A war between the Picts and the Northumbrians is reported, during which Æthelbald, King of Mercia, took advantage of the absence of Eadberht to ravage his lands The reason for the war is unclear, but Woolf suggests that it was related to the killing of Earnwine.
The later Mercian kings Æthelbald, Offa and Ecgfrith were descended from Eowa; the period of their rule began in 716 following the death of Penda's grandson Ceolred and ended with Ecgfrith's death in December 796.
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The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records the lineage of two Mercian king's of Eowa's blood, Æthelbald and Offa.
The first church of Hoo St Werburgh may have been built in the reign of the 8th century King Æthelbald of Mercia, though presumably a monastery existed nearby at an earlier time.
Mercia | Ælfgar, Earl of Mercia | Offa of Mercia | Æthelbald of Mercia | Beornwulf of Mercia | Wulfhere of Mercia | Penda of Mercia | Edwin, Earl of Mercia | Ecgfrith of Mercia | Wiglaf of Mercia | Leofric, Earl of Mercia | Coenwulf of Mercia | West Mercia Police Authority | Peada of Mercia | Mercia Mudstone Group | Ludeca of Mercia | Eowa of Mercia | Earl of Mercia | Ceolwulf I of Mercia | Æthelred of Mercia | Ælfflæd of Mercia |
King Æthelbald of Mercia (r.716-757) held a synod at Gumley in that year, at the instigation of Saint Boniface, to answer accusations that he had been oppressing churches and monasteries.
Mercia’s hold over the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Essex, Sussex and Kent seems to have been tenuous until 716, when Æthelbald of Mercia restored Mercia’s hegemony for over forty years.