Alberht of East Anglia

The lineage of Ælfwald from the Anglian collection

Alberht's predecessor Ælfwald died in 749 after ruling his small kingdom for thirty-six years.[2] During Ælfwald's rule, East Anglia enjoyed sustained growth and stability, albeit under the senior authority of the Mercian king Æthelbald,[3] who ruled his kingdom from 716 until he was murdered by his own men in 757.[4] Ælfwald was the last of the Wuffingas dynasty, who ruled East Anglia since the 6th century. The East Anglian pedigree in the Anglian collection, which was probably compiled for Ælfwald, lists his descendants.

Alberht is so obscure that for many centuries he was known only from a single statement in a late compilation of material. A reference derived from tradition can be found in the annal for 749 in the Historia Regum, a mediaeval work possibly produced in part by Byrhtferth of Ramsey. In the annal, it is stated that "Hunbeanna and Alberht divided the kingdom of the East Angles between themselves".[5] Until about thirty years ago, this record stood alone and unverifiable, with the exception of a single coin attributed to Beonna and two other brief mentions of him. Since then, well over a hundred coins attributed to Beonna have been found,[6] many in archaeologically secure contexts,[7] so that it is now clear that a ruler named Beonna did rule in East Anglia at that time, as originally suggested by H. M. Chadwick.[8] The historian Steven Plunkett has suggested that the Hun- element in the annal was at some time joined with the -beanna element in error by a scribe.[5]

Scholars have since realized that these exceedingly sparse references were accurate, and that East Anglia was indeed ruled jointly after 749. As a result, Alberht has become a more substantial reality. The identity of these two rulers (or possibly three, if Hun is included) and the reason for this division of power remain unknown. The historian Barbara Yorke suggests the possibility that the kings each ruled a separate part of the kingdom at this time, but acknowledges that the political landscape of 749 is not well understood.[9] D. P. Kirby gives an alternative view of the events that may have occurred following the death of Ælfwald. He connects Alberht with Æthelberht II of East Anglia and states that Alberht was still ruling in 794, which would imply that he reigned for around forty-five years.[10]

Beonna is not a typical East Anglian Wuffingas name, but might be connected with a powerful Mercian family. Alberht alliterates suitably with several Wuffingas names and could be accepted as a shortened form of the name Æthelberht. It is therefore possible that when Ælfwald died, Alberht continued the dynastic line,[5] being a direct descendant or from a cadet line, and accepted a division of power with a Mercian royal representative in order to continue the rule of the Wuffingas.

Beonna's seniority in this arrangement is suggested by the large number of coins bearing his name and by the co-operation between the East Anglians and the Mercians in the Battle of Burford Bridge against Cuthred of Wessex in 752. Beonna may also be connected with Beornred, who for a few months ruled Mercia after Æthelbald's assassination in 757.

The single coin that can be attributed to Alberht.[11] Both sides of the coin have text in runes laid out between the limbs of a saltire pommée, decorated with pellets. Obverse: eþ æl be rt; reverse: ti æl re d.[12]

The minting of coins in East Anglia probably began during the reign of Beonna. A mint probably operated from Suffolk: coins continued to be produced through a period of Mercian hegemony and East Anglian independence, until the invasion by the Vikings in the second half of the 9th century.[13]

The confirmation of Alberht as a historical figure emerges from the discovery by controlled excavation of a single coin, considered to be unique, that can be attributed to him.[14] The authenticity and date-horizon of the coin is not in doubt. The coin was discovered by Valerie Fenwick at Burrow Hill, at Butley, Suffolk, in a stratified deposit which also contained several varieties of late sceattas of a runic type and coins that were minted by Beonna. It was found in a defensible estuary island site in a strategic position near Rendlesham, a known seat of Wuffingas power.[15] The site is located 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) due east of Sutton Hoo.[16]

The runes on the sceatta depicting the moneyer's name read 'Tiælred' (which is perhaps a version of Coeldred) and the obverse reads simply 'Ethælbert'.[17] The coin, of about 42% silver, was struck on a module comparable to the larger planchet which characterises the later strikes of Beonna's most prolific moneyer, Efe. The formula resembles the money made for Beonna by Wilred, but the confident lettering and beading more resembles the work of Efe. Stylistically, therefore, the coin is closely connected to Beonna.

The coin formed part of a presentation to the British Museum in 1992, to mark the society's twenty-fifth anniversary of the British Museum Society.[14]

• Archibald, Marion M. (1985). "The Coinage of Beonna in the light of the Middle Harling Hoard" (PDF). British Numismatic Journal. 55: 10–54.
• Archibald, Marion M.; Cowell, M.R.; Fenwick, V.H. (1996). "A sceat of Ethelbert I of East Anglia and recent finds of coins of Beonna" (PDF). British Numismatic Journal. 65: 1–19.
• Grierson, Philip; Blackburn, Mark (1986). Mediaeval European Coinage I: The Early Middle Ages. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-03177-6.
• Keynes, Simon (2014). "Appendix I: Rulers of the English, c. 450–1066". In Lapidge, Michael; Blair, John; Keynes, Simon; Scragg, Donald (eds.). The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England (Second ed.). Chichester, UK: Blackwell Publishing. pp. 521–38. ISBN 978-0-470-65632-7.
• Kirby, D. P. (2000). The Earliest English Kings. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-4152-4211-8.
• Page, Raymond Ian (1973). An Introduction to English Runes. Woodbridge: Boydell Press. ISBN 0-85115-946 X.
• Plunkett, Steven (2005). Suffolk in Anglo-Saxon Times. Stroud: Tempus. ISBN 0-7524-3139-0.
• Yorke, Barbara (2002). Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-16639-X.

• Alberht 3 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England
• Record of the coin attributed to Alberht at the British Museum