Æthelwold of East Anglia
Encyclopedia
Æthelwold, also known as Æthelwald or Æþelwald (Old English: Æþelwald "noble ruler"; reigned c. 654–664), 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 (centre of royal authority) at Rendlesham. The two Anglo-Saxon cemeteries at Sutton Hoo
, the monastery at Iken
, the East Anglian see
at Dommoc
and the emerging port of Ipswich
were all in the vicinity of Rendlesham.
Æthelwold lived during a time of political and religious upheaval in East Anglia, whose Christian kings in the decades prior to his succession all died violent deaths, having proved unworthy of the task of defending the newly converted kingdom against attacks from its neighbouring kingdom, Mercia
, led by its pagan king, Penda
. Æthelwold was the last of the nephews of Rædwald to rule East Anglia. He died in 664 and was succeeded by Ealdwulf
, the son of his brother Æthelric.
Few records relating to East Anglia have survived and almost nothing is known of Æthelwold's life or reign. He succeeded his elder brother Æthelhere, after Æthelhere was killed with Penda of Mercia at the Battle of the Winwæd
in about 655. During his rule he witnessed a setback in the aspirations of Mercia to dominate its neighbours, following the Battle of the Winwæd and the murder of Penda's son, Peada
.
He was king during the last decade of the co-existence in England of the Christian Roman rite
, centred at Canterbury
, and the Celtic rite
based in Northumbria
. At the Synod of Whitby
, in 664, the Roman cause prevailed and the division of ecclesiastical authorities ceased. In 662, Swithelm of Essex
was persuaded to adopt Christianity and was baptised at Rendlesham, with Æthelwold present as his sponsor. East Anglia became more closely allied to Northumbria, Kent
and lands in the Fens by means of royal marriages such as that between the Northumbrian Hereswitha
and the East Anglian Æthilric.
in 731, and a geneaological list from the Anglian collection
, dating from the 790s, in which the ancestry of Ælfwald of East Anglia was traced back through fourteen generations to Wōden
.
East Anglia was a long-lived Anglo-Saxon
kingdom in which a duality of a northern and a southern part existed, corresponding with the modern English counties of Norfolk
and Suffolk
. It was formed during the 5th century, following the ending of Roman power in Britain in 410. The east of Britain became settled at an early date by Saxons
and Angles
from the continent. During the 5th century, groups of settlers of mixed stock migrated into the Fens
and up the major rivers inland. From Bede it is known that the people who settled in what became East Anglia were Angles, originally from what is now part of Denmark
. By the 6th century, new settlements had also appeared along the river systems of the east coast of East Anglia, including the Deben
, the Alde
and the Orwell
. The settlers were unaffected by Roman urban civilisation and had their own religion and language. As more of the region fell under their control, new kingdoms were formed, replacing the function of the Roman territoria. Surrounded by sea, fenland, large defensive earthworks such as the Devil's Dyke
and wide rivers, all of which acted to disconnect it from the rest of Britain, the land of the East Angles eventually became united by a single ruling dynasty, the Wuffingas.
at the court of his overlord Æthelberht of Kent in about 604. Later in his reign he was powerful enough to hold imperium over several Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. In 616, he defeated Æthelfrith of Northumbria
and installed the exiled Edwin
as the new king. He is thought to have been given a ship burial
and interred amongst a magnificent array of personal treasures and symbols of regal power that were discovered under Mound 1 at Sutton Hoo
, in Suffolk. His son Eorpwald
succeded him and reigned briefly before he was killed soon after his baptism, by a heathen named Ricberht, after which the East Angles reverted to paganism. Ricberht was replaced by Sigeberht
, whose Christian education ensured that Christianity was restablished. During Sigeberht's joint reign with Ecgric, the East Anglian see
at Dommoc
was established.
During 632 or 633, Edwin of Northumbria was overthrown and slain and his kingdom was ravaged by Cadwallon ap Cadfan
, supported by Penda of Mercia
. The Mercians then turned on the East Angles and their king, Ecgric. In 640 or 641, they routed the East Anglian army in a battle in which Ecgric and his predecessor Sigeberht
both perished.
Ecgric's successor, Æthelwold's brother Anna
, who was renowned for his devout Christianity and the saintliness of his children, proved ineffective in preventing East Anglia from being invaded by the Mercians. Following a Mercian attack in 651 on the monastery at Cnobheresburg, Anna was exiled by Penda, possibly to the kingdom of the Magonsæte. After his return, East Anglia was attacked again by Penda, Anna's forces were defeated and he was killed. During the reign of his successor, Æthelhere (another brother of Æthelwold), East Anglia was eclipsed by Mercia. In 655, after the Battle of the Winwæd, near Leeds
, in which Æthelhere was slain fighting beside Penda, a new political situation arose. Penda's son Peada
, who had ruled the Mercian
province of the Middle Angles
as a Christian king from 653, now succeeded Penda as king of Mercia, but he was murdered a year later. Peada's death dealt a severe blow to Mercian aspirations of dominion over the other kingdoms of England.
. Rendlesham, a short distance from Iken
, the site of Botolph's monastery, stands at a strategic point between the rivers Deben
and Alde
at the headwaters of the Butley
estuary, which intersects the peninsula between the two major rivers. The dedication of Rendlesham's church to St Gregory
suggests its early, perhaps primary connection with the royal dwelling mentioned by Bede. If the Dommoc
bishopric was at Walton
, as Rochester claimed in the thirteenth century, then this was also immediately within the sphere of Rendlesham. Archaeologists have revealed that the quay of Gipeswic (now modern Ipswich
), at a ford of the River Orwell
estuary, was then growing in importance as a centre of seaborne trade to the continent, under direct royal patronage.
and a nephew of Rædwald of East Anglia. Two of his brothers, Anna and Æthelhere, ruled in succession before him.
His accession is mentioned by the 12th century historian William of Malmesbury
, in Gesta regum Anglorum:
Dynastic alliances bound Æthelwold's kingdom strongly to the Christian kingdom of Kent
, where Seaxburh
, the eldest daughter of Æthelwold's elder brother Anna, was Eorcenberht of Kent
's queen. East Anglia's western stronghold in the Fens
was held by Seaxburh's sister Æthelthryth
and, like Kent, it was devoutly attached to the Roman Church. There was also an important Northumbrian connection: in 657, Hilda
established the monastery of Streoneshalh (identified with Whitby
), which later became the burial-place of Edwin and other Northumbrian kings. Hilda's sister Hereswitha
married Æthelwold's youngest brother Æthelric in around 627–629.
in East Anglia had been strong whilst the monastery of Saint Fursey
and Saint Foillan
at Cnobheresburg
had existed. The authority of East Anglian Christianity still resided in the East Anglian see
at Dommoc, obedient to Canterbury
. Saint Botolph
began to build his monastery at Iken
, on a tidal island site in the River Alde
, Suffolk
, in about 653, the year that Anna of East Anglia
was killed at the Battle of Bulcamp.
Oswiu successfully persuaded Sigeberht II of the East Saxons to receive baptism and Cedd
, a Northumbrian disciple of Aidan's, was diverted from the Northumbrian mission to the Middle Angles under Peada to become Bishop of the East Saxons and re-convert the people. Cedd built monasteries at Tilbury
in the south and at Ythancæster
, where there was an old Roman fort, at what is now Bradwell-on-Sea
, in north-east Essex
. Sigebert was assassinated by his own thegns and was succeeded by the pagan Swithelm of Essex
. Cedd persuaded him to accept the faith and, according to Bede, his baptism by Cedd took place at Rendlesham, in the presence of King Æthelwold:
, the fifteen-year-old son of Oswiu, married Æthelthryth of Ely
, the daughter of Anna of East Anglia, (who was about fourteen years older than him), and moved to live with him at his Northumbrian court. She had remained a virgin for Christ during her first marriage: she continued in this resolve as Ecgfrityh's bride, with the result that he could not expect to father an heir. Æthelthryth retained Ely as her own possession during this marriage.
Meanwhile Wulfhere of Mercia
, a brother of Peada, emerged from safe retreat and was proclaimed king. He was not Christian, but was soon converted and subsequently married Eormenhilda, daughter of Eorcenberht of Kent
and Seaxburh. Soon afterwards he founded the monastery of Medeshamstede
, which later became known as Peterborough
, under abbot Seaxwulf.
, bishop of Lindisfarne, Alhfrith of Deira, in collusion with Wilfred of York
, Agilbert
of Wessex and others, were determined to persuade Oswiu to rule in favour of the Roman rite of Christianity within the kingdoms over which he had imperium. The case was debated in Oswiu's presence at the Synod of Whitby
in 664, with Colmán
, Hild
and Cedd
defending the Celtic rite and the tradition inherited from Aidan
, and Wilifred speaking for the Roman position. The Roman cause prevailed and the former division of ecclesiastical authorities was set aside. Those who could not accept it, including Colmán, departed elsewhere.
At that time plague swept through Europe and Anglo-Saxon England. Amongst its victims was Bishop Cedd, Archbishop Deusdedit of Canterbury
, and Eorconbehrt of Kent. Æthelwold also died in 664.
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
kingdom which today includes the 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...
. He was a member of the Wuffingas dynasty, which ruled East Anglia from their regio (centre of royal authority) at Rendlesham. The two Anglo-Saxon cemeteries at Sutton Hoo
Sutton Hoo
Sutton Hoo, near to Woodbridge, in the English county of Suffolk, is the site of two 6th and early 7th century cemeteries. One contained an undisturbed ship burial including a wealth of Anglo-Saxon artefacts of outstanding art-historical and archaeological significance, now held in the British...
, the 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....
, the East Anglian see
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...
at Dommoc
Dommoc
Dommoc, a place not certainly identified but probably within the modern county of Suffolk, was the original seat of the Anglo-Saxon bishops of the Kingdom of East Anglia. It was established by Sigeberht of East Anglia for Saint Felix in c. 629–31 It remained the bishopric of all East Anglia...
and the emerging port of Ipswich
Ipswich
Ipswich is a large town and a non-metropolitan district. It is the county town of Suffolk, England. Ipswich is located on the estuary of the River Orwell...
were all in the vicinity of Rendlesham.
Æthelwold lived during a time of political and religious upheaval in East Anglia, whose Christian kings in the decades prior to his succession all died violent deaths, having proved unworthy of the task of defending the newly converted kingdom against attacks from its neighbouring kingdom, 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...
, led by its pagan 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...
. Æthelwold was the last of the nephews of Rædwald to rule East Anglia. He died in 664 and was succeeded by Ealdwulf
Ealdwulf of East Anglia
Ealdwulf or Aldwulf was an obscure King of East Anglia who reigned from 663 to around 713.Ealdwulf's reign of forty-nine years was extraordinary in length: only Ethelbald of Mercia's and Offa of Mercia's reigns are comparable...
, the son of his brother Æthelric.
Few records relating to East Anglia have survived and almost nothing is known of Æthelwold's life or reign. He succeeded his elder brother Æthelhere, after Æthelhere was killed with Penda of Mercia at the Battle of the Winwæd
Battle of the Winwaed
The Battle of the Winwaed was fought on 15 November 655 , between King Penda of Mercia and Oswiu of Bernicia, ending in the Mercians' defeat and Penda's death.-History:Although the battle is said to be the most important between the early northern and southern divisions of...
in about 655. During his rule he witnessed a setback in the aspirations of Mercia to dominate its neighbours, following the Battle of the Winwæd and the murder of Penda's son, Peada
Peada 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...
.
He was king during the last decade of the co-existence in England of the Christian Roman rite
Roman Rite
The Roman Rite is the liturgical rite used in the Diocese of Rome in the Catholic Church. It is by far the most widespread of the Latin liturgical rites used within the Western or Latin autonomous particular Church, the particular Church that itself is also called the Latin Rite, and that is one of...
, centred at Canterbury
Canterbury
Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....
, and the Celtic rite
Celtic Christianity
Celtic Christianity or Insular Christianity refers broadly to certain features of Christianity that were common, or held to be common, across the Celtic-speaking world during the Early Middle Ages...
based in 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...
. At the Synod of Whitby
Synod of Whitby
The Synod of Whitby was a seventh century Northumbriansynod where King Oswiu of Northumbria ruled that his kingdom would calculate Easter and observe the monastic tonsure according to the customs of Rome, rather than the customs practised by Iona and its satellite institutions...
, in 664, the Roman cause prevailed and the division of ecclesiastical authorities ceased. In 662, Swithelm of Essex
Swithelm of Essex
Swithelm was King of Essex from 660 to 664.Swithelm succeeded King Sigeberht II after he, along with his brother Swithfrith, murdered him. They accused him of being too friendly toward Christians. In 662, however, he was persuaded to convert to Christianity by Aethelwald, king of East Anglia. ...
was persuaded to adopt Christianity and was baptised at Rendlesham, with Æthelwold present as his sponsor. East Anglia became more closely allied to Northumbria, Kent
Kingdom of Kent
The Kingdom of Kent was a Jutish colony and later independent kingdom in what is now south east England. It was founded at an unknown date in the 5th century by Jutes, members of a Germanic people from continental Europe, some of whom settled in Britain after the withdrawal of the Romans...
and lands in the Fens by means of royal marriages such as that between the Northumbrian Hereswitha
Hereswitha
Hereswitha or Hereswyde , also spelt Hereswithe or Haeresvid, was a 7th century Northumbrian saint. She married into the East Anglian royal dynasty and afterwards retired to Gaul to lead a religious life...
and the East Anglian Æthilric.
Historical context
The emergence of the Kingdom of the East Angles
The history of East Anglia and its kings is known from the The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, compiled by the Northumbrian monk BedeBede
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...
in 731, and a geneaological list from the Anglian collection
Anglian collection
The Anglian collection is a collection of Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies and regnal lists. These survive in four manuscripts; two of which now reside in the British Library...
, dating from the 790s, in which the ancestry of Ælfwald of East Anglia was traced back through fourteen generations to Wōden
Woden
Woden or Wodan is a major deity of Anglo-Saxon and Continental Germanic polytheism. Together with his Norse counterpart Odin, Woden represents a development of the Proto-Germanic god *Wōdanaz....
.
East Anglia was a long-lived Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-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...
. It was formed during the 5th century, following the ending of Roman power in Britain in 410. The east of Britain became settled at an early date by Saxons
Saxons
The Saxons were a confederation of Germanic tribes originating on the North German plain. The Saxons earliest known area of settlement is Northern Albingia, an area approximately that of modern Holstein...
and Angles
Angles
The Angles is a modern English term for a Germanic people who took their name from the ancestral cultural region of Angeln, a district located in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany...
from the continent. During the 5th century, groups of settlers of mixed stock migrated into the Fens
The Fens
The Fens, also known as the , are a naturally marshy region in eastern England. Most of the fens were drained several centuries ago, resulting in a flat, damp, low-lying agricultural region....
and up the major rivers inland. From Bede it is known that the people who settled in what became East Anglia were Angles, originally from what is now part of Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
. By the 6th century, new settlements had also appeared along the river systems of the east coast of East Anglia, including the Deben
River Deben
The River Deben is a river in Suffolk rising in Debenham -to be precise it has two main sources but the others are mostly fields runoff then , passes through Woodbridge, turning into a tidal estuary before entering the North Sea at Felixstowe Ferry...
, the Alde
River Alde
The River Alde is a river in Suffolk, England, with a source near Laxfield in the same area as the River Blyth. Initially a stream, it becomes tidal and widens considerably when it reaches Snape. It meanders east past Aldeburgh, after which this part of the river was named...
and the Orwell
River Orwell
The River Orwell flows through the county of Suffolk in England. Its source river, above the tidal limit at Stoke Bridge, is known as the River Gipping. It broadens into an estuary at Ipswich where the Ipswich dock has operated since the 7th century and then flows into the North Sea at Felixstowe...
. The settlers were unaffected by Roman urban civilisation and had their own religion and language. As more of the region fell under their control, new kingdoms were formed, replacing the function of the Roman territoria. Surrounded by sea, fenland, large defensive earthworks such as 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...
and wide rivers, all of which acted to disconnect it from the rest of Britain, the land of the East Angles eventually became united by a single ruling dynasty, the Wuffingas.
Rædwald and his successors
The first king of the East Angles of whom more than a name is known was Rædwald, described by Bede as 'the son of Tytil, whose father was Wuffa', who reigned from about 599 until approximately 624. According to Bede, he was converted to ChristianityChristianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
at the court of his overlord Æthelberht of Kent in about 604. Later in his reign he was powerful enough to hold imperium over several Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. In 616, he defeated Æthelfrith of Northumbria
Æthelfrith of Northumbria
Æthelfrith was King of Bernicia from c. 593 until c. 616; he was also, beginning c. 604, the first Bernician king to also rule Deira, to the south of Bernicia. Since Deira and Bernicia were the two basic components of what would later be defined as Northumbria, Æthelfrith can be considered, in...
and installed the exiled Edwin
Edwin 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...
as the new king. He is thought to have been given a ship burial
Ship burial
A ship burial or boat grave is a burial in which a ship or boat is used either as a container for the dead and the grave goods, or as a part of the grave goods itself. If the ship is very small, it is called a boat grave...
and interred amongst a magnificent array of personal treasures and symbols of regal power that were discovered under Mound 1 at Sutton Hoo
Sutton Hoo
Sutton Hoo, near to Woodbridge, in the English county of Suffolk, is the site of two 6th and early 7th century cemeteries. One contained an undisturbed ship burial including a wealth of Anglo-Saxon artefacts of outstanding art-historical and archaeological significance, now held in the British...
, in Suffolk. His son Eorpwald
Eorpwald of East Anglia
Eorpwald; also Erpenwald or Earpwald, , succeeded his father Rædwald as ruler of the independent Kingdom of the East Angles...
succeded him and reigned briefly before he was killed soon after his baptism, by a heathen named Ricberht, after which the East Angles reverted to paganism. Ricberht was replaced by 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...
, whose Christian education ensured that Christianity was restablished. During Sigeberht's joint reign with Ecgric, the East Anglian see
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...
at Dommoc
Dommoc
Dommoc, a place not certainly identified but probably within the modern county of Suffolk, was the original seat of the Anglo-Saxon bishops of the Kingdom of East Anglia. It was established by Sigeberht of East Anglia for Saint Felix in c. 629–31 It remained the bishopric of all East Anglia...
was established.
During 632 or 633, Edwin of Northumbria was overthrown and slain and his kingdom 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 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...
. The Mercians then turned on the East Angles and their king, Ecgric. In 640 or 641, they routed the East Anglian army in a battle in which 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...
both perished.
Ecgric's successor, Æthelwold's brother Anna
Anna of East Anglia
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...
, who was renowned for his devout Christianity and the saintliness of his children, proved ineffective in preventing East Anglia from being invaded by the Mercians. Following a Mercian attack in 651 on the monastery at Cnobheresburg, Anna was exiled by Penda, possibly to the kingdom of the Magonsæte. After his return, East Anglia was attacked again by Penda, Anna's forces were defeated and he was killed. During the reign of his successor, Æthelhere (another brother of Æthelwold), East Anglia was eclipsed by Mercia. In 655, after the Battle of the Winwæd, near Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
, in which Æthelhere was slain fighting beside Penda, a new political situation arose. Penda's son Peada
Peada 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...
, who had ruled the Mercian
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...
province of the Middle Angles
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:...
as a Christian king from 653, now succeeded Penda as king of Mercia, but he was murdered a year later. Peada's death dealt a severe blow to Mercian aspirations of dominion over the other kingdoms of England.
The sphere of Rendlesham
The royal seat of Rendlesham, specified by Bede, seals the evident importance of the Deben estuary headwaters as a centre of royal power, demonstrated for an earlier period by the royal cemetery of Sutton HooSutton Hoo
Sutton Hoo, near to Woodbridge, in the English county of Suffolk, is the site of two 6th and early 7th century cemeteries. One contained an undisturbed ship burial including a wealth of Anglo-Saxon artefacts of outstanding art-historical and archaeological significance, now held in the British...
. Rendlesham, a short distance from 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....
, the site of Botolph's monastery, stands at a strategic point between the rivers Deben
River Deben
The River Deben is a river in Suffolk rising in Debenham -to be precise it has two main sources but the others are mostly fields runoff then , passes through Woodbridge, turning into a tidal estuary before entering the North Sea at Felixstowe Ferry...
and Alde
River Alde
The River Alde is a river in Suffolk, England, with a source near Laxfield in the same area as the River Blyth. Initially a stream, it becomes tidal and widens considerably when it reaches Snape. It meanders east past Aldeburgh, after which this part of the river was named...
at the headwaters of the Butley
River Butley
The River Butley is a tributary of the River Ore in Suffolk, England.The river is a tidal estuary from Butley Mills where it comes within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. An RSPB reserve, Boyton Marshes, is situated between it and the River Ore...
estuary, which intersects the peninsula between the two major rivers. The dedication of Rendlesham's church to St Gregory
Pope Gregory I
Pope Gregory I , better known in English as Gregory the Great, was pope from 3 September 590 until his death...
suggests its early, perhaps primary connection with the royal dwelling mentioned by Bede. If the Dommoc
Dommoc
Dommoc, a place not certainly identified but probably within the modern county of Suffolk, was the original seat of the Anglo-Saxon bishops of the Kingdom of East Anglia. It was established by Sigeberht of East Anglia for Saint Felix in c. 629–31 It remained the bishopric of all East Anglia...
bishopric was at Walton
Walton, Suffolk
Walton is a small village in Suffolk, between the rivers Orwell and Deben. It is often confused as being part of Felixstowe, although it is a separate village and is mentioned in the Domesday Book...
, as Rochester claimed in the thirteenth century, then this was also immediately within the sphere of Rendlesham. Archaeologists have revealed that the quay of Gipeswic (now modern Ipswich
Ipswich
Ipswich is a large town and a non-metropolitan district. It is the county town of Suffolk, England. Ipswich is located on the estuary of the River Orwell...
), at a ford of the River Orwell
River Orwell
The River Orwell flows through the county of Suffolk in England. Its source river, above the tidal limit at Stoke Bridge, is known as the River Gipping. It broadens into an estuary at Ipswich where the Ipswich dock has operated since the 7th century and then flows into the North Sea at Felixstowe...
estuary, was then growing in importance as a centre of seaborne trade to the continent, under direct royal patronage.
Descent, family and accession
Æthelwold, (Old English 'noble ruler') was a member of the Wuffingas dynasty, the youngest son of EniEni 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...
and a nephew of Rædwald of East Anglia. Two of his brothers, Anna and Æthelhere, ruled in succession before him.
His accession is mentioned by the 12th century historian William of Malmesbury
William of Malmesbury
William of Malmesbury was the foremost English historian of the 12th century. C. Warren Hollister so ranks him among the most talented generation of writers of history since Bede, "a gifted historical scholar and an omnivorous reader, impressively well versed in the literature of classical,...
, in Gesta regum Anglorum:
- "To Anna succeeded his brother Ethelhere, who was justly slain by Oswy king of the Northumbrians, together with Penda, because he was an auxiliary to him, and was actually supporting his brother and his kinsman. His brother Ethelwald, in due succession, left the kingdom to Adulf and Elwold, the sons of Ethelhere.""Successit Annæ frater ejus Ethelhere, occisusque est a rege Northanhimbrorum Oswio cum Penda merito, quod ei concurreret in auxilium, et fulciret exercitum qui pessum dedisset fratrem et cognatum. Hujus successor frater Ethelwaldus continuatis successionibus regnum reliquit ejusdem Ethelherii filiis Aldnlfo." (William of Malmesbury, Book 1, §97)
Dynastic alliances bound Æthelwold's kingdom strongly to the Christian kingdom of Kent
Kingdom of Kent
The Kingdom of Kent was a Jutish colony and later independent kingdom in what is now south east England. It was founded at an unknown date in the 5th century by Jutes, members of a Germanic people from continental Europe, some of whom settled in Britain after the withdrawal of the Romans...
, where 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....
, the eldest daughter of Æthelwold's elder brother Anna, was 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....
's queen. East Anglia's western stronghold in the Fens
The Fens
The Fens, also known as the , are a naturally marshy region in eastern England. Most of the fens were drained several centuries ago, resulting in a flat, damp, low-lying agricultural region....
was held by Seaxburh's 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...
and, like Kent, it was devoutly attached to the Roman Church. There was also an important Northumbrian connection: in 657, Hilda
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...
established the monastery of Streoneshalh (identified with Whitby
Whitby
Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. Situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a combined maritime, mineral and tourist heritage, and is home to the ruins of Whitby Abbey where Caedmon, the...
), which later became the burial-place of Edwin and other Northumbrian kings. Hilda's sister Hereswitha
Hereswitha
Hereswitha or Hereswyde , also spelt Hereswithe or Haeresvid, was a 7th century Northumbrian saint. She married into the East Anglian royal dynasty and afterwards retired to Gaul to lead a religious life...
married Æthelwold's youngest brother Æthelric in around 627–629.
Christianity in East Anglia under Æthelwold
The influence of the Celtic riteCeltic Rite
The term "Celtic Rite" is applied to the various liturgical rites used in Celtic Christianity in Great Britain, Ireland and Brittany, sporadically in Galicia and also in the monasteries founded by the Irish missions of St. Columbanus in France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy during the early...
in East Anglia had been strong whilst the monastery of Saint Fursey
Saint Fursey
Saint Fursey was an Irish monk who did much to establish Christianity throughout the British Isles and particularly in East Anglia...
and Saint 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...
at Cnobheresburg
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:...
had existed. The authority of East Anglian Christianity still resided in the East Anglian see
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...
at Dommoc, obedient to Canterbury
Province of Canterbury
The Province of Canterbury, also called the Southern Province, is one of two ecclesiastical provinces making up the Church of England...
. Saint Botolph
Saint Botolph
Botwulf of Thorney was an English abbot and saint. He is the patron saint of travellers and the various aspects of farming...
began to build his 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....
, on a tidal island site in the River Alde
River Alde
The River Alde is a river in Suffolk, England, with a source near Laxfield in the same area as the River Blyth. Initially a stream, it becomes tidal and widens considerably when it reaches Snape. It meanders east past Aldeburgh, after which this part of the river was named...
, 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...
, in about 653, the year that Anna of East Anglia
Anna of East Anglia
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...
was killed at the Battle of Bulcamp.
Oswiu successfully persuaded Sigeberht II of the East Saxons to receive baptism and Cedd
Cedd
Cedd was an Anglo-Saxon monk and bishop from Northumbria. He was an evangelist of the Middle Angles and East Saxons in England and a significant participant in the Synod of Whitby, a meeting which resolved important differences within the Church in England...
, a Northumbrian disciple of Aidan's, was diverted from the Northumbrian mission to the Middle Angles under Peada to become Bishop of the East Saxons and re-convert the people. Cedd built monasteries at Tilbury
East Tilbury
East Tilbury is a village in the unitary authority of Thurrock borough, England and one of the traditional parishes in Thurrock.-History:In Saxon times, the location on which the church now stands was surrounded by tidal marshland...
in the south and at Ythancæster
Othona
Othona or Othonae was the name of an ancient Roman fort of the Saxon Shore at the location of the modern village Bradwell-on-Sea in Essex, England...
, where there was an old Roman fort, at what is now Bradwell-on-Sea
Bradwell-on-Sea
Bradwell-on-Sea is a village in Essex, England. The village is on the Dengie peninsula. It is located about north-northeast of Southminster and is east from the county town of Chelmsford. The village is in the District of Maldon in the parliamentary constituency of Maldon whose boundaries were...
, in north-east Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
. Sigebert was assassinated by his own thegns and was succeeded by the pagan Swithelm of Essex
Swithelm of Essex
Swithelm was King of Essex from 660 to 664.Swithelm succeeded King Sigeberht II after he, along with his brother Swithfrith, murdered him. They accused him of being too friendly toward Christians. In 662, however, he was persuaded to convert to Christianity by Aethelwald, king of East Anglia. ...
. Cedd persuaded him to accept the faith and, according to Bede, his baptism by Cedd took place at Rendlesham, in the presence of King Æthelwold:
"Sigebert was succeeded in the kingdom by Suidhelm, the son of Sexbald, who was baptized by the same Cedd, in the province of the East Angles, at the king's countryseat, called Rendelsham, that is, Rendil's Mansion; and Ethelwald, king of the East Angles, brother to Anna, king of the same people, was his godfather.""Successit autem Sigbercto inregnum Suidhelm, filius Sexbaldi, qui baptizatus est ab ipso Cedde in prouincia Orientalium Anglorum, in uico regio, qui dicitur Rendlasham, id est mansio Rendili; suscepitque eum ascendentem de fonto sancto Aediluald rex ipsius gentis Orientalium Anglorum, frater Anna regis eorundem." (Bede, iii, 22)
East Anglian marriage alliances
In the early 660s, two important marriages took place. Ecgfrith of NorthumbriaEcgfrith 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:...
, the fifteen-year-old son of Oswiu, married Æthelthryth of Ely
Ely, Cambridgeshire
Ely is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, England, 14 miles north-northeast of Cambridge and about by road from London. It is built on a Lower Greensand island, which at a maximum elevation of is the highest land in the Fens...
, the daughter of Anna of East Anglia, (who was about fourteen years older than him), and moved to live with him at his Northumbrian court. She had remained a virgin for Christ during her first marriage: she continued in this resolve as Ecgfrityh's bride, with the result that he could not expect to father an heir. Æthelthryth retained Ely as her own possession during this marriage.
Meanwhile Wulfhere of Mercia
Wulfhere of Mercia
Wulfhere was King of Mercia from the end of the 650s until 675. He was the first Christian king of all of Mercia, though it is not known when or how he converted from Anglo-Saxon paganism. His accession marked the end of Oswiu of Northumbria's overlordship of southern England, and Wulfhere...
, a brother of Peada, emerged from safe retreat and was proclaimed king. He was not Christian, but was soon converted and subsequently married Eormenhilda, daughter of 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....
and Seaxburh. Soon afterwards he founded the monastery of Medeshamstede
Medeshamstede
Medeshamstede was the name of Peterborough in the Anglo-Saxon period. It was the site of a monastery founded around the middle of the 7th century, which was an important feature in the kingdom of Mercia from the outset. Little is known of its founder and first abbot, Sexwulf, though he was himself...
, which later became known as Peterborough
Peterborough
Peterborough is a cathedral city and unitary authority area in the East of England, with an estimated population of in June 2007. For ceremonial purposes it is in the county of Cambridgeshire. Situated north of London, the city stands on the River Nene which flows into the North Sea...
, under abbot Seaxwulf.
Synod of Whitby
Following the death of FinanFinan of Lindisfarne
Finan of Lindisfarne , also known as Saint Finan, was an Irish monk, trained at Iona in Scotland, who became Bishop of Lindisfarne from 651 until 661. Originally from Ireland, he founded a cathedral on Lindisfarne and converted the kings Sigebert of Essex and Peada of the Middle Angles to...
, bishop of Lindisfarne, Alhfrith of Deira, in collusion with Wilfred of York
Wilfrid
Wilfrid was an English bishop and saint. Born a Northumbrian noble, he entered religious life as a teenager and studied at Lindisfarne, at Canterbury, in Gaul, and at Rome; he returned to Northumbria in about 660, and became the abbot of a newly founded monastery at Ripon...
, Agilbert
Agilbert
Agilbert was the second Bishop of the West Saxon kingdom and later Bishop of Paris. Son of a Neustrian noble named Betto, he was a first cousin of Audoin and related to the Faronids and Agilolfings, and less certainly to the Merovingians...
of Wessex and others, were determined to persuade Oswiu to rule in favour of the Roman rite of Christianity within the kingdoms over which he had imperium. The case was debated in Oswiu's presence at the Synod of Whitby
Synod of Whitby
The Synod of Whitby was a seventh century Northumbriansynod where King Oswiu of Northumbria ruled that his kingdom would calculate Easter and observe the monastic tonsure according to the customs of Rome, rather than the customs practised by Iona and its satellite institutions...
in 664, with Colmán
Colmán of Lindisfarne
Colmán of Lindisfarne also known as Saint Colmán was Bishop of Lindisfarne from 661 until 664. He succeeded Aidan and Finan. Colman resigned the Bishopric of Lindisfarne after the Synod of Whitby called by King Oswiu of Northumbria decided to calculate Easter using the method of the First...
, Hild
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...
and Cedd
Cedd
Cedd was an Anglo-Saxon monk and bishop from Northumbria. He was an evangelist of the Middle Angles and East Saxons in England and a significant participant in the Synod of Whitby, a meeting which resolved important differences within the Church in England...
defending the Celtic rite and the tradition inherited from Aidan
Aidan of Lindisfarne
Known as Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne, Aidan the Apostle of Northumbria , was the founder and first bishop of the monastery on the island of Lindisfarne in England. A Christian missionary, he is credited with restoring Christianity to Northumbria. Aidan is the Anglicised form of the original Old...
, and Wilifred speaking for the Roman position. The Roman cause prevailed and the former division of ecclesiastical authorities was set aside. Those who could not accept it, including Colmán, departed elsewhere.
At that time plague swept through Europe and Anglo-Saxon England. Amongst its victims was Bishop Cedd, Archbishop Deusdedit of Canterbury
Deusdedit of Canterbury
Deusdedit , perhaps originally named Frithona, Frithuwine or Frithonas, was a medieval Archbishop of Canterbury, the first native-born holder of the see of Canterbury. By birth an Anglo-Saxon, he became archbishop in 655 and held the office for more than nine years until his death, probably from...
, and Eorconbehrt of Kent. Æthelwold also died in 664.