Wibba, the son of Crida,
founder of the monarchy, being placed on the throne by Ethelbert, king
of Kent, governed his paternal dominions by a precarious authority;
and after his death, Ceorl, his kinsman, was, by the influence of the
Kentish monarch, preferred to his son Penda, whose turbulent character
appeared dangerous to that prince. Penda was thus fifty years of age
before he mounted the throne; and his temerity and restless disposition
were found nowise abated by time, experience, or reflection. He engaged
in continual hostilities against all the neighboring states; and, by
his injustice and violence, rendered himself equally odious to his own
subjects and to strangers. Sigebert, Egric, and Annas, three kings of
East Anglia, perished successively in battle against him; as did
also Edwin and Oswald, the two greatest princes that had reigned over
Northumberland. At last Oswy, brother to Oswald, having defeated and
slain him in a decisive battle, freed the world from this sanguinary
tyrant. Peada, his son, mounted the throne of Mercia in 655, and lived
under the protection of Oswy, whose daughter he had espoused. This
princess was educated in the Christian faith, and she employed her
influence, with success, in converting her husband and his subjects to
that religion.
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