WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.740 Hey everyone, welcome to the show. Great to be 00:00:01.740 --> 00:00:05.379 diving in again. So imagine this kingdom, right? 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:09.339 Hugely influential, basically helps birth England 00:00:09.339 --> 00:00:14.880 as we know it. And yet, it's actual story. It's 00:00:14.880 --> 00:00:17.320 like whispers, you know? Almost like a phantom 00:00:17.320 --> 00:00:19.339 limb of history. That's a great way to put it. 00:00:19.480 --> 00:00:22.059 Today we are definitely plunging into that shadow 00:00:22.059 --> 00:00:24.100 world, the world of Mercia. Yeah, we're doing 00:00:24.100 --> 00:00:26.570 a deep dive into Max Adams, the... The birth 00:00:26.570 --> 00:00:29.589 of the Anglo -Saxons. We're trying to piece together 00:00:29.589 --> 00:00:32.469 this really fascinating story. Fascinating. And 00:00:32.469 --> 00:00:35.649 sometimes, let's be honest, pretty frustratingly 00:00:35.649 --> 00:00:38.039 incomplete. Totally. It's history, obviously, 00:00:38.280 --> 00:00:40.439 but it feels almost like detective work, doesn't 00:00:40.439 --> 00:00:42.979 it? Trying to reconstruct this Midland powerhouse. 00:00:43.119 --> 00:00:46.039 It really does. Adams took on a huge task here, 00:00:46.140 --> 00:00:48.600 trying to, you know, illuminate Mercia because 00:00:48.600 --> 00:00:50.859 its impact, well, it's undeniable. Right. But 00:00:50.859 --> 00:00:52.899 getting a continuous narrative like you get for 00:00:52.899 --> 00:00:55.619 Wessex down south or maybe Northumbria up north, 00:00:55.719 --> 00:00:59.399 it's just elusive for Mercia. And I think that's 00:00:59.399 --> 00:01:01.159 what really grabbed me about the book, actually. 00:01:01.359 --> 00:01:05.000 The sheer, like... Ingenuity needed to bring 00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:07.780 Mercia out of the shadows because Adams doesn't 00:01:07.780 --> 00:01:11.319 have that easy year by year chronicle to just 00:01:11.319 --> 00:01:13.599 follow along. No straightforward account at all. 00:01:13.680 --> 00:01:16.799 Instead, he's like masterfully weaving together 00:01:16.799 --> 00:01:19.000 all these different threads. You've got land 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:22.079 charters, mentions and beads, even though beads 00:01:22.079 --> 00:01:24.620 clearly got his Northumbrian bias. Absolutely. 00:01:24.640 --> 00:01:26.700 You always have to read bead with that in mind. 00:01:26.900 --> 00:01:28.799 And then there's the archaeology, the actual 00:01:28.799 --> 00:01:32.519 digs. It feels like trying to understand, I don't 00:01:32.519 --> 00:01:36.049 know. A lost city from just a few scattered pot 00:01:36.049 --> 00:01:38.590 shirts. And what's so interesting is how those 00:01:38.590 --> 00:01:40.530 individual pieces, when you start putting them 00:01:40.530 --> 00:01:44.049 side by side, they actually begin to show a really 00:01:44.049 --> 00:01:47.250 complex picture. Yeah. Mercia wasn't like one 00:01:47.250 --> 00:01:49.430 single thing. It was this collection of really 00:01:49.430 --> 00:01:52.109 distinct peoples. You know, the Rio Sensetna, 00:01:52.189 --> 00:01:54.109 the Washia. Middle angles. Middle angles, right. 00:01:54.170 --> 00:01:55.989 Each with their own sort of identities, their 00:01:55.989 --> 00:01:58.769 own histories, now all brought under this Mersian 00:01:58.769 --> 00:02:01.670 banner. It really underscores how early. england 00:02:01.670 --> 00:02:04.450 wasn't just you know england yet it was much 00:02:04.450 --> 00:02:07.469 more of a patchwork a mosaic yeah different cultures 00:02:07.469 --> 00:02:10.349 different loyalties all shifting around definitely 00:02:10.349 --> 00:02:13.090 and the book gives these amazing little glimpses 00:02:13.090 --> 00:02:15.409 these snapshots into the lives of people you 00:02:15.409 --> 00:02:18.039 just never hear about like who well Through things 00:02:18.039 --> 00:02:20.240 like the witness lists on old charters, basically, 00:02:20.439 --> 00:02:22.860 you know, old property records. You see the names 00:02:22.860 --> 00:02:26.419 of noble women popping up or local priests and 00:02:26.419 --> 00:02:28.300 bishops, regional leaders. It's like getting 00:02:28.300 --> 00:02:30.939 a roll call for the supporting cast. That's fantastic. 00:02:31.139 --> 00:02:33.479 It really fleshes out the society beyond just 00:02:33.479 --> 00:02:35.620 the big names, the kings and the battles everyone 00:02:35.620 --> 00:02:38.039 focuses on. Exactly. It gives a much richer feel 00:02:38.039 --> 00:02:39.840 for how things actually worked on the ground. 00:02:40.169 --> 00:02:42.509 And those charters, they are just invaluable, 00:02:42.949 --> 00:02:45.330 aren't they? They give you details. The big narrative 00:02:45.330 --> 00:02:47.969 histories often just gloss over. Like land ownership. 00:02:48.150 --> 00:02:50.349 Land ownership. Yeah. Trade networks, maybe. 00:02:50.469 --> 00:02:53.969 You see hints of commerce, things like salt, 00:02:54.090 --> 00:02:57.889 iron. Oh, yeah. And just the complex social structures 00:02:57.889 --> 00:03:00.969 within Mercia itself. The fact that so many of 00:03:00.969 --> 00:03:03.509 these documents actually survived for Mercia, 00:03:03.689 --> 00:03:06.030 well, it kind of speaks volumes about how sophisticated 00:03:06.030 --> 00:03:08.469 their administration must have been even back 00:03:08.469 --> 00:03:09.960 then. That's a real. That's a really good point. 00:03:10.219 --> 00:03:12.840 Okay, so let's maybe unpack a couple of things 00:03:12.840 --> 00:03:17.599 we found. Well, maybe challenging, but in a good 00:03:17.599 --> 00:03:21.639 way. Mm -hmm. Go on. Adams does an amazing job, 00:03:21.699 --> 00:03:24.860 no question. But just because of the nature of 00:03:24.860 --> 00:03:26.979 immersion history, there are these huge gaps, 00:03:27.060 --> 00:03:28.819 right? Oh, definitely. Blank spaces on the map. 00:03:28.960 --> 00:03:31.340 Yeah. And we were left with just so many questions, 00:03:31.439 --> 00:03:34.789 like what really happened during certain... King's 00:03:34.789 --> 00:03:37.270 reigns. How did their politics actually evolve? 00:03:37.530 --> 00:03:39.090 You just hit the nail on the head there. It's 00:03:39.090 --> 00:03:41.629 understandable given the sources he does have. 00:03:41.710 --> 00:03:44.210 Of course. But it absolutely leaves you wanting 00:03:44.210 --> 00:03:47.860 more answers. It's the frustration of the. historians 00:03:47.860 --> 00:03:49.919 sometimes. And that leads to another point, doesn't 00:03:49.919 --> 00:03:52.120 it? About how we actually reconstruct the past. 00:03:52.240 --> 00:03:54.659 Yeah, how we have to work. Because Mercia doesn't 00:03:54.659 --> 00:03:57.240 have its own big story like the Anglo -Saxon 00:03:57.240 --> 00:03:59.819 Chronicle for Wessex. Right, no Mercian Chronicle. 00:03:59.900 --> 00:04:01.919 We often have to figure out its history by looking 00:04:01.919 --> 00:04:03.699 at how it interacts with the other kingdoms, 00:04:03.939 --> 00:04:06.719 reading between the lines of their stories. So 00:04:06.719 --> 00:04:09.020 it's like understanding Mercia by what its neighbors 00:04:09.020 --> 00:04:11.759 were doing or by the space it occupied in their 00:04:11.759 --> 00:04:14.949 records. Exactly. It's a history sometimes defined 00:04:14.949 --> 00:04:17.970 by, you know, its absence in other people's stories. 00:04:18.029 --> 00:04:20.569 And that inevitably gives you a less complete 00:04:20.569 --> 00:04:23.470 picture of its own internal stuff, its own long 00:04:23.470 --> 00:04:25.709 term goals. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. And 00:04:25.709 --> 00:04:27.769 OK, the other thing and Adams really does try 00:04:27.769 --> 00:04:30.649 hard to make it accessible. He does. But there 00:04:30.649 --> 00:04:34.730 are moments where the sheer density of the information, 00:04:34.970 --> 00:04:37.550 especially when he's like interpreting these 00:04:37.550 --> 00:04:41.430 really fragmented bits of evidence. It can feel 00:04:41.430 --> 00:04:43.970 a little bit academic, a bit heavy going. Yeah, 00:04:43.970 --> 00:04:45.509 maybe a bit overwhelming. You really have to 00:04:45.509 --> 00:04:47.610 kind of lean in and focus to get all the nuances 00:04:47.610 --> 00:04:49.449 he's pulling out. Well, that's just the reality 00:04:49.449 --> 00:04:51.209 of working with this kind of material, isn't 00:04:51.209 --> 00:04:53.250 it? You're dealing with, you know, dry legal 00:04:53.250 --> 00:04:56.050 documents sometimes or these tiny mentions in 00:04:56.050 --> 00:04:58.470 someone else's history. They need really careful 00:04:58.470 --> 00:05:00.870 interpretation. You need to understand the context, 00:05:00.949 --> 00:05:02.930 the language. It's not always a simple, straightforward 00:05:02.930 --> 00:05:05.149 story you can just tell. No, definitely not. 00:05:05.269 --> 00:05:08.439 So, OK, summing up then. Having gone through 00:05:08.439 --> 00:05:10.899 the birth of the Anglo -Saxons, wrestled with 00:05:10.899 --> 00:05:15.620 this enigmatic Mersin legacy, where do we land 00:05:15.620 --> 00:05:18.899 on a rating? It's tough because the source limitations 00:05:18.899 --> 00:05:23.139 are real. But what he achieves despite that. 00:05:23.379 --> 00:05:26.839 Yeah, I'm thinking. A strong four out of five 00:05:26.839 --> 00:05:29.100 stars. I think that's fair. Yeah, I'd agree with 00:05:29.100 --> 00:05:32.060 that. Four stars. It's such a vital book. Really 00:05:32.060 --> 00:05:34.420 insightful for understanding this absolutely 00:05:34.420 --> 00:05:37.120 pivotal period. Even if, you know, the historical 00:05:37.120 --> 00:05:39.079 record means some of Mercia's secrets are going 00:05:39.079 --> 00:05:41.839 to stay locked away. Probably forever. Agreed. 00:05:42.019 --> 00:05:45.120 Adams really has done a remarkable job bringing 00:05:45.120 --> 00:05:47.779 Mercia into much sharper focus than it often 00:05:47.779 --> 00:05:50.740 gets. Highlighting its crucial role in, well... 00:05:50.990 --> 00:05:52.709 The making of England. And acknowledging the 00:05:52.709 --> 00:05:54.689 challenges too. He doesn't pretend it's easy. 00:05:54.850 --> 00:05:57.189 No, he's upfront about the difficulties. Absolutely. 00:05:57.569 --> 00:06:00.910 Okay. So if this glimpse into the hidden power 00:06:00.910 --> 00:06:02.990 of Mercia has got you thinking. Hopefully it 00:06:02.990 --> 00:06:05.350 has. Then definitely hit that like button and 00:06:05.350 --> 00:06:07.970 please subscribe for more deep dives. Yep. Helps 00:06:07.970 --> 00:06:09.949 us out a lot. We've also put a link to the birth 00:06:09.949 --> 00:06:12.750 of the Anglo -Saxons on Amazon down in the description 00:06:12.750 --> 00:06:15.430 if you want to grab a copy and explore it yourself. 00:06:15.870 --> 00:06:17.610 And thanks so much for joining us for this discussion. 00:06:17.769 --> 00:06:20.269 We hope it sparked a bit of curiosity about this 00:06:20.269 --> 00:06:23.810 really fascinating kingdom. We genuinely love 00:06:23.810 --> 00:06:25.790 to hear what stood out most to you. Was there 00:06:25.790 --> 00:06:28.689 like a little nugget of info or something surprising 00:06:28.689 --> 00:06:31.430 you learned about Mercia today? Yeah, drop it 00:06:31.430 --> 00:06:33.569 in the comments below. Let's get a conversation 00:06:33.569 --> 00:06:36.050 going about this super influential, but yeah, 00:06:36.170 --> 00:06:39.040 often overlooked kingdom. And please do share 00:06:39.040 --> 00:06:40.959 this with anyone you think might be into early 00:06:40.959 --> 00:06:43.579 English history or just hidden histories in general. 00:06:43.720 --> 00:06:46.100 Yeah, the more we talk about these less famous 00:06:46.100 --> 00:06:48.899 bits of the past, the richer our whole picture 00:06:48.899 --> 00:06:51.279 becomes, right? Absolutely. Okay, final thought 00:06:51.279 --> 00:06:54.860 to leave you with. Just consider this. In a world 00:06:54.860 --> 00:06:58.389 where... You know, the loudest voices often write 00:06:58.389 --> 00:07:00.910 the history books. The winners write history, 00:07:01.009 --> 00:07:03.990 as they say. Right. How many other powerful forces, 00:07:04.129 --> 00:07:06.589 other kingdoms, other groups throughout time 00:07:06.589 --> 00:07:09.569 might have massively shaped our world? But remain 00:07:09.569 --> 00:07:13.730 largely unseen. Exactly. Unseen in the main record, 00:07:13.949 --> 00:07:16.670 their influence only detectable in these faint 00:07:16.670 --> 00:07:18.730 echoes, these scattered clues we have to piece 00:07:18.730 --> 00:07:21.269 together. Are there other mercies out there just 00:07:21.269 --> 00:07:23.410 waiting for us to rediscover their stories? Something 00:07:23.410 --> 00:07:23.889 to think about.