Mercia's exact evolution at the start of the Anglo-Saxon era remains more obscure than that of Northumbria, Kent, or e… See more

The name 'Mercia' is a Latinisation of an Old English word derived from the Mercian Old English, Merce, meaning "borderland". The dialect thrived between the 8th and 13th centuries and was referred to by John Trevisa, … See more

The first kings of Mercia were pagans, and they resisted the encroachment of Christianity longer than other kingdoms in the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy.
Mercian rulers remained resolutely pagan until the rei… See more

For knowledge of the internal composition of the Kingdom of Mercia, we must rely on a document of uncertain age (possibly late 7th century), known as the Tribal Hidage – an assessment of the extent (but not the location) of … See more

The term "midlands" is first recorded (as mydlonde-shiris) in 1475. John Bateman, writing in 1876 or 1883, referred to contemporary Cheshire and Staffordshire landholdings as being in Mercia. The most credible so… See more

There is no authentic indigenous Mercian heraldic device, as heraldry did not develop in any recognizable form until the High Middle Ages.
The saltire as a symbol of Mercia may have been in us… See more