East Anglia

The kingdom of the Angles of the East or East Anglia is a kingdom which was established on the current provinces of the Suffolk and the Norfolk, in England, by the Angles, a Germanic Peuple which had settled in the island of Brittany about the middle of the 5th century.

Are the exact origins of the kingdom unknown, but the tradition reported by the Anglo-Saxon Chronique (see Angles) place its foundation under the reign of Wuffa (? - 578), first king of the dynasty of the Wuffingas, whose most known sovereign is Redwald (or Raedwald , 599 - 624 or 625).

Another late manuscript ( BL Cotton Vespasian BVI folio 109 v , dated from the beginning of the 8th century) presents a genealogy of the dynasty of the Angles of the East: this one attaches Wuffa to Odin, in accordance with the Germanic tradition. The same manuscript names also the father of Wuffa, in addition known under the feather of Breton the Nennius, in its Historia Brittonum : Wehha. According to Nennius, Wehha was the first to reign “on the Angles of the East in Brittany”.

Very few of other indices inform us over the first times of the history of the kingdom of the East. The necropolis of Sutton Hoo excavated starting from 1938 attests the existence of bonds between the English aristocracy and the southernmost Sweden, at least at the beginning of the 7th century. These bonds could be those of which made state the Beowulf , a poem epic which tells the adventures of an English prince to the service of the king of the Danes.

In Sutton Hoo a tomb royal or princely under the hull of a buried ship was also discovered: it is probable that this tomb was that of Redwald, deceased in 625. It contained coins mérovingiennes, coming from Limoges, which confirms the existence of relations with the Francs, probably via the Royaume of Kent, at that time (see also Abbaye of Faremoutiers).

It is known in addition that Sigebert of East Anglia, which reigned then on the Angles of the East and died in a battle against the pagan king of the Mercie NS Penda, had taken refuge in Neustrie under the reign of his/her uncle.

By its mediation, and even if Redwald had already embraced the Christian faith in Kent before disavowing it, Christianity penetrated durably at the Angles of the East (in the ecclesiastical Histoire of the English people , of Bède Worthy the). The evangelization of the Angles of the East, always according to Bède, continued under the influence of monks Scot come from North.

After being threatened, then annexed by the Mercie in VIIe - VIIIe centuries, the kingdom of the Angles of the East disappeared finally at the 9th century (in 879), when Danish invaders, carried out by Guthrum, were established there definitively following the baptism of their king.

Chronology

  • Towards 550: Wehha is the first king of the Angles in the island of Brittany (according to Gildas, HB ).
  • 578 : died of Wuffa, the founder of the dynasty of the Wuffingas
  • Before 616: Redwald becomes king of the Angles of the East. Its nephew Sigebert takes refuge in Gaulle.
  • Between 611 and 616: Redwald converts with Christianity at the time of a visit at the court of Æthelbert de Kent, but returns to paganism shortly after.
  • 616 : Died of Æthelbert de Kent: Redwald takes the coat of the imperium : he becomes the king of the Anglo-Saxon kings.
  • 617 : Redwald kills Æthelfrid, the king of the Northumbrie NS with the combat (according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronique )
  • 624 or 625: died of Redwald, perhaps buried with Sutton Hoo: his/her son Earpwald, a Christian, succeeds to him but it is killed shortly after undoubtedly at the time of a revolt of the pagan aristocracy. The Angles of the East are pagan.
  • 631 or 632: return of Sigebert, Christian, who seizes the power. It makes come Saint Felix and Fursa, two Irish missionaries (of Scotland)
  • 633 or 634: Sigebert becomes monk and free the throne. Reign of his/her relative, Ecric.
  • 636 or 637: died of Ecric and Sigebert against pagan the Penda. A Christian, Anna becomes king.
  • 653 : died of Anna.
  • 879 : the Danes are installed on the grounds of the Angles of the East and annex these last with the Royaume Viking of York.

List kings of East Anglia

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Simple: East Anglia

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