Beornred of Mercia

{{Short description|King of Mercia in 757}}

{{Use British English|date=August 2021}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}

{{Infobox royalty

| name = Beornred

| succession = King of Mercia

| reign = 757

| predecessor = Æthelbald

| successor = Offa

| house = Unknown

| death_date = 757

}}

Beornred (Old English: Beornrǣd) (? – 757) was a Mercian Thane who was briefly King of Mercia in 757. Beornred ascended the throne following the murder of King Æthelbald.{{cite web|url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Kingdom_of_Mercia/|title=Kingdom of Mercia|website=World History Encyclopedia|last1=Mark|first1=Joshua J.|date=November 30, 2018|accessdate=March 23, 2021}} However, he was defeated by Offa and forced to flee the country, and was killed that same year. There is very little information about him, and the mentions of him are commonly brief.

According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in 757: "...Æthelbald, king of Mercia, was killed at Seckington, and his body rests at Repton; and he ruled 41 years. And then Beornred succeeded to the kingdom, and held it a little while and unhappily; and that same year Offa put Beornred to flight and succeeded to the kingdom, and held it for 39 years..."{{cite book|chapter=manuscript E, 755 (757)|editor=Michael Swanton|title=The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle|year=1996|isbn=978-0460877374|publisher=Orion Publishing|orig-year=1116}} According to Ingulf, an 11th-century Benedictine abbot, Beornred was regarded as a tyrant, while Roger of Wendover, a thirteenth-century chronicler, states that he was an unjust king and that the people of Mercia rose in rebellion against him.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=knX67LbaaoQC&dq=Beornred+of+Mercia&pg=PA327|page=327|title=The History of the County of Derby: drawn up from actual observation, and from the best authorities|last1=Glover|first1=Stephen|author-link=Stephen Glover (antiquary)|editor=Thomas Noble|year=1829|oclc=3618252|publisher=H. Mosley & Son}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cK-IDwAAQBAJ&dq=Beornred+of+Mercia&pg=PT142|title=Mercia: The Rise and Fall of a Kingdom|last1=Whitehead|first1=Annie|year=2018|publisher=Amberley Publishing|isbn=9781445676531}} He was possibly involved in his predecessor's death.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3eXew91YDiAC&q=Beornred+of+Mercia&pg=PA179|page=186|title=The Anglo-Saxon World|last1=Ryan|first1=M.J.|last2=Higham|first2=Nicholas J.|author-link2=Nicholas Higham|year=2013|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=9780300125344}} According to Professor Michelle P. Brown, Beornred has been considered by some historians to have been part of the same dynasty as Beorhtric of Wessex, as well as several other prominent Anglo-Saxon nobles whose names begin with the letter B.{{cite book|page=317|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jZavAwAAQBAJ&q=Beornred+of+Mercia&pg=PA89|title=Mercia: An Anglo-Saxon Kingdom in Europe|last1=Brown|first1=Michelle P.|author-link1=Michelle P. Brown|year=2001|last2=Farr|first2=Carol Ann|isbn=9780718502317|publisher=Leicester University Press}}