— Ch. 1 · Origins And Settlement Patterns —
Kingdom of East Anglia.
~5 min read · Ch. 1 of 6
The first king of the East Angles was Wehha, listed in genealogies that trace his lineage back to Woden via Caesar. This kingdom formed during the first or second quarter of the 6th century, emerging from the political consolidation of the Angles. The region corresponds to the former territory of the Iceni and the Roman civitas centered at Venta Icenorum near Caistor St Edmund. Archaeological evidence suggests large tracts of land were deserted in the late 4th century, possibly including whole small towns and villages. Ken Dark notes this appears to be genuine desertion rather than a localised change in settlement location. A computer simulation indicates a migration of 250,000 people from Denmark could have been accomplished in 38 years with a reasonably small number of boats. Bede records that the East Angles descended from natives of Angeln, now located in modern Germany. The first written reference to the East Angles appears between 704 and 713 in the Whitby Life of St Gregory.
The Wuffingas Dynasty Rise
Rædwald, son of Tytil whose father was Wuffa, ruled as the most powerful of the early kings. He became Bretwalda, an overlord of kingdoms south of the Humber, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. In 616 he defeated and killed the Northumbrian king Äthelfrith at the Battle of the River Idle. This victory allowed him to enthrone Edwin of Northumbria. Rædwald is seen by scholars as the person buried within or commemorated by the ship burial at Sutton Hoo near Woodbridge. The sumptuous ship burial contains objects found under Mound 1 that parallel items discovered at Vendel in Sweden. Blair suggests these parallels might indicate the Wuffingas were descendants of an eastern Swedish royal family. However, current belief holds those items were made in England rather than imported. Rædwald maintained a Christian altar while continuing to worship pagan gods after his baptism in 604. His death occurred around 624, ending the period where East Anglia stood alone among Anglo-Saxon kingdoms with a reigning baptised king.