Kings of The Angles - Legendary Kings of The Angles

Legendary Kings of The Angles

Further information: Iclings and List of monarchs of Mercia

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle derives the royal lines of the Heptarchy form a common ancestor, Woden, an euhemerized version of the Germanic deity. The senior line of this genealogy was that of Mercia, descended from the rulers of the Angles.

The historical Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain took place during the 5th to 6th centuries. As historical records only set in in the later 7th century, after Christianisation, reliable information on the royal genealogies only extend to what was then in living memory, to the early 7th century. Bede (Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum), writing in the early 8th century, has reliable information on the 7th century, but is silent on the 6th. The genealogies extending into the 6th or even 5th century and thence to Woden are fabrications of the later Anglo-Saxon period.

The genealogies as presented in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle incorporate various Germanic heroes of legend, such as Wihtlæg, who defeated and killed Amleth, King of the Jutes. Under Wermund the Angles' fortress at Schleswig is said to have been captured by a branch of the Saxons known as the Myrgings, but was retaken by Offa about whom many tales were told (and who is usually referred to as Offa of Angel to distinguish him from his supposed descendent Offa of Mercia). The legends give Offa as bride a daughter of Freawine, governor of Schleswig, and upon becoming king he is said to have secured the Abri are known to hrder with the Saxons along the River Eider.

Like Offa, Freawine is made a descendant of Woden, and father of Wig, whose names were intruded into the pedigree of the kings of Bernicia when it was transferred to that of the kings of Wessex (ancestors of the kings of England). Wihtlæg, Wermund and Offa also appear in a long list of legendary Danish kings given by Saxo Grammaticus (Gesta Danorum). All other sources name them as kings of the Angles, though according to Matthew Paris (Vitae duorum Offarum) Offa and his line personally ruled over the West Angles, implying that other branches of the tribe had their own subordinate rulers (Offa is described in Beowulf as ruling an 'empire'). Whilst Offa's line went on to found the Kingdom of Mercia, these putative cadet lines may eventually have engendered the ruling dynasties of East Anglia, Deira and possibly Bernicia. As for the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, the kings of Lindsey appear to have been an offshoot of the Mercian line; those of Wessex claimed descent from the aforementioned Freawine, though their subjects were Saxons; those of Essex and Sussex were Saxon; and those of Kent were Jutish.

The genealogy connecting the Icling dynasty of the earliest kings of Mercia with Woden consists of five generations of kings of the Angles in Angeln:

1. Wihtlæg son of Woden, Wermund son of Wihtlæg,
2. Offa son of Wermund,
3. Angeltheow son of Offa,
4. Eomer son of Angeltheow
5. Icel son of Eomer, participated in the invasion of Britain.