Mercia was one of the three main Anglic kingdoms founded after Sub-Roman Britain was settled by Anglo-Saxons in an era called the Heptarchy. It was centred on the River Trent and its tributaries, in a region now known as the Midlands of England.
Wulfhere or Wulfar was King of Mercia from 658 until 675 AD. He was the first Christian king of all of Mercia, though it is not known when or how he converted from Anglo-Saxon paganism. His accession marked the end of Oswiu of Northumbria's overlordship of southern England, and Wulfhere extended his influence over much of that region. His campaigns against the West Saxons led to Mercian control of much of the Thames valley. He conquered the Isle of Wight and the Meon valley and gave them to King Æthelwealh of the South Saxons. He also had influence in Surrey, Essex, and Kent. He married Eormenhild, the daughter of King Eorcenberht of Kent.
Stone is a market town and civil parish in Staffordshire, England, situated approximately 7 miles north of the county town of Stafford, 7 miles south of Stoke-on-Trent, and 15 miles north of Rugeley. As a notable canal town, Stone is recognised for its rich history, originating from the early Bronze Age and continuing through the Industrial Revolution, with the introduction of the Trent and Mersey Canal shaping the town's development and local industry.
Frithuswith, commonly Frideswide, was an English princess and abbess. She is credited as the foundress of a monastery later incorporated into Christ Church, Oxford. She was the daughter of a sub-king of a Mercia named Dida of Eynsham whose lands occupied western Oxfordshire and the upper reaches of the River Thames.
Werburgh was an Anglo-Saxon princess who became the patron saint of the city of Chester in Cheshire. Her feast day is 3 February.
White Ladies Priory, once the Priory of St Leonard at Brewood, was an English priory of Augustinian canonesses, now in ruins, in Shropshire, in the parish of Boscobel, some eight miles (13 km) northwest of Wolverhampton, near Junction 3 of the M54 motorway. Dissolved in 1536, it became famous for its role in the escape of Charles II of England after the Battle of Worcester in 1651. The name 'White Ladies' refers to the canonesses who lived there and who wore white religious habits.
Offchurch is a village and civil parish on the River Leam, 3 miles (4.8 km) east of Leamington Spa in Warwickshire. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 250.
Offchurch Bury is a manor house one mile north-west of the centre of the village of Offchurch, Warwickshire, England. It is supposed to represent the site of a palace of the Anglo-Saxon King Offa of Mercia (d.796), after which Offchurch is named, "bury" being a corruption of "burh" meaning a fortified place. William Dugdale in his Antiquities of Warwickshire (1656) stated concerning the manor of Offchurch:
Lapley is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Lapley, Stretton and Wheaton Aston, in the South Staffordshire district, in the county of Staffordshire, England. It is some 3.5 miles WSW of Penkridge, 1.5 miles east of Wheaton Aston, 0.5 miles northeast of the Shropshire Union Canal, 1.5 miles north of Watling Street, and 6 miles SSW of Stafford. In 1961 the parish had a population of 840. On 1 April 1986 the parish was abolished and merged with Stretton to form "Lapley and Stretton", part also went to Penkridge.
Kyneburga, Kyneswide and Tibba were female members of the royal family of Mercia in 7th-century England. They are venerated as saints.
Repton Abbey was an Anglo-Saxon Benedictine abbey in Derbyshire, England. Founded in the 7th century, the abbey was a double monastery, a community of both monks and nuns. The abbey is noted for its connections to various saints and Mercian royalty; two of the thirty-seven Mercian Kings were buried within the abbey's crypt. The abbey was abandoned in 873, when Repton was overrun by the invading Great Heathen Army.
Horton Priory was a priory at Horton in Dorset, England.
Farewell Priory was a Benedictine nunnery near Lichfield in Staffordshire, England. Although it received considerable episcopal support, it was always small and poor. It was dissolved in 1527 as a by-product of Cardinal Wolsey's scheme to establish a college within Oxford University.
Lapley Priory was a priory in Staffordshire, England. Founded at the very end of the Anglo-Saxon period, it was an alien priory, a satellite house of the Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Remi or Saint-Rémy at Reims in Northern France. After great fluctuations in fortune, resulting from changing relations between the rulers of England and France, it was finally dissolved in 1415 and its assets transferred to the collegiate church at Tong, Shropshire.
Priory of St. Thomas near Stafford was an Augustinian religious house near Stafford, Staffordshire, England. Founded sometime in approximately 1174, it was a surrendered to the Crown in 1538, during the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
Trentham Priory was a Christian priory in North Staffordshire, England, near the confluence between the young River Trent and two local streams, where the Trentham Estate is today.
Sandwell Priory was a small medieval Benedictine monastery, near West Bromwich, then part of Staffordshire, England. It was founded in the late 12th century by a local landowner and was only modestly endowed. It had a fairly turbulent history and suffered considerably from mismanagement. It was dissolved in 1525 at the behest of Cardinal Wolsey – more than a decade before the main Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII.
Black Ladies Priory was a house of Benedictine nuns, located about 4 km west of Brewood in Staffordshire, on the northern edge of the hamlet of Kiddemore Green. Founded in the mid-12th century, it was a small, often struggling, house. It was dissolved in 1538, and a large house was built on the site in Tudor and Jacobean styles by the Giffard family of Chillington Hall. Much of this is incorporated in the present Black Ladies, a large, Grade II*-listed, private residence.
The Rimed Chronicle of Stone Priory is a mid-15th century English rhyming narrative poem which was found inscribed on a tablet hanging at Stone Priory in Staffordshire, England, in 1537 at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. It was transcribed and printed by William Dugdale (1605–1686) in his 1655 work Monasticon Anglicanum, described as "The Copie of the Table that was hanging in the Priorie of Stone, at the time of the Suppression of the same, in the xxix yeare of the Raigne of our Soveraign Lord King Henry the VIII".
Saints Wulfhad and Ruffin were legendary 7th-century Christian martyrs from the royal family of Mercia. They were said to have been baptized by Saint Chad of Mercia, and their pagan father was said to have killed them at Stone, Staffordshire, England. Their feast day is 24 July.
