British Kings, Offa, Ethelwulf

Offa was King of Mercia, a kingdom of Anglo-Saxon England, from 757 until his death in July 796. The son of Thingfrith and a descendant of Eowa, Offa came to the throne after a period of civil war following the assassination of Æthelbald. Offa defeated the other claimant, Beornred.

King Offa

In the early years of Offa's reign, it is likely that he consolidated his control of Midland peoples such as the Hwicce and the Magonsæte. Taking advantage of instability in the kingdom of Kent to establish himself as overlord, Offa also controlled Sussex by 771, though his authority did not remain unchallenged in either territory.

In the 780s he extended Mercian supremacy over most of southern England, allying with Beorhtric of Wessex, who married Offa's daughter Eadburh, and regained complete control of the southeast. He also became the overlord of East Anglia and had King Æthelberht II of East Anglia beheaded in 794, perhaps for rebelling against him.

Offa was a Christian king who came into conflict with the Church, particularly with Jaenberht, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Offa persuaded Pope Adrian I to divide the archdiocese of Canterbury in two, creating a new archdiocese of Lichfield. This reduction in the power of Canterbury may have been motivated by Offa's desire to have an archbishop consecrate his son Ecgfrith as king, since it is possible Jaenberht refused to perform the ceremony, which took place in 787. Offa had a dispute with the Bishop of Worcester, which was settled at the Council of Brentford in 781.

King Offa

Many surviving coins from Offa's reign carry elegant depictions of him, and the artistic quality of these images exceeds that of the contemporary Frankish coinage. Some of his coins carry images of his wife, Cynethryth – the only Anglo-Saxon queen ever depicted on a coin.

Only three gold coins of Offa's have survived: one is a copy of an Abbasid dinar of 774 and carries Arabic text on one side, with "Offa Rex" on the other. The gold coins are of uncertain use but may have been struck to be used as alms or for gifts to Rome.

Many historians regard Offa as the most powerful Anglo-Saxon king before Alfred the Great. His dominance never extended to Northumbria, though he gave his daughter Ælfflæd in marriage to the Northumbrian king Æthelred I in 792. Historians once saw his reign as part of a process leading to a unified England, but this is no longer the majority view. In the words of a recent historian: "Offa was driven by a lust for power, not a vision of English unity; and what he left was a reputation, not a legacy."[1] Offa died in 796; his son, Ecgfrith, succeeded him, but reigned for less than five months before Coenwulf of Mercia became king.

King Ethelwulf
Æthelwulf (Old English for "Noble Wolf";[2] died 13 January 858) was King of Wessex from 839 to 858.[a] In 825, his father, King Egbert, defeated King Beornwulf of Mercia, ending a long Mercian dominance over Anglo-Saxon England south of the Humber.

Egbert sent Æthelwulf with an army to Kent, where he expelled the Mercian sub-king and was himself appointed sub-king. Right Richard of Wessex

After 830, Egbert maintained good relations with Mercia, and this was continued by Æthelwulf when he became king in 839, the first son to succeed his father as West Saxon king since 641.

The Vikings were not a major threat to Wessex during Æthelwulf's reign. In 843, he was defeated in a battle against the Vikings at Carhampton in Somerset, but he achieved a major victory at the Battle of Aclea in 851.

King Æthelwulf

In 853 he joined a successful Mercian expedition to Wales to restore the traditional Mercian hegemony, and in the same year his daughter Æthelswith married King Burgred of Mercia. In 855 Æthelwulf went on pilgrimage to Rome. In preparation he gave a "decimation", donating a tenth of his personal property to his subjects; he appointed his eldest surviving son Æthelbald to act as King of Wessex in his absence, and his next son Æthelberht to rule Kent and the south-east.

Æthelwulf spent a year in Rome, and on his way back he married Judith, the daughter of the West Frankish King Charles the Bald.

When Æthelwulf returned to England, Æthelbald refused to surrender the West Saxon throne, and Æthelwulf agreed to divide the kingdom, taking the east and leaving the west in Æthelbald's hands. On Æthelwulf's death in 858 he left Wessex to Æthelbald and Kent to Æthelberht, but Æthelbald's death only two years later led to the reunification of the kingdom.

In the 20th century Æthelwulf's reputation among historians was poor: he was seen as excessively pious and impractical, and his pilgrimage was viewed as a desertion of his duties. Historians in the 21st century see him very differently, as a king who consolidated and extended the power of his dynasty, commanded respect on the continent, and dealt more effectively than most of his contemporaries with Viking attacks. He is regarded as one of the most successful West Saxon kings, who laid the foundations for the success of his son, Alfred the Great.

Nok Civilisation Nigeria

The remarkable civilisation of the Nok was first discovered in 1928 when a wealth of unique terracotta artefacts was unearthed by tin miners in the southern part of Kaduna state in central Nigeria. Since then, extensive archaeological excavations and research into the Nok have revealed that they may have been the first complex civilisation in West Africa, existing from at least 900 BC until their mysterious disappearance in around 200 AD.

Nok Metal and Stone Tools

The Nokians were an extremely advanced society, with one of the most complex judicial systems of the time, and the earliest producers of life-sized terracotta in the Sub-Sahara. Archaeologists have also found stone tools, rock paintings, and iron implements, including fearsome spear points, bracelets, and small knives. But by far the most enigmatic and intriguing aspect of the Nok Culture were their Terracotta statues, described by the mémoire d'afrique, which houses a gallery of the statues, as “extraordinary, astonishing, ageless, timeless and almost extraterrestrial”.

The figures, which date back to at least 500 BC, are almost always people with large, mostly elongated heads with almond-shaped hollow-looking eyes are parted lips. These unusual features are particularly perplexing considering that the statues have been constructed accurately with relative proportions of the head, body, and feet, leading some to use the term ‘extraterrestrial-looking’ when describing them. Microscopic inspection of the clay used in the terracotta shows it to be remarkably uniform over the whole Nok area, suggesting that the clay came from a single, yet-undiscovered source.

Nok Terracotta statues 500 BCE

Not much is known about the purposes of these peculiar sculptures but some theories have suggested they were used as charms to prevent crop failure, illness, and infertility, while others have suggested that they represent high-status individuals who were worshipped by the people.

However, the construction of life-sized statues isn’t the only evidence of the advancement of their society. Research has revealed that the Nok people had a highly developed system of administration to ensure law and order.

Judicial System, court, Priest, Chief: It is a known fact that the Nok’s judicial system pre-dates the Western judicial system. The Nok people created classes of courts used for adjudicating cases from minor civil cases, such as family disputes and false allegations, to criminal cases such as stealing, murder, and adultery.

The people believed that every crime attracts a curse which was capable of destroying the whole family and therefore must be uncovered to avoid the consequences.

The suspect was brought before an open court for traditional oath-taking, which involved standing between two monoliths facing the sun, the supreme god called Nom. The suspect then swore to tell the truth. Cases that cannot be resolved in the open court are taken to the high court which sits within an enclosed shrine.

Nok Terracotta statue 500 BCE

The court was presided over by the Chief Priest and various clan heads. Anyone found guilty was fined goats and chicken for sacrifice to the gods and local wine for the chief priest.

The town would then declare a day of celebration on which the people would thank the gods for their graces in successfully resolving the issue and averting doom for the people.

A sharp drop in the volume of pottery and terracotta in soil layers suggests that the once-thriving Nok population declined fairly rapidly and no evidence can be found of their existence after 200 AD, nor has any evidence been found which suggests a reason for their disappearance.

Some have suggested that over-exploitation of natural resources and a heavy reliance on charcoal may have played a role, while others have said it could have been any number of different possibilities including climate change, a pandemic, invasion, epidemic or famine.

Nok Terracotta statue 500 BCE

 The Nok civilisation left a remarkable cultural legacy for the people that followed after them, but there are still many unanswered questions about the Nok, from why they disappeared to the true purpose and nature of the unique and mysterious terracotta statues.

In this region of Chad, the recent "bovidien" an epoque during which iron was affirmed to having been in use, is considered to be from the 1st millennium B.C. Yet, P. Huard notes that "in the recent bovidien of Ennedi, in the style of Fada, which we consider to have occurred before iron working, gave the Bailloud core grid spears." On the other hand, the Nubian group C (to whom the depiction of the spear-man accompanied by his herd of cattle in the north-east portion of Ennedi belongs) started, according to Arkell, at the end of the 3rd millennium B.C. (between -2300 and -2150).

Iwo-Eleru, Nigeria, Ancient Skull

Recent archaeological research has shown that people were already living in Nigeria (specifically the Iwo-Eleru) as early as 11,000 B.C.E., and perhaps earlier at Ugwuelle-Uturu (Okigwe) in south-eastern Nigeria.

Iwo-Eleru Skull

 Scientists have collected more evidence to suggest that ancient and modern humans interbred in Africa. Reanalysis of the 13,000-year-old skull from a cave in West Africa reveals a skull more primitive-looking than its age suggests. Top left and below original and copies of the human skull found in Iwo-Eleru 11,000 B.C.E.

The result suggests that the ancestors of early humans did not die out quickly in Africa, but instead lived alongside their descendants and bred with them until comparatively recently.

The skull, found in the Iwo Eleru cave in Nigeria in 1965, does not look like a modern human. It is longer and flatter, with a strong brow ridge; features closer to a much older skull from Tanzania thought to be around 140,000 years old.

Prof Katerina Harvati from the University of Tuebingen in Germany used new digitizing techniques to capture the surface of the skull in detail. The new technique improved upon the original measurements done with calipers by letting researchers see subtler details about the skull's surface.

Iwo-Eleru Skulls

 The cast of the Iwo Eleru skull shows marks of a more ancient ancestor "[The skull] has got a much more primitive appearance, even though it is only 13,000 years old," said Chris Stringer, from London's Natural History Museum, who was part of the team of researchers.

"This suggests that human evolution in Africa was more complex... the transition to modern humans was not a straight transition and then a cut-off." Prof Stringer thinks that ancient humans did not die away once they had given rise to modern humans. They may have continued to live alongside their descendants in Africa, perhaps exchanging genes with them, until more recently than had been thought. The researchers say their findings also underscore a real lack of knowledge of human evolution in the region.

Nok Twins 500 BCE

But paleontologists are not all agreed on precisely what the new analysis is telling us - or, indeed, whether it is telling us anything definitive at all. "I do not think that these findings add anything new to our view," said Prof Clive Finlayson, director of the Gibraltar Museum, who was not connected to the study. "We have a few fossils and no idea of natural variation within populations.

That the situation is not simple and is deep and complex is what we would expect. "In my view, it is the field of genetics that will help us most in clarifying matters," he told BBC News. Separate research published earlier this month suggests that genetic mixing between hominid species happened in Africa up to 35,000 years ago.

Microlithic and ceramic industries were developed by savanna pastoralists from at least the 4th millennium BC and were continued by subsequent agricultural communities. The Efik/Ibibio/Annang Efik, Ibibio, and Annang people of a single ancestor of coastal southeastern Nigeria are known to have lived in the area at least 7 thousand years before Christ.

As a matter of fact, concerning the age of iron working in Nigeria, Basil Davidson indicated in his work Africa before the whites [18] that 'four charcoal fragments in the Nok strata were revealed to have dates between 3500, 2000, 900 B.C.and 200 A.D by carbon dating'. The author then continues by giving the following commentary by Bernard Fagg.

Eurocentric for years had led the whole world to believe that "Iron Age" started in Southwest Asia in 1500 B.C.E. However, iron smelting in Lejja is 495 older than that done in Asia, 1,045 years older than China's Iron Age, and 695 years younger than the Egyptian Pyramids. The team visited various tourist sites in Enugu State including the Institute for African Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), which led an excursion trip to the Prehistoric Iron smelting site in Lejja in Nsukka.
The Lejja visit proved to be a most auspicious event, for it exposed the visitors to the world’s oldest iron smelting technology.

Byzantine Emperors, Manouel I, Charles the Bald

Charlemagne was a ruthless warrior, but he had other achievements as well.

Emperor Manouel I

 He provided a good government for his kingdom in which he had outdoor meetings.

In these meetings, the mass could vote by shouting out their agreement or disagreement with his offered laws. He charged property taxation, called tithes, so that there would be money to pay for improvements like the five hundred foot bridge up the Rhine River and the cathedral at Ravenna.

He raised education too, He brought in teachers from other lands to restore schools. He even started out a school at his palace, Aachen castle. He had monks copy books in the scholarly language of Latin, in order to maintain them. Charlemagne ruled for about forty seven years.

He provided a prosperous and stable country for his people during an era of uncertainty in Europe. He died at the age of seventy two, ruler of a kingdom that included what is now modern France, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, half of Italy, half of Germany, part of

Austria, and the Spanish border area. Louis the Pious (778 – 20 June 840), also called the Fair, and the Debonaire, was the King of Aquitaine from 781. He was also King of the Franks and co-Emperor (as Louis I) with his father, Charlemagne, from 813. As the only surviving adult son of Charlemagne and Hildegard, he became the sole ruler of the Franks after his father's death in 814, a position which he held until his death, save for the period 833–34, during which he was deposed. Above: Byzantine Emperor Manouel I, Komnerios and his second wife Maria of Antioch, 1118 - 1180 A.D.

Emperor Charles the Bald

During his reign in Aquitaine, Louis was charged with the defence of the Empire's southwestern frontier. He conquered Barcelona from the Muslims in 801 and asserted Frankish authority over Pamplona and the Basques south of the Pyrenees in 812.

As emperor he included his adult sons, Lothair, Pepin, and Louis, in the government and sought to establish a suitable division of the realm among them. Left Emperor Charles the Bald 823 - 877 A.D.

The first decade of his reign was characterised by several tragedies and embarrassments, notably the brutal treatment of his nephew Bernard of Italy, for which Louis atoned in a public act of self-debasement.

In the 830s his empire was torn by civil war between his sons, only exacerbated by Louis's attempts to include his son Charles by his second wife in the succession plans. Though his reign ended on a high note, with order largely restored to his empire, it was followed by three years of civil war. Charles the Bald (823 – 877), was Holy Roman Emperor (875–877, as Charles II) and King of West Francia as Charles II. He was the youngest son of the Emperor Louis the Pious by his second wife Judith. In 875, after the death of the Emperor Louis II (son of his half-brother Lothair):

Charles the Bald, supported by Pope John VIII, traveled to Italy, receiving the royal crown at Pavia and the imperial insignia in Rome on 29 December. Louis the German, also a candidate for the succession of Louis II, revenged himself by invading and devastating Charles' dominions, and Charles had to return hastily to Francia. After the death of Louis the German, Charles in his turn attempted to seize Louis's kingdom, but was decisively beaten at Andernach on 8 October 876.