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Sigeberht of East Anglia (also known as Saint Sigebert), (Old English: ''Sigebryht'') was a saint and a king of East Anglia, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom which today includes the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. He was the first English king to receive a Christian baptism and education before his succession and the first to abdicate in order to enter the monastic life. The principal source for Sigeberht is Bede's ''Ecclesiastical History of the English People'', which was completed in the 730s. Sigeberht was probably either a younger son of Rædwald of East Anglia, or his step-son from Rædwald's marriage to a pagan princess from the kingdom of Essex. Nothing is known of his life before he was forced into exile in Gaul, which was possibly done in order to ensure that Rædwald's own descendants ruled the kingdom. After his step-brother Eorpwald's assassination in about 627, Sigeberht returned to East Anglia and (perhaps in the aftermath of a military campaign) became king, ruling jointly with Ecgric, who may have been either a son of Rædwald's, or his nephew. During Sigeberht's reign the cause of Christianity in East Anglia was advanced greatly, even though his co-ruler Ecgric probably remained a pagan. Alliances were strengthened between the Christian kingdoms of Kent, Northumbria and East Anglia. Sigeberht himself played an important part in the establishment of the Christian faith in his kingdom: Saint Felix arrived in East Anglia to assist him in establishing his episcopal see at Dommoc, he started a school for teaching Latin and he granted the Irish monk Saint Fursey a monastery site at Cnobheresburg (possibly Burgh Castle). He eventually abdicated his power to Ecgric and retired to his monastery at Beodricesworth. At an unknown date, East Anglia was attacked by a Mercian army led by its king, Penda. Ecgric and the East Anglians appealed to Sigeberht to lead them in battle, but he refused and had to be dragged from his monastery to the battlefield. He refused to bear arms during the battle, during which both kings were slain and the East Anglian army was destroyed. ==Family background, exile, conversion and education== Sigeberht ruled the kingdom of East Anglia (), a small independent Anglo-Saxon kingdom that comprised what are now the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk and perhaps the eastern part of the Cambridgeshire Fens. It is not known when Sigeberht was born and nothing is known of his life before he was exiled from East Anglia prior to becoming king, as few records have survived from this period of English history. The most reliable source for Sigeberht's background and career is Bede's ''Ecclesiastical History of the English People'' (produced in 731), in which Bede stated that Sigeberht was the brother of Eorpwald〔Bede, ii, 15: '' 'His temporibus regno Orientalium Anglorum, post Erpualdum Redualdi successorem, Sigberct frater eius praefuit, homo bonus ac religiosus'. ''〕 and the son of Rædwald, who ruled the kingdom of East Anglia from about 599 to 624, but William of Malmesbury described him as Rædwald's stepson.〔'His son, Eorpwald, embraced pure Christianity, and poured out his immaculate spirit to God, being barbarously murdered by the heathen Richbert. To him succeeded Sigebert, his brother by the mother's side.' (William of Malmesbury's ''Chronicle of the Kings of England'' ) chapter 5 p.89 (a 1904 translation).〕 The stepson theory is strengthened by the fact that the name ''Sigeberht'' is without comparison in the East Anglian Wuffingas dynasty, but closely resembles the naming fashions of the East Saxon royal house. If this identification is correct (and Charles Cawley warns that it should be treated with scepticism),〔Medieval Lands Project / Cawley, ''England, Anglo-Saxon and Danish Kings''.〕 Rædwald's wife had previously been married to an East Saxon prince or ruler. Rædwald's own principal heir was Rægenhere (a youth of warrior age in 616, when he was slain in battle)〔Plunkett, ''Suffolk in Anglo-Saxon Times'', p. 72.〕 and his second heir was Eorpwald, slain by the heathen Ricberht in about 627.〔''Uerum Eorpuald non multo, postquam fidem accepit, tempore occisus est a uiro gentili nomine Ricbercto'' ((Bede )).〕〔Plunkett, ''Suffolk in Anglo-Saxon Times'', p. 99.〕 (There is no ancient record that Ricbehrt was a son of Rædwald's, nor that he was a king.) Rædwald was personally converted and baptised before 616 and a Christian altar existed in his temple, but his son Eorpwald was not himself a convert when he succeeded Rædwald in about 624.〔Plunkett, ''Suffolk in Anglo-Saxon Times'', p. 97.〕 Since it is known that Rædwald's wife (who was Sigeberht's mother) did not become a Christian, Sigeberht must have received limited encouragement to convert to Christianity before being sent to Gaul and remaining there as an exile for many years during the lifetime of Eorpwald, "while fleeing from the enmity of Rædwald", as Bede reports.〔Bede, ''Historia'' iii. 18.〕 His exile supports the stepson theory, if Rædwald was protecting Eorpwald's succession against a possible claim by a son who was not of the Wuffingas line.〔Yorke, ''Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon English'', p. 68.〕 Whilst living in Gaul as an exile, Sigeberht was converted and baptized and became a devout Christian and a man of learning. He was strongly impressed by the religious institutions and schools for the study of reading and writing which he found during his long exile.〔Plunkett, ''Suffolk in Anglo-Saxon Times'', pp. 100–101.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sigeberht of East Anglia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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