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Mercia (Kingdom)

LC control no.n 85068448
Descriptive conventionsrda
Geographic headingMercia (Kingdom)
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Geographic subdivision usageEngland--Mercia (Kingdom)
Variant(s)Kingdom of Mercia
Merciorum regnum
Miercna rīċe
Mierce (Kingdom)
Myrce (Kingdom)
Other standard no.132584935
Q105092
Associated countryEngland
Found inDresher, B.E. Old English and the theory of phonology, 1985 (name not given)
Enc. brit., 1978 (Mercia; kingdom of Anglo-Saxon England)
Wikipedia, January 30, 2024 (Mercia (Old English: Miercna rīċe; Latin: Merciorum regnum) was one of the three main Anglic kingdoms founded after Sub-Roman Britain was settled by Anglo-Saxons in an era called the Heptarchy. It was centred on the River Trent and its tributaries, in a region now known as the Midlands of England; the kingdom was rendered as Mierce or Myrce in the West Saxon dialect; established 527, incorporated into the Kingdom of Wessex 918; independent kingdom (527-879), client state of Wessex (879-918))
Britannica online, January 30, 2024 (Mercia, historical kingdom, England; Mercia, (from Old English Merce, "People of the Marches [or Boundaries]"), one of the most powerful kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England. It held a position of dominance for much of the period from the mid-7th to the early 9th century despite struggles for power within the ruling dynasty. Mercia originally comprised the border areas (modern Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, and northern West Midlands and Warwickshire) that lay between the districts of Anglo-Saxon settlement and the Celtic tribes they had driven to the west. It later absorbed the Hwicce territory (the rest of West Midlands and Warwickshire, eastern Hereford and Worcester, and Gloucestershire) and spread also into what was later Cheshire, Salop, and western Hereford and Worcester. Mercia eventually came to denote an area bounded by the frontiers of Wales, the River Humber, East Anglia, and the River Thames; Date: c. 606 - c. 880)
Kings and Queens of Mercia, via Historic UK website, viewed January 30, 2024 (Mercia was one of the great seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England, alongside East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Northumbria Sussex and Wessex. Based around its capital of Tamworth, Mercia went through rapid expansion throughout the 6th and 7th centuries to be one of the 'big three' kingdoms of England along with Northumbria and Wessex; By 527 Icel had worked his way through East Anglia and onto Mercia; by his death in 535, it is reported that Icel held large swathes of both East Anglia and Mercia, and therefore could be considered the first true king of Mercia; On the death of her mother, Æthelflæd, in 918, Ælfwynn assumed the throne of Mercia. However, this was not to last, as within a few weeks her uncle, King Edward the Elder of Wessex, rode into Mercia and effectively deposed her. Of course, by this time Mercia was essentially a sub-kingdom of Wessex so Edward knew that he would face little to no resistance. This deposition marked the end of an independent or autonomous Mercia, and instead marked the beginning of what we now know as the kingdom of England)
   <https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Kings-Queens-of-Mercia/>
Geographic area codee-uk-en