In-Person History Talk -Peterborough and the Mercian Kings with Max Adams

Name: In-Person History Talk -Peterborough and the Mercian Kings with Max Adams
Start: 2025-10-08T19:30:00+01:00
Location: Minster Precincts, PE1 1XS Peterborough, United Kingdom

Schedule

Wed, 08 Oct, 2025 at 07:30 pm

UTC+01:00

Location

Minster Precincts, PE1 1XS Peterborough, United Kingdom | Peterborough, EN

A new history of the Early Medieval kingdom of Mercia shows how its rulers– among them the celebrated King Offa (757-796) – became the dominant force in Anglo-Saxon England between the heyday of Bede’s Northumbrian overlords and King Ælfred’s Wessex. Offa and his predecessors brought about something of a revolution in military, cultural and economic power. They promoted international trade, built a network of key central places and forged a new social contract between church, royal administration and people, building the foundations of the English medieval state. Medeshamstede – Peterborough – was Mercia’s first royal monastery; Guthlac of Crowland its greatest saint.

In this illustrated talk archaeologist, historian and author Max Adams (The King in the North; Ælfred’s Britain; In the Land of Giants and many others) shows how Mercia achieved, then lost its great power and energy and focuses in particular on the enigmatic place of the Nene Valley in its remarkable story.

Seating is allocated on a first-come-first-served basis.

Doors open at 7.10pm subject to change