- Æthelwold of East Anglia
Æthelwold was King of East Anglia from c. 654 until his death in 664. He was probably the fourth of the sons of
Eni ,Rædwald 's brother, to hold that authority. His rule spanned the last decade in which theRoman rite and the Celtic rite of Christianity coexisted in England, the former centred atCanterbury inKent and the latter inNorthumbria atLindisfarne , whereFinan , the successor of Saint Aidan, was bishop.654: Powers of Northumbria and Mercia
In the aftermath of the
Battle of Winwaed (nearLeeds ,Yorkshire ), 655, in which Aethelwold's brother KingAethelhere of East Anglia was slain fighting beside KingPenda of Mercia , a new political situation existed.Peada of Mercia , Penda's son, had been ruling theMercia n province of theMiddle Angles as a Christian king during his father's lifetime and now became King of Mercia. However his wife Alhflaed, daughter of KingOswiu of Northumbria , poisoned him onEaster Day 656 and Mercian aspirations to dominion suffered a setback. Oswiu's son Alhfrith, a sub-king in Northumbria, was married toCyneburga , a sister of Peada's. At this point Oswiu's authority remained superior to Mercia. His recent marriage toEanfled (daughter ofEdwin of Northumbria and Aethelburga) supplied an important link of kinship to theKent ish royal house.Wuffing dynastic and monastic interests
At the onset of his reign, Aethelwold held East Anglia by dynastic right. East Anglia's dynastic alliances bound it strongly to Kent (where Seaxburh, Aethelwold's niece, was queen of King Eorconbert) and its western stronghold in the
Fen (bordering on Peada's Kingdom of Middle Angles) was held under Seaxburga's sisterEtheldreda , also devoutly attached to the Roman church. There remained the importantNorthumbria n connection with Saint Hilda, whose sister Hereswith had married Aethelwold's brother Aethilric. Early in Aethelwold's reign Hilda established the monastery of "Streonaeshealh" (Whitby ) in Northumbria, which became the burial-place of Edwin and other Northumbrian kings.The influence of the Celtic rite in East Anglia had been felt strongly while the monastery of
Saint Fursey and SaintFoillan had existed, but after the despoliation of 651 its later condition is not known. The authority of East Anglian Christianity still resided in BishopBerhtgisl Boniface of Dommoc, obedient to Canterbury.Saint Botolph was now establishing his (later famous) monastery atIken , a tidal island site in theriver Alde ,Suffolk . If the legend that he came to East Anglia through contact withKing Anna 's daughters at Faremoutiers is true, he may have received Celtic teaching there since abbessBurgundofara was reputedly instructed herself by SaintColumbanus , the Irish missionary toBurgundy . Anna's daughter Saint Ethelburga succeeded Fara as abbess at Faremoutiers at about this time.Aethelwold's patronage of Swithelm of Essex
The politics of church and dynasty coloured Aethelwold's reign intensely. Oswiu had successfully persuaded King
Sigeberht II of Essex , ("the Good"), to receive baptism, andCedd , 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. Cedd built monasteries atTilbury in the south and at Ythancaestir (Othona ), the old Roman fort atBradwell-on-Sea , in north-east Essex. Sigebert was assassinated by his own thegns and was succeeded bySwithelm of Essex , not yet a Christian. Cedd persuaded him to accept the faith, and his baptism by Bishop Cedd took place not in his own kingdom but atRendlesham , the royal dwelling (vicus regius) of theWuffinga house beside theriver Deben , Suffolk, in East Anglia. King AEthelwold was Swithelm's sponsor at baptism. These facts were recorded byBede (Ecclesiastical History, iii.22).Diplomatic marriages with Northumbria and Mercia
At much the same time, c. 660 and soon after, two important marriages took place.
Ecgfrith of Northumbria , son of Oswiu and brother of Alhfrith, at the age of fifteen marriedEtheldreda ofEly , and she went north to live at the Northumbrian court. She was then about twenty-nine and had remained a virgin for Christ during her first marriage. She continued in this resolve, with the result that Ecgfrith could not father an heir. Etheldreda retained Ely as her own possession during this marriage.Meanwhile a brother of Peada's,
Wulfhere of Mercia , emerged from safe retreat and was proclaimed king. He was not yet Christian, but was soon converted and married Eormenhilda, daughter of King Eorconbert of Kent and his queen Seaxburh. Soon afterwards he founded the monastery of "Medeshamstede" (Peterborough ) under abbot Seaxwulf. Thus theFen frontier became significantly aligned between Etheldreda's estate and Peterborough, embodying the dynastic alliances of Kent, Mercia, East Anglia and Northumbria, under the religious authority of Canterbury. Though East Anglia was perhaps the least powerful as a kingdom, its policy was fully invested in these alignments.The sphere of Rendlesham
The royal seat of Rendlesham in the east, specified by Bede, seals the evident importance of the Deben estuary headwaters as a royal centre, demonstrated for an earlier period by the royal cemetery of
Sutton Hoo . Rendlesham is a short distance fromIken , site of Botolph's monastery, and stands at a strategic point between the rivers Deben and Alde at the headwaters of the Butley river estuary, which intersects the peninsula between the two major rivers. The dedication of Rendlesham church toSt Gregory the Great suggests its early, perhaps primary connection with the royal dwelling mentioned by Bede. If theDommoc bishopric was at Walton, Felixstowe (asRochester, Kent claimed in the thirteenth century) then this was also immediately within the sphere of Rendlesham. Archaeology reveals that the quay of Gipeswic (Ipswich ), at a ford of theRiver Orwell estuary, was then growing in importance as a centre of seaborne trade to the continent, no doubt under direct royal patronage.The Council of Whitby
Following the death of Bishop Finan of Lindisfarne, Alhfrith of Northumbria, in collusion with
Wilfrid , BishopAgilbert of Wessex and others, determined to persuade Oswiu to rule in favour of the Roman rite of Christianity as universal within the realms over which he had dominion. The case was debated in Oswiu's presence at theCouncil of Whitby , with Bishop Colman (Finan's successor), Hild and Cedd defending the Celtic rite and the tradition inherited from Aidan. The Roman cause prevailed and the former division of ecclesiastical authorities was set aside. Those who could not accept it, including Colman, departed elsewhere.At that time a severe plague swept through Europe and England. Among its victims were Bishop Cedd, Archbishop
Deusdedit of Canterbury , and King Eorconbert of Kent. AEthelwold of East Anglia also died in 664.ee also
*
Wuffing dynasty family tree Sources
*Bede, "Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum", Ed. and Trans. B. Colgrave and R.A.B. Mynors (Oxford 1969).
*S.J. Plunkett, Suffolk in Anglo-Saxon Times (Stroud 2005).
*S.E. West, N. Scarfe and R.J. Cramp, 1984, Iken, St Botolph, and the Coming of East Anglian Christianity, Proc. Suffolk Institute of Archaeology 35 Part 4, 279-301.
*D. Whitelock, 1972, 'The Pre-Viking Age Church in East Anglia', "Anglo-Saxon England" 1, 1-22 (Cambridge)
*B. Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England (London 1990).
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