Kings of Mercia Beornwulf Silver Penny 823-825AD, Eacga ext. rare

Kings of Mercia Beornwulf Silver Penny 823-825AD, Eacga ext. rare

18mm, 1.26g

An extraordinarily rare penny from the Middle Saxon period, there have only been a few pennies of Beornwulf offered for sale in the last 15 years.
This coin is struck in good metal with a dark tone and has seen little wear.

Provenance will be provided, recorded with the EMC at the Fitzwilliam museum, Cambridge.

Beornwulf was King of the Saxon kingdom of Mercia (now the Midlands of England) from 823 to 826. His short reign saw the collapse of Mercia’s supremacy over the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. In 825 his army marched against the West Saxons and met them at Ellandun now present day Wroughton near Swindon in Wiltshire, the battle ended in a disastrous and complete defeat for the Mercian’s and is seen by historians as the end of the so-called Mercian Supremacy. Subsequently in 826 the West Saxons under Ecgbert’s son Æthelwulf invaded Kent and drove out its pro-Mercian king, Baldred. In the wake of these events, Mercia’s dominance of southern England rapidly unraveled. Essex and Sussex switched their loyalty to Egbert and then, in consequence, the East Anglians asked for Egbert’s protection against the Mercians in the same year. Beornwulf was killed by the East Anglians in battle while attempting to put down this rebellion.