Ecgric of East Anglia

Ecgric was an East Anglian king who shared the kingdom with his kinsman Sigebert until the abdication of Sigebert c 634. He then ruled alone until c 636, when both were killed together in a battle defending East Anglian from a Mercian military assault. The name is spelled 'Ecg-' (by Bede) to indicate a pronunciation as in 'edge'. The primary source for Ecgric is Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica (iii.18).

East Anglian allegiances

After the slaying of Eorpwald (Raedwald's son) not long after his baptism in c 627, for three years his successor(s) ceased to affirm the special relationship with Kent and Northumbria implied by official acceptance of Christian faith. In the void of southern power left by Raedwald's death, Mercia's opposition to the (Christian) authority of Edwin of Northumbria was gravitating towards Penda of Mercia, a descendant of the Mercian royal progenitor Creoda. The reversion to non-Christian rulership in East Anglia, possibly under Mercian influence, temporarily overthrew an important pillar of Edwin's new authority.

However during this period two sons of Eni, Raedwald's brother, made marriages which suggest that some members of the Wuffing household were eager to renew their Christian alliances. Anna, who became a very devout Christian ruler, married a woman possibly of East Saxon connection and acquired a stepdaughter Saethryth, and became the father of his first daughters Seaxburga and Etheldreda by 631. His brother AEthilric married Hereswith (grand-niece of Edwin of Northumbria), who had been baptized with Edwin in 626 at York. Hereswith and her sister Hild were under Edwin's protection following the murder of their father, and this marriage between the two dynasties was probably intended to reinforce the East Anglian conversion.

Sigebert's kingdom

The renewal of Christian rule in East Anglia became the work of Sigebert, Raedwald's son or stepson, who returned as a Christian from exile in Gaul (into which Raedwald had driven him), probably in c 629. This assumption of power may have involved a military conquest. Sigebert's reign was devoted to the conversion of his people, the establishment of the see of Dommoc as the bishopric of Saint Felix, the creation of a school of letters, the endowment of a monastery for Saint Fursey, and the building of the first monastery of Beodricesworth (Bury St Edmunds), all within about four years. Yet the example of his military leadership was later of importance to Ecgric and his people.

Ecgric's Wuffing identity

Ecgric was a member of the Wuffing house, but his exact descent is not decided. Bede calls him Sigebert's "cognatus" (generally a 'kinsman', but possibly implying 'brother', one of the same birth). Although Bede calls Sigebert Raedwald's son, his name supports William of Malmesbury's statement that he was a stepson (suggesting a former marriage of Raedwald's wife to an East Saxon dynast). Did Raedwald exile Sigebert to protect the inheritance of his own blood-line? Ecgric as "cognatus" could therefore be Raedwald's son, uterine brother of Sigebert: alternatively Bede may use the term diffusely to describe a relationship imprecisely known, perhaps including the possibility that he was a son of Raedwald's brother Eni.

Ecgric's earlier rule

During at least part of Sigebert's reign, and possibly even earlier, Ecgric ruled over part of the kingdom of East Anglia. Sigebert at abdication sets aside and transfers the affairs of ruling to Ecgric, "qui et antea partem eiusdem regni tenebat", who also previously held part of the same kingdom. 'Tenebat' contains the sense of sharing the kingdom, but 'et antea' gives emphasis to Ecgric's former rule. Sigebert's religious endowments appear to be centred within the region of Suffolk, and therefore Ecgric's province may have been in the north of the kingdom.

Ecgric's sole rule

At Sigebert's abdication therefore Ecgric became sole or principal ruler of East Anglia. In 632-33 the Christian kingdoms had suffered the shock of Edwin's death and the retreat of his household and bishop from York to Kent. Both Penda of Mercia and Cadwallon ap Cadfan were involved in this overthrow. After 633 the Northumbrian situation was stabilised under King Oswald, and East Anglia shared with Northumbria the benefits of the Irish missions of Saint Fursey and Saint Aidan. Sigebert was Fursey's patron, and perhaps soon after this he retired to Beodricesworth. Ecgric therefore inherited a rule aligned equally to the Roman authority of Canterbury through his bishop Felix, and to the royal authority of Northumbria through an Irish teaching mission. There is no record that Ecgric interrupted or abandoned this arrangement, and Sigebert retired in the expectation that he would maintain it.

The Mercian assault: Ecgric's death

After he had been ruling for some time, Ecgric's kingdom was attacked by a Mercian army led by Penda. Ecgric was able to gather a splendid ("opimus") East Anglian army, but realised that they would be inferior in battle to the war-hardened Mercians. Remembering that Sigebert was once their most vigorous and distinguished leader the East Angles besought him to lead them in battle, hoping that his presence would encourage them not to flee. He refused on account of his religious calling, but they bore him off against his will to the battlefield. Sigebert died a martyr, refusing to bear weapons, and Ecgric was also slain among many of his countrymen, and many others were put to flight. The date of this event is usually given as c 636, although one source suggests it could have been so late as 641.

The identity of AEthilric

AEthilric, the son of Eni who married Edwin's grand-niece Hereswith, became the father of Ealdwulf (ruled c 664-713). After Ecgric's death, three other sons of Eni ruled in succession before Ealdwulf, indicating that the posterity of Raedwald was extinct. AEthilric's dynastic marriage suggests that it was expected that he would rule in East Anglia, and may have been promoted by Edwin before 632. AEthilric was apparently dead by 647, when Anna was already ruling, and Hereswith had gone into Gaul to lead a religious life. It has therefore been argued that AEthilric and Ecgric were in fact the same person, and that the rule of Sigebert (if not of Wuffing descent) was established with the support of Kent and Northumbria to protect the emergence of the cadet Wuffing line from Eni. The theory gains slight support from the fact that AEthilric's name appears as Edric (phonetically similar to Ecgric) in the version of the Wuffing dynastic tally found in the ninth century compilation Historia Brittonum.

ee also

*Wuffing dynasty family tree

ources

* The Venerable Bede, "Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum" Ed. B. Colgrave and R.A.B. Mynors (Oxford 1969).
* R.L.S. Bruce-Mitford, "The Sutton Hoo Ship-Burial" Vol. 1 (British Museum, London 1975).
* D.N. Dumville, 1976, The Anglian Collection of Royal Genealogies and Regnal Lists, "Anglo-Saxon England" 5, 23-50.
* D.H. Farmer, "The Oxford Dictionary of Saints" (Oxford 1978). ISBN 0-19-282038-9.
* D. P. Kirby, "The Earliest English Kings" (Unwin Hyman 1991). ISBN 0-04-445691-3.
* J. Morris, "Nennius: British History and The Welsh Annals" (Phillimore, London and Chichester 1980). ISBN 0 85033 298 2
* S. Plunkett, "Suffolk in Anglo-Saxon Times", 2005 (Tempus, Stroud). ISBN 0-7524-3139-0.
* A. Williams, A.P. Smyth and D.P. Kirkby (1991), "A Biographical Dictionary of Dark Age Britain" (Seaby 1991). ISBN 1-85264-047-2.
* B. Yorke, "Kings and Kingdoms of early Anglo-Saxon England" (London 1990).