Battle of the Winwaed

Date: November 15, 655 • Location: Holtby, United Kingdom

Penda of Mercia and Æthelhere of East Anglia were defeated by Oswiu of Northumbria at the Battle of the Winwaed in Yorkshire, England.

Penda was a 7th-century king of Mercia, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom in what is today the Midlands. A pagan at a time when Christianity was taking hold in many of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Penda took 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.