

Much less documentary evidence survives from East Anglia than from other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. The kingdom of East Anglia ( Old English: Ēastengla rīċe) was a small independent Anglo-Saxon kingdom that comprised what are now the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk and perhaps the eastern part of the Cambridgeshire Fens.

Historians consider him the most likely occupant of the Sutton Hoo ship-burial, although other theories have been advanced. He helped Christianity to survive in East Anglia during the apostasy of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Essex and Kent. He was the first king of the East Angles to become a Christian, converting at Æthelberht's court some time before 605, while also maintaining a pagan temple. According to Bede, he was the fourth ruler to hold imperium over other southern Anglo-Saxon kingdoms: he was referred to in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, written centuries after his death, as a bretwalda (an Old English term meaning 'Britain-ruler' or 'wide-ruler'). During the battle, both Æthelfrith and Rædwald's son, Rægenhere, were killed.įrom around 616, Rædwald was the most powerful of the English kings south of the River Humber.
#Helm of raedwald mudskipper point install#
In 616, as a result of fighting the Battle of the River Idle and defeating Æthelfrith of Northumbria, he was able to install Edwin, who was acquiescent to his authority, as the new king of Northumbria. Rædwald reigned from about 599 until his death around 624, initially under the overlordship of Æthelberht of Kent. Details about Rædwald's reign are scarce, primarily because the Viking invasions of the 9th century destroyed the monasteries in East Anglia where many documents would have been kept. He was the son of Tytila of East Anglia and a member of the Wuffingas dynasty (named after his grandfather, Wuffa), who were the first kings of the East Angles. Rædwald ( Old English: Rædwald, pronounced 'power in counsel'), also written as Raedwald or Redwald ( Latin: Raedwaldus, Reduald), was a king of East Anglia, an Anglo-Saxon kingdom which included the present-day English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. Early stained glass from Osmondthorpe, representing Rædwald, king of the East Angles ( Gott Collection)
