page_title: Alberht of East Anglia
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Alberht of East Anglia / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: Part of a 12th century manuscript, the 'Textus Roffensis', now kept in Strood at Medway Archives, showing the East Anglian genealogical tally (from Woden to 'Alfwold'). The text can be read using http://www.kmatthews.org.uk/history/anglian_collection.html.
context_page_description: Alberht was an eighth-century ruler of the kingdom of East Anglia. He shared the kingdom with Beonna and possibly Hun, who may not have existed. He may still have been king in around 760. He is recorded by the Fitzwilliam Museum and the historian Simon Keynes as Æthelberht I.
  Historians have accepted that Alberht was a real historical figure who was possibly an heir of Ælfwald. At Ælfwald's death in 749, the kingdom was divided between Alberht and Beonna, who was perhaps a Mercian and who took the lead in issuing regnal coinage and maintaining a military alliance with Æthelbald, king of Mercia. Alberht was ruling in East Anglia when Æthelbald was murdered in 757, after which Beornred ruled for a year in Mercia, before Offa seized power from him. The evidence of Alberht's single discovered coin indicates that he had sufficient authority to issue his own coinage, a degree of independence that was soon eclipsed by the rapid growth of Offa's power in East Anglia.
context_section_description: Alberht of East Anglia became king of the East Angles after his predecessor Ælfwald  died in 749, after ruling for thirty-six years. During Ælfwald's rule, East Anglia enjoyed sustained growth and stability, albeit under the senior authority of the Mercian king Æthelbald, who ruled his kingdom from 716 until he was murdered by his own men in 757. Ælfwald was the last of the Wuffingas dynasty, who had ruled East Anglia since the sixth century. The East Anglian pedigree in the Anglian collection, which was probably compiled in 725 or 726 during the reign of Ælfwald, lists the royal line of East Anglia, from Ælfwald to the Germanic god Woden.
caption: The lineage of Ælfwald from the Anglian collection
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