Southumbrians

The Southumbrians or 'Suðanhymbre' were the Anglo-Saxon people occupying northern Mercia. The term may not have been used by the Mercians, and it may have been coined by the Deiran or Bernician people as a territorial response to their own Kingdom of Northumbria. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle refers to King Coenred as having become the King of the Southumbrians in 702, two years before he became King of all the Mercians. The fact that Coenred was the son of Wulfhere, the Mercian King, implies that Southumbria was a sub-kingdom of Mercia.