Establishes a new baseline for Mercian scholarship, covering the rise and fall of the kingdom, its major institutions, relations with other political entities as well as its visual and material culture. Contents: Introduction: Mercia, a Culture in Context—Part I: The Mercian Polity: Church and State — 1 The Origins of Mercia — 2 The Tribal Hidage and the Ealdormen of Mercia — 3 Political Women in Mercia, Eighth to Early Tenth Centuries — 4 The Mercian Church: Archaeology and Topography — 5 Hagiography and Literature: The Case of Guthlac of Crowland—Part II: Parallel Cultures — 6 Wales and Mercia, 613-918 — 7 The Verturian Hegemony: A Mirror in the North. 8 Abbesses, Minor Dynasties and Kings in clericatu: Perspectives of Ireland, 700-850 — 9 Carolingian Contacts—Part III: The Material Culture of Mercia — 10 The Archaeology of Mercia — 11 Mercia: Landscape and Environment — 12 Mercians: The Dwellers on the Boundary — 13 The Growth of Market Centres and Towns in the Area of the Mercian Hegemony — 14 Mercian London — 15 Mercian Coinage and Authority—Part IV: The Visual Culture of Mercia — 16 Constructing Iconographies: Questions of Identity in Mercian Sculpture — 17 Classicism of Southumbrian Sculpture. 18 Metalwork of the Mercian Supremacy — 19 Mercian Manuscripts? The Tiberius' Group and Its Historical Context—Part V: Mercia in Retreat — 20 Military Institutions and Royal Power — 21 Mercia and Wessex in the Ninth Century