Kingdom of the East Angles | |||||||||
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| 6th century–917 | |||||||||
 A map of East Anglia c. 650 | |||||||||
| Status | Independent (6th century–794; 796–c. 799; 825–869) Client state of Mercia (794–796; c. 799–825) Part of the Danelaw (869–917) | ||||||||
| Official languages |
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| Religion | Anglo-Saxon paganism (before 7th century) Christianity (after 7th century) | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Established | 6th century | ||||||||
• Annexed by the Kingdom of Wessex | 917 | ||||||||
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The Kingdom of the East Angles (Old English: Ēastengla Rīċe; Latin: Regnum Orientalium Anglorum), informally known as the Kingdom of East Anglia, was a small independent kingdom of the Angles during the Anglo-Saxon period comprising what are now the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk and perhaps the eastern part of the Fens,[1] the area still known as East Anglia.
The kingdom formed in the 6th century in the wake of the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain and was one of the kingdoms of the Heptarchy. It was ruled by the Wuffingas dynasty in the 7th and 8th centuries, but the territory was taken by Offa of Mercia in 794. Mercia control lapsed briefly following the death of Offa but was reestablished. The Danish Great Heathen Army landed in East Anglia in 865; after taking York it returned to East Anglia, killing King Edmund ("the Martyr") and making it Danish land in 869. After Alfred the Great forced a treaty with the Danes, East Anglia was left as part of the Danelaw.
It was taken back from Danish control by Edward the Elder and incorporated into the Kingdom of Wessex in 917.
- ^ One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "East Anglia". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
