Rædwald
The Anglo-Saxon king who was very likely the man buried in the Sutton Hoo ship burial.
Life
East Anglia
Rædwald was king of East Anglia. Around 616 CE he defeated the King of Northumbria and installed the exiled Edwin on the throne, becoming the most powerful ruler among the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and being called "ruler of Britain."
Two altars
According to Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, he accepted Christianity in Kent, but after returning home he kept both an altar to Christ and an altar to pagan gods in the same temple.
Sutton Hoo
He died c. 624 CE. The lavish ship burial excavated at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk in 1939 yielded a magnificent helmet, a gold buckle and silverware from Byzantium, and most scholars believe he was the man buried there.
Legacy
The Sutton Hoo ship burial changed views of "Dark Ages" England, proving that its kingdoms already had considerable wealth and long-distance trade.
Did you know? The Sutton Hoo helmet was reassembled from hundreds of fragments and became one of the most famous objects in the British Museum.
Key dates
- 616Defeated the King of Northumbria
- 624Died (approx.)
- 1939Sutton Hoo ship burial excavated