Oswiu of Northumbria
Around the year 653 Peada was made king of the Middle Angles by his father. Bede, describing Peada as "an excellent youth, and most worthy of the title and person of a king", wrote that he sought to marry Alchflaed of Bernicia, the daughter of King Oswiu of Northumbria; Oswiu, however, made this conditional upon Peada's baptism and conversion to Christianity, along with the Middle Angles (Peada was, at this time, still a pagan, like his father). Bede says that Peada eagerly accepted conversion: