his assencion to the throne of Mercia in 656CE (Being also the 1st year of Oswine) with the death of his brother Paeda, Wulfhere the Bitter, king of Mercia quickly began building his power base. He spent the opening years of his reign securing nobles loyal to him rather than those that might side with Oswine of Northumbria (As many had been appointed following Paeda’s defeat). During Wulfhere had several of the northern Mercian lords killed in the period 656-661 as they were still loyal to the victorious Oswine
Wulfhere had watched Oswald of Northumbria defeat and kill both his father Penda and brother Paeda and he quite openly wanted revenge. With Oswine putting down Pictish rebellions to the north of Burmecia (4) and Cenwalh expanding Wessex over the River Easca, Paeda Expanded his territory south. In 661CE Wulfhere took his army into the Ashdown hills (5) and sacked, burned and pillages settlements across this region and conquered the Meonwara, a Jutish tribe that settled the Ashdown Hills as far as the southern coast who were technically under the rule of the Kingdom of Sussex. Following this he travelled across the straights to the Island of Whitgar and conquered them in battle. The people of Whitgar and Sussex proper were one of the few pagan areas left in Britain (until the settling of the Northern isles by the norsemen in the 8th and 9th centuries) and as part of his efforts to bring the Whitgar under his control he forced them to be convert to Christianity.
Wulfhere wintered in Meonwara, securing both them and the Whitgar as reliable before marching east into Sussex proper and establishing Sussex as a subject kingdom of Mercia. He placed the puppet Aethelwealh (7) on the throne of Sussex and as Aethelwealh was a pagan he sponsored his baptism as a chrstian, travelling back to Mercia and Tamworig to see Aethelwealh be converted by Diuma, the bishop of Tamorig Abbey at that time.
Exerpt from What if Moments in Anglish History
Winfrith Cortan, New Dawn Books, 2012
What if: The Baptism at Tamorig. 662
After putting his puppet Aethelwealh on the throne of the Kingdom of Sussex, Wulfhere of Mercia now controlled a significant amount of the trade between Angland and Francia. To improve relations between Sussex and Francia as well as to show himself as a benevolent forward thinking king, Wulhfere took Aethelwealh back to the Mercian capital of Tamorig to be baptised at the church Wulfhere had had built upon his own conversion (now the site of Saint Aidain’s church, Tamorig).
When Wulfhere travelled back from Sussex he split his army, travelling with some while leaving some to keep the peace in Sussex and on the Isle of Whitgar. This may have been a mistake in hindsight. If Wulfhere had had Aethelwealh baptised in Sussex or travelled with more of his army to Tamorig then it is possible then he may not have caught the attention of Cenwalh of Wessex. Cenwalh was suspicions of Wulfhere’s expansion and seemingly dividing Cenwalh from any potential allies. Seeking to exploit this vulnerability in the Mercian forces he took his armies north towards Glecaster (then more commonly called Glouwester by Wessex) a city technically under Mercia’s control through the Kingdom of the Hwicce though city was the center of the Anglish Catholic community and was quite independently minded.
Upon hearing of Cenwalh’s advance, Wulfhere marched the part of his army he had with him south to the Severn Valley and the Sussex army West. The two armies would face on the edge of the Cotswold hills. . The battle would be long and bloody with Wulfhere split forces facing the centralised army of Cenwalh at two sites on the Cotswolds. These are generally called the battles of Wolfsholm (named for the modern town on its site itself deriving it’s name from Wulfhere) and the battle of Circencester (not to be confused with the battle of the same name in 633 (8). These two battles divided Wulfhere’s forces, which had marched hard over several days, against the rested forces of Cenwalh, first losing at Cirencester then winning at Wolfsholme. Wulfhere would defeat Cenwalh but at the cost of most of his forces. He withdrew to Glecaster and if some sources in history such as the playwright Aldred would have you believe, in a fit of rage he drove the Catholic priests and many of the people of Glecaster from the city, had the Catholic bishop of Glecaster killed and put the church to the torch. The catholics would move west into Wales and Mercia would assert direct control over the city, establishing its own Anglish Bishophoric(9)
We digress. The question is, if Wulfhere hadn’t split his army and had been able to face Cenwalh head on. Given he succeeded with his army split, it is possible he could have soundly defeated Cenwalh and asserted Mercian domination over Wessex, perhaps even killing Cenwalh and/or annexing territory. He might have had enough forces to march south to Sulis and other cities in Wessex. This could have seen the Britons, recently defeated by Cenwalh, rise up and reclaim their lands. Wulfhere’s response to the phyrric victory at Wolfsholm tarnished his reputation with many of the other kings of Angland and this would be made worse in the coming years with the sacking of Rochester. He might have been seen more favourably without the incident at Glecaster. Further into the future, the battles at Wolfsholm and Cirencester lead to the deaths of many of Wulfhere’s most experienced men including the commander of the eastern half of the army (that fought at Cirencester) Thegn Garrett of Lichfield and it would take a lot of time to build his forces up and they would be trained without much of the military knowledge Mercia had gained in its wars with Northumbria and its conquest of Sussex, leaving them vulnerable and severely weakened.
Had Wulfhere had the King of Sussex baptised in the newly conquered kingdom, Glecaster might have had its Gewisse name, the abbey in the city might look to rome rather than Lindisfarne and moreso, Mercia might have had very different fortunes.
- One of the Saxon names for OTL Whitby, Whitby coming from the old Norse names for the settlement
- As OTL
- As OTL though with a strong celtic/Anglish church and a severe lack of catholic presence in Britain there is no Synod of Whitby so the abbey is founded as and remains celtic/Anglish
- A corruption of the old spelling Bernicia, a no-prize to anyone who gets the reference.
- Ashdown hills= an OTL alternate term for the Berkshire Downs
- OTL Isle of Wight (Whitgar being a name for the Jutish people who settled there)
- I mean presumably there was a monarch before him, but i cannot find the name of the previous king, there’s a gap from the end of the fifth century up to the middly seventh. So i didnt name him
- This happened as OTL
- See @The Professor , I’ve written your interestng point on language into the story)