The kingdom of the East Angles was centred on modern-day Suffolk and Norfolk. Its early history is obscure. From the middle of the 6th century AD, it was ruled by kings of the Wuffinga dynasty, named after an early leader called Wuffa. The kingdom was at the height of its power in the early 7th century under Rædwald (reigned about 616-624). He seems to have been an ‘overking’, dominating other kingdoms. In 617 he was powerful enough to defeat the Northumbrians on their own frontier. The treasure-filled burial mound at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk is probably Rædwald’s tomb. He was buried in a ship with his armour and weapons, gold, silver and jewels.

During the 650s the kingdom of Mercia gradually dominated East Anglia and overcame it completely in the late 7th century. The only mention of an East Anglian king in the 8th century is when one Ethelbert was beheaded in 794 on the orders of his overlord, Offa, king of Mercia. In the 9th century, Wessex succeeded Mercia as the dominant power until the Danes seized the whole region in 869, the year in which St Edmund, the last king of East Anglia, was brutally martyred by them.