History Profiles episodes
Icel: The Founding King of Mercia and the Angles

Icel: The Founding King of Mercia and the Angles

In the early medieval era, Mercia emerged as a dominant kingdom in Britain, founded by Icel, the first King of the Mercians. His lineage traced back to ancient Germanic royalty. Around 515 AD, as Roman influence waned, Icel led his people across the North Sea into a land ripe for conquest, establishing a formidable dynasty, the Iclingas.


His descendants included Penda, the last great pagan king, and Offa, a powerful ruler who shaped the English economy. Despite the lack of written records from his time, Icel's legacy lives on in genealogies and the enduring power of his descendants.


Music by Alexander Nakarada - CreatorChords
Track: Celtic Music → "Grundar" by Alexander Nakarada (Royalty Free)
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#Icel, #Mercia, #Anglo-Saxon, #Iclingas, #Penda, #Offa, #English history, #Medieval Britain


Timeline

00:00:Introduction

02:07:Ancestry

04:24:Life

07:15:Opinion of Historians

09:19:Legacy and the Iclingas