Wuffingas

The Wuffingas or Wuffings were the ruling dynasty of East Anglia, the long-lived Anglo-Saxon kingdom which today includes the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. The Wuffingas took their name from Wuffa, an early East Anglian king. It has been argued that the Wuffingas may have originated from a branch of the Geatish dynasty. Nothing is known of the members of the dynasty before Rædwald, who ruled from about 599 to circa 624. The Viking invasions of the ninth century destroyed the monasteries in East Anglia where many documents relating to the rule of the Wuffingas would have been kept.

The last of the Wuffingas kings was Ælfwald, who died in 749 and who was succeded by kings whose lineage is unknown.

Family tree

The following family tree includes the Wuffingas kings from Wehha to Ælfwald. They are numbered in order of ruling.^[1] Ecgric of East Anglia was also a member of the Wuffingas house, but his exact descent is not decided. He may have been Sigebert's brother, or his step-brother.

The kingdom of East Anglia was settled by peoples from northern Europe during the 5th and 6th centuries. Historical sources relating to the genealogy of the East Anglian kings include the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and Bede's Ecclesiastical History, both compiled many years after the kingdom was formed, as well as lists produced by medieval historians, such as the 12th century Textus Roffensis, who may have had access to other sources that are now lost. Several of the Wuffingas kings are included in a pedigree of Ælfwald, contained in the Anglian collection that dates from the 9th century. In the pedigree, Ælfwald claims descent from the god Wōden.^[2]

Sam Newton has claimed that the poem Beowulf may have been composed during the reign of Ælfwald of East Anglia. Before the end of his rule, Ælfwald's kingdom contained a group of ecclesiatical centres, all of which had strong associations with the Wuffingas dynasty. These included the sees at Dommoc and Helmham, St. Botulph's monastery at Icanho, the religious foundations at Ely and Dereham founded by daughters of Anna, the minster at Blythburgh and the monastery founded by Sigeberht prior to his abdication and subsequent death in battle.^[3]

After 749, East Anglia was ruled either by the Mercians or by kings whose genealogy is not known.

References

Bibliography

• Newton, Sam (1993). The Origins of Beowulf and the Pre-Viking Kingdom of East Anglia. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer. ISBN 0-85991-472-0. 
• Yorke, Barbara (2002). Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-16639-X. 

External links

• Dr Sam Newton's Wuffing Website
• William of Malmesbury's Chronicle of the Kings of England from the earliest period to the reign of King Stephen, Book 1, "Of the kings of the East Angles" in English and in Latin