What is Peada of Mercia?
[[File:Peada - John Speed.JPG|thumb|right|300px|{{Center|Peada of Mercia}}]] '''Peada''' (died 17 April 656) was briefly the [[List of monarchs of Mercia|King of Mercia]]. From {{circa|653}} he had been King of the Middle Angles. Peada was a [[pagan]] who accepted [[baptism]] in order to marry the daughter of [[Oswiu of Northumbria]]. == King in Mercia == Peada was a son of King [[Penda of Mercia|Penda]].<ref name=Bede177>Bede, ''Ecclesiastical History of the English People'', trans. Leo Sherley Price, revsd. R. E. Latham (London; New York: Penguin, 1990), p. 177</ref> In {{circa|653}} he was made king of the [[Middle Angles]] by his father.<ref name=Ashley252>Mike Ashley, ''The Mammoth Book of British Kings and Queens'' (New york: Carroll & Graf, 1999), p. 252</ref> The Middle Angles were a group of peoples located between [[Mercia]] and [[East Anglia]]. They later became part of Mercia.<ref name=Ashley252/> Peada asked for the hand of Alflaed, daughter of [[Oswiu of Northumbria]].<ref name=Bede177/> Oswiu agreed on condition Peada and his kingdom became [[Christian]].{{efn|Bede claimed Alflaed played no part in Peada's conversion to Christianity.<ref name=Hollis228>Stephanie Hollis, ''Anglo-Saxon Women and the Church: Sharing a Common Fate'' (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1992), p. 228</ref> Rather it was her brother, Alhfrith, who convinced Peada to become Christian.<ref name=Hollis228/>}} In 653 Peada was baptised by [[Finan of Lindisfarne|Finan]], Bishop of [[Lindisfarne]], and married Alflaed.<ref>Peter Hunter Blair, ''Roman Britain and Early England; 55 B.C.–A.D. 871'' (New York; London: W. W. Norton & Company, 1966), p. 230</ref> On 15 November 655 the armies of Oswiu and Penda met in battle near [[Leads|Leeds]].<ref name=Ashley252/> Although he had the larger army, Penda was killed.<ref name=Blair196>Peter Hunter Blair, ''Roman Britain and Early England; 55 B.C.–A.D. 871'' (New York; London: W. W. Norton & Company, 1966), p. 196</ref> This established Oswiu as king of all Northumbria and as overlord of all