Source/Archive record SCH9251 - Mercia and Mercian Kingdom and Identity, c.650-c.950

Study examining the changing relationship between centres and peripheries in Mercia and seeking to nuance views of the political and cultural entities of this period, including how these interplayed with expressions of identities. Where were the centres of power and patronage within Mercia? Who was patronising these centres? How did relations between patronage and place change over time? And, how did this patronage contribute to the expression of political identities in Mercia? In drawing attention to the variation in centres and patronage within this area, the study will ask whether it is therefore possible, or useful, in historiography to talk about ‘Mercia’ as a single, homogenous political entity; or to use ‘Mercian’ to denote a single, homogenous identity.