On 20 May 794, Æthelberht II, King of East Anglia was beheaded on the orders of Offa, King of Mercia, of possibly his queen, Cynethryth, having been captured when he visited King Offa's court at Sutton in modern Hertfordshire. Subsequently, his head is reputed to have fallen from the cart in which it was being transported, and to have cured a blind man who accidentally touched it, leading to Æthelberht's canonisation as Saint Ethelbert. Versions of the story vary in medieval chronicles, none of which were written down until centuries after Æthelberht's death.
All of the stories agree that Æthelberht, who was born around 774, probably a son of Æthelred I of East Anglia and his queen Leofrana of Mercia. He came to the throne around 779, as a boy-king, and was reputed to have been a good and pious monarch. In 794 he travelled to the court of King Offa of Mercia, to meet Ælfthryth, daughter of Offa, who he was due to wed, something which would have made a powerful dynastic marriage. Some versions of the story record that Æthelberht's mother was against this, as the events had been preceded by a number of ill omens, including earthquakes and an eclipse.
Tales of the actual murder vary. Some depict Offa as a weak but pious king, manipulated into murdering Æthelberht by Queen Cynethryth. Other versions exclude Offa from the plot altogether, alleging that Æthelberht was murdered by a man called Grimbert, or a group of assassins, acting directly on the Queen's orders. Some versions have this happening at the nearby village of Marden, before reaching Offa's court at Sutton. Other versions have him arriving at the court and being welcomed by Offa, before being murdered by Cynethryth's man or men. One version has an elaborate pit trap hidden beneath the bed chamber he is given.
The events after the murder are more agreed upon. The head of Æthelberht may-or-may-not have fallen from a cart and cured a blind man, but he is certainly credited with healing miracles after his death, and accepted as a saint and martyr by the church. Offa's daughter, Ælfthryth, was apparently so horrified by these events that she retired to a nunnery at Crowland, where she lived for the remaining 40 years of her life, also being made a saint after her death.
Unravelling these the truth behind these stories requires an understanding of the medieval concept of kingship, particularly as it was understood in Norman England where they were eventually written down. At this time, kings were not seen as simply gaining their status by accident of birth, they were placed their by the hand of god. As such, all kings were, by default, good and pious, and anything bad going on at their court had to be down to somebody else. A queen, who was there by marriage rather than birthright, was potentially a good target, particularly one such as Cynethryth, who was not clearly from a royal background.
Thus, Æthelberht was good and pious, because he was a king. Offa, of course, was also good and pious, because he was also a king. Cynethryth, as a woman and possible commoner, was absolutely able to be a murderess to fit the narrative, while, Ælfthryth, a woman of clear royal descent, could go on to be a saint. As a murdered king, Æthelberht was automatically a martyr, even though he died as a result of political intrigue rather than for his faith.
In Æthelberht's time things may have been seen somewhat differently, if not by the naïve Æthelberht, then certainly by the Mercian king. Offa had come to power in 757, following the assassination of the previous king, Æthelbald, and following a civil conflict against rival Beornred, who was also killed. He then went on to assert his authority over the kingdoms of Kent and Sussex, who were essentially turned into vassal states. He formed an alliance with Wessex, the other major power in England at the time by marrying his daughter Eadburh to King Beorhtric of Wessex. Little that we know about Offa suggests that he would have hesitated to kill a fellow king if such a deed expanded his political power.
For a long time, the only known coins associated with Æthelberht were of a design known as 'Wolf and Twins' pennies, and these were very rare, with two specimens known since the eighteenth century, and a third discovered in Italy in the early twentieth century. These had a motive on one side with a she-wolf suckling a pair of human infants, a reference to the Roman story of Romulus and Remus. This has been seen as a reference to the Wuffingas dynasty of East Anglia, of which Æthelberht was a part, but is also a very potent royal motif, invoking the might of Rome.
This led to speculation that Offa might have seen Æthelberht as a sub-king, with East Anglia being a subordinate kingdom to Mercia, as Kent and Sussex were. Minting his own coins, and in particular a coin with a Romulus and Remus motif, and thereby comparing the King of East Anglia to the Emperor of Rome, would be a powerful assertion of independence, which might have angered the Mercian king sufficiently to have murdered his East Anglian rival. Because the murder happened the year after the sack of Lindisfarne by Viking raiders, it was suggested that this might have led Æthelberht to realise that his kingdom was at risk, seeking an alliance with the more powerful Offa, but falling into a trap instead.
There are, however, some problems with this story too. The 'Wolf and Twins' of Æthelberht bear the mark of the same moneyer (coin-maker), Lul, as many coins issued by Offa, which seems unlikely if the two were rivals and the coin was offensive to Offa. Then in 2014 a fourth coin from the reign of Æthelberht was discovered by a metal detectorist near Pevensey in East Sussex, with this coin having a different motif, the king's name written around the outside, with a cross in the middle, a design typical of Anglo Saxon pennies.
This suggests that Æthelberht had a longer history of issuing coins, with more than one design being used during his reign. As such he is much less likely to have been seen as a subordinate king, and the use of the same moneyer as Offa suggests that this was not a contentious issue for him.
This makes Offa's motive in killing Æthelberht all the more sinister. There appears to have been no prior claim to East Anglia by the Mercian king, nor any direct insult offered to him by Æthelberht. Seen in this light, the killing was a straightforward power grab; Offa killed Æthelberht, and incorporated East Anglia into his own kingdom, apparently a better arrangement than a dynastic marriage that would have left a son-in-law on the throne.
Today, Æthelberht is commemorated as a saint by both the Catholic and Anglican churches (under the modernised name of Saint Ethelbert. He is one of the patron saints of Hereford Cathedral (along with the Blessed Virgin Mary), and one of the two main entrances to the precinct of Norwich Cathedral is called St Ethelbert's Gate. There are churches dedicated to him in Norfolk, Suffolk, and London.
See also...
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