Eorpwald of East Anglia - Background and Family

Background and Family

By the beginning of the 7th century, southern England was almost entirely under the control of the Anglo-Saxons. These peoples, who are known to have included Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians, began to arrive in Britain in the 5th century. By 600, a number of kingdoms had begun to form in the conquered territories, including the Kingdom of the East Angles, an Anglo-Saxon kingdom which today includes the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. Almost no documentary sources exist about the history of the kingdom before the reign of Rædwald, who reigned until about 624. Sources of information include the names of a few of the early Wuffing kings, mentioned in a short passage in Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, written in the 730s.

In 616, Rædwald defeated and killed Æthelfrith of Northumbria in the Battle of the River Idle and then installed Edwin as the new Deiran king. Whilst Edwin had been an exile at Rædwald's court, he had had a dream where he was told that if he converted to Christianity, he would become greater than any that had ruled before him. Steven Plunkett relates that, according to the version of events as told in the Whitby Life of St Gregory, it was Paulinus who visited Edwin and obtained his promise to convert to Christianity in return for regal power. After Edwin emerged as the ruler of Deira, with its centre at York, he became accepted as king of the northern Northumbrian province of Bernicia. Following his victory over the Northumbrians, Rædwald was not only king of the East Angles, but also the most powerful king amongst the rulers of the various English kingdoms, occupying the role which was later described by the term Bretwalda. He is thought by many to have been buried in the sumptuous ship burial at Sutton Hoo.

Eorpwald was the son of Rædwald by a wife whose name is not recorded. He had at least one brother, Rægenhere, and another sibling, Sigeberht, may also have been his brother. Rædwald used the letters R and E when naming two of his own sons, (as did his own father when he and his younger brother Eni were named), which suggests that Eorpwald was the younger sibling and would only have became Rædwald's heir after his elder brother Rægenhere was slain in battle in 616. It is unclear whether, as Bede understood, Sigebert and Eorpwald were brothers, or whether they shared the same mother but not the same father, as was stated by the 12th century chronicler William of Malmesbury. According to the historian Barbara Yorke, Sigebert may have been a member of a different line of Wuffings who as his rival was forced into exile, in order to ensure that Eorpwald became king.