Beorna of East Anglia

Beorna (also known as Beonna, Benna, Beanna or Beornus) was a ruler in East Anglia from 749. The end-date of his reign is not known, but may have been around 760 AD. He shared his reign with another ruler called Alberht (Æthelberht), and possibly with another named Hun.

The primary sources for Beonna are very few. They consist of bare references to his accession or rule in late chronicles, which until quite recently it was impossible to verify. However, during the last thirty years a sufficient number of his coins have been found to show that he really existed, and on these grounds several deductions have been made concerning his rule and identity.

Annals referring to Beonna

Beanna makes his appearance in an annalistic tradition preserved in late compilations (e.g., Symeon of Durham, Roger of Wendover) in material which may derive from Byrhtferth of Ramsey, a writer of c1000 AD (attribution cited in M. M. Archibald). The record states that Hunbeanna and Alberht divided the kingdom of the East Angles between themselves. Florence of Worcester presents an annal for 758 stating that Beornus was then ruling the East Angles. Beorna also appears after Ælfwald and before Æthelred in short regnal lists featuring in the "Chronicle" of John of Worcester and in the "de Gestis Regum" of William of Malmesbury, Book I.

The name Beonna

Since the name Beonna also appears on the coins, but is a foreshortened or familiar form lacking the second part of a diathematic structure, the "Hun" element in the former annal may be a separate name. Hence a tripartite division of the kingdom might be intended. Beornred emerged for a short time in 757 as ruler of Mercia before being driven out by Offa. Archibald cites Charles Oman's suggestion that they could be the same person.

No known member of the Wuffing family had a name commencing with B. However there were Mercian rulers (including Beornwulf) using that letter. Considering the name of Beonna himself and of Beodric, the name-founder of "Beodricesworth" (afterwards Bury St Edmunds), it has been argued that these were members of a family with dynastic claims both in Mercia and in East Anglia. Hence it is suggested that, following the death of Ælfwald, a Wuffing claimant Æthelberht or Alberht divided his rule with a member of that supposed family.

Military affairs in Mercia

The decade of the 750s was turbulent. Æthelbald of Mercia had dominion over Wessex, where Cuthred had ruled since 740. In 752 Cuthred revolted, and (according to Henry of Huntingdon) the East Angles, perhaps led by Beonna, joined forces with Æthelbald against Cuthred in the Battle of Burford Bridge. Several kingdoms were already in turmoil when in 757 Æthelbald was murdered by two of his own bodyguard. Then Beornred ruled Mercia for a few months, rather unsuccessfully, before Offa (a descendant of Æthelbald's grandfather by a different line) emerged and drove him into a remote part of the kingdom. We have Florence's statement that Beonna was ruling in East Anglia in 758.

Beonna's coinage and moneyers

The coins of Beonna are known from a number of individual finds, but also from two important group finds. One is a series from stratified deposits, from a defensible estuarine settlement near Rendlesham, Suffolk (a Wuffing royal seat). The other is a hoard deposited around 760 at Middle Harling (Norfolk) on the River Thet, north-east of Thetford. Thetford, at the confluence of the Thet with the Little Ouse and upstream of the important settlement at Brandon (Suffolk), was probably also an early seat of power.

Beonna was the first East Anglian ruler (and among the earliest rulers of the English) to have a coinage issued with legends naming the ruler and title - a regnal coinage. He had three named moneyers that are known, Werferth, Efe and Wilred. Of these, the coins of Efe are by far the most numerous, and the obverse dies naming Beonna pass through several different types. Dr Archibald suggests that this may represent intensive issues over a short period for military purposes, rather than a prolonged sequence of issue. Distribution analysis (unconclusive with such limited numbers) may suggest a north-central Suffolk or southern Norfolk mint for Efe, and the same scholar cites Euston, Suffolk, a little southeast of Thetford, as a name possibly derived from Efe.

The Efe reverse is based on the 'standard' type, derived from the foregoing C and R series sceattas, while the radial letters around a central pellet seen in most Beonna obverses may owe more to Northumbrian prototypes. The legends are latin, mixed latin-runic, or (particularly in Wilred's dies) all-runic. Indeed the Beonna coinage as a whole provides an important dateable runic corpus, and may reflect a distinctive East Anglian preference for runic lettering. Beonna is styled 'Rex' or (runic) 'Ress' by Efe.

Wilred uses a rune similar to W after the name, possibly to mean 'Walda' or ruler. Dr Archibald mentions an early coin of Offa struck by the same moneyer, who may therefore have struck at the end of Beonna's reign when Offa's power in East Anglia was growing. The similarity of Wilred's all-runic pennies to the unique penny of Alberht or Aethelberht I confirms their contemporaneity, as does the archaeological context of the Aethelberht find. Wilred may have worked in south-east Suffolk.

A fourth type of coin for Beonna has no named moneyer, but a reverse showing an interlace motif. One specimen of this type has been found at Dorestad, and these resemble Frankish or Frisian deniers of the Maastricht area in the same period.

Context

Beonna's rule coincided with the anointing of Pippin III and the displacement of the Merovingian dynasty, and also with the martyrdom of Saint Boniface. His issue of a coinage related to Franco-Frisian types implies a continuing engagement in that sphere. He was probably not a Wuffing but shared power with at least one other who probably was of that dynasty. The preponderance of his regnal coinage in this period suggests his seniority within the arrangement of East Anglian rule. During his reign some measure of East Anglian leadership independent of central Mercian authority seems to be maintained. The written evidences and coins confine our knowledge of him to the period 749-c760. He may have assisted Aethelbald against the West-Saxons in 752, and was possibly connected with the unsuccessful attempt of Beornred to take control of Mercia in 757. With regard to his name, the chroniclers of Worcester and Malmesbury (who use the form with 'r', "Beorn-") did not have access to his coins (which use forms without 'r' such as Beonna or Benna): but since it is now clear that they possessed an authentic tradition, the form with 'r' has equal validity to the contemporary evidence of the coins. Of the end of his reign nothing is known.

Sources

* M.M. Archibald, 1985, The coinage of Beonna in the light of the Middle Harling hoard, "British Numismatic Journal" 55, 10-54.
* M.M. Archibald, V.H. Fenwick and M.R. Cowell, 1996, A sceat of Ethelbert I of East Anglia and recent finds of coins of Beonna, "British Numismatic Journal" 65, 1-19.
* J. Campbell (Ed.), "The Anglo-Saxons" (Oxford 1982).
* R.D. Carr, A. Tester and P. Murphy, 1988, The Middle Saxon Settlement at Staunch Meadow, Brandon, "Antiquity" LXII, 371-377.
* V.H. Fenwick, 1984, Insula de Burgh: Excavations at Burrow Hill, Butley, Suffolk 1978-1981, "Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History" 3, 35-54.
* J.A. Giles, "Roger of Wendover's Flowers of History" (Translation - 2 Vols.) (London 1849).
* P. Grierson and M. Blackburn, "Mediaeval European Coinage I: The Early Middle Ages" (Cambridge 1986).
* D.P. Kirby, "The Earliest English Kings" (London 1991).
* R.I. Page, "An Introduction to English Runes" (London 1973).
* S.J. Plunkett, "Suffolk in Anglo-Saxon Times" (Tempus, Stroud 2005).
* B. Yorke, "Kings and kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England" (London 1990).
* Website: Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge: Corpus of Early Mediaeval Coin Finds, and Sylloge of Coins of the British Isles (www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/coins/emc).