Eohric of East Anglia

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A coin commemorating King Edmund the Martyr. These coins appear to have been common in Eohric's time.

Eohric (died late 902x904) was king of East Anglia. Seemingly of Scandinavian origin, his name is the Old English form of the Old Norse Eiríkr, little is known of Eohric or of East Anglia in his time.

East Anglia was attacked by the Viking Great Heathen Army in around 869, King Edmund (later Saint Edmund) being killed on 20 November 869. Edmund was not the last Anglo-Saxon king, he was followed by Oswald and Æthelred who are known only from numismatic evidence, that is their coins. Guthrum, who fought against Alfred the Great, king of Wessex, appears to have been in control of East Anglia in the 880s, and issued coins in his own name. Guthrum died circa 890 but there is no record of his successor as the coinage issued in East Anglia after Guthrum commemorates King Edmund and does not name the ruler.

The only certain report of Eohric is that of his death. Eohric, along with other Scandinavian leaders in eastern Britain, supported the ætheling Æthelwold against Edward the Elder. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports in its entry under the year 905, probably to be dated to between 902 or 904 AD, that some time after October of that year the East Anglian army with Æthelwold and Eohric raided over the River Thames into Edward's lands. Edward took an army from Kent into East Anglia, ravaging as far north as the Devil's Dyke and the River Wissey. Eohric's East Anglians met Edward's army while it was returning home and a battle followed. Edward's army was victorious and Eohric and Æthelwold were among the dead.

The history of East Anglia after Eohric remains obscure until the conquest of the region by Edward the Elder.

[edit] References

Lapidge, Michael, ed. (1999), The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England, Oxford: Blackwell, ISBN 0-631-22492-0
Stafford, Pauline (1989), Unification and Conquest: A Political and Social History of England in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries, London: Arnold, ISBN 0-7131-6532-4
Swanton, Michael (1996), The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, New York: Routledge, ISBN 0-415-92129-5