Penda of Mercia " For the Indian sweet , see Peda " Penda ( died 15 November 655 ) was a 7th - century King of Mercia , the Anglo - Saxon kingdom in what is today the English Midlands . A pagan at a time when Christianity was taking hold in many of the Anglo - Saxon kingdoms , Penda took over the Severn Valley in 628 following the Battle of Cirencester before participating in the defeat of the powerful Northumbria n king Edwin at the Battle of Hatfield Chase in 633 . Nine years later , he defeated and killed Edwin ' s eventual successor , Oswald , at the Battle of Maserfield ; from this point he was probably the most powerful of the Anglo - Saxon rulers of the time , laying the foundations for the Mercian supremacy over the Anglo - Saxon Heptarchy . He repeatedly defeated the East Angles and drove Cenwalh the king of Wessex into exile for three years . He continued to wage war against the Bernicia ns of Northumbria . Thirteen years after Maserfield , he suffered a crushing defeat by Oswald ' s successor Oswiu and was killed at the Battle of the Winwaed in the course of a final campaign against the Bernicians . Etymology . The etymology of the name Penda is unknown . Penda of Mercia is the only monarch with this name , but a number of Mercian commoners with the same name are on record . Suggestions for etymologies of the name are essentially divided between a Celtic and a Germanic origin . The names of members of a Northumbrian [ spiritual ] brotherhood are recorded in the ninth century " Liber vitae Dunelmensis , " the name Penda occurs in this list and is categorised as a British ( Welsh ) name . John T . Koch noted that , " Penda and a number of other royal names from early Anglian Mercia have more obvious Brythonic than German explanations , though they do not correspond to known Welsh names . " These royal names include those of Penda ' s father Pybba , and of his son Peada . It has been suggested that the firm alliance between Penda and various British princes might be the result of a " racial cause . " Others have suggested that the name Penda comes from an unrecorded , and therefore putative , Old English word meaning " pledge " . Continental Germnic comparanda for the name include a feminine " Penta " ( 9th century ) and a toponym " Penti - lingen " , suggesting an underlying personal name " Pendi " . Descent , beginning of reign , and battle with the West Saxons . Penda was a son of Pybba and said to be a descendant of Icel , with a lineage purportedly extending back to Woden . The " Anglo - Saxon Chronicle " gives his descent as follows : Penda was Pybba ' s offspring , Pybba was Cryda ' s offspring , Cryda Cynewald ' s offspring , Cynewald Cnebba ' s offspring , Cnebba Icel ' s offspring , Icel Eomer ' s offspring , Eomer Angeltheow ' s offspring , Angeltheow Offa ' s offspring , Offa Wermund ' s offspring , Wermund Wihtlaeg ' s offspring , Wihtlaeg Woden ' s offspring . The " Historia Brittonum " says that Pybba had 12 sons , including Penda , but that Penda and Eowa were those best known to its author . ( Many of these 12 sons of Pybba may in fact merely represent later attempts to claim descent from him . ) Besides Eowa , the pedigrees also give Penda a brother named Coenwalh from whom two later kings were said to descend , although this may instead represent his brother - in - law Cenwalh of Wessex . The time at which Penda became king is uncertain , as are the circumstances . Another Mercian king , Cearl , is mentioned by Bede as ruling at the same time as the Northumbrian king Æthelfrith , in the early part of the 7th century . Whether Penda immediately succeeded Cearl is unknown , and it is also unclear whether they were related , and if so how closely ; Henry of Huntingdon , writing in the 12th century , claimed that Cearl was a kinsman of Pybba . It is also possible that Cearl and Penda were dynastic rivals . According to the " Anglo - Saxon Chronicle " , Penda became king in 626 , ruled for 30 years , and was 50 years old at the time of his accession . That he ruled for 30 years should not be taken as an exact figure , since the same source says he died in 655 , which would not correspond to the year given for the beginning of his reign unless he died in the thirtieth year of his reign . Furthermore , that Penda was truly 50 years old at the beginning of his reign is generally doubted by historians , mainly because of the ages of his children . The idea that Penda , at about 80 years of age , would have left behind children who were still young ( his son Wulfhere was still just a youth three years after Penda ' s death , according to Bede ) has been widely considered implausible . The possibility has been suggested that the " Chronicle " actually meant to say that Penda was 50 years old at the time of his death , and therefore about 20 in 626 . Bede , in his " Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum " , says of Penda that he was " a most warlike man of the royal race of the Mercians " and that , following Edwin of Northumbria ' s defeat in 633 ( " see " below ) , he ruled the Mercians for 22 years with varying fortune . The noted 20th - century historian Frank Stenton was of the opinion that the language used by Bede " leaves no doubt that . . . Penda , though descended from the royal family of the Mercians , only became their king after Edwin ' s defeat " . The " Historia Brittonum " accords Penda a reign of only ten years , perhaps dating it from the time of the Battle of Maserfield ( " see " below ) around 642 , although according to the generally accepted chronology this would still be more than ten years . Given the apparent problems with the dates given by the " Chronicle " and the " Historia " , Bede ' s account of the length of Penda ' s reign is generally considered the most plausible by historians . Nicholas Brooks noted that , since these three accounts of the length of Penda ' s reign come from three different sources , and none of them are Mercian ( they are West Saxon , Northumbria n , and Welsh ) , they may merely reflect the times at which their respective peoples first had military involvement with Penda . The question of whether or not Penda was already king during the late 620s assumes greater significance in light of the " Chronicle " < nowiki > ' < / nowiki > s record of a battle between Penda and the West Saxons under their kings Cynegils and Cwichelm taking place at Cirencester in 628 . If he was not yet king , then his involvement in this conflict might indicate that he was fighting as an independent warlord during this period — as Stenton put it , " a landless noble of the Mercian royal house fighting for his own hand . " On the other hand , he might have been one of multiple rulers among the Mercians at the time , ruling only a part of their territory . The " Chronicle " says that after the battle , Penda and the West Saxons " came to an agreement . " It has been speculated that this agreement marked a victory for Penda , ceding to him Cirencester and the areas along the lower River Severn . These lands , to the southwest of Mercia , had apparently been taken by the West Saxons from the British in 577 , and the territory eventually became part of the subkingdom of the Hwicce . Given Penda ' s role in the area at this time and his apparent success there , it has been argued that the subkingdom of the Hwicce was established by him ; evidence to support this is lacking , although the subkingdom is known to have existed later in the century . Alliance with Cadwallon and the Battle of Hatfield Chase . In the late 620s or early 630s , Cadwallon ap Cadfan , the British ( Welsh ) king of Gwynedd , became involved in a war with Edwin of Northumbria , the most powerful king in Britain at the time . Cadwallon apparently was initially unsuccessful , but he joined with Penda , who is thought to have been the lesser partner in their alliance , to defeat the Northumbrians in October 633 at the Battle of Hatfield Chase . Penda was probably not yet king of the Mercians , but he is thought to have become king soon afterwards , based on Bede ' s characterisation of his position . Edwin was killed in the battle , and one of his sons , Eadfrith , fell into Penda ' s hands . One manuscript of the " Anglo - Saxon Chronicle " says that , following the victory at Hatfield Chase , Cadwallon and Penda went on to ravage " the whole land " of the Northumbrians . Certainly Cadwallon continued the war , but the extent of Penda ' s further participation is uncertain . Bede says that the pagans who had slain Edwin — presumably a reference to the Mercians under Penda , although conceivably it could be a derisive misnomer meant to refer to the Christian British — burned a church and town at Campodonum , although the time at which this occurred is uncertain . Penda might have withdrawn from the war at some point before the defeat and death of Cadwallon at the Battle of Heavenfield , about a year after Hatfield Chase , since he was not present at this battle . Furthermore , Bede makes no mention of Penda ' s presence in the preceding siege and battle in which Osric of Deira was defeated and killed . Penda ' s successful participation in the battle of Hatfield Chase would have elevated his status among the Mercians and so enabled him to become king , and he might have withdrawn from the war before Heavenfield to secure or consolidate his position in Mercia . Referring to Penda ' s successes against the West Saxons and the Northumbrians , D . P . Kirby writes of Penda ' s emergence in these years as " a Mercian leader whose military exploits far transcended those of his obscure predecessors . " During the reign of Oswald . Oswald of Bernicia became king of Northumbria after his victory over Cadwallon at Heavenfield . Penda ' s status and activities during the years of Oswald ' s reign are obscure , and various interpretations of Penda ' s position during this period have been suggested . It has been presumed that Penda acknowledged Oswald ' s authority in some sense after Heavenfield , although Penda was probably an obstacle to Northumbrian supremacy south of the Humber . It has been suggested that Penda ' s strength during Oswald ' s reign could be exaggerated by the historical awareness of his later successes . Kirby says that , while Oswald was as powerful as Edwin had been , " he faced a more entrenched challenge in midland and eastern England from Penda " . At some point during Oswald ' s reign , Penda had Edwin ' s son Eadfrith killed , " contrary to his oath " . The possibility that his killing was the result of pressure from Oswald — Eadfrith being a dynastic rival of Oswald — has been suggested . Since the potential existed for Eadfrith to be put to use in Mercia ' s favour in Northumbrian power struggles while he was alive , it would not have been to Penda ' s advantage to have him killed . On the other hand , Penda might have killed Eadfrith for his own reasons . It has been suggested that Penda was concerned that Eadfrith could be a threat to him because Eadfrith might seek vengeance for the deaths of his father and brother ; it is also possible that Mercian dynastic rivalry played a part in the killing , since Eadfrith was a grandson of Penda ' s predecessor Cearl . It was probably at some point during Oswald ' s reign that Penda fought with the East Angles and defeated them , killing their king Egric and the former king Sigebert , who had been brought out of retirement in a monastery against his will in the belief that his presence would motivate the soldiers . The time at which the battle occurred is uncertain ; it may have been as early as 635 , but there is also evidence to suggest it could not have been before 640 or 641 . Presuming that this battle took place before the Battle of Maserfield , it may have been that such an expression of Penda ' s ambition and emerging power made Oswald feel that Penda had to be defeated for Northumbrian dominance of southern England to be secured or consolidated . Penda ' s brother Eowa was also said by the " Historia Brittonum " and the " Annales Cambriae " to have been a king of the Mercians at the time of Maserfield . The question of what sort of relationship of power existed between the brothers before the battle is a matter of speculation . Eowa may have simply been a sub - king under Penda and it is also possible that Penda and Eowa ruled jointly during the 630s and early 640s : joint kingships were not uncommon among Anglo - Saxon kingdoms of the period . They may have ruled the southern and northern Mercians respectively . That Penda ruled the southern part is a possibility suggested by his early involvement in the area of the Hwicce , to the south of Mercia , as well as by the fact that , after Penda ' s death , his son Peada was allowed to rule southern Mercia while the northern part was placed under direct Northumbrian control . Another possibility was suggested by Brooks : Penda might have lost power at some point after Heavenfield , and Eowa may have actually been ruling the Mercians for at least some of the period as a subject ally or puppet of Oswald . Brooks cited Bede ' s statement implying that Penda ' s fortunes were mixed during his 22 years in power and noted the possibility that Penda ' s fortunes were low at this time . Thus it may be that Penda was not consistently the dominant figure in Mercia during the years between Hatfield and Maserfield . Maserfield . On 5 August 642 , Penda defeated the Northumbrians at the Battle of Maserfield , which was fought near the lands of the Welsh , and Oswald was killed . Surviving Welsh poetry suggests that Penda fought in alliance with the men of Powys — apparently he was consistently allied with some of the Welsh — perhaps including Cynddylan ap Cyndrwyn , of whom it was said that " when the son of Pyb desired , how ready he was " , presumably meaning that he was an ally of Penda , the son of Pybba . If the traditional identification of the battle ' s location with Oswestry is correct , then this would indicate that it was Oswald who had taken the offensive against Penda . It has been suggested that he was acting against " a threat posed to his domination of Mercia by a hostile alliance of Penda and Powys . " According to Reginald of Durham ' s 12th century " Life of Saint Oswald " , Penda fled into Wales before the battle , at which point Oswald felt secure and sent his army away . This explanation of events has been regarded as " plausible " but is not found in any other source , and may , therefore , have been Reginald ' s invention . According to Bede , Penda had Oswald ' s body dismembered , with his head , hands and arms being placed onto stakes ( this may have had a pagan religious significance . ) ; Oswald thereafter came to be revered as a saint , with his death in battle as a Christian king against pagans leading him to be regarded as a martyr . Eowa was killed at Maserfield along with Oswald , although on which side he fought is unknown . It may well be that he fought as a dependent ally of Oswald against Penda . If Eowa was in fact dominant among the Mercians during the period leading up to the battle , then his death could have marked what the author of the " Historia Brittonum " regarded as the beginning of Penda ' s ten - year reign . Thus it may be that Penda prevailed not only over the Northumbrians but also over his rivals among the Mercians . The " Historia Brittonum " may also be referring to this battle when it says that Penda first freed ( " separavit " ) the Mercians from the Northumbrians . This may be an important clue to the relationship between the Mercians and the Northumbrians before and during Penda ' s time . There may have existed a " Humbrian confederacy " that included the Mercians until Penda broke free of it . On the other hand , it has been considered unlikely that this was truly the first instance of their separation : it is significant that Cearl had married his daughter to Edwin during Edwin ' s exile , when Edwin was an enemy of the Northumbrian king Æthelfrith . It would seem that if Cearl was able to do this , he was not subject to Æthelfrith ; thus it may be that any subject relationship only developed after the time of this marriage . The battle left Penda with a degree of power unprecedented for a Mercian king — Kirby called him " without question the most powerful Mercian ruler so far to have emerged in the midlands " after Maserfield — and the prestige and status associated with defeating the powerful Oswald must have been very significant . Northumbria was greatly weakened as a consequence of the battle ; the kingdom became fractured to some degree between Deira in its southern part and Bernicia in the north , with the Deirans acquiring a king of their own , Oswine , while in Bernicia , Oswald was succeeded by his brother , Oswiu . Mercia thus enjoyed a greatly enhanced position of strength relative to the surrounding kingdoms . Stenton wrote that the battle left Penda as " the most formidable king in England " , and observed that although " there is no evidence that he ever became , or even tried to become , the lord of all the other kings of southern England . . . none of them can have been his equal in reputation " . Campaigns between Maserfield and the Winwaed . Defeat at Maserfield must have weakened Northumbrian influence over the West Saxons , and the new West Saxon king Cenwealh — who was still pagan at this time — was married to Penda ' s sister . It may be surmised that this meant he was to some extent within what Kirby called a " Mercian orbit " . However , when Cenwealh ( according to Bede ) " repudiated " Penda ' s sister in favour of another wife , Penda drove Cenwealh into exile in East Anglia in 645 , where he remained for three years before regaining power . Who governed the West Saxons during the years of Cenwealh ' s exile is unknown ; Kirby considered it reasonable to conclude that whoever ruled was subject to Penda . He also suggested that Cenwealh may not have been able to return to his kingdom until after Penda ' s death . In 654 , the East Anglian king Anna , who had harboured the exiled Cenwealh , was killed by Penda . He was succeeded by a brother , Aethelhere ; since Aethelhere was subsequently a participant in Penda ' s doomed invasion of Bernicia in 655 ( " see below " ) , it may be that Penda installed Aethelhere in power . It has been suggested that Penda ' s wars against the East Angles " should be seen in the light of interfactional struggles within East Anglia . " It may also be that Penda made war against the East Angles with the intention of securing Mercian dominance over the area of Middle Anglia , where Penda established his son Peada as ruler . In the years after Maserfield , Penda also destructively waged war against Oswiu of Bernicia on his own territory . At one point before the death of Bishop Aidan ( 31 August 651 ) , Bede says that Penda " cruelly ravaged the country of the Northumbrians far and near " and besieged the royal Bernician stronghold of Bamburgh . When the Mercians were unable to capture it — " not being able to enter it by force , or by a long siege " — Bede reports that they attempted to set the city ablaze , but that it was saved by a sacred wind supposedly sent in response to a plea from the saintly Aidan : " Behold , Lord , how great mischief Penda does ! " The wind is said to have blown the fire back towards the Mercians , deterring them from further attempts to capture the city . At another point , some years after Aidan ' s death , Bede records another attack . He says that Penda led an army in devastating the area where Aidan died — he " destroyed all he could with fire and sword " — but that when the Mercians burned down the church where Aidan died , the post against which he was leaning at the time of his death was undamaged ; this was taken to be a miracle . No open battles are recorded as being fought between the two sides before the Winwaed in 655 ( " see " below ) , however , and this may mean that Oswiu deliberately avoided battle due to a feeling of weakness relative to Penda . This feeling may have been in religious as well as military terms : N . J . Higham wrote of Penda acquiring " a pre - eminent reputation as a god - protected , warrior – king " , whose victories may have led to a belief that his pagan gods were more effective for protection in war than the Christian God . Relations with Bernicia ; Christianity and Middle Anglia . Despite these apparent instances of warfare , relations between Penda and Oswiu were probably not entirely hostile during this period , since Penda ' s daughter Cyneburh married Alhfrith , Oswiu ' s son , and Penda ' s son Peada married Alhflaed , Oswiu ' s daughter . According to Bede , who dates the events to 653 , the latter marriage was made contingent upon the baptism and conversion to Christianity of Peada ; Peada accepted this , and the preaching of Christianity began among the Middle Angles , whom he ruled . Bede wrote that Penda tolerated the preaching of Christianity in Mercia itself , despite his own beliefs : Nor did King Penda obstruct the preaching of the word among his people , the Mercians , if any were willing to hear it ; but , on the contrary , he hated and despised those whom he perceived not to perform the works of faith , when they had once received the faith , saying , " They were contemptible and wretched who did not obey their God , in whom they believed . " This was begun two years before the death of King Penda . Peada ' s conversion and the introduction of priests into Middle Anglia could be seen as evidence of Penda ' s tolerance of Christianity , given the absence of evidence that he sought to interfere . On the other hand , an interpretation is also possible whereby the marriage and conversion could be seen as corresponding to a successful attempt on Oswiu ' s part to expand Bernician influence at Penda ' s expense ; Higham saw Peada ' s conversion more in terms of political manoeuvring on both sides than religious zeal . Middle Anglia as a political entity may have been created by Penda as an expression of Mercian power in the area following his victories over the East Angles . Previously there seem to have been a number of small peoples inhabiting the region , and Penda ' s establishment of Peada as a subking there may have marked their initial union under one ruler . The districts corresponding to Shropshire and Herefordshire , along Mercia ' s western frontier near Wales , probably also fell under Mercian domination at this time . Here a king called Merewalh ruled over the Magonsaete ; in later centuries it was said that Merewalh was a son of Penda , but this is considered uncertain . Stenton , for example , considered it likely that Merewalh was a representative of a local dynasty that continued to rule under Mercian domination . Final campaign and the battle of the Winwaed . In 655 , Penda invaded Bernicia with a large army , reported to have been 30 warbands , with 30 royal or noble commanders ( " duces regii " , as Bede called them ) , including rulers such as Cadafael ap Cynfeddw of Gwynedd and Aethelhere of East Anglia . Penda also enjoyed the support of Aethelwald , the king of Deira and the successor of Oswine , who had been murdered on Oswiu ' s orders in 651 ; Bede says Aethelwald acted as Penda ' s guide during his invasion . The cause of this war is uncertain . There is a passage in Bede ' s " Ecclesiastical History " that suggests Aethelhere of East Anglia was the cause of the war . On the other hand , it has been argued that an issue of punctuation in later manuscripts confused Bede ' s meaning on this point , and that he in fact meant to refer to Penda as being responsible for the war . Although , according to Bede , Penda tolerated some Christian preaching in Mercia , it has been suggested that he perceived Bernician sponsorship of Christianity in Mercia and Middle Anglia as a form of " religious colonialism " that undermined his power , and that this may have provoked the war . Elsewhere the possibility has been suggested that Penda sought to prevent Oswiu from reunifying Northumbria , not wanting Oswiu to restore the kingdom to the power it had enjoyed under Edwin and Oswald . A perception of the conflict in terms of the political situation between Bernicia and Deira could help to explain the role of Aethelwald of Deira in the war , since Aethelwald was the son of Oswald and might not ordinarily be expected to ally with those who had killed his father . Perhaps , as the son of Oswald , he sought to obtain the Bernician kingship for himself . According to the " Historia Brittonum " , Penda besieged Oswiu at Iudeu ; this site has been identified with Stirling , in the north of Oswiu ' s kingdom . Oswiu tried to buy peace : in the " Historia Brittonum " , it is said that Oswiu offered treasure , which Penda distributed among his British allies . Bede states that the offer was simply rejected by Penda , who " resolved to extirpate all of [ Oswiu ' s ] nation , from the highest to the lowest " . Additionally , according to Bede , Oswiu ' s son Ecgfrith was being held hostage " at the court of Queen Cynwise , in the province of the Mercians " — perhaps surrendered by Oswiu as part of some negotiations or arrangement . It would seem that Penda ' s army then moved back south , perhaps returning home , but a great battle was fought near the river Winwaed in the region of Loidis , thought to be somewhere in the area around modern day Leeds , on a date given by Bede as 15 November . The identification of the Winwaed with a modern river is uncertain , but possibly it was a tributary of the Humber . There is good reason to believe it may well have been the river now known as Cock Beck in the ancient kingdom of Elmet . The Cock Beck meanders its way through Pendas Fields , close to an ancient well known as Pen Well on the outskirts of Leeds , before eventually joining the River Wharfe . This same Cock Beck whilst in flood also played a significant role in the much later Battle of Towton in 1461 . Another possibility is the River Went ( a tributary of the River Don , situated to the north of modern - day Doncaster ) . It may be that Penda ' s army was attacked by Oswiu at a point of strategic vulnerability , which would help explain Oswiu ' s victory over forces that were , according to Bede , much larger than his own . The Mercian force was also weakened by desertions . According to the " Historia Brittonum " , Cadafael of Gwynedd , " rising up in the night , escaped together with his army " ( thus earning him the name " Cadomedd " , or " battle - shirker " ) , and Bede says that at the time of the battle , Aethelwald of Deira withdrew and " awaited the outcome from a place of safety " . According to Kirby , if Penda ' s army was marching home , it may have been for this reason that some of his allies were unwilling to fight . It may also be that the allies had different purposes in the war , and Kirby suggested that Penda ' s deserting allies may have been dissatisfied " with what had been achieved at " Iudeu " " . At a time when the Winwaed was swollen with heavy rains , the Mercians were badly defeated and Penda was killed , along with the East Anglian king Aethelhere . Bede says that Penda ' s " thirty commanders , and those who had come to his assistance were put to flight , and almost all of them slain , " and that more drowned while fleeing than were killed in the actual battle . He also says that Penda ' s head was cut off ; a connection between this and the treatment of Oswald ' s body at Maserfield is possible . Writing in the 12th century , Henry of Huntingdon emphasised the idea that Penda was suffering the same fate as he had inflicted on others . Aftermath and historical appraisal . With the defeat at the Winwaed , Oswiu came to briefly dominate Mercia , permitting Penda ' s son Peada to rule its southern portion . Two of Penda ' s other sons , Wulfhere and Æthelred , later ruled Mercia in succession after the overthrow of Northumbrian control in the late 650s . The period of rule by Penda ' s descendants came to an end with his grandson Ceolred ' s death in 716 , after which power passed to descendants of Eowa for most of the remainder of the 8th century . Penda ' s reign is significant in that it marks an emergence from the obscurity of Mercia during the time of his predecessors , both in terms of the power of the Mercians relative to the surrounding peoples and in terms of our historical awareness of them . While our understanding of Penda ' s reign is quite unclear , and even the very notable and decisive battles he fought are surrounded by historical confusion , for the first time a general outline of important events regarding the Mercians becomes realistically possible . Furthermore , Penda was certainly of great importance to the development of the Mercian kingdom ; it has been said that his reign was " crucial to the consolidation and expansion of Mercia " . Penda was the last great pagan warrior - king among the Anglo - Saxons . Higham wrote that " his destruction sounded the death - knell of English paganism as a political ideology and public religion . " After Penda ' s death , the Mercians were converted to Christianity , and all three of Penda ' s reigning sons ruled as Christians . His daughters Cyneburh and Cyneswith became Christian and were saintly figures who according to some accounts retained their virginity through their marriages . There was purportedly even an infant grandson of Penda named Rumwold who lived a saintly three - day life of fervent preaching . What is known about Penda is primarily derived from the history written by the Northumbrian Bede , a priest not inclined to objectively portray a pagan Mercian who engaged in fierce conflict with Christian kings , and in particular with Northumbrian rulers . Indeed , Penda has been described as " the villain of Bede ' s third book " ( of the " Historia Ecclesiastica " ) . From the perspective of the Christians who later wrote about Penda , the important theme that dominates their descriptions is the religious context of his wars — for instance , the " Historia Brittonum " says that Penda prevailed at Maserfield through " diabolical agency " — but Penda ' s greatest importance was perhaps in his opposition to the supremacy of the Northumbrians . According to Stenton , had it not been for Penda ' s resistance , " a loosely compacted kingdom of England under Northumbrian rule would probably have been established by the middle of the seventh century . " In summarising Penda , he wrote the following : He was himself a great fighting king of the kind most honoured in Germanic saga ; the lord of many princes , and the leader of a vast retinue attracted to his service by his success and generosity . Many stories must have been told about his dealings with other kings , but none of them have survived ; his wars can only be described from the standpoint of his enemies . . . Penda in popular culture . Penda was played by Leo McKern in an episode of " Churchill ' s People " , a sympathetic account which was mostly set on the eve of the Battle of Winwaed . He also figured in the television play " Penda ' s Fen " .