POLITICAL HISTORY 



THE early history of this county, owing to the scarcity of definite 

 reference to it in our authorities, can only be dealt with very 

 briefly, and as the principal source of information about the Anglian 

 settlement is the history of the Venerable Bede, a large portion of the 

 notices we possess relate to ecclesiastical affairs, a subject treated elsewhere. 



Of the character of the settlement of this part of England by the 

 Angles and of the formation of the kingdom of East Anglia very little is 

 known. Bede^ describes the conversion of Earpwald, king of the East 

 Angles, son of Redwald. This Redwald, who is said to have been the fourth 

 bretwalda, had apparently raised East Anglia to a high position among the 

 warring kingdoms between which England was divided at that time. 

 Sigbert,^ successor of Earpwald, was killed in battle with the Mercians under 

 Penda, and East Anglia came under Mercian supremacy. Sigbert's successor 

 /Ethelhere' was slain at Winwaed in 655, fighting with the Mercians against 

 Oswy of Northumbria, when a short period of Northumbrian supremacy fol- 

 lowed. East Anglia continued to hold the position of a pawn in the contest 

 between the three great kingdoms down to the time when Egbert, bretwalda 

 in 827, became practically supreme over all England ; but it is unnecessary 

 here to try to trace the different phases of the struggle. 



The most important event which took place during this early period, 

 as regards a history of Norfolk, was the division of the diocese of East 

 Anglia into two parts,* Acce being appointed to Dunwich, in Suffolk, the 

 original East Anglian see, and Badwine to Elmham, the new see for Norfolk. 

 The date of this event was probably about 673. Whether we have here the 

 beginning of the present severance between Norfolk and Suffolk, or, on the 

 other hand, ought to regard the division of the see as an outcome of already 

 existing political conditions, cannot be decided with absolute certainty. 

 There is much to be said for the second alternative. 



The most important source of information for this period, after Bede's 

 account, is the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and to this record we are principally 

 indebted for our knowledge of the Danish invasion of East Anglia. 



In 823 * the East Angles put themselves under the protection of Egbert 

 in the struggle against the Mercians, and in the same year they slew Beorn- 

 wulf, king of the Mercians. The Northmen are first mentioned as attacking 

 East Anglia in 838, two years after the accession of Ethelwulf, the bare 

 statement being made that many were in that year slain by the Danes.* In 



' Bede, Hht. Eccl. Gentis Anghrum (Plummer), ii, 15. ' Ibid, iii, 18. 



' Ibid, iii, 24. * Ibid, iv, 5. 



6 Angl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Scr.), i, 1 12. ^ Ibid, i, 118. 



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