| November 15 |  |
Editor says, what if the Christian Kings of Britain had been defeated by the forces of Paganism? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the December 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 655, in an early engagement that firmly established Anglo-Saxon paganism in Britain, the forces of King Penda of Mercia triumphed at the Cock Beck in present-day Yorkshire.
Glorious Mercian Victory at the Battle of WinwaedFresh from his successful campaign in Northumbria, he had gathered allies from East Anglia and Wales marching south with a large force led by "thirty warlords". Their opponent was Oswiu of Bernicia, the brother of Oswald of Northumbria who had fallen to defeat at the hands of the Mercians in the early battle of Maserfield.
The battle was fought by the river in the midst of heavy rains, and many more were drowned in the flight than destroyed by the sword. The result consolidated Mercian ascendancy over the Northumbria.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Religion Source: Wikipedia Labels: Battle of Winwaed, King Penda, Mercia, Cock Beck, Northumbria. Editor says, in authoring this post we have repurposed content from Wikipedia. In reality Penda's head was cut of and the Mercians defeated, suffering the same fate he had inflicted on others during his aggressive reign. Penda had continued in his traditional paganism despite the widespread conversions of Anglo-Saxon monarchs to Christianity, and a number of Christian kings had suffered death in defeat against him .
~ Eventually, they'd have converted, but the details would be different. Shame about that...
~ I agree, eventually they would have been converted, but it might have left the door open for faiths of farther distance to reach them, which could have developed into -- possibly -- a different sort of Euro/British belief system than we knew. But, even still, it could have waffled back and forth between Catholic and Protestant as it did for a while. But, could Judaism, or the Muslim beliefs gained a bigger hand, and some sort of real acceptance earlier? Many questions...
~ Judaism, probably not--it's not a proselytizing faith. Islam, though, might be a real possibility.
~ And what about the invasion by the Christian Normans? Wouldn't they have replaced those Pagan Saxons anyway?
~ The Khazars converted to Judaism - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khazars - so it was not impossible.
~ If Muslim sailors headed up to Britain rather than heading toward Tours, it could've very much gone that way. How would William the Conqueror do pacifying a whole different religion?
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
