Mercia was one of the great kingdoms of England in the time of the Anglo-Saxons. It lay to the east of Wales, between Wessex in the south and Northumbria in the north. It was probably founded in the A.D. 500’s. It became the most powerful of the English kingdoms in the 700’s under kings Ethelbald and Offa, the effective overlords of England. Egbert, also spelled Ecgbehrt, king of Wessex, defeated Mercia in 825 and ended Mercia’s domination of southern England. Mercia never regained its former power.
