Editing Rædwald of East Anglia (section)

== Early reign and baptism ==
[[Image:East Anglian kingdom.svg|thumb|right|A topographical map of the [[Kingdom of East Anglia|kingdom of the East Angles]]]]

In 597 in the early years of Rædwald's reign [[Augustine of Canterbury]] arrived on [[Mission (Christianity)|mission]] from Rome, leading to the conversion of the [[bretwalda]] Æthelberht of [[Kingdom of Kent|Kent]] as well as [[Saeberht]] of [[Kingdom of Essex|Essex]], and the establishment of new bishoprics in their kingdoms.<ref>Lapidge, ''The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England'', pp. 52, 174</ref> 

Bede states that Rædwald also converted to [[Christianity]],<ref name="Convert">When relating the conversion of Rædwald's son Eorpwald in his ''Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum'', mentioned that Rædwald received the Christian [[sacraments]] in Kent. Lapidge, ''The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England'', p. 385</ref> presumably at the invitation of Æthelberht who may have been his baptismal sponsor.<ref name=Plunkett_72 /> The date of his conversion is unknown, but it is likely to have been around 604 or later.<ref name="BEASE" /> Since it is claimed that Augustine, who died in about 605, dedicated a church near [[Ely, Cambridgeshire|Ely]], it may have swiftly followed Saebert's conversion in 604. Rædwald's marriage to a member of the royal dynasty of Essex helped form a diplomatic alliance between the neighbouring kingdoms of East Anglia and Essex. His conversion in Kent would have affiliated him with Æthelberht, bringing him directly into the sphere of Kent.<ref name="Plunkett, p. 79">Plunkett, ''Suffolk in Anglo-Saxon Times'', p. 79</ref>

Bede describes Rædwald's relationship with Æthelberht in an ambiguous passage which implies that Rædwald retained ''[[ducatus]]'', or military command of his people, while Æthelberht held ''[[imperium]]''.<ref name=Bede_111>Bede, ''Ecclesiastical History'', Book I, Ch. 25 & 26, from Sherley-Price's translation, p. 111.</ref> This implies that being a ''bretwalda'' usually included holding the military command of other kingdoms and also that it was more than that, since Æthelberht is ''bretwalda'' despite Rædwald's control of his own troops.<ref name=Kirby_17>Kirby, ''Earliest English Kings'', p. 17.</ref> Rædwald did not fully abandon his pagan beliefs which together with the fact that he retained military independence, implies that Æthelberht's overlordship of East Anglia was much weaker than his influence with the East Saxons.<ref name=Kirby_37>Kirby, ''Earliest English Kings'', p. 37.</ref><ref name=Yorke_62>Yorke, ''Kings and Kingdoms'', p. 62.</ref> An alternative interpretation, however, is that the passage in Bede should be translated as "Rædwald, king of the East Angles, who while Æthelberht lived, even conceded to him the military leadership of his people"; if this is Bede's intent, then East Anglia firmly was under Æthelberht's overlordship.<ref name=Blackwell_13_Higham>"Rædwald", N. J. Higham, in Lapidge, ''Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England''.</ref>

In East Anglia, Rædwald's conversion was not universally accepted by his household or his own queen. According to the historian Steven Plunkett, she and her pagan teachers persuaded him to default in part from his commitment to the Christian faith.<ref>Plunkett, ''Suffolk in Anglo-Saxon Times'', pp. 74–75</ref> As a result, he kept in the temple two altars, one dedicated to pagan gods and the other to Christ. Bede, writing decades later, described how [[Ealdwulf of East Anglia]], a grandson of Rædwald's brother Eni, recalled seeing the temple when he was a boy. It may have been located at [[Rendlesham]], emerging focus of the ''regio'' of the Wuffing dynasty, according to Plunkett.<ref>Plunkett, ''Suffolk in Anglo-Saxon Times'', pp. 75–76</ref> Barbara Yorke argues that Rædwald was not willing to fully embrace Christianity because conversion via Æthelberht would have been acknowledgment of an inferior status to the Kentish king.<ref>Yorke, ''Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England'', p. 160</ref> Rædwald's lack of commitment towards Christianity earned him the enmity of Bede, who regarded him as a renouncer of the faith.<ref name="BEASE" />