Offa of Mercia

Summary

Rex Factor Podcast

Episode: Offa of Mercia

Hosts: Graham Duke & Ali Hood

Date: February 27, 2026

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Episode Overview

This special "restart" episode introduces listeners to the Rex Factor podcast's modern format, serving as a new entry point—new microphones, better audio, same irreverent historical banter. Graham and Ali profile Offa, the powerful 8th-century King of Mercia, famed for his mighty earthwork, Offa’s Dyke, and his pursuit of overlordship across southern England. The conversation covers Offa’s murky origins, Machiavellian rise, territorial battles, audacious diplomacy, coinage innovation, and attempts to establish a royal dynasty—before weighing whether Offa possesses the elusive "Rex Factor."

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why Offa, and Why Now?

• Context: This episode reintroduces the podcast for 2026, with improved audio for new listeners (02:00–03:00).
• Offa is chosen as a subject since he exemplifies a “nearly monarch” of England—hugely important, but not typically counted among the formal Kings of England.
• The hosts explain their review system: biography, scoring on battliness, scandal, subjectivity, longevity, and dynasty, and judging for the "Rex Factor" (03:00–04:38).

2. Biography: The Shadowy Rise of Offa

• Origins & Ancestry: Offa’s background is ambiguous; he descends from earlier kings but isn’t a direct heir (04:36–05:48).
• Historiography is tricky: Most Mercian records are lost, so history is reconstructed from biased, hostile rival sources (06:25–07:30).
• Ali Hood (on Offa’s origins): “They play very fast and loose with the word king in those days, don't they? ... He's more like sort of a dictatorial mayor.” (05:02)
• Mercia itself is one of several shifting Anglo-Saxon kingdoms; “England” as a nation does not yet exist (07:56).

3. Mercia’s Ascent & Turbulent Succession

• Mercia’s rise began with prior kings like Penda and Ethelbald, with Offa ascending amid a civil war after Ethelbald’s assassination (09:16–11:27).
• The early years of Offa's rule are marked by violence and the suppression of smaller “sub-kings” within Mercia (12:05–13:05).
• Upon consolidating Mercia, Offa’s next challenge was maintaining control over England’s fractured patchwork of kingdoms (13:22–14:19).

4. Battles, Dykes, & Diplomacy

• Battles: Offa subdued Sussex in 771 (the “Battle of Hastings”—not THAT one), reclaimed Berkshire from Wessex after the 779 Battle of Benson, and eventually annexed Kent directly after a series of political maneuvers and military suppression (14:47–17:34).
• Offa’s Dyke: His biggest legacy—a massive earthwork along the Welsh border. Purpose is unclear: defense, territorial marking, or both. Its scale underscores Offa’s ambition. (15:15–16:19)
• Ali Hood: “That's popular place for that kind of thing. For now, until the end of time, this will be remembered as the Battle of Hastings.” (13:50)
• Offa’s Dyke is compared to Hadrian’s Wall. Its longevity strengthens his legend.
• Notable Quote (Graham Duke, 41:13): “A millennia later, it's still effectively part of the geography that is just his name.”

5. Coinage, Queenly Power, and Dynasty

• Offa modernized coinage, putting his own image (and uniquely, that of his queen, Cynethryth) on coins, echoing Roman/Byzantine conventions (19:33–20:50).
• His queen was the only Saxon queen depicted on coinage—an indicator of unusual female royal influence (20:41).
• Offa sought to secure a dynastic succession through the crowning and anointing of his son Ecgfrith as co-king, copying continental practice and seeking papal approval (21:30–26:09).
• Notable Quote (Graham Duke, 22:29): "The only person who can do this is the Archbishop of Canterbury. And despite Offa now having taken over Kent, the hostile Jænberht is still there.”

6. Church Maneuvers & International Relations

• Offa skillfully outmaneuvers the church—bribing the Pope with gold to create a new archbishopric in Mercian Lichfield (24:44–25:50), allowing his son’s crowning.
• He communicates with Charlemagne—England’s link to the burgeoning European superpower. Negotiating royal marriages leads to a diplomatic spat and trade embargo, resolved only after years of tension (28:38–29:42).
• Notable Quote (Charlemagne’s letter, cited by Graham, 30:54):
  • “Describing Offa as his beloved brother, not only a most strong protector of your earthly country, but also a most devout defender of the holy faith.”
• Offa's daughter marries the King of Northumbria, though the dynastic benefit is short-lived (31:05–31:42).

7. End of Reign & Aftermath

• Offa dies in 796 after a reign of nearly 40 years (a longevity rare for the era); his son Ecgfrith’s reign lasts only 141 days before the dynasty collapses (31:44–32:08).
• Mercia's dominance fades rapidly, erasing much of Offa's immediate legacy (32:08–32:19).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Ericness of Saxon politics:
  • Ali: “It's just murder and brutality.” (11:56)
• On the lack of evidence for Mercian history:
  • Graham: “It's all like looking for the negative of a photo or something.” (07:33)
• On Offa’s ruthlessness:
  • Graham: "The Anglo Saxon chronicle simply records King Offa ordered King Ethelbert's head to be struck off. So Offa with his head." (45:22)
• On Offa's approach to legacy:
  • Graham: "What he left was a reputation, not a legacy." (63:28, quoting Simon Keynes)

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Review Section & Category Scoring

The Rex Factor scoring system uses five categories (excluding Longevity and Dynasty, which are based on historical fact, not subjective rating).

1. Battliness (12.5 out of 20, 43:33)

• Offa secured authority in Mercia by force, subdued rival kingdoms, and created Offa’s Dyke.
• Ali: 5/10; Graham: 7.5/10.
• Lacked epic, well-documented battles; “not flawless in battle,” but “most powerful king up to this point.”

2. Scandal (10 out of 20, 53:08)

• Engaged in brutal political murders (notably the beheading of King Ethelbert II), ruthless ambition, and legendary Machiavellian court intrigue.
• Lacks sexual scandal or tabloid-worthy bedroom antics.
• Ali: 5/10; Graham: 5/10.
• “Standard” for a Dark Ages king.

3. Subjectivity (11.5 out of 20, 67:36)

• Offa was advanced for his era: reformed coinage, empowered his queen, navigated complex church politics, and sought legitimacy for his dynasty.
• Yet, he left little lasting cultural or political legacy beyond the Dyke due to his family’s rapid extinction.
• Ali: 5/10; Graham: 6.5/10.

4. Longevity (16.5 out of 20, 68:04)

• Ruled just shy of 40 years—remarkably long for the time; puts him in the top tier for duration.

5. Dynasty (6.68 out of 20, 69:00)

• Four children: one son (briefly king after Offa’s death) and three daughters, two of whom become queens.
• Ultimately, no sustainable dynastic legacy.

Final Rex Factor Score: 56.68/100

• Ranks Offa in the top third of all English monarchs reviewed by the Rex Factor podcast.

Does Offa Have the Rex Factor?

• Decision: YES!
  • Graham: “He’s got a lasting legacy. He's got the dyke, he's got overlordship of basically all of southern England, sophisticated kingship, the coinage, international diplomacy, first coronation in English history, … and he’s 8th century and manages to be the joint 7th longest reigning king.”

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:52 – Host introduction and episode context
• 04:36 – Offa’s ancestry and murky beginnings
• 09:16 – Mercia’s rise & succession struggle
• 15:15 – Offa’s Dyke: building a lasting monument
• 19:33 – Coinage innovations and queenly power
• 22:29 – Church politics: crowning the heir
• 28:38 – Diplomatic wrangling with Charlemagne
• 31:44 – End of reign and Mercia’s fall
• 33:32 – Review categories introduction
• 43:33 – Battliness scoring
• 53:08 – Scandal scoring
• 54:05 – Subjectivity discussion
• 67:36 – Subjectivity final score
• 68:04 – Longevity
• 69:00 – Dynasty
• 69:13 – Final score & ranking
• 71:18 – Rex Factor verdict

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Tone & Style

Lighthearted, witty, irreverent but informed. Ali and Graham riff off each other's jokes, poke fun at the vagaries of early medieval politics, and regularly highlight both the difficulty and fun of reconstructing ancient history from silence and rumor.

Sample Banter:

• Ali: “[Offa’s] more like a dictatorial mayor.”
• Graham: “It’s not just kill, kill, kill and everyone give me money. He is more sophisticated glimmer.” (66:12)
• Ali: “Well, it starts Offa, but, you know...”

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Summary

Rex Factor’s deep dive into Offa of Mercia brings the 8th-century king to vivid, irreverent life—charting his shadowy rise, violent consolidation, immense royal ambition, and ultimately doomed quest for dynastic immortality. Through battles, courts, dykes, and delicate papal diplomacy, Offa emerges as a “prototype” for later English monarchs—foreshadowing Alfred and the unification of England, even as much of his individual legacy vanishes with his line. Still, with his name etched across the landscape and his innovations echoing centuries later, Offa fully earns the Rex Factor for impact and star kingship.

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For more, visit rexfactorpodcast.com or join their Patreon for deeper dives and bonus episodes.

Transcript

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[Ali Hood]

Welcome to Rex Factor. This week offer. With your hosts, Graham Duke and Ali Hood.

[Graham Duke]

Hello. Hello and welcome to Rex Factor. And it may very well be welcome to Rex Factor for a lot of people as although we're recording this in 2026, we're going to use this to function as our sort of first episode. So first of all, a little introduction. I'm Graham.

[Ali Hood]

Hello.

[Graham Duke]

Thank you.

[Ali Hood]

Hello.

[Graham Duke]

And who are you?

[Ali Hood]

I'm Ali. Hello.

[Graham Duke]

And this is the Rex Fact podcast where we review kings and queens in. Well, in history, currently British history. But, you know, we're gonna go beyond that one day.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah.

[Graham Duke]

We're about to start series four, doing the nearly monarchs of England. We rate kings and queens in history, talk through their lives and reigns, and then score them on five factors and then decide whether or not they have that certain something that we call Rex Factor.

[Ali Hood]

But we've been doing this for years. So what's going on?

[Graham Duke]

Well, we started all the way back in 2010. 10.

[Ali Hood]

Goodness me.

[Graham Duke]

16 years of podcasting. We've come a long way in sound quality and volume. So as the podcast goes on, you'll hear the sound quality and everything get better. But the problem with that is that our earliest episodes sound quality is not so great. We're worried that maybe that might be a bit off putting for people. So we thought let's do a new first episode to give you a sense of what we now sound like. So if you listen or indeed watch this and like it, then you can either skip ahead to later series where the sound quality and audio improves, or you can just push on through knowing that you like us and that it does get to be better.

[Ali Hood]

It does get better. When does it get appreciably better?

[Graham Duke]

It gets louder by About Elizabeth I and we get nicer microphones. By series two of Malcolm iii, it was early days. If you want to find out a bit more about us, head to our website rexfactorpodcast.com and you'll get links to all of our social media. Plus you can sign up to join the privy council patreon.com rexfactor where you get an ad free version of the main podcast, plus over 450 bonus episodes.

[Ali Hood]

Feeling strangely nervous about this one. This is the first interaction people are gonna have.

[Graham Duke]

Exactly. Which technically would have been the case the first time we did it. But we weren't really imagining that we'd still be doing it 16 years later.

[Ali Hood]

I didn't think my mum would even listen to me. I'm not sure she has yet. Indeed.

[Graham Duke]

One day. And also for today's episode and series four onwards, you can watch us on Spotify or on YouTube.

[Ali Hood]

Good.

[Graham Duke]

Anyway, enough introductions. The main focus for today is Offa, 8th century ruler of the English kingdom of Mercia, most famous for his huge earthwork known as Offa's Dyke. But we need to find out who he was and indeed why he wasn't part of our first series. Reviewing the kings and queens of England.

[Ali Hood]

So why are we here?

[Graham Duke]

Let's find out.

[Ali Hood]

Biography.

[Graham Duke]

Offa was born in about 7:30 in the small.

[Ali Hood]

What day?

[Graham Duke]

We don't know what day, we know what day he died, we don't know what day he was born. And I didn't look up how to pronounce this. The Hwicke H W I C C

[Ali Hood]

E. Oh, you've done a good job on that.

[Graham Duke]

A very small kingdom within Mercia. So it's roughly Worcestershire and Gloucestershire. So this is the Midlands. For anybody not familiar, they play very

[Ali Hood]

fast and loose with the word king. In those days though, don't they?

[Graham Duke]

Well, exactly, yes. We'll see that it is all a bit loose and fancy free at this point.

[Ali Hood]

He's more like sort of a dictatorial mayor.

[Graham Duke]

Well, he's not like the king of this little kingdom, it's just where he's from. So as you'll see, claims to the throne, etc, it's all a little bit looser than what you might expect even just 100 years later. So he's the son of a man called Thing Frith, which sounds like how you might be remembering a Saxon name.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah, exactly. That's just. That's someone making it up. Thing Frith and Binman, whatever. Marfinn.

[Graham Duke]

So his father is Thing Frith. Presumably he was also born to somebody else as well. His mother's name is lost to history.

[Ali Hood]

Do they have women then?

[Graham Duke]

Well, maybe not, maybe not.

[Ali Hood]

I think it's just that, you know, asexual reproduction, just like cells.

[Graham Duke]

Now you're asking about human kingship. So none of Offa's immediate family are monarchs or particularly strong royals. But he is a great, great grandson of an earlier Mercian king called Eoah. And genealogies compiled later in his reign claim that he also has descent from a legendary ruler of the same name, Offa of Angle, who is referenced in the poem Beowulf.

[Ali Hood]

The names of that era, they either sound like the scratchiest material known to mankind or San Francisco based tech firms. Isn't it weird?

[Graham Duke]

But it's all a little bit murky. His family history and indeed claims to the throne. So we have to do a lot of filling in of gaps with Offa and partly that's his fault or the Mercians fault because Mercia don't seem to commission a lot of written records. Or if they do, then they probably got destroyed by the Viking raids that come along a little bit later. Also offers a bit too late to be included in the early Saxon history by the venerable Bede.

[Ali Hood]

Oh, right.

[Graham Duke]

And then you've got Alfred the Great who writes the Anglo Saxon Chronicle later. But that's very much in favor of his kingdom Wessex. So it downplays Mercia and obviously thus downplays offer.

[Ali Hood]

Right. Beads early then, isn't he? I just thought it was. He was sort of clanky about with old gnarly teeth and, you know, spit all the stuff out.

[Graham Duke]

Thing me thrift and you know, and seascapes, whatever.

[Ali Hood]

I can't think of a tech name.

[Graham Duke]

No, no, he's earlier. He's earlier, but he's a bit earlier yeah. So you've got these other histories that don't really focus on them, but nevertheless, because we don't have a mercy in history, we are kind of reliant on piecing together external sources that are a bit biased against them in order to find Offa.

[Ali Hood]

God, that's all like looking for the negative of a photo or something.

[Graham Duke]

Yeah. So the historian Annie Whitehead compared this to reading a novel about the main character, where he's only talked about by other characters and you never actually see him in action.

[Ali Hood]

Now, if you are coming to us fresh, this is a theme that will come up a lot, but totally right for Hollywood, then.

[Graham Duke]

Oh, yeah. Because you've got a lot of good details around, but a lot of gaps as well. Now, in terms of some context, there is no England as such. We might refer to England at points in the episode, but technically there is no nation state called England in the 8th century. Rather, we've got a shifting series of separate kingdoms. It's often referred to as the Heptarchy, though actually, it's a lot more nuanced and shifting than that. So you've got Northumbria in northern England, East Anglia, Essex in the east, Kent and Sussex in the south and southeast. And you've got Wessex south, southwest and Mercia off. His kingdom is in the Midlands. Now, the name Mercia comes from the word mearsa, which means boundary or borderlands, so it means they're people who lived on the borders. So whether this is the border with Wales, Northumbria, etcetera, isn't clear. But again, it suggests that actually even Mercia's name has probably been defined.

[Ali Hood]

Others. Others, yeah, that's. If they're in the Midlands, of course. That makes perfect sense. It's like calling Germany borderlands, because it's

[Graham Duke]

right in the middle with everywhere you are. Now, initially, Mercia is one of the less powerful kingdoms, but from the reign of a king called penda in the 630s, Mercian Power has steadily grown, until you get a chap called Ethelbald, who's king for an incredible 41 years, which is the longest reign in England, as was until Edward iii.

[Ali Hood]

Gosh.

[Graham Duke]

For a Saxon.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah. He must have been crowned as he slipped out.

[Graham Duke]

So Ethelwold annexed London, probably from us, actually from Essex, and was acknowledged by Bede as king of the southern English. So effectively that's overlord of all of what we now call England, bar Northumbria. Now, he's not king King, but in some way the other kingdoms have had to acknowledge his superior status.

[Ali Hood]

A that fella type of thing on the boat, was it? Who? I don't like Edgar.

[Graham Duke]

Yes. Sort of like a high king, an island. The Anglo Saxon chronicle calls him Bretwalders. I've heard of that later on. Yeah. So sort of the one, the king that's superior to the other kings.

[Ali Hood]

They need different words now.

[Graham Duke]

Very powerful, but also a very notorious figure. He never took a wife, unusually for a king this period. And he was criticized by the missionary Boniface for frolicking with nuns.

[Ali Hood]

Oh, my goodness. Here. This is the genesis of all Rex fantasy.

[Graham Duke]

Indeed.

[Ali Hood]

Why didn't we do this before? I mean, okay, if you're coming to this afresh, that is. It's a tricky one to really put your finger on, but one of our

[Graham Duke]

key factors is scandal and non frolicking feels like one of the defining things that is definitely scandalous, whatever the age sex is.

[Ali Hood]

Sex with nuns.

[Graham Duke]

Sex with nuns. Now, Ethelbald's debauchery ultimately gave Offa an opportunity because in 757, Ethelwold was treacherously killed by his bodyguard at night in shocking fashion. And in the same year, the Mercians commenced a civil war amongst themselves.

[Ali Hood]

Well, that's how they work.

[Graham Duke]

Yeah, but that's the thing, because he doesn't marry, he doesn't have any children who are heirs. So when he dies, who's going to be king? So the civil war is basically a battle for the succession. And later chroniclers suggest a man of ultimately unknown origins, Bjornred, took the throne, but apparently proved so unworthy that Offa ousts him by the end of the year.

[Ali Hood]

Oh, right. Okay. So Offa's got clout. He's not. He's not the fellow plodding the fields

[Graham Duke]

in the Bull Run. No, because he is the great, great grandson of a king. So obviously he's got a little bit of royal heritage in there, but there's an ele might beats, right? Yeah. And particularly if it's not clear who has any right, then really is a case of who's got enough clout.

[Ali Hood]

I like that, though. Then it's removing all of the pretence around it. All of that ordained by God business is just.

[Graham Duke]

It's just murder and brutality.

[Ali Hood]

It is. It's from this that we dress it all up and reach something else.

[Graham Duke]

But. Well, indeed, as we see very much, that's Offa's thing. We'll see later. Yeah. So Offa becomes king, but regardless, anytime you have a change of ruler in this period, you basically see all the subject territories reassert. Themselves, because a new king, they have to establish themselves. It's an opportunity for you to break free of those shackles. So overlordship of southern England probably is lost. The moment that Ethelbald dies, the Welsh launch raids on Mercia's western border. Wessex and Kent also seem to have pushed back. Even within Mercia, the smaller kingdoms we mentioned, Huike, but also Lindsay, the Magonset, lots of other little territories that still kind of have a strong identity. They all seem to have re emerged and their little kings plop their crowns back on again.

[Ali Hood]

You know, us from Chelmsford are significantly enough different to those from. From Colchester to warrant a king.

[Graham Duke]

Exactly. So a later charter actually dates offa's reign from 758 rather than 757, which suggests perhaps it took him a good year to really fully establish himself in Mercia.

[Ali Hood]

So he's gone from ruling everything apart from Northumbria, or rather. That was a situation.

[Graham Duke]

That was the situation. Yeah. But it's not really the case that Offa has lost it. It's just that when the king dies, they all just suddenly be like, aha, we can be free again.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah, yeah.

[Graham Duke]

However, very quickly in this, by 758, a year later, the Mercy and sub kings do seem to have been reduced back to local officials or just, you know, dead. So first year, Mercia is back to Mercia. However, he's then got to think about the rest of England. So the smaller kingdoms of southern England don't seem to have given Offa too much trouble. He's recorded as defeating the men of Hastings, that is Sussex, in battle in 771.

[Ali Hood]

Gosh, that's. That's popular place for that kind of thing.

[Graham Duke]

For now, until the end of time, this will be remembered as the Battle of Hastings.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah. Oh, gosh. And for a good 200 years.

[Graham Duke]

Yeah.

[Ali Hood]

What date are we here?

[Graham Duke]

771. So nearly 300 years. And again, similar to what we see in Mercia, the people who were the rulers are now reduced to ealdormen. So kind of little like, yeah, this

[Ali Hood]

is making some sense.

[Graham Duke]

So they're ruling in Offa's name, Essex and East Anglia. He seems to have left the royal lines intact, so he would grant lands in the area without even bothering to have a local ruler witness his charters. So that suggests that he's like, fine, you can call yourself king, whatever, I don't really care, as long as I can just do whatever I want and you don't bother me. Carry on. So he's still got control over the City of London, which is crucial for Mercian economic interests. So he's quite happy with what's going on there.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah. That's a long way from the Midlands.

[Graham Duke]

Oh, yeah. But they're all the way down. Yeah. Now, more pressing concern, perhaps, is the Kingdom of Paris in Wales, which launched a number of raids against Mercia early in Offa's reign. Now, Offa also launches numerous raids into Wales himself, but he never really seems to have claimed any kind of overlordship of Wales. It's more about securing the borders that he's thinking about. And his solution is pretty spectacular. The major earthworks known as Offa's Dyke.

[Ali Hood]

Oh, my God. I can't believe that came as a surprise. But. Yeah, yeah. I was thinking that was gonna do a wall. No. Oh, yes. Yeah, yeah.

[Graham Duke]

So it's essentially a large ditch that runs across much of the Welsh Mercian border. And an astonishing demonstration of power to have the resources and ambition just to build this thing. Huge resources and would have been required. So that shows the scale of Offa's power. And. Yeah, we'll talk about that more in battle, in the actual specifics of it. But that's his.

[Ali Hood]

We're doing it like that, are we?

[Graham Duke]

Yeah, we're reviewing Offa.

[Ali Hood]

Okay. I haven't done this for ages.

[Graham Duke]

It is true. It's a long time since you've done a proper episode. Now, Wessex and Kent are too valuable just to cut off with a big ditch. So in Wessex, there's a chap called Kinwolf who becomes king shortly before Offa, basically, almost at the same time the contemporaries. And in the 760s, he restores Wessex control of Berkshire and the Thames Valley, which had previously been with Mercia. Now, Offa seems to have recovered this after defeating Wessex in the Battle of Benson in 779. But there's no reliable evidence to suggest Kennewulf ever acknowledged Offa as his overlord.

[Ali Hood]

Right.

[Graham Duke]

So Offa gets some of the territories back, but Wessex very much still troubles ruin. Yeah. Now, Kent is perhaps the most lucrative prize. It's got the country's oldest mint. That is where they make the coins, lucrative trade connections with Europe, and, of course, the seat of the English Church at Canterbury.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah.

[Graham Duke]

Now, initially, Offa takes advantage of a power vacuum following the death of a powerful king in Kent. So in 964, he issues the charter granting land to the local Bishop of Rochester, which is a level of control that I think even Aethelbald hadn't really had. However, Offa's dominance is then eroded when the new ruler, Ecbert ii, emerges and he toes an increasingly independent line. And he's supported by his allies, by his. By his ally, by his ally, Jen Burt, who is newly appointed as the Archbishop of Canterbury.

[Ali Hood]

Jen Burt.

[Graham Duke]

Jen Burt.

[Ali Hood]

I think whatever I came up with was better than that.

[Graham Duke]

And he's very much Kent man through and through. So the two of them, very resistant to Offa trying to take over. And indeed, it appears that Offa is defeated in the Battle of Otford in 776. And after that, he's out of Kent. Oh, they've kicked him out.

[Ali Hood]

Right.

[Graham Duke]

However, if you can't beat them, outlive them.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah.

[Graham Duke]

So by 786, both Kinwulf and Wessex and Ecbert in Kent have died, not by Offer's hand, but nevertheless great opportunity. So he sweeps in. So in Kent, he either kills or exiles the remaining kings, because again, they have different kings and different bits of it, etc. So from 785 onwards, he's issuing charters, making no reference to local rulers or local kings, it's just Offer. So it very much appears that by 785 he's annexed Kent and rules directly. Now, in Wessex, there is a new king, a chap called Bjrtric II or Britric perhaps, getting close to Britvic.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It is remarkably close.

[Graham Duke]

But he does seem to be very much under Offa's thumb. So he marries one of offa's daughters in 789. So offa is his father in law and he also works with Offa to expel a man who's got claims to the thrones both of Kent and Wessex, another chap called Egbert.

[Ali Hood]

So is this a. Are they thinking we're going to merge these kingdoms?

[Graham Duke]

I don't think Bjoltric could be thinking that. Whether Offa's thinking that might be another. Another issue. But they seem to have common interest at least, and perhaps Offa might have helped him become King of Wessex.

[Ali Hood]

He gave him an Offra. He refused.

[Graham Duke]

So by the 780s, Offra is very much of the peak.

[Ali Hood]

I meant his daughter.

[Graham Duke]

Yeah. Peak of his powers. By the 780s he's got Kent, he's dominant in Wessex and this probably is even greater now than the dominance Ethelbold had enjoyed. Right. So he's kind of got there nevertheless by traditional means, by being your traditional opportunistic warlord. But Offa has grander and more sophisticated, perhaps imperial ambitions.

[Ali Hood]

Oh, I.

[Graham Duke]

For his kingship. So, you know, there is something of Hadrian's Wall in Offa's dyke as this grand, huge thing that you just build all the way along the wall. It's practical, but also very symbolic.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah.

[Graham Duke]

So he uses that in other areas as well. So another area, slightly less battle eas, is coinage.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah.

[Graham Duke]

So other Saxon kings have minted coins before, but from 780, Offa starts minting coins that bear his name and very high quality portraits. So people like Ethel Bold before had minted coins, but they'd seen it purely as a financial tool. Literally just let's have money economy. Whereas Offa thinks, put my name and my face on it.

[Ali Hood]

It's a power thing.

[Graham Duke]

Power thing. So while Offa personified the might beats Right. That I mentioned earlier, in terms of how he became king, he now wants to change it up.

[Ali Hood]

He now wants to pretend that it's right.

[Graham Duke]

Exactly. So he wants to try and establish a genuine dynasty, a royal family that's elevated above the other claimants, to make sure that his son Ekfrith will be the unquestioned heir.

[Ali Hood]

And now this is where it takes 800 years to get from this might is right. Towards a little democracy. But we'll get there, don't worry if you're worried.

[Graham Duke]

So, as I said, you know, this is a contrast. Ethelbald before hadn't even bothered to marry, never mind sire and official heir. Offa takes a very different approach. So his wife and his queen. And is a queen. Cynafreth enjoys great power and influence as Queen of Mercia, including minting her own coins with her own name and in her own image.

[Ali Hood]

Gosh.

[Graham Duke]

That's the first Englishwoman to enjoy that privilege. So the first English woman to appear on a coin and the only Saxon queen ever to appear on a coin.

[Ali Hood]

But has any non ruler ever been on a coin? Because she's not ruling, is she? She's married to the ruler. It seems odd.

[Graham Duke]

Yeah. No, true. Yes. After the consort.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah. So as they take other parts of the country, although it's not our country yet, the other parts of the landmass, the bits they're taking over, they then re christened Mercia. Or is there an idea of calling this bigger empire something else?

[Graham Duke]

We'll talk about that in subjectivity a little bit more. But essentially. No. Essentially, it feels like it is still Mercia, it's not England. But also, it's not that Kent has become Mercia, it's Mercia rules Kent.

[Ali Hood]

Right.

[Graham Duke]

You see what I mean?

[Ali Hood]

Yeah, yeah, I see what you mean.

[Graham Duke]

Anyway, so they're Very impressive with the coins both for offer, but also that his wife and queen has got this power as well. So they're probably influenced by recent practices in Francia, which is modern day France, which had had their own coins, but also something Offa's probably picked up from France. He wants to have his son Ecwith crowned and anointed as co king anyway. But this is a new thing. It's not something that we're doing before, but he's seen it happen in France. He thinks, yes, this is a way to confirm even greater legitimacy on my son. So you'll be questioned there. Yeah. But everyone, it rarely happens or it doesn't often happen that you go king son.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah.

[Graham Duke]

So often it's disputed. But if he can really elevate himself, his family, his son to such a level that it's just unquestioned that Ekwith is the next king, that's when you have dynasty. Okay. Now unfortunately, the only person who can do this is the Archbishop of Canterbury. And despite Offa now having taken over Kent, the hostile Genbert is still there.

[Ali Hood]

Oh, right, okay.

[Graham Duke]

We're in Proto Dunstan territory.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah, this is good. I love a good ding dong with the archbish.

[Graham Duke]

So Jen Burt consistently resists all of Offa's attempts to subsume Ken. So whether it's clashing over land grants, acting independently of Offa, or now refusing to crown his son.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah. As co king and bet offers. They're reading a letter going, got Jam Bert. Could have known Jam Burt anyway. Jam Bert, have I got that right?

[Graham Duke]

Yes, you have. Yeah. It obviously just makes sense to you as a name that. That's just gone straight in it, hasn't it?

[Ali Hood]

Yeah, it's really sticky.

[Graham Duke]

However, in 786, Offis seizes on an opportunity to circumvent Jambert. Pope Adrian I sends the first legatine mission since Augustine's conversion mission two centuries earlier to assess the state of the church in England.

[Ali Hood]

They waited 200 years for a follow up report. Yeah, Golly, they're terms I can get behind. Yeah, here's a load of money and go off and do this thing. Leg it.

[Graham Duke]

But Offa sees it as a great chance to show off on the grand European stage. So he lays on the charm. He wins praise for his overtly conventional Christian marriage. They all very much approve of that because again, not all kings are doing that. So thumbs up for that.

[Ali Hood]

But you, if the church is that distant, you're gonna get very different cultures building up all around the place.

[Graham Duke]

Well, exactly. That's why? Let's go and sort this out and bring them all back.

[Ali Hood]

Back into line.

[Graham Duke]

Yeah, exactly. That's what the. That's what the point of the mission is.

[Ali Hood]

Okay.

[Graham Duke]

But for offer, it's a chance for him to demonstrate his power and prestige to the papacy. So he promises to effect all of the recommended changes. Also, he's gonna gift some special gold coins to Rome. He's gonna send them on a regular basis, which I'm sure helps. Yeah. If you've got anything that you might want.

[Ali Hood]

I love this. He's got to be a king by just saying. Well, it's all nonsense. It's just whoever's strongest. And here it's not even dressed up as anything other than a bribe. Some lovely gold coins, some special gold that I've had turned into round discs that has monetary value. Interested?

[Graham Duke]

Well, they are interested. And as a result, coincidentally, perhaps, it's a completely separate issue to the gold coins. Offa persuades the Pope that actually, Canterbury's diocese, if you think about it, is far too large to cover the whole country. And thus they create a new archbishopric in Lichfield.

[Ali Hood]

Oh.

[Graham Duke]

Which is in the heart of Mercia, really is.

[Ali Hood]

It's a lovely, lovely place. So York doesn't exist.

[Graham Duke]

York does exist, and it is an archbishopric, but York is in Northumbria. So Offa can't just bring in the Archbishop of York to crown his son because the Archbishop of York is busy.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So these are like papal embassies. And there's one in Northumberland, there's one in the south, the south, which is controlling his kingdom. So if he has one in his kingdom, he doesn't need this one.

[Graham Duke]

Exactly.

[Ali Hood]

But he wants that kingdom, does he?

[Graham Duke]

He does want that kingdom, but unfortunately the Archbishop who's there isn't playing ball, so he needs another archbishop.

[Ali Hood]

Okay.

[Graham Duke]

So he asks the Pope and he gets one. So Lichfield is created as an archbishopric, and this significantly reduces Canterbury's reach. And then the following year, 787, the new Archbishop of Lichfield crowns and anoints Ecfrith as co King, which is the first recorded consecration in English history.

[Ali Hood]

That's fact. You're gonna get a lot of those. Yeah, well, Co King, though, he's already. He's already mucking around with the form, isn't he?

[Graham Duke]

Yeah, but again, it's something they do in France, and I guess it's something, you know, we saw Henry II later on, and ironically, Henry II tried to do that and had difficulties with the Archbishop of Canterbury.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah.

[Graham Duke]

As a Result. But it's something they sometimes try to do and it is more common in Europe because if they've been crowned co king, when the king is alive, they're already king when the king dies. There's no succession battle. They're already effectively king.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah. I mean, there is no. There's no even handover, is it? You just.

[Graham Duke]

You just carry on.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah.

[Graham Duke]

So it's a more secure way of ensuring that your son.

[Ali Hood]

It's also a really good way of ensuring that your son rebels.

[Graham Duke]

Well, yes, can happen. Even more good news For Offa in 792, Jember dies and as a result, Offa installs a Mercian as the Archbishop of Canterbury.

[Ali Hood]

Has he got. I thought it was up to the Pope.

[Graham Duke]

Well, I think. I mean, he has to get the approval from the Pope. But I think if Offa says, here's the new Archbishop of Canterbury, he's fine

[Ali Hood]

and he's done all that cosing up to the Pope. So. Yeah. Okay,

[Graham Duke]

so now Offa really does have complete control in Kent and indeed of the English Church.

[Ali Hood]

Of the Church, but not politically in Kent yet.

[Graham Duke]

Oh, yes, yes. Because by that point, the king that are causing him issues had died and he'd just taken over.

[Ali Hood]

Okay. So he is king of everything apart from Northumbria now. Yeah. Basically Cornwall. Yeah.

[Graham Duke]

Cornwall is its own city, probably is not bothering too much out there. And as I said, Wessex is still under his thumb. But he's not ruling Wessex. But still, he's so clearly dominant of everything south of Northumbria. And indeed, as you see with the papacy now, he's operating on an international level.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah.

[Graham Duke]

So he's showing the diplomatic nous to manoeuvre the leaves of power in Rome and his control of London and now Kent gives him access to the lucrative trade that there is with the continental Europe.

[Ali Hood]

What is that, though, in this. In this day? Like, it's not going to be Hitachi Tellies, is it?

[Graham Duke]

It's not, no. It's not just olive oil. Oil is indeed one of them. We'll actually mention the trade of oil in this episode, believe it or not. Oil, I mean, you know, clothing, textiles, it's just really hard to think of anything I could possibly want that doesn't have a battery.

[Ali Hood]

True.

[Graham Duke]

Anyway, whatever. He's trading that, it doesn't have a battery. He's trading and he's making money from it because he's got control of all the key ports. And he also, around this time, starts engaging in correspondence with the Frankish court of Charlemagne. Does he the most powerful ruler of the age, who in 800 will become the first Holy Roman Emperor. Now, the relationship is probably facilitated by a chap called Alcuin, who's an English scholar, but becomes a close advisor and minister to Charlemagne.

[Ali Hood]

Like to drink.

[Graham Duke]

And he's sufficiently impressed to. You've already done this one. To offer. Offer a marriage alliance between his second son, Charlemagne's second son, and one of Offa's daughters.

[Ali Hood]

Brilliant.

[Graham Duke]

However, Offa demands a reciprocal match between his son and one of Charlemagne's daughters.

[Ali Hood]

Okay.

[Graham Duke]

Charlemagne is deeply offended and breaks off all contact with England. And we have trade embargoes between the two countries. And Alcuin laments the scarcity of. Of oil several years later as a result.

[Ali Hood]

That. That feels like a weird diplomatic toe that's been trodden upon that no one

[Graham Duke]

knew was there basically one way round. Charlemagne is still very clearly the top dog, and he's giving offer. Here, have a daughter. Well, no, here you can. I've got a second son and your daughter can come to me and be at our court and she can marry him. Whereas Offa saying, actually, why don't you give me one of your daughters and she'll come over here and then that's fair and equal, isn't it? And Charlemagne is like, we are not equal, Mr. Offer.

[Ali Hood]

Okay, I see. I see how that could break down. It just can't understand the. It just seems so petty for the benefits.

[Graham Duke]

However, thankfully, Alcuin does manage to get the kings talking again. And we do have a surviving letter from Charlemagne to offer from 796, which is the earliest surviving letter. In fact, I think it might be the only surviving letter from a European leader to an Anglo Saxon ruler.

[Ali Hood]

Wow.

[Graham Duke]

In which they discuss the exchange of gifts, protections for merchants. And Charlemagne now is full of compliments, describing Offa as his beloved brother, not only a most strong protector of your earthly country, but also a most devout defender of the holy faith.

[Ali Hood]

Does brother mean something different here? Because that. You can't. You'd just see right through that in an instant, wouldn't you? Like that's that. What was all that nicking my olive oil about?

[Graham Duke]

Well, they're friends again now, but the marriage proposals aren't resumed. So instead, Offa's daughter Elfled marries King Aethelred of Northumbria, perhaps representing burgeoning ambitions for Offa, thinking, oh, I've not. Not got my talons into this bit at the top yet, maybe. Unfortunately, if that was the case, it doesn't come to anything because Aethelred is killed four years later in 796, and if offal was maybe considering an expedition to avenge his son in law and secure his daughter, alas, time was not on his side because he himself died the following year on 29 July 797 at the age of about 67.

[Ali Hood]

How long has he ruled for?

[Graham Duke]

Well, we'll do that in longevity now. His son Ekfrith did become king and doesn't face any apparent opposition, but tragically dies just 141 days later.

[Ali Hood]

Gosh.

[Graham Duke]

Meaning that the Mercian throne does indeed pass once again to a distant cousin.

[Ali Hood]

But he was king. He was king for those hundred days, but and also before.

[Graham Duke]

Well, technically, yes, but following Mercia's defeat in the Battle of Ellendon in 825, Wessex becomes the predominant kingdom and Mercia goes into something of a decline. So that was the life and reign of Offa. We shall now move on to review

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[Graham Duke]

as this may be the first time that some people are listening to the podcast to do a quick explainer about the scoring system. So we have five factors and in each one we score the subject out of 20. Three of the factors battliness, scandal, subjectivity. Ali and I each give a score out of 10. Yep, and two of them, longevity and Dynasty, are factual ones. So they're still out of 20, but we do it based on comparison against everybody else within the series. So it's kind of fairly evenly.

[Ali Hood]

So if the longest goring would be 2020, which would be Elizabeth II.

[Graham Duke]

Now battliness is a fairly straightforward one. How good were they in battle or their sort of, you know, power and leadership? Now in this period to become king, you had to fight for it. And as we saw, Offa defeated Bjorn Red in a civil war to take the throne. Now we lack specifics, though Roger of Wendover later recorded that the people of Mercia, under the direction of a most courageous youth Named Offa expelled him. Whereas William of Maltby claimed that Bjorn Red was put to death by Offa.

[Ali Hood]

Well, same thing. Right.

[Graham Duke]

Well, I mean, in one case he's expelled and the other one, he's expired, so.

[Ali Hood]

Ah, okay.

[Graham Duke]

Another chronically noted, Offa had to conquer the Mercian kingdom with sword and bloodshed, after which we see the rebellious sub kings reduced to being ealdemen or being dead. So we don't know specifics, but the first year, it feels like Offa has to do a lot of fighting to get himself.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah, that's the usual run of it, apart from the Second World War, of course, which will come up a lot. First year, not so much now.

[Graham Duke]

Beyond Mercia, Offa is effectively overlord across all of southern England. By the end of his reign in Sussex, we said how local rulers are demoted to officials after he defeated the men of Hastings in battle. East Anglia and Kent. East, sorry, Essex and East Anglia are mostly quietly subservient. Kent and Wessex and more substantial rivals, but still offer reclaimed territory that had been lost at the start of the reign to Wessex. After winning the battle of Benson and then later years, he has clear dominance over Wessex, with the king being his new son in law. And indeed the king is referred to in charters as merely king of this province, while his predecessors had been king of the West Saxons.

[Ali Hood]

Right, yeah.

[Graham Duke]

In Kent often has a bit more difficulty. Early years he has does. He does have a lot of control. But this is gradually undermined in the 760s, 770s, until the battle of Otford, where the Anglo Saxon Chronicle simply records in this year, a red cross appeared in the sky after sunset. And that year the Mercians and the people of Kent fought at Otford and Marvellous Adders was seen in Sussex.

[Ali Hood]

He can't say what he's writing. Is it like, you know, an opinion piece in the. In the Telegraph or. Well, his diary. Not even that. Just something you'd take a snap of these days.

[Graham Duke]

Now, the fact that it's suspiciously silent about the outcome of the battle has meant many historians assume that probably, given that also Offa has no evidence of charters issued in Kent for the next few years, that probably he lost the battle.

[Ali Hood]

That. In which case that is such a terrible volt face. He wrote it before the battle, had a battle. Oh, so some lovely adders today. Don't look.

[Graham Duke]

Don't look so negative there that he's lost this battle. But still, by the end of the reign, Offa has expelled Kent's kings and installs a mercenary as Archbishop of Canterbury. So very clearly finishes on top of. Now his most famous military legacy is the one that bears his name. And Assa, contemporary biographer to Alfred the Great century later wrote, there was in Mercia in fairly recent times, a certain vigorous king called Offa who terrified all the neighbouring kings and provinces around him and who had a great dyke built between Wales and Mercia from sea to sea.

[Ali Hood]

Was it really?

[Graham Duke]

Well, it is built along Mercia's western border with Wales. It's not quite sea to sea as described by Assa. It runs instead for. I've seen lots of different measurements, I think 64 miles, but perhaps covers 80 odd miles if you include some enforced topographical gaps. I. We can't really do anything here because there's a mountain range. But nevertheless I think that kind of serves the point. Yeah, carry on. Later. Yeah, there are some other dikes that are built sort of parallel and then beyond, I think Watts Dyke is one of them. So if you follow different dikes you can sort of get sea to sea, but they're not all offers dyke. So it runs from the River Wye around Hereford to the mould in Clwd and it is essentially a ditch.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah.

[Graham Duke]

So you've got an upcast bank on the east side, so you've got the Mercians on top looking down into Wales.

[Ali Hood]

All the spoil was chucked one way.

[Graham Duke]

Yes. So at its peak around 17ft high and 60ft wide.

[Ali Hood]

Wouldn't it be better to have have it a wall both sides ultimately? Well, you could put a little bridge

[Graham Duke]

across it, but then it's sort of. Also, then it's harder for you to get into Wales if you've built them a sort of ditch wall as well.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah, that's alright, isn't it?

[Graham Duke]

Well, no, well, I mean, to be fair, there are a lot of mysteries about it and actually the purpose of it is a bit of a question. And also we don't have any archaeological evidence of things like garrisons or gatehouses akin to Hadrian's Wall. So we can't know exactly what it looked like at the time. Or indeed, to be fair, what you were saying, what exactly it's for? Is it a defensive barrier to stop the Welsh getting in? Is it an offensive staging post from which they can launch raids into Wales, in which case it would be a bit of a drawback if there was another one immediately on the other side and then they couldn't get in. Is it just a way of controlling the border and the movement of people on both sides? Maybe it's A mix of all three? Yeah, we don't know exactly. Perhaps indeed, it's most significant as symbolic of his power.

[Ali Hood]

It would be really good to see it from the Welsh side. Think I can only remember seeing. Oh, it's jolly deep, but see it like a wall, like a quiver of a castle. Be interesting.

[Graham Duke]

Now, I say a symbol of power, but of whose power? Because Asser is the first person to describe or ascribe the dyke to Offa. Oh. But we don't have any definitive dated archaeology to say exactly when it's built, so there have been some historians who speculate maybe it might have been started before Offa and indeed maybe it's finished after Ophir. So is it a grand project of offers or is it just something that has gradually been built? And Asser just went, oh, I think that's probably Assa's Offer's dyke, and then from there on after Offer's dyke.

[Ali Hood]

Oh, man. That's what we're basing all this on.

[Graham Duke]

Well, most historians now do think that probably it was offer simply because of the huge resources in terms of cost and materials and manpower, that you would have to have to attempt something like this that's not necessarily in place for a lot of time.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah.

[Graham Duke]

So you think, well, Offa is the only one really, that can command that level of resources to do it, and probably the one with the ambition to even attempt to do it.

[Ali Hood]

And I mean, Ass is not a totally reliable witness, but he's the closer to the event than we are, at least.

[Graham Duke]

Well, exactly, yeah. 100 years off rather than, well, 1200, which is, again, a remarkable legacy. The fact that he's still there, still survives, still keeps the Welsh, Welsh out. Historian Max Adams described it as a Dark Age Maginot line.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah, that's exactly what I'm seeing in my head.

[Graham Duke]

While Martin Ryan thought it a powerful ideological statement, inviting comparisons between Offa and Roman rulers, you know, a millennia later, it's still effectively part of the geography that is just his name.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah. That's amazing, isn't it?

[Graham Duke]

Now, in terms of a criticism of Offa and his battliness, because that's all pretty good, unfortunately. The problem, I suppose, is really we lack specifics on all of this.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah.

[Graham Duke]

Not just about the. The dyke, but also the battles that. We have a few battles listed. We don't have any real details about it.

[Ali Hood]

And he loses that one.

[Graham Duke]

He did lose one, though. He got it back ultimately, so I guess you'd say he comes out on top. But, yeah, he's not flawless. In battle. Also, the extent to which he's truly king of the kingdoms he subdued, or is he just a very significant power that others have to acknowledge? It's not Athelstan, king of all England territory. Even if he is dominant over most of it, it's not perhaps quite the same. And perhaps he dies before being able to complete his ambitions, as it's just at the end that he starts to look like he's maybe getting involved in Northumbrian affairs.

[Ali Hood]

And he doesn't have a big battle that we can all point at, which is always helpful in this category. Big old dyke. I think we've got to include that in.

[Graham Duke]

Yeah, you know, he take. He comes to the throne by force. He does subdue the other kingdoms, and it seems like in most cases, also by quite a bit of force, builds off as Dyke. He is the most powerful king we really had up to this point.

[Ali Hood]

I think it's. I'll give him 10.

[Graham Duke]

10?

[Ali Hood]

Yeah. Right down the middle.

[Graham Duke]

Well, I mean, it's down the middle in terms of if I gave him a zero. You do.

[Ali Hood]

Okay.

[Graham Duke]

But as a. As a reminder for new listeners, and indeed listeners such as Ali, who's been doing this for 16 years, you and I both score out of 10, and that gives the combined total out of 20.

[Ali Hood]

Okay. Okay. So what have I got to score him out of 10?

[Graham Duke]

You're scoring him out of 10. This is very good. Obviously, Ali, the consummate pro, being like, oh, I've forgotten this. Graham, can you remind me how he do it?

[Ali Hood]

Yes, it's very, very helpful. Very helpful. Okay, five then.

[Graham Duke]

You're giving him a five. Okay. I'm going to be more generous than that because I think he is pretty impressive, as I say, you know, he builds this huge earthwork that lasts for over a thousand years, does subdue the other kingdoms, does win a few battles here and there, but we lack the details. We know he does lose one. So I don't know if he's amazing in battle as such, but I think he is dominant and powerful. So I'm gonna go seven and a half.

[Ali Hood]

What does that give him? 12 and a half.

[Graham Duke]

That gives him a 12 and a half for battliness.

[Ali Hood]

I don't know if I'm regretting that. Well,

[Graham Duke]

scandal now for scandal, we're considering his less salubrious act. So the dastardly deeds that would make the tabloid headlines, whether it be bedroom antics, murder, corruption, good and bad, we are rewarding good behavior, essentially.

[Ali Hood]

Oh, bad behavior.

[Graham Duke]

Oh, no. So, yes, we're rewarding bad behavior. Bad behavior is good scandal. That's what I mean.

[Ali Hood]

Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And not because we're naughty boys, but because it gives history something to latch onto so we remember them.

[Graham Duke]

It's part of what makes the monarchs memorable, the scandal. So even though it's not technically good, it's part of that star quality that makes them stand out. So for Offa, the means by which he came to the throne has a slightly suspicious whiff to it, because the later chroniclers all seem to be pretty unanimous in declaring that Bjornred was definitely a bad egg. And the Mercians all rise up and think, thank goodness this veritable chap Offa is here to save today. Michael Wiss suspects the source is a bit too anxious to stress just how much this definitely wasn't a coup. Okay, so you suspect that whoever was intended to be heir, regardless Offa, was going to become king at the end of it, one way or the other.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah. Right, okay.

[Graham Duke]

And he clearly has a ruthless ambition. We see this much later in his reign with the death of King Ethelbert II of East Anglia in 794. Now, I said how East Anglia generally didn't give him much trouble, but right at the end of the reign, there's a bit of an exception. So the Anglo Saxon chronicle simply records King Offa ordered King Ethelbert's head to be struck off. So Offa with his head.

[Ali Hood]

Ah, I've been waiting for that one.

[Graham Duke]

Now, even in the brutal world of 8th century England, where it's all killy, killy, stabby, stabby murder, it's still rare for one king to execute another. Like not killing in battle, just have him beheaded. Yeah, there's no battle here, there's no war.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah.

[Graham Duke]

So what happened, Egbert or Jambert? Ethelbert is a different one. Okay. Now, there's a romantic legend to how he got his head cut off. Ethelbert of East Anglia apparently fell in love with one of Offa's daughters, Elsfrith. And then, much against his mother's remonstrances, he came to Offa, the most potent king of the Mercians, beseeching him to give him his daughter in marriage. Now, early accounts suggest that Offa's subsequent role in the affair was most treacherous. But by the 12th century accounts, Offa is said to have received him with all possible courtesy. However, Offa's queen, Cynophras argues, God has this day delivered into your hands your enemy whose kingdom you have so long desired. If, therefore, you secretly put him to death his kingdom will pass to you and your successors forever.

[Ali Hood]

Secretly put him to death. Yes, just rub him out of history. Yeah. Does he do it?

[Graham Duke]

Offa rebukes her as a foolish woman and is appalled at such a dastardly idea.

[Ali Hood]

Who wrote this?

[Graham Duke]

Perhaps sources sympathetic to Offa. Okay, so Cinefrith, his wife, decides to sort it out herself. So she orders a pit to be dug under Aethelbert's chair. So he sits into it, falls into the pit and is then stifled by the executioners placed there by the Queen.

[Ali Hood]

Digs a pit?

[Graham Duke]

Yes. I'm not quite sure why we really needed the pit and why you couldn't have just had the executioners from the off. But nevertheless she decided. No, no, no, it's. It's a dastardly plan. There's got to be a pit or a trapdoor or something.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah. You've seen James Bond. We need to have this long drawn out process where it's possible to fail at multiple points.

[Graham Duke]

I have a shotgun in my room.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah. Well that is strange because that's just like Fishy angel, man.

[Graham Duke]

It is, yeah. It's like Kenneth McAlpin, first king of Scots

[Ali Hood]

and very James Bond. So seriously, she dug a pit. I mean that, I mean life's not great when you've got a floor you can dig in the first place. You just gotta give, give over on some of this stuff. It's just weird.

[Graham Duke]

Back in the day, apparently Offa, after hearing the news, shut himself up in grief and tasted no food for three days before pulling himself together and conquering East Anglia.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah, you know, when life's gonna be lemons. So he. This is quite a well worn trope in Saxon times.

[Graham Duke]

Wicked queen trope. Indeed. It's not very convincing and perhaps more pertinent is the fact that Ethelbert had started minting his own coins and demonstrating an unwelcome degree of independence. So almost certainly in real life Offa just has him killed for political reasons

[Ali Hood]

and can blame the wife and then

[Graham Duke]

they blame the wife afterwards because it's clear where the Chronicles who wants a support Offa because he like founded their monastery or something, I think. Well, I mean he def this thing definitely. We know that this guy got his head cut off when he went to Offer's courts, but we don't want to say anything bad about Offer. Who can we blame?

[Ali Hood]

Yeah. How could it have happened?

[Graham Duke]

Was there a. Yes, there was a woman, of course. Blame the woman.

[Ali Hood]

Blame the woman. What does she do? Make it exciting, will you? All these pages to fill it's freezing.

[Graham Duke]

Yeah. So in reality, it's very much Offa's thing, bumping off his rival. So Offa has him killed because he's a rival. Indeed. It's very much his calling card. So Alcuin wrote, after the death of Offa's son, I do not believe the noble youth died through his own sins. It was the vengeance of the father's blood that fell on the son. For you know as well as I how much blood the father shed to secure the kingdom for his son. We don't have to agree with that. But the point that we can take for scandal is that Alcuin is obviously saying, look, you. You and I both know he murdered loads of people. He's really. He was really bad. He did a lot of this killing stuff.

[Ali Hood]

If ever there is a category, he's gonna do well in it.

[Graham Duke]

Yeah.

[Ali Hood]

Okay.

[Graham Duke]

Now, the peak of Offa's potential scandalous ambition was a rumor reported to Charlemagne by Pope Adrian I, that Offa had suggested to Charlemagne that they remove us from the Holy Seat and place another upon it from among your own people. So the Pope saying, some. A little bird has told me that you and Offa have got a plan to get rid of me, the Pope,

[Ali Hood]

and put one of Charlie's boys in.

[Graham Duke]

Yeah, but that it's Offa's big idea.

[Ali Hood]

What does Charlemagne say to that?

[Graham Duke]

Charlemagne already knows that this rumour's coming because Offa's warned him about it, not because offers like, oh, God, the Pope's found out about the plan. Tell him it's not true. It's probably a rumor started by genbert because it's around the time of Litchfield becoming Archbishopric in the sun. So probably genbert's trying to undermine offer with the papacy, but saying, you know, he's actually planning to get rid of you.

[Ali Hood]

Oh, so, okay, so then they want to turn it around, say, no, look, this. This guy is now even making this stuff up.

[Graham Duke]

Yeah. So probably not true, which is a shame. But the. The fact that it's not completely preposterous an idea, even from the Pope's perspective, is like, I'm sure this isn't true, but I've heard a few things about Offa. Sure. This. It definitely isn't true. So it shows that people perceive him as being a bit cunning and overly ambitious. Yeah, but he wasn't really planning to bump off the Pope.

[Ali Hood]

But he did do bumping.

[Graham Duke]

He did. Yes, but he didn't do bumping of a different kind, unfortunately, because we have no lurid bedroom antics to speak of for offer.

[Ali Hood]

He's not going to do very well, then.

[Graham Duke]

So you remember the unmarried Aethelwold have been rebuked. Rebuked for cavorting with nuns and apparently even rumours that he then conspired to have illegitimate children by the nuns. Murdered.

[Ali Hood]

Right.

[Graham Duke]

In contrast, Offa is conspicuously monogamous, gives his wife full honours as Queen, gets a big thumbs up from the Pope's dudes for being properly Christian, married, entirely proper living arrangements. It's all right and proper with offer.

[Ali Hood]

It's all bright and proper with offer. That's what he should have a coin under his little logo. Do you know what his logo should be? The off symbol. You know that round circle with the line through it at the top? Was that on? You know, you have a circle in the line. Which one's off and which one's on?

[Graham Duke]

Over.

[Ali Hood]

Off.

[Graham Duke]

Yeah, on. It's nice. You're going through the thought process of the guy that designed us. Look, it's great. It's got O for off. It's a little bit O for on.

[Ali Hood]

Decided that we talk about fire alarms going off. Oh, thank God. So I can go back in? No, it's gone off. What are you talking about? Is it on? No, it's gone off.

[Graham Duke]

Anyway, we bring it back to. To Offa and his scandal.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah.

[Graham Duke]

We don't have bedroom antics.

[Ali Hood]

Oh, yeah, right. No, yeah.

[Graham Duke]

But we do have him murdering people, beheading another king who was having sex

[Ali Hood]

with all the nuns.

[Graham Duke]

Then Aethelbald, the guy before him.

[Ali Hood]

I didn't mean for that to be like, well, someone's gonna be doing. Who's doing that? Sorry, Ethelbald's got it. Okay, fine. So he's just got murdering.

[Graham Duke]

So he's just a murderer. And I guess the fact, you know, he wasn't plotting to get rid of the Pope, but I guess it speaks to how people perceived him, that it wasn't a ludicrous thing to suggest he might do.

[Ali Hood]

I think this is a really good first one, you know, because I think five again.

[Graham Duke]

Yeah. I think for scandal, it Maybe is a 5, because it is also very brutal times. Although he. Yes, he does go around clearly murdering people. And Alcuin, as a religious chapter, doesn't approve, but I'm not sure that actually it would have been so outrageous a thing for Dark Ages. We don't say that anymore. Keen to be doing.

[Ali Hood]

Do we not?

[Graham Duke]

No, because it wasn't dark. We see all this great archaeology that shows all the treasures and stuff just A lack of written records anyway. So. Yeah, I agree. I think he's definitely going around murdering lots of people. He's definitely a bit dark arts, a bit mafia, but that's normal. Yeah, but I think that is fairly standard. So I think a five. Five from you, five for me, ten for scandal.

[Ali Hood]

Subjectivity.

[Graham Duke]

Now, in subjectivity, we're looking for evidence of good rule. So justice maybe reforms, peace. But basically would you want to be a subject? And we're not doing that on the basis of would you want to go back and live then instead of now? But I guess has he improved things? Has he done the stuff you'd want the king to be done?

[Ali Hood]

Yeah, you are. You live then. Has he made it better for you

[Graham Duke]

or worse now, murderous warrior Monarchs aren't always a go to for subjectivity, but Offa's combination of practicality and symbolism in his kingship does feel kind of a bit more, if not modern than a bit more advanced than the 8th century.

[Ali Hood]

You might see that offer's Dyke as protection.

[Graham Duke]

Well, yeah, and you know, it's also a cultural and political statement as well as military and one which retains much of its cultural cachet even a thousand years later. Likewise, the early part of the century had seen the currency debased, but not only does Offa largely standardized and improved the quality of coins, as we said, he used them to advance his own propaganda. High quality images of himself and his queen in the style of Roman, Byzantine, biblical figures. The quality of the coinage apparently is actually superior to that of Charlemagne. So it is slightly better coins. But also Charlemagne seems to have imitated Offa by minting coins with one of his wives later in his reign. So that does come about 10 years after Offa had done that with Sinfith. So there is back and forth. It's not all one way traffic that influence. Also Sinifereth's great power and influence as queen is unusual at the time, but also sets a standard in Mercia. So four of the next six Mercian queens regularly witness charters. And that all kind of culminates in this culture of powerful queens that we see with Alfred's daughter Aethelflaed, who comes lady the Mercians and basically rules mercia in the 10th century.

[Ali Hood]

Who was the poster person for that evil queen trope, the Bad that Wessex.

[Graham Duke]

Well, it is. And it is actually Offa's daughter.

[Ali Hood]

Is it?

[Graham Duke]

Yeah. So even there is. There's sort of a funny little legacy that comes from Offa.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah. So it is a good one to

[Graham Duke]

start with as we've been talking about. He was also seeking legacy. He wanted an impact beyond his own lifetime.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah.

[Graham Duke]

And that's best demonstrated, of course, in having his son crowned co King to help ensure his succession. Father to son succession is by no means guaranteed in this period. And as far as we know, no one had been consecrated like this in England before. But this, you know, it's a radical move. It was also a hard won move because, as I said, the Archbishop of Canterbury refused to do it.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah.

[Graham Duke]

So Offa persuades the Pope to create a new archbishopric in Offa's heartlands.

[Ali Hood]

He's powerful, isn't he, this. This guy.

[Graham Duke]

And can he like, this isn't just your basic warlord going around and just waving the sword and getting what you want. That's quite a lot of hard diplomacy you're doing there to think your way around this problem. And as I said, manoeuvre the leaves of power in Rome.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah.

[Graham Duke]

And he is very much international, not just the Pope, but as you said, relative equality with Charlemagne. Obviously not as much as perhaps he might have thought at one point. But, you know, Charlemagne, as we've just been discussing now, he's one of the most powerful and significant monarchs in European history.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah.

[Graham Duke]

So for Charlemagne to offer a marriage alliance is a genuine statement of Offer's importance. The fact that he thinks it's worth some kind of connection. Some historians have argued Offa then oversteps the mark in demanding that reciprocal marriage for his son and Charlemagne's daughter.

[Ali Hood]

Certainly Charlemagne did well.

[Graham Duke]

Indeed. Yeah. So perhaps Offers deluding himself into thinking he's actually on an equal footing with a man that basically rules Western Europe.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah.

[Graham Duke]

But to be fair, and obviously, you know, the trade embargoes that come afterwards are a sharp correction to this. But perhaps Offer deserves a little bit more credit to his approach, because a marriage for his son to Charlemagne's daughter really demonstrates again, the legitimacy of his son. He's got this, oh, almost French imperial queen ruling.

[Ali Hood]

He's gotten that connection.

[Graham Duke]

But also, Offer knows that although Charlemagne's offering friendship and marriage alliance to him, Charlemagne's also playing host to various sort of political exiles who are much more alive than Offa would like them to be. English political exiles. That should be. So perhaps by Offer demanding a more equal match, but also having Charlemagne's daughter in England, ultimately, as Queen of England, he's saying, look, I'm not just going to take your scrap, Charlemagne, but also you're going to have to actually invest in the idea of my son as king. No messing around. With these people that might try and overthrow my son. If your daughter's queen, you're going to have to be committed to the idea that this is.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah.

[Graham Duke]

The dynasty to back. So you can see why Offa pushes for it. Yeah, it makes more sense. He's not just being deluded and arrogant and thinking that he's.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah, that does, doesn't it? When he's got that, he's thinking of the future there.

[Graham Duke]

He doesn't get it, of course, but it's. It's perhaps less ridiculous that he pushed the boat out further than he might have done. And indeed, they do patch things up a few years later. So, seven, nine, six. Charlemagne wrote a very friendly letter to offer, gave him a hunnish sword and described him as his beloved brother.

[Ali Hood]

Slippery fish.

[Graham Duke]

Yeah. Now, arguably, the sword is the sort of gift that Lord might give to one of his retainers. So it's. Again, it's not necessarily. Oh, he's still grinding statements of equality still like, yes, yes, little offer. Here you go. Yeah, a little offer for you. But nevertheless, it shows that Charlemagne sees the value in cultivating good relationships with Offa and his court.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah.

[Graham Duke]

You could just ignore it. Like, it's not like England's gonna come and do any. Well, proved him wrong there, of course, but, you know, from Charlemagne's bed, he doesn't need England, really. But he obviously thinks, well, it's probably worth. He's obviously a king of a certain stature.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah. I think all of this is giving Offa. We're working out the status. It's helpful to paint that picture.

[Graham Duke]

Now, if we're to criticize Offa in this category, I guess the question is where is his cultural hinterland?

[Ali Hood]

Right. Where's his cathedral?

[Graham Duke]

Where's his cathedral? Where are his books? Where's his art? Where's the other stuff that you might want? Alcuin praised Offa for being so keen on encouraging reading, but there's little evidence that anything really comes of this. There's no reason to think Offa himself was literate, though, to be fair, most kings weren't. At this time, we do have a gift from Offa of a gospel book to the church at Worcester, which is the only surviving artifact we have connected to offering really directly. So that perhaps suggests he understands the symbolic value of a book, if not actually the content of it.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah.

[Graham Duke]

Awfully long time ago now, some people have speculated that the classic Old English poem Beowulf could have been written for Offa's court. So his namesake, Offa of Angle, is celebrated in the poem, and celebrated for defending and defining the nation's frontier, for which they use the word Mercer. Sounds a bit like Mercia.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah.

[Graham Duke]

And off, of course, builds the frontier. The fact that the text assumes Christianity is widespread but is also positive about the Danish rulers suggests it must be after a certain period for Christianity, but before a certain period, I Vikings for the Danish rulers. So you think, well, Offa does kind of sit between those two bits. We don't know. Not everybody agrees with that.

[Ali Hood]

But why not, eh?

[Graham Duke]

Why not? We're going to give him something. Yes. But despite his efforts, Offa ultimately doesn't actually have much of a legacy. Because of the fact that his son dies 141 days after him and doesn't have an heir, Mercia goes into sharp decline. The exiled Ecbert came back, ruled Wessex, defeated Mercia in battle, became an overlord. Even the Archbishopric of Lichfield is dissolved by Pope leo III in 803, just six years after Offa's death only lasted six years. So Alcoran wrote that it had been created not, as it seems, by reasonable consideration, but by a certain desire for power. So basically, after Offa dies and Ecbrif, everyone's like, look, I mean, we're not saying the Pope got it wrong, but, I mean, come on, we all know what was going on there, don't we?

[Ali Hood]

Yeah, but Litchfield continued to be important in the Church of England, right? Like a thousand years later.

[Graham Duke]

It's an important place and it's important settlement in mercy and all that sort of stuff. But it's not an archbishopric anymore. So that was the first and last Archbishop of Lichfield.

[Ali Hood]

Positions vacant, then?

[Graham Duke]

Indeed, yes. Bring it back. So it's this funny thing where Offa's achievements are remarkable, but apart from the dyke, they don't really survive him. And you were asking about this a lot at the start. It's easy to look at Offer and see him as a kind of a proto Alfred, this sort of man that's bringing England together, that this is almost a trial run of what comes 100 years later. But he only ever refers to himself as King of the Mercians. There's no sense that he has an ideological view of England as one united peoples, and perhaps understandably, because he doesn't have the existential threat of the Vikings in the way that Alfred did. It's just these are the kingdoms. It's a given. He wants to be more powerful. So Simon Keynes argued, Offa was driven by a lust for power, not a vision of English unity. And what he left was a reputation, not a legacy.

[Ali Hood]

Oh, he's. He's hit, then. Who's that? Who's that?

[Graham Duke]

Simon Keane's.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah. Well done. You know what? It's a bit like the Dieppe raid as opposed to D Day.

[Graham Duke]

I'm sure we were all thinking it.

[Ali Hood]

Well, okay, okay.

[Graham Duke]

If I have to explain it. Fine. Take the hint.

[Ali Hood]

The. There, there. That was a way to learn a lot about how to. How to land modern forces combining air, sea and land power.

[Graham Duke]

Yeah.

[Ali Hood]

Not an attempt to get a foothold in. To Western Europe to ultimately be. Yeah. Push back the Nazis. Why are we talking about this?

[Graham Duke]

I'm sure many people are wondering. I guess because you're saying that.

[Ali Hood]

Oh, yeah. Alfred.

[Graham Duke]

When we look at Offer. And Alfred is D Day. Yeah.

[Ali Hood]

Learned a lot, but a lot. And a lot of the. The standards were set by Offer and. And ultimately, you want to know what. Where the Churchill tanks fail and they become a great piece of kit.

[Graham Duke]

Yes. Yeah. We're going to struggle to put all of this into offer terms, but I think probably get what you're trying. It's tricky, though, isn't it? Because it's sort of. It's criticizing him. With the hindsight of what Alfred and his heirs ultimately to Athelstan will do, there's no reason why Alfa should have been imagining that he was going to create an England. No.

[Ali Hood]

That's why I asked that Mercia question about when he ruled the other stuff, whether it was. Whether there was a bigger name sitting above it. Slash, bigger ideal. But it's just more like. Yeah, it's more gangster.

[Graham Duke]

Yeah.

[Ali Hood]

Just power.

[Graham Duke]

Yeah. But equally, it's harsh because obviously it's not his fault that his son died 141 days after him without having produced an heir. And that's why he doesn't have a legacy. If his son had ruled for 30 years and had sons and they'd gone on to rule and they'd written stories about Offa, and Offa then would have been the founding father, and maybe Mercia then would have spread and would have ultimately started to come. Maybe it would have all just been called the Kingdom of Mercia and not England. But it might have been. It might have been this dynasty that starts with Offa. But, you know, as I guess Alcuin's saying, for all that you try, you can't control what happens afterwards.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah.

[Graham Duke]

And Offa tried to and failed, but, you know, there's only so much you can do.

[Ali Hood]

It starts Offa, but, you know, he

[Graham Duke]

does get his son Crown Co King. He does do all the stuff of the papacy. He does all the impressive coins, the powerful queenship, the advanced forms of kingship he's doing. That's not just kill, kill, kill and everyone give me money. He is more sophist glimmer.

[Ali Hood]

If we were still using the term Dark Ages.

[Graham Duke]

Yeah.

[Ali Hood]

And then it comes all back.

[Graham Duke]

So what do you think for a score for subjectivity.

[Ali Hood]

Oh, gosh.

[Graham Duke]

And we haven't talked about. We'll talk about this next. But you know, it is quite a long reign as well. So you think it's quite stability. It's just that he doesn't manage to get the.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah.

[Graham Duke]

The legacy that he had wanted.

[Ali Hood]

I suppose. I don't.

[Graham Duke]

Or the cultural hinterland. Unless we give him Beowulf.

[Ali Hood]

Oh, yeah. I suppose it wouldn't be much fun for the people. It's more like getting the structures in place so that it is so that you can read the benefits later. It's the 50s getting the NHS set up, but it's still the 50s.

[Graham Duke]

It's probably five, you know, five again. I'm gonna. I'm gonna be more generous to him because I feel like he's more than just your standard 8th century king. Like if you say, what do you expect in subjectivity from an 8th century king? I think, well, he does more than that with the coins and the crowning and the paper scene, all this sort of stuff. I think he does go beyond it, but it's hard not to bring him down because of the.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah. So space.

[Graham Duke]

Lack of legacy. I'm gonna give him six and a half.

[Ali Hood]

Okay.

[Graham Duke]

I think he is good and impressive, but almost by his own standard, he didn't quite get there even if he couldn't control it. So that is. Oh, no, I said six and a half. What's. Sorry, what did you say? You said five, didn't you? Eleven and a half for subjectivity.

[Ali Hood]

Longevity.

[Graham Duke]

Offa was King of Mercia from 757 to 29 July. 796. Now, we don't know exactly when his Reign started in 757. So if we just call that a nice round. 39 years.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah.

[Graham Duke]

Now I said how we take all of the monarchs in a series and we work out the gaps to give them their score. Now, technically, of course, offer isn't actually part of any series. No.

[Ali Hood]

But.

[Graham Duke]

But if we compare him to the English monarchs. So series one.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah.

[Graham Duke]

So it feels like where he would belong. 39 years would be the joint seventh best score, would it? Tying with Henry VI and thus would secure him 16 and a half out of 27th.

[Ali Hood]

Longest.

[Graham Duke]

Yeah. In the eighth century dynasty. Not the program for dynasty. It's how many legitimate surviving children the monarch has at the time that they die. And in Offa's case, he has four surviving children.

[Ali Hood]

This is really good.

[Graham Duke]

Ekfrith, who succeeded him as king, albeit briefly, but nevertheless. And three daughters. So Edbar, who became the Queen of Wessex and is the one you asked about, the notorious one in Wessex that gave queens a bad name. Elfled, who became Queen of Northumbria, and Elfridd, who became an abbess. She was the one that the King of East Anglia wanted to marry, so could very easily have had all three of his daughters be queens.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah, good work.

[Graham Duke]

So four children in series one would have put Offa in joint 14th and a score of 6.68. Anyway, that gives Offa a total score of 56.68.

[Ali Hood]

Not bad.

[Graham Duke]

It isn't bad at all. Now, I'm just going to get up my spreadsheet and that would put him in 19th place out of 58. He will be if we include Charles III, who is on my spreadsheet, even though we've not done him.

[Ali Hood]

So top, top third. Well done, that man.

[Graham Duke]

But it's not all about the score, of course. Does he have that certain something that's lasting legacy, the great achievement, the star quality that we call Rex factor? I think so, yeah. He's got a lasting legacy. He's got the dyke, he's got overlordship of basically all of southern England, sophisticated kingship, the coinage, international diplomacy, first coronation,

[Ali Hood]

English history, chatting like Dming Charlemagne on and off.

[Graham Duke]

Yeah. And the Pope.

[Ali Hood]

And the Pope.

[Graham Duke]

And he's 8th century and manages to be the 7th joint 7th longest reigning king.

[Ali Hood]

That is incredible. But he's. What I find interesting is he hits loads of the sort of Rex factor tick boxes.

[Graham Duke]

He does, doesn't he? Yeah. It's funny where we don't have a lot of detail and yet we've got a lot to say in every category.

[Ali Hood]

Yeah. Even the. Even the Archbish Chat, you know that. Yeah. That's got echoes of Henry both second and eighth.

[Graham Duke]

Yeah. Yes. Imagine. Yeah. For Henry VIII being like. But the Archbishop, they won't let me divorce them. Well, I could just create you an entirely new archbishop. That would do the job.

[Ali Hood]

Should have done that.

[Graham Duke]

And I suppose he did do that. He did that with Thomas Cranmer. He just waited for the Archbishop to die off as. I don't need to wait that long. I'll just make another one. Yeah.

[Ali Hood]

So, yeah, well, it's very good.

[Graham Duke]

Offer would be saying to him in the green room, why didn't you just ask the Pope? I did ask the Pope. Correspondence corner. So that was offer. Offer of Mercia.

[Ali Hood]

Nice.

[Graham Duke]

Head to our website rexfactorpodcast.com to get all our social media links and more information about the podcast and tell us what you thought about offer.

[Ali Hood]

Hang on. Did he get the Rex Factor?

[Graham Duke]

Yes.

[Ali Hood]

Okay.

[Graham Duke]

If you'd like to support the podcast, you can subscribe and leave a review on whatever podcast provider you use. And if you want to hear more of us, you can donate monthly and join the privy [e-mail] RexFactor. You get an ad free version of this podcast, plus over 450 bonus episodes, including a privy chamber episode for Offa, where we'll go into more detail on certain elements of his reign of the time. The notorious daughter that you mentioned that ruins queenship in Wessex. We'll talk about that a little bit more. Now, usually we do a shout out to new privy councillors at this stage in the podcast, but because it's a bit weird with this being a new episode but also being the first episode and going back to the back, I thought that might be a bit odd. So we'll wait till next time to start doing the shout outs, but otherwise that's all from us today. So if you are new to Rex Factor, thank you very much for listening stroke watching. You can now either go on to the next episode in the feed, which will be backgroundy stuff, and then Alfred the Great. And if you're not sure about the sound quality of those, jump ahead to a more newer episode. We're about to start in 2026, series four of Rex Factor doing the nearly monarchs of England, the ones who could or should have become king or queen, but for variations in fate, didn't manage it.

[Ali Hood]

And you're about to hear me in my late 20s, full of the joys of spring.

[Graham Duke]

Indeed, I think lying down, which might be part of the reason for poor sound quality. Anyway, until next time, thank you very much for listening straight watching and goodbye.

[Ali Hood]

Cheerio. Cheerio.

[Graham Duke]

Foreign. Rapido videos. Cortos gente real sin filtros, descarga TikTok ahora.

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