Penda (died 15 November 655) is a 7th-century King of Mercia, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom in what is today the English Midlands.
A pagan at a time when Christianity is taking hold in many of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Penda takesk over the Severn Valley in 628 following the Battle of Cirencester before participating in the defeat of the powerful Northumbrian king Edwin at the Battle of Hatfield Chase in 633.
Nine years later, he defeats and killed Edwin's eventual successor, Oswald, at the Battle of Maserfield; from this point he is probably the most powerful of the Anglo-Saxon rulers of the time, laying the foundations for the Mercian supremacy over the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy.
He repeatedly defeats the East Angles and drives Cenwalh the king of Wessex into exile for three years.
He continues to wage war against the Bernicians of Northumbria.
Thirteen years after Maserfield, he suffers a crushing defeat by Oswald's successor Oswiu and is killed at the Battle of the Winwaed in the course of a final campaign against the Bernicians.
