Offa of Essex

Offa of Essex (d. c.709), king. Son of Sighere, king of the East Saxons, and of Osith, Offa became king c.707, and was, according to Bede, a lovable, handsome, and popular prince. But in 709 he left ‘his wife, his lands, his kinsmen and his fatherland for Christ’, abdicated, went to Rome where he was tonsured, and died a monk soon afterwards. His betrothal to Cyneswith, daughter of Penda of Mercia, claimed by Florence of Worcester and William of Malmesbury, is chronologically impossible. It must also be remembered that at this period the abdication and tonsuring of kings was sometimes the result of palace revolutions both in Gaul and in Britain. No record of an official cult of Offa has survived; Stanton assigns his feast to 15 December.

Bibliography
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• Bede, H.E., v. 19; G.R., i. 99; G.P., p. 317;Florence of Worcester, i. 46–7. Stanton, pp. 600–1