Warrior King

By M J Porter

From the author of The Chronicles of the English and the Earls of Mercia, a step back in time to the founding years of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

Before England, Scotland and Wales formed, a disparate set of kingdoms stretched their way across the British Isles, expanding and compressing with the personalities and successes of their warrior kings, more war-leaders, and more often than not, owing allegiance to one overlord, one over mighty king exacting tribute from whomever he could.

The year is 655 and the great warrior king, Penda of Mercia, stands in a position of power, with allies in every kingdom, from the northern Pictish lands to the southern kingdom of the West Saxons, from the British states to the West, to East Anglia where its king now rules with his backing.
Just one kingdom stands aloof, just one realm chafes against Penda’s influence, Bernicia, ruled by Oswiu, the brother of the long dead Oswald of Northumbria, who, in the fourteen years since his brother’s death, has failed to claim the combined Deiran and Bernician kingdoms for himself, but who schemes for a unified Northumbria, despite Penda’s desire to truncate those wishes.
As Penda and Oswiu align themselves for one more final battle of survival and supremacy, alliances will be made and broken, and the victory will go to the man most skilled in war craft and statecraft. Or will it?
The ebb and flow of battle will once more redraw the lines of the petty kingdoms stretching across the British Isles.
There will be a victor and a bloody loser.

(Previously published as Winwaed)

• Language: English
• Publisher: M J Porter
• Release date: Aug 12, 2016
• ISBN: 9781311279057

M J Porter

MJ Porter is the author of over fifty fiction titles set in Saxon England and the era before the tumultuous events of 1066. Raised in the shadow of a strange little building and told from a young age that it housed the long-dead bones of Saxon kings, it’s little wonder that the study of the era was undertaken at both undergraduate and graduate levels. The Royal Women of the Tenth Century is a first non-fiction title. It explores the ‘lost’ women of this period through the surviving contemporary source material. It stemmed from a frustration with how difficult it was to find a single volume dedicated to these ‘lost’ women and hopes to make it much easier for others to understand the prestige, wealth and influence of the women of the royal House of Wessex.