Welcome to the British History Podcast. My name is Jamie, and this is Episode 129, the

Life of King Wolfherra. This show is free and independent due to

member support, and as thanks for helping keep the community going, I offer members only

content such as extra episodes and rough transcripts. If you're interested in supporting

the show and helping us out, you can do so over at the British History Podcast.com, and

thank you very much to Robert, Patrick, and Peter for joining up already.

About a year and a half ago, I did a series on the Staffordshire Horde, and talking with

the experts and viewing the relics was easily one of my favorite moments from the entire

experience of putting together the BHP. As you might remember, the Horde was found in

Mercia, and is dated to roughly around the era that we're talking about right now. In fact,

I would be willing to wager that for most of you, the first time that you heard the name Wolfherra

was during one of those episodes. Because it's possible that the Horde had some level of connection

to him, and it actually might even have been his. So I thought that it might be a good idea to

talk about Wolfherra in a single episode, since while we have talked a bit about him, as his life

has touched upon many of the different stories that we've been talking about in the show,

it has been all through the lens of King Oswiyu of Northumbria. I mean, I love the story of King

Oswiyu, and he really was the best way to frame this story for the last couple of decades,

since much of what was happening was revolving around him. However, he wasn't the only Anglo-Saxon

heavyweight at the time, and so rather than simply talking about everything in the context of how it

impacts everyone's favorite Kinslaying King, I thought we should probably spend an episode

focusing entirely upon the other major powerhouse in Eastern Britain at the time. Namely, Wolfherra,

Son of Penda, and King of Mercia. And so this episode will mostly cover the years from 655 to 660.

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