Anna of East Anglia
Encyclopedia
Anna was King of East Anglia from the early 640s until his death. Anna was a member of the Wuffingas family, the ruling dynasty of the East Angles. He was one of the three sons of Eni
who ruled East Anglia, succeeding some time after Ecgric was killed in battle by Penda of Mercia
. He was praised by Bede
for his devotion to Christianity and was renowned for the saintliness of his family: his son Jurmin
and all his daughters – Seaxburh
, Æthelthryth
, Æthelburh and possibly a fourth, Wihtburh – were canonised.
Little is known of Anna's life or his reign, as few records have survived from this period. In 631 he may have been at Exning
, close to the Devil's Dyke
. In 645 Cenwalh of Wessex
was driven from his kingdom by Penda and whilst living as an exile at the East Anglian court and as a result of Anna's influence, he was converted to Christianity. Upon his return from exile, Cenwalh was able to re-establish Christianity in his own kingdom and the people of Wessex then remained firmly Christian. Around 651 the land around Ely
was absorbed into East Anglia, following the marriage of Anna's daughter Æthelthryth. Following the attack in 651 by Penda on the monastery at Cnobheresburg, which Anna richly endowed, he was forced by Penda to flee into exile. He may have travelled to the western kingdom of the Magonsæte and returned in about 653, but East Anglia was attacked again by Penda soon afterwards and at the Battle of Bulcamp the East Anglian army, led by Anna, was defeated by the Mercians, and Anna and his son Jurmin were both killed. He was succeeded by his brother, Æthelhere. Botolph's monastery at Iken
may have been built in commemoration of the king. After Anna's reign, East Anglia seems to have been eclipsed by its more powerful neighbour, Mercia
.
, Mercia and Wessex
, little reliable evidence about the Kingdom of the East Angles has survived, because of the destruction of the kingdom’s monasteries and the disappearance of the two East Anglian sees
that occurred as the result of Viking
raids and settlement. The main primary sources for information about Anna’s life and reign are the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
(Ecclesiastical History of the English People), completed in Northumbria by Bede in 731, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
, initially written in the ninth century, which mentions Anna’s death. The mediaeval work known as the Liber Eliensis
, written in Ely
in the twelfth century, is a source of information about Anna’s daughters Æthelthryth and Seaxburh, and also describes Anna’s own death and burial.
kingdom in which a duality of a northern and a southern part existed, corresponding with the modern English counties of Norfolk
and Suffolk
.
Anna was married, according to Bede, who refers to the saint Sæthryth as "daughter of the wife of Anna, king of the East Angles". In Abbott Folcard
's Life of St Botolph, written in the 11th century, Botolph is described as having been at one time the chaplain to the sisters of a king, Æthelmund, whose mother was named Sæwara. Folcard names two of Sæwara's kinsmen as Æthelhere and Æthelwold. Since these are the names of two of Anna's brothers, Steven Plunkett suggests that it is "tempting" to consider that Sæwara was married to Anna, and that Æthelmund might either be Anna's full name, or the name of an otherwise unknown East Anglian sub-king. The Liber Eliensis names Hereswith, the sister of Hild, abbess of Whitby
, as Anna’s wife and the mother of Sæthryth, Seaxburh of Ely and Æthelthryth. However, the Liber Eliensis is regarded with caution by historians: Rosalind Love says that the mediaeval writers who interpreted Bede's information about Hereswith made an "erroneous assumption" regarding her connection with Anna and his family. Historians now believe that Hereswith was Anna’s sister-in-law and that around the time that she married into the East Anglian royal family, Anna had already been king for a decade.
In 631 Anna was probably at the Suffolk village of Exning, an important settlement with royal connections, and, according to the Liber Eliensis, the birthplace of his daughter Æthelthryth. By tradition, Æthelthryth is said to have been baptised at Exning in a pool known as St Mindred's Well. Exning was an important place strategically, as it stood just on the East Anglian side of the Devil's Dyke, a major earthwork stretching between the Fen
edge and the headwaters of the River Stour
, built at an earlier date to defend the East Anglian region from attack. An early Anglo-Saxon cemetery discovered there suggests the existence of an important site nearby, possibly a royal estate or regio.
, with his centre of Christian power north of the River Humber
, was overthrown. Edwin was slain and Northumbria was ravaged by Cadwallon ap Cadfan
, supported by the Mercian king, Penda
. The Mercians then turned on the kingdom of the East Angles and their king, Ecgric. At an unknown date (possibly in the early 640s), they routed the East Anglian army and Ecgric and his predecessor Sigeberht
were both slain. D. P. Kirby has suggested that as Sigeberht was alive when the Irish monk Fursey
left for Gaul and found Erchinoald
, (which happened after Erchinoald became Mayor of the Neustrian palace
in 641), Sigeberht was probably killed around 640 or 641. Penda's victory marked the end of the line of kings of the East Angles who were directly descended from Rædwald. Some time after Penda's victory, Anna became king of the East Angles, though the date of his accession is quite uncertain. The Liber Eliensis says that Anna died in the nineteenth year of his reign, and since he died in the mid-650s this would indicate a date around 635. However, the Liber Eliensis is regarded by some historians as unreliable on this point, and Barbara Yorke
suggests a possible date in the early 640s for Anna's accession, noting that it could not have been after 645 as Anna is recorded as giving refuge to Cenwalh of Wessex in that year. It is probable that he became king with the assistance of the northern Angles. Throughout his reign Anna was the victim of Mercian aggression under Penda, but also seems to have been able to challenge the rise of Penda's power. The British medievalist David Dumville
has written that as a result of their rivalry for control over the Middle Anglian
people, Mercia and East Anglia probably became hereditary enemies and Penda repeatedly attacked the East Angles from the mid-630s to 654.
Anna was able to arrange an important diplomatic marriage between his daughter Seaxburh and Eorcenberht of Kent
, cementing an alliance between the two kingdoms. It was by means of marriages such as this that the kings of Kent were able to become well-connected to other royal dynasties. Not all of Anna's daughters were married into other royal families. During the 640s Anna's daughter Æthelburg and his stepdaughter Sæthryth entered Faremoutiers Abbey
in Gaul
to live religious lives under abbess Fara. The first royal Anglo-Saxons to become nuns, they made religious seclusion “an acceptable and desirable vocation for ex-queens and royal princesses”, according to Barbara Yorke.
D. P. Kirby uses the presence of East Anglian princesses living under the veil in Gaul as evidence of the Frankish orientation of Anna's kingdom at this time, continued since the reign of his predecessor Rædwald. The Wuffingas dynasty may have been connected with monastic foundations in the area around Faramoutiers through Anna's predecessor Sigeberht, who had spent several years as an exile in Gaul and had become a devout and learned Christian as a result of his experiences of monastic life.
In 641 Oswald
of Northumbria
was slain in battle by Penda (probably at Oswestry
in Shropshire). As a result of his death, Northumbria was split into two. The northern part, Bernicia
, accepted Oswald's brother Oswiu
as their new king, but the southern Deira
ns refused to accept him and were ruled instead by a king of the original Deiran house, Oswine
. Soon afterwards Cenwalh of Wessex
, the brother of Oswald's widow and himself married to Penda's sister, renounced his wife. In 645, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Penda drove Cenwalh from his kingdom and into exile. During the following year, whilst a refugee at Anna's court, he was converted to Christianity, returning in 648 to rule Wessex as a Christian king. Anna probably provided military support for Cenwalh's return to his throne.
Anna's hold on the western limits of his kingdom, which bordered on the Fen lands that surrounded the Isle of Ely, was strengthened by the marriage in 651 (or slightly later) of his daughter Æthelthryth to Tondberht, a prince of the South Gyrwe
, a people living in the fens who may have been settled in the area around Ely. Æthelthryth, accompanied by her minister Owine, travelled from Ely to Northumbria when she married for the second time, to Ecgfrith
.
During his reign Anna endowed the monastery at Cnobheresburg
with rich buildings and objects. The monastery was built in about 633 by Fursey after he arrived in East Anglia. In time, weary of attacks on the kingdom, Fursey left East Anglia for good, leaving the monastery to his brother Foillan
. When in 651 Penda attacked the monastery, Anna and his men arrived and were able to hold the Mercians back. This gave Foillan and his monks enough time to escape with their books and valuables, but Penda defeated Anna and drove him into exile, possibly to the kingdom of Merewalh
of the Magonsætan, in western Shropshire
. He returned to East Anglia in about 654.
the ruler of the Middle Angles (but still continued to rule his own country), the Mercian assault on East Anglia was repeated. The opposing armies of Penda and Anna met at Bulcamp, near Blythburgh
in Suffolk. The East Anglians were defeated and many were slain, including King Anna and his son Jurmin
. Anna's death is mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in the entry for 653 or 654, "Her Anna cining werð ofslagen..." – 'Here Anna was killed' – but no other details of the battle in which he died are given.
Blythburgh, a mile from Bulcamp and situated near the fordable headwaters of the Blyth
estuary, was afterwards believed to be the location of the tombs of Anna and Jurmin. It is a candidate for a monastic site or a royal regio (estate). According to Peter Warner, the Latin derivation of part of the nearby place-name 'Bulcamp' indicates its ancient origins, and mediaeval sources which claim continuous Christian worship at Blythburgh throughout the Anglo-Saxon period provide circumstantial evidence of its connections with East Anglian royalty and Christianity. Part of an 8th century whalebone diptych
or writing-tablet, used for liturgical purposes, has been found near the site.
Saint Botolph began to build his monastery at Icanho, now conclusively identified as Iken
, Suffolk, in the year that Anna was killed, possibly to commemorate the king. Anna was succeeded in turn by his two brothers Æthelhere and Æthelwold
, who may have ruled jointly. It is possible that Æthelhere was set up as a puppet ruler by Penda or was his ally, as he was one of the thirty duces that accompanied Penda when he attacked Oswiu of Northumbria at an unidentified location called the Winwæd in 655 or 656. Penda himself was killed at the Winwæd, after having steadily increased his power over a period of thirteen years. Æthelhere (who was also slain at the Battle of the Winwæd) and Æthelwold were succeeded by the descendants of Anna's youngest brother, Æthelric.
Bede praised Anna's piety in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, and modern historians have since regarded Anna as a devout king, but his reputation as a devoted Christian is mainly because he produced a son and four daughters who were all made into Anglo-Saxon saints. Five hundred years after his death, his tomb at Blythburgh was (according to the Liber Eliensis) still "venerated by the pious devotion of faithful people".
came of age, ruled Kent. Her sister Æthelthryth
, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, founded the monastery at Ely
in 673. Another daughter, Æthelburh, spent her life at the nunnery of Faremoutiers. Anna's son, Jurmin
, was of warrior age in 653 when he was killed in battle.
By tradition, Anna is said to have had a fourth daughter, Wihtburh, an abbess at Dereham
(or possibly West Dereham
), where there was a royal double monastery
. She may never have existed: Bede fails to mention her and she first appears in a calendar in the late 10th century Bosworth Psalter. She may have been a character specifically created by the religious community at Ely, where her remains were supposed to have been taken after being stolen from Dereham and subsequently used as visual proof of the incorruptibility of a saint's body, a substitute for her sister Æthelthryth, whose body had to remain unexamined in her tomb. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mentions her death when it records that her body was found uncorrupted in 798, 55 years after she died. The resulting date for her death of 743 is much too late for her to have been a sister of Æthelthryth, who was born in 636.
Eni of East Anglia
Eni or Ennius was a member of the Wuffing family, the ruling dynasty of the Kingdom of East Anglia. He was the son of Tyttla and brother of Raedwald, both kings of East Anglia.There is no historical evidence that Eni ever ruled the East Angles himself...
who ruled East Anglia, succeeding some time after Ecgric was killed in battle by Penda of Mercia
Penda of Mercia
Penda was a 7th-century King of Mercia, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom in what is today the English Midlands. A pagan at a time when Christianity was taking hold in many of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Penda took over the Severn Valley in 628 following the Battle of Cirencester before participating in the...
. He was praised by Bede
Bede
Bede , also referred to as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede , was a monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria...
for his devotion to Christianity and was renowned for the saintliness of his family: his son Jurmin
Jurmin
Jurmin was an Anglo-Saxon prince who was the son and heir of Anna of East Anglia, a seventh century king of East Anglia, a kingdom which today includes the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. Jurmin was venerated as a saint: his feast day is February 23....
and all his daughters – Seaxburh
Seaxburh of Ely
Seaxburh ; also Saint Sexburga of Ely, was the queen of King Eorcenberht of Kent, as well as an abbess and a saint of the Christian Church....
, Æthelthryth
Æthelthryth
Æthelthryth is the proper name for the popular Anglo-Saxon saint often known, particularly in a religious context, as Etheldreda or by the pet form of Audrey...
, Æthelburh and possibly a fourth, Wihtburh – were canonised.
Little is known of Anna's life or his reign, as few records have survived from this period. In 631 he may have been at Exning
Exning
Exning is a village in Suffolk, England.It lies just off the A14 trunk road, roughly east-northeast of Cambridge, and south-south-east of Ely...
, close to the Devil's Dyke
Devil's Dyke, Cambridgeshire
The Devil's Dyke is an earthwork in the English county of Cambridgeshire. It consists of a long bank and ditch that runs in a south-east direction from the small village of Reach to nearby Woodditton...
. In 645 Cenwalh of Wessex
Cenwalh of Wessex
Cenwalh, also Cenwealh or Coenwalh, was King of Wessex from c. 643 to c. 645 and from c. 648 unto his death, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in c. 672.-Penda and Anna:...
was driven from his kingdom by Penda and whilst living as an exile at the East Anglian court and as a result of Anna's influence, he was converted to Christianity. Upon his return from exile, Cenwalh was able to re-establish Christianity in his own kingdom and the people of Wessex then remained firmly Christian. Around 651 the land around Ely
Isle of Ely
The Isle of Ely is a historic region around the city of Ely now in Cambridgeshire, England but previously a county in its own right.-Etymology:...
was absorbed into East Anglia, following the marriage of Anna's daughter Æthelthryth. Following the attack in 651 by Penda on the monastery at Cnobheresburg, which Anna richly endowed, he was forced by Penda to flee into exile. He may have travelled to the western kingdom of the Magonsæte and returned in about 653, but East Anglia was attacked again by Penda soon afterwards and at the Battle of Bulcamp the East Anglian army, led by Anna, was defeated by the Mercians, and Anna and his son Jurmin were both killed. He was succeeded by his brother, Æthelhere. Botolph's monastery at Iken
Iken
Iken is a small village and civil parish in the marshlands of the English county of Suffolk.It is near the estuary of the River Alde on the North Sea coast and is located south east of Snape and due north of Orford....
may have been built in commemoration of the king. After Anna's reign, East Anglia seems to have been eclipsed by its more powerful neighbour, Mercia
Mercia
Mercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was centred on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries in the region now known as the English Midlands...
.
Sources
In contrast with the kingdoms of NorthumbriaNorthumbria
Northumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...
, Mercia and Wessex
Wessex
The Kingdom of Wessex or Kingdom of the West Saxons was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the West Saxons, in South West England, from the 6th century, until the emergence of a united English state in the 10th century, under the Wessex dynasty. It was to be an earldom after Canute the Great's conquest...
, little reliable evidence about the Kingdom of the East Angles has survived, because of the destruction of the kingdom’s monasteries and the disappearance of the two East Anglian sees
Episcopal See
An episcopal see is, in the original sense, the official seat of a bishop. This seat, which is also referred to as the bishop's cathedra, is placed in the bishop's principal church, which is therefore called the bishop's cathedral...
that occurred as the result of Viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
raids and settlement. The main primary sources for information about Anna’s life and reign are the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
The Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum is a work in Latin by Bede on the history of the Christian Churches in England, and of England generally; its main focus is on the conflict between Roman and Celtic Christianity.It is considered to be one of the most important original references on...
(Ecclesiastical History of the English People), completed in Northumbria by Bede in 731, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the Chronicle was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great...
, initially written in the ninth century, which mentions Anna’s death. The mediaeval work known as the Liber Eliensis
Liber Eliensis
The Liber Eliensis is a 12th-century English chronicle and history, written in Latin. Composed in three books, it was written at Ely Abbey on the island of Ely in the fenlands of eastern Cambridgeshire. Ely Abbey became the cathedral of a newly formed bishopric in 1109...
, written in Ely
Ely Cathedral
Ely Cathedral is the principal church of the Diocese of Ely, in Cambridgeshire, England, and is the seat of the Bishop of Ely and a suffragan bishop, the Bishop of Huntingdon...
in the twelfth century, is a source of information about Anna’s daughters Æthelthryth and Seaxburh, and also describes Anna’s own death and burial.
Early life and marriage
Anna was the son of Eni, a member of the ruling Wuffingas family, and nephew of Rædwald, king of the East Angles from 600 to 625. East Anglia was an early and long-lived Anglo-SaxonAnglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...
kingdom in which a duality of a northern and a southern part existed, corresponding with the modern English counties of Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
and Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
.
Anna was married, according to Bede, who refers to the saint Sæthryth as "daughter of the wife of Anna, king of the East Angles". In Abbott Folcard
Folcard
-Life:Folcard, a Fleming by race and birth, was a monk of St. Bertin's in Flanders, who is supposed to have come over to England in the reign of Edward the Confessor. He entered the monastery of the Holy Trinity or Christ Church, Canterbury, and was renowned for his learning, and especially for his...
's Life of St Botolph, written in the 11th century, Botolph is described as having been at one time the chaplain to the sisters of a king, Æthelmund, whose mother was named Sæwara. Folcard names two of Sæwara's kinsmen as Æthelhere and Æthelwold. Since these are the names of two of Anna's brothers, Steven Plunkett suggests that it is "tempting" to consider that Sæwara was married to Anna, and that Æthelmund might either be Anna's full name, or the name of an otherwise unknown East Anglian sub-king. The Liber Eliensis names Hereswith, the sister of Hild, abbess of Whitby
Hilda of Whitby
Hilda of Whitby or Hild of Whitby was a Christian saint and the founding abbess of the monastery at Whitby, which was chosen as the venue for the Synod of Whitby...
, as Anna’s wife and the mother of Sæthryth, Seaxburh of Ely and Æthelthryth. However, the Liber Eliensis is regarded with caution by historians: Rosalind Love says that the mediaeval writers who interpreted Bede's information about Hereswith made an "erroneous assumption" regarding her connection with Anna and his family. Historians now believe that Hereswith was Anna’s sister-in-law and that around the time that she married into the East Anglian royal family, Anna had already been king for a decade.
In 631 Anna was probably at the Suffolk village of Exning, an important settlement with royal connections, and, according to the Liber Eliensis, the birthplace of his daughter Æthelthryth. By tradition, Æthelthryth is said to have been baptised at Exning in a pool known as St Mindred's Well. Exning was an important place strategically, as it stood just on the East Anglian side of the Devil's Dyke, a major earthwork stretching between the Fen
Fen
A fen is a type of wetland fed by mineral-rich surface water or groundwater. Fens are characterised by their water chemistry, which is neutral or alkaline, with relatively high dissolved mineral levels but few other plant nutrients...
edge and the headwaters of the River Stour
River Stour, Suffolk
The River Stour is a river in East Anglia, England. It is 76 km long and forms most of the county boundary between Suffolk to the north, and Essex to the south. It rises in eastern Cambridgeshire, passes to the east of Haverhill, through Cavendish, Sudbury and the Dedham Vale, and joins the...
, built at an earlier date to defend the East Anglian region from attack. An early Anglo-Saxon cemetery discovered there suggests the existence of an important site nearby, possibly a royal estate or regio.
King of the East Angles
Accession and rule
During 632 or 633 Edwin of NorthumbriaEdwin of Northumbria
Edwin , also known as Eadwine or Æduini, was the King of Deira and Bernicia – which later became known as Northumbria – from about 616 until his death. He converted to Christianity and was baptised in 627; after he fell at the Battle of Hatfield Chase, he was venerated as a saint.Edwin was the son...
, with his centre of Christian power north of the River Humber
Humber
The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal River Ouse and the tidal River Trent. From here to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between the East Riding of Yorkshire on the north bank...
, was overthrown. Edwin was slain and Northumbria was ravaged by Cadwallon ap Cadfan
Cadwallon ap Cadfan
Cadwallon ap Cadfan was the King of Gwynedd from around 625 until his death in battle. The son and successor of Cadfan ap Iago, he is best remembered as the King of the Britons who invaded and conquered Northumbria, defeating and killing its king, Edwin, prior to his own death in battle against...
, supported by the Mercian king, Penda
Penda of Mercia
Penda was a 7th-century King of Mercia, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom in what is today the English Midlands. A pagan at a time when Christianity was taking hold in many of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Penda took over the Severn Valley in 628 following the Battle of Cirencester before participating in the...
. The Mercians then turned on the kingdom of the East Angles and their king, Ecgric. At an unknown date (possibly in the early 640s), they routed the East Anglian army and Ecgric and his predecessor Sigeberht
Sigeberht of East Anglia
Sigeberht of East Anglia , was a saint and a king of East Anglia, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom which today includes the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. He was the first English king to receive a Christian baptism and education before his succession and the first to abdicate in order to enter...
were both slain. D. P. Kirby has suggested that as Sigeberht was alive when the Irish monk Fursey
Saint Fursey
Saint Fursey was an Irish monk who did much to establish Christianity throughout the British Isles and particularly in East Anglia...
left for Gaul and found Erchinoald
Erchinoald
Erchinoald succeeded Aega as the mayor of the palace of Neustria in 641 and succeeded Flaochad in Burgundy in 642 and remained such until his death in 658. According to Fredegar, he was a relative of Dagobert I's mother...
, (which happened after Erchinoald became Mayor of the Neustrian palace
Mayor of the Palace
Mayor of the Palace was an early medieval title and office, also called majordomo, from the Latin title maior domus , used most notably in the Frankish kingdoms in the 7th and 8th centuries....
in 641), Sigeberht was probably killed around 640 or 641. Penda's victory marked the end of the line of kings of the East Angles who were directly descended from Rædwald. Some time after Penda's victory, Anna became king of the East Angles, though the date of his accession is quite uncertain. The Liber Eliensis says that Anna died in the nineteenth year of his reign, and since he died in the mid-650s this would indicate a date around 635. However, the Liber Eliensis is regarded by some historians as unreliable on this point, and Barbara Yorke
Barbara Yorke
Barbara Yorke is a historian of Anglo-Saxon England.She studied history and archaeology at Exeter University, where she completed both her undergraduate degree and her Ph.D. She is currently Professor of Early Medieval History at the University of Winchester, and is a Fellow of the Royal...
suggests a possible date in the early 640s for Anna's accession, noting that it could not have been after 645 as Anna is recorded as giving refuge to Cenwalh of Wessex in that year. It is probable that he became king with the assistance of the northern Angles. Throughout his reign Anna was the victim of Mercian aggression under Penda, but also seems to have been able to challenge the rise of Penda's power. The British medievalist David Dumville
David Dumville
Professor David Norman Dumville is a British medievalist and Celtic scholar. He was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, Ludwig-Maximilian Universität, Munich, and received his PhD. at the University of Edinburgh in 1976. In 1974, he married Sally Lois Hannay, with whom he had one son...
has written that as a result of their rivalry for control over the Middle Anglian
Middle Angles
The Middle Angles were an important ethnic or cultural group within the larger kingdom of Mercia in England in the Anglo-Saxon period.-Origins and territory:...
people, Mercia and East Anglia probably became hereditary enemies and Penda repeatedly attacked the East Angles from the mid-630s to 654.
Anna was able to arrange an important diplomatic marriage between his daughter Seaxburh and Eorcenberht of Kent
Eorcenberht of Kent
Eorcenberht of Kent was king of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Kent from 640 until his death, succeeding his father Eadbald....
, cementing an alliance between the two kingdoms. It was by means of marriages such as this that the kings of Kent were able to become well-connected to other royal dynasties. Not all of Anna's daughters were married into other royal families. During the 640s Anna's daughter Æthelburg and his stepdaughter Sæthryth entered Faremoutiers Abbey
Faremoutiers Abbey
Faremoutiers Abbey was founded circa 620 by Burgundofara . It formed an important link between the Merovingian Frankish Empire and the southern Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Kent and East Anglia....
in Gaul
Gaul
Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...
to live religious lives under abbess Fara. The first royal Anglo-Saxons to become nuns, they made religious seclusion “an acceptable and desirable vocation for ex-queens and royal princesses”, according to Barbara Yorke.
D. P. Kirby uses the presence of East Anglian princesses living under the veil in Gaul as evidence of the Frankish orientation of Anna's kingdom at this time, continued since the reign of his predecessor Rædwald. The Wuffingas dynasty may have been connected with monastic foundations in the area around Faramoutiers through Anna's predecessor Sigeberht, who had spent several years as an exile in Gaul and had become a devout and learned Christian as a result of his experiences of monastic life.
In 641 Oswald
Oswald of Northumbria
Oswald was King of Northumbria from 634 until his death, and is now venerated as a Christian saint.Oswald was the son of Æthelfrith of Bernicia and came to rule after spending a period in exile; after defeating the British ruler Cadwallon ap Cadfan, Oswald brought the two Northumbrian kingdoms of...
of Northumbria
Northumbria
Northumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...
was slain in battle by Penda (probably at Oswestry
Oswestry
Oswestry is a town and civil parish in Shropshire, England, close to the Welsh border. It is at the junction of the A5, A483, and A495 roads....
in Shropshire). As a result of his death, Northumbria was split into two. The northern part, Bernicia
Bernicia
Bernicia was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom established by Anglian settlers of the 6th century in what is now southeastern Scotland and North East England....
, accepted Oswald's brother Oswiu
Oswiu of Northumbria
Oswiu , also known as Oswy or Oswig , was a King of Bernicia. His father, Æthelfrith of Bernicia, was killed in battle, fighting against Rædwald, King of the East Angles and Edwin of Deira at the River Idle in 616...
as their new king, but the southern Deira
Deira
Deira was a kingdom in Northern England during the 6th century AD. Itextended from the Humber to the Tees, and from the sea to the western edge of the Vale of York...
ns refused to accept him and were ruled instead by a king of the original Deiran house, Oswine
Oswine of Deira
Oswine was a King of Deira in northern England. He succeeded King Oswald of Northumbria, probably around the year 644, after Oswald's death at the Battle of Maserfield. Oswine was the son of Osric....
. Soon afterwards Cenwalh of Wessex
Cenwalh of Wessex
Cenwalh, also Cenwealh or Coenwalh, was King of Wessex from c. 643 to c. 645 and from c. 648 unto his death, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in c. 672.-Penda and Anna:...
, the brother of Oswald's widow and himself married to Penda's sister, renounced his wife. In 645, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Penda drove Cenwalh from his kingdom and into exile. During the following year, whilst a refugee at Anna's court, he was converted to Christianity, returning in 648 to rule Wessex as a Christian king. Anna probably provided military support for Cenwalh's return to his throne.
Anna's hold on the western limits of his kingdom, which bordered on the Fen lands that surrounded the Isle of Ely, was strengthened by the marriage in 651 (or slightly later) of his daughter Æthelthryth to Tondberht, a prince of the South Gyrwe
Gyrwe
Gyrwe was an Anglo-Saxon name for Jarrow, in North East England.The word Gyruum represents the Old English [æt] Gyrwum = "[at] the marsh dwellers", from Old English gyr = "mud", "marsh"....
, a people living in the fens who may have been settled in the area around Ely. Æthelthryth, accompanied by her minister Owine, travelled from Ely to Northumbria when she married for the second time, to Ecgfrith
Ecgfrith of Northumbria
King Ecgfrith was the King of Northumbria from 670 until his death. He ruled over Northumbria when it was at the height of its power, but his reign ended with a disastrous defeat in which he lost his life.-Early life:...
.
Exile
Burgh Castle
Burgh Castle is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is situated on the east bank of the River Waveney, near Great Yarmouth, some 6 km west of Great Yarmouth and within the Broads National Park.-Roman Fort:...
with rich buildings and objects. The monastery was built in about 633 by Fursey after he arrived in East Anglia. In time, weary of attacks on the kingdom, Fursey left East Anglia for good, leaving the monastery to his brother Foillan
Foillan
Saint Foillan is an Irish saint of the seventh century.- Family :Foillan was the brother of Saints Ultan and Fursey. He is described as the 'uterine brother' of Fursey, meaning that they had the same mother but not the same father...
. When in 651 Penda attacked the monastery, Anna and his men arrived and were able to hold the Mercians back. This gave Foillan and his monks enough time to escape with their books and valuables, but Penda defeated Anna and drove him into exile, possibly to the kingdom of Merewalh
Merewalh
Merewalh Merewalh Merewalh (sometimes given as Merwal or Merewald was a sub-king of the Magonsæte, a western cadet kingdom of Mercia thought to have been located in Herefordshire and Shropshire...
of the Magonsætan, in western Shropshire
Shropshire
Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...
. He returned to East Anglia in about 654.
Death, burial place and successors
Soon after 653, when Penda made his son PeadaPeada of Mercia
Peada , a son of Penda, was briefly King of southern Mercia after his father's death in November 655 until his own death in the spring of the next year.In about the year 653 Peada was made king of the Middle Angles by his father...
the ruler of the Middle Angles (but still continued to rule his own country), the Mercian assault on East Anglia was repeated. The opposing armies of Penda and Anna met at Bulcamp, near Blythburgh
Blythburgh
Blythburgh is a small English village in an area known as the Sandlings, part of the Suffolk heritage coast. Located close to an area of flooded marshland and mud-flats, in 2007 its population was estimated to be 300. Blythburgh is best known for its church, Holy Trinity, internationally known as...
in Suffolk. The East Anglians were defeated and many were slain, including King Anna and his son Jurmin
Jurmin
Jurmin was an Anglo-Saxon prince who was the son and heir of Anna of East Anglia, a seventh century king of East Anglia, a kingdom which today includes the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. Jurmin was venerated as a saint: his feast day is February 23....
. Anna's death is mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in the entry for 653 or 654, "Her Anna cining werð ofslagen..." – 'Here Anna was killed' – but no other details of the battle in which he died are given.
Blythburgh, a mile from Bulcamp and situated near the fordable headwaters of the Blyth
River Blyth, Suffolk
The River Blyth is a river in Suffolk, England, with a tidal estuary between Southwold and Walberswick.It can be crossed by pedestrians by a public footbridge called the Bailey Bridge about a mile upstream from the sea or by the Walberswick rowing boat ferry between 9am-5pm daily.The estuary mouth...
estuary, was afterwards believed to be the location of the tombs of Anna and Jurmin. It is a candidate for a monastic site or a royal regio (estate). According to Peter Warner, the Latin derivation of part of the nearby place-name 'Bulcamp' indicates its ancient origins, and mediaeval sources which claim continuous Christian worship at Blythburgh throughout the Anglo-Saxon period provide circumstantial evidence of its connections with East Anglian royalty and Christianity. Part of an 8th century whalebone diptych
Diptych
A diptych di "two" + ptychē "fold") is any object with two flat plates attached at a hinge. Devices of this form were quite popular in the ancient world, wax tablets being coated with wax on inner faces, for recording notes and for measuring time and direction.In Late Antiquity, ivory diptychs with...
or writing-tablet, used for liturgical purposes, has been found near the site.
Saint Botolph began to build his monastery at Icanho, now conclusively identified as Iken
Iken
Iken is a small village and civil parish in the marshlands of the English county of Suffolk.It is near the estuary of the River Alde on the North Sea coast and is located south east of Snape and due north of Orford....
, Suffolk, in the year that Anna was killed, possibly to commemorate the king. Anna was succeeded in turn by his two brothers Æthelhere and Æthelwold
Æthelwold of East Anglia
Æthelwold, also known as Æthelwald or Æþelwald , was a 7th century king of East Anglia, the long-lived Anglo-Saxon kingdom which today includes the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. He was a member of the Wuffingas dynasty, which ruled East Anglia from their regio at Rendlesham...
, who may have ruled jointly. It is possible that Æthelhere was set up as a puppet ruler by Penda or was his ally, as he was one of the thirty duces that accompanied Penda when he attacked Oswiu of Northumbria at an unidentified location called the Winwæd in 655 or 656. Penda himself was killed at the Winwæd, after having steadily increased his power over a period of thirteen years. Æthelhere (who was also slain at the Battle of the Winwæd) and Æthelwold were succeeded by the descendants of Anna's youngest brother, Æthelric.
Bede praised Anna's piety in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, and modern historians have since regarded Anna as a devout king, but his reputation as a devoted Christian is mainly because he produced a son and four daughters who were all made into Anglo-Saxon saints. Five hundred years after his death, his tomb at Blythburgh was (according to the Liber Eliensis) still "venerated by the pious devotion of faithful people".
Descendants
Anna's children were all canonised. The eldest, Seaxburh, was the wife of Eorcenberht of Kent, who from 664, until her son EcgberhtEcgberht of Kent
Ecgberht was a King of Kent who ruled from 664 to 673, succeeding his father Eorcenberht s:Ecclesiastical History of the English People/Book 4#1....
came of age, ruled Kent. Her sister Æthelthryth
Æthelthryth
Æthelthryth is the proper name for the popular Anglo-Saxon saint often known, particularly in a religious context, as Etheldreda or by the pet form of Audrey...
, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, founded the monastery at Ely
Ely Cathedral
Ely Cathedral is the principal church of the Diocese of Ely, in Cambridgeshire, England, and is the seat of the Bishop of Ely and a suffragan bishop, the Bishop of Huntingdon...
in 673. Another daughter, Æthelburh, spent her life at the nunnery of Faremoutiers. Anna's son, Jurmin
Jurmin
Jurmin was an Anglo-Saxon prince who was the son and heir of Anna of East Anglia, a seventh century king of East Anglia, a kingdom which today includes the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. Jurmin was venerated as a saint: his feast day is February 23....
, was of warrior age in 653 when he was killed in battle.
By tradition, Anna is said to have had a fourth daughter, Wihtburh, an abbess at Dereham
Dereham
Dereham, also known as East Dereham, is a town and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is situated on the A47 road, some 15 miles west of the city of Norwich and 25 miles east of King's Lynn. The civil parish has an area of and in the 2001 census had a population of...
(or possibly West Dereham
West Dereham
West Dereham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk.It covers an area of and had a population of 440 in 176 households as of the 2001 census....
), where there was a royal double monastery
Double monastery
A double monastery is an institution combining a separate monastery for monks and an abbey for nuns. Examples include Coldingham Monastery in Scotland, and Einsiedeln Abbey and Fahr Abbey in Switzerland, controlled by the abbot of Einsiedeln...
. She may never have existed: Bede fails to mention her and she first appears in a calendar in the late 10th century Bosworth Psalter. She may have been a character specifically created by the religious community at Ely, where her remains were supposed to have been taken after being stolen from Dereham and subsequently used as visual proof of the incorruptibility of a saint's body, a substitute for her sister Æthelthryth, whose body had to remain unexamined in her tomb. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mentions her death when it records that her body was found uncorrupted in 798, 55 years after she died. The resulting date for her death of 743 is much too late for her to have been a sister of Æthelthryth, who was born in 636.
External links
- An episode of Time Team (Series 16, Episode 13 – Skeletons in the Shed: Blythburgh, Suffolk, first broadcasted on 29 March 2009), at http://www.channel4.com, in which the historical association of the village of Blythburgh with Anna is explored.
- Information about the Blythburgh writing-tablet, now at the British Museum (in London), can be found at the museum's website.