Hello everyone and welcome to the History of England, episode 1.6, The Lifetime's Appender,

part 2.

Last time which was some weeks ago, we introduced Pender of the Mercians to you and talked about

the political events leading up to his first victory over the West Saxons in 628.

We heard about how Edwin of Northambray had rapidly established himself as the new Brett

Walder and a Christian one at that.

So this week we'll hear about Pender's career. We'll discuss the times Pender lived in,

but actually go well beyond his times too and get a shifty on and try to move through

the forest that is the 7th century.

In 628 Pender had established his southern borders with the West Saxons. To his north was

the powerful and threatening Northambray and its newly Christian king Edwin.

To his west the Highlands of Wales, to his east lay a mess of minor kings like the north

and south guia, Lindsay, the wixner, the her Athena. I could go on. Put together all these

groups fell under a conglomeration that you might call the middle angles. Then beyond

these petty kingdoms lay further east the kingdom of the East Anglians, who viewed these

petty kingdoms with the same intense caring concentration as a lion watch as a wounded

wildebeest. Pender was a man driven by the ancient driver of the pagan, angle and tribal

warrior and war leader. To defeat and cow your neighbours forced them to pay tribute, to

in treasure for your followers and in so doing build the glory of your name pulling yet

more warriors to your side, and so it would then go on.

In this Pender was to be enormously successful, but ultimately was doomed to end in failure

if the victories ever dried up. By the end of the 7th century Anglo-Saxon kings

...