Page:VCH Norfolk 2.djvu/509

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. 467