become king and to establish Christianity on a much firmer footing. He had been in exile in Gaul, possibly at Dagobert's court: it is interesting that he bears the same name as Dagobert's son, a traditionally Merovingian name. With him from Gaul came Bishop Felix, who, 'as his name signified', said Bede, brought the kingdom to great felicity by his preaching.
The only other fact we know about Rædwald is that he was once bribed by Æthelfrith, the Anglian king of Bernicia who had united both Bernicia and Deira into one kingdom of Northumbria, to kill the exiled Deiran prince Edwin, then living at Rædwald's court. Instead Rædwald took his army up north, defeated Æthelfrith, and installed Edwin as king. Archaeology and place-name studies are still adding to the few facts we can glean from Bede. Ever since the discovery of the ship burial at Sutton Hoo in 1938, with its gold jewellery and its enigmatic objects, such as the great whetstone interpreted by some as a royal sceptre, there has been speculation that it may be Rædwald's tomb. The grave in any case provides a fascinating glimpse into the interconnections of the northern world. The custom of ship burial is a Scandinavian one, and the Scandinavian, or specifically Swedish, manufacture of the helmet and shield found in the tomb underline that connection, which may suggest a Scandinavian origin for Rædwald's Wuffinga dynasty. The hanging bowls in the grave are of British manufacture; the silver bowls and the two silver spoons inscribed Paulos and Saulos (perhaps a baptismal gift) were made in Byzantium. The sword may be of Frankish manufacture, and the garnets which decorate much of the gold jewellery were probably imported via Francia. Inside the purse with its gold and garnet decorated fittings were thirty-seven gold coins, each minted in a different place in the Frankish kingdom. Altogether the Sutton Hoo find is a remarkable illustration of the far-reaching links which royal courts could have with the rest of Europe.
The nature of those links has been the subject of some controversy in recent years. It has become obvious that in the seventh century trade across the Channel and North Sea was beginning to be important, and there are signs that it was
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