Wehha of East Anglia

Wehha
King of the East Angles
'Wehh Wilhelming' from the Textus Roffensis
Reign	unknown
Successor	Wuffa of East Anglia
Died	unknown
Dynasty	Wuffingas
Religion	pagan

Wehha was a pagan king of the East Angles who, if he actually existed, ruled the kingdom of East Anglia during the 6th century, at the time the kingdom was being established by migrants from what is now Frisia and the southern Jutland peninsula. Early sources identify him as a member of the Wuffingas dynasty, which became established around the east coast of Suffolk. Nothing of his reign is known.

According to the East Anglian tally from the Textus Roffensis, Wehha was the son of Wilhelm. The 9th century History of the Britons lists both Wehha, who is named as 'Guillem Guercha', as the first king of the East Angles, and his son and successor Wuffa, after whom the dynasty was named. It has been claimed that the name Wehha was a hypocoristic version of Wihstān, from the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, which, along with evidence such as the finds discovered at Sutton Hoo in 1939, suggests a connection between the Wuffingas and a Swedish dynasty, the Scylfings.

Wehha is thought to have been one of the earliest rulers of East Anglia, an independent and long-lived Anglo-Saxon kingdom that was established in the 6th century, and which includes the modern English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk.

According to R. Rainbird Clarke, migrants from southern Jutland "speedily dominated" the Sandlings, an area of southeast Suffolk, and then, by around 550, "lost no time in conquering the whole of East Anglia". Rainbird Clarke identified Wehha, the founder of the dynasty, as one of the leaders of the new arrivals: the East Angles are tentatively identified with the Geats of the Old English poem Beowulf. He used the evidence of the finds at Sutton Hoo to conclude that the Wuffingas originated from Sweden, noting that the sword, helmet and shield found in the ship burial at Sutton Hoo may have been family heirlooms, brought across from Sweden in the beginning of the 6th century. As it is now believed that these artefacts were made in England, there is less agreement amongst scholars that the Wuffingas dynasty was directly linked with Sweden.