Kingdom of East Anglia: Map & History

History

The Kingdom of East Anglia was organised in the first or second quarter of the 6th century, with Wehha listed as the first king of the East Angles, followed by Wuffa. The Anglo-Saxon genealogy for East Angles gives Wehha as descended from Woden via Caesar.

Until 749 the kings of East Anglia were Wuffingas, named after the semi-historical Wuffa. During the early 7th century under Rædwald, East Anglia was a more powerful Anglo-Saxon kingdom than its immediate neighbours. Rædwald, who was converted to Christianity by his overlord Æthelberht of Kent, is seen by scholars to be the person buried within (or commemorated by) the ship burial at Sutton Hoo, near Woodbridge. During the decades that followed his death in about 624, East Anglia became increasingly dominated by the kingdom of Mercia.

Geography

The kingdom of the East Angles bordered the North Sea to the north and the east, with the River Stour historically dividing it from the East Saxons to the south, the North Sea providing a "thriving maritime link to Scandinavia and the northern reaches of Germany". The port of Ipswich (Gipeswic) was established in 7th century.

The kingdom's western boundary varied from the rivers Ouse, Lark and Kennett to further westwards, as far as the Cam. At its greatest extent, the kingdom comprised the modern-day counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and parts of eastern Cambridgeshire.

Erosion on the eastern border and deposition on the north coast altered the East Anglian coastline in Roman and Anglo-Saxon times (and continues to do so). In the latter, the sea flooded the low-lying Fens.