Sigeberht II of Essex
Encyclopedia
Sigeberht I of Essex
Sigeberht the Little was king of Essex from 617 to 653. He was the son of Saeward, who was slain in battle against forces from Wessex.After his death, he was succeeded by his relative Sigeberht the Good....
. Although a bishopric in Essex had been created under Mellitus
Mellitus
Mellitus was the first Bishop of London in the Saxon period, the third Archbishop of Canterbury, and a member of the Gregorian mission sent to England to convert the Anglo-Saxons from their native paganism to Christianity. He arrived in 601 AD with a group of clergymen sent to augment the mission,...
, the kingdom had lapsed to paganism and it was in Sigeberht's reign that a systematic (re-)conversion of the East Anglians took root. Bede
Bede
Bede , also referred to as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede , was a monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria...
's Historia Ecclesiastica, Book III, chapter 22, is virtually the sole source for his career.
Family
Apart from referring to the odd kinsman, Bede offers little that is of help in determining Sigeberht's family connections. Additional evidence is provided by genealogies for Offa, Swithred and Sigered in a 9th-century West-Saxon manuscript and in two post-Conquest sources, i.e. William of MalmesburyWilliam of Malmesbury
William of Malmesbury was the foremost English historian of the 12th century. C. Warren Hollister so ranks him among the most talented generation of writers of history since Bede, "a gifted historical scholar and an omnivorous reader, impressively well versed in the literature of classical,...
's Gesta regum and John of Worcester
John of Worcester
John of Worcester was an English monk and chronicler. He is usually held to be the author of the Chronicon ex chronicis.-Chronicon ex chronicis:...
's Chronicon ex Chronicis, the latter including a memorandum (Chronicon A) and a genealogical list (Chronicon B). Unfortunately, their testimony is at times confused and contradictory. In a comparative analysis of the material, Barbara Yorke suggests that Sigeberht may perhaps have been the son of Sæward and father of Sigehere
Sighere of Essex
Sighere was the joint king of the Kingdom of Essex along with his brother Sebbi from 664 to 683. He was outlived by Sebbi, who became the sole ruler of Essex after his death. Sighere and Sebbi were cousins of their predecessor Swithelm. While Sighere returned to paganism, Sebbi remained...
.
Power and conversion
Oswiu of Northumbria
Oswiu , also known as Oswy or Oswig , was a King of Bernicia. His father, Æthelfrith of Bernicia, was killed in battle, fighting against Rædwald, King of the East Angles and Edwin of Deira at the River Idle in 616...
(r. 642–670). Bede's statement that Sigeberht regularly visited the Bernician court and the general nature of Oswiu's influence on the course of Sigeberht's career suggest that the balance of power was in Oswiu's favour. Oswiu may have intended the alliance to help him offer effective resistance against King Penda of Mercia
Penda of Mercia
Penda was a 7th-century King of Mercia, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom in what is today the English Midlands. A pagan at a time when Christianity was taking hold in many of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Penda took over the Severn Valley in 628 following the Battle of Cirencester before participating in the...
, as is also suggested by his alliance with Penda's son Peada, king of the Middle Angles.
Bede's portrayal of the king owes much to his interest in the conversion of the East Anglians. A pagan on his accession, Sigeberht was urged by Oswiu to renounce his beliefs and accept Christianity. Like Peada, he and his followers were baptised by Bishop Finan
Finan of Lindisfarne
Finan of Lindisfarne , also known as Saint Finan, was an Irish monk, trained at Iona in Scotland, who became Bishop of Lindisfarne from 651 until 661. Originally from Ireland, he founded a cathedral on Lindisfarne and converted the kings Sigebert of Essex and Peada of the Middle Angles to...
at one of Oswiu's estates called Ad Murum (presumably in the region of Hadrian's Wall
Hadrian's Wall
Hadrian's Wall was a defensive fortification in Roman Britain. Begun in AD 122, during the rule of emperor Hadrian, it was the first of two fortifications built across Great Britain, the second being the Antonine Wall, lesser known of the two because its physical remains are less evident today.The...
, possibly Walbottle
Walbottle
Walbottle is a village in Tyne and Wear. It is a western suburb of Newcastle upon Tyne. The village name, recorded in 1176 as "Walbotl", is derived from the Old English botl on the Roman Wall...
), 12 miles from the east coast. The ceremony may have taken place in 653 or 654, before Penda's attack.
On Sigeberht's request, Oswiu dispatched missionaries to evangelise the East Anglians. The party was led by Cedd, freshly recalled from his missionary work among the Middle Angles, and three companion priests. Their efforts were thought to have been so fruitful that when Cedd visited Finan in Lindisfarne, he was consecrated Bishop of Essex. Cedd went on to found communities at Tilaburg (probably East Tilbury
East Tilbury
East Tilbury is a village in the unitary authority of Thurrock borough, England and one of the traditional parishes in Thurrock.-History:In Saxon times, the location on which the church now stands was surrounded by tidal marshland...
) and Ithancester (almost certainly Bradwell-on-Sea
Bradwell-on-Sea
Bradwell-on-Sea is a village in Essex, England. The village is on the Dengie peninsula. It is located about north-northeast of Southminster and is east from the county town of Chelmsford. The village is in the District of Maldon in the parliamentary constituency of Maldon whose boundaries were...
). These activities brought about an extension of the authority of the church of Lindisfarne into the south, which has been regarded as "redolent of an opportunistic Bernician colonisation of the region".
Murder
Bede relates how Sigeberht had become a pious king practising Christian forgiveness, but was soon murdered for his new attitude. The perpetrators were his own kinsmen (propinqui), two unnamed brothers who were angry with the king "because he was too ready to pardon his enemies". Bishop Cedd had excommunicated one of the brothers for being unlawfully married and forbade anyone to dine with him or enter his house. Disregarding the bishop's words, however, Sigeberht accepted an invitation from the brothers to enjoy hospitality at their house. When he happened to meet Cedd on the road, he prostrated before him and asked forgiveness, but Cedd prophesied that the king would die in the house for his disobedience. Bede's concluding verdict is that "the death of this religious king was such that it not only atoned for his offence but even increased his merit; for it came about as a result of his piety and his observance of Christ's command."Whatever the moral message Bede may have intended to convey, the political circumstances suggest a somewhat different scenario. With Oswiu's expulsion, the Bernician grip on East Saxon affairs seems to have slipped away and so when Sigeberht's successor, Swithhelm
Swithelm of Essex
Swithelm was King of Essex from 660 to 664.Swithelm succeeded King Sigeberht II after he, along with his brother Swithfrith, murdered him. They accused him of being too friendly toward Christians. In 662, however, he was persuaded to convert to Christianity by Aethelwald, king of East Anglia. ...
, son of Seaxbald, needed a candidate to stand sponsor at his baptism, he turned to the king of the East Anglians
Æthelwold of East Anglia
Æthelwold, also known as Æthelwald or Æþelwald , was a 7th century king of East Anglia, the long-lived Anglo-Saxon kingdom which today includes the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. He was a member of the Wuffingas dynasty, which ruled East Anglia from their regio at Rendlesham...
. A change of loyalty or political affiliations among the East Saxon ruling elite may therefore help explain the context for Sigeberht's assassination. Barbara Yorke even raises the possibility that Swithhelm was in some way accessory to the murder and that he and his brother Swithfrith were the two brothers portrayed by Bede.
The date of Sigeberht's death is unknown, though at the very least, it must have occurred sometime before 664, by which time Swithhelm was dead.
Sources
III.22, pp. 280-5.- Higham, N.J. The Convert Kings. Power and Religious Affiliation in Early Anglo-Saxon England. Manchester, 1997.
- Kirby, D.P. The Earliest English Kings. London, 1991.
- Yorke, Barbara. "The Kingdom of the East Saxons." Anglo-Saxon England 14 (1985): 1-36.
- Yorke, Barbara. Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England. London, 1990.
- "Sigeberht 5 (Male)." Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England. Accessed: 6 May 2009.