653. Penda of Mercia makes his son Peada king of the Middle Angles
Peada accepts Christianity from Oswiu of Northumbria and marries Alhflæd
Bede notes that Penda of Mercia installed his worthy son Peada on the throne of the kingdom of the Middle Angles (HE, iii.21). Peada then went to Oswiu of Northumbria, and asked for the hand of his daughter Alhflæd. Oswiu would only consent on condition that Peada become Christian, which he promptly did. Bede adds that Oswiu's son Alhfrith, who was also Peada's friend and brother-in-law (Alhfrith had married Peada's sister Cyneburh), earnestly encouraged Peada to accept the new faith. In his chronological summary (HE, v.24), Bede dates the conversion of the Middle Angles under Peada to 653, and this is followed by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
Peada's alliance with the Northumbrians looks like a clever political move, because he was allowed to keep southern Mercia as a kinsman of Oswiu after the Mercian defeat at Winwæd in 655. However, if there is any truth to the rumour that his Northumbrian wife was responsible for his murder the following year (see entry on 655), this was clearly a mixed blessing.