TheWuffingas,Uffingas orWiffings were the ruling dynasty ofEast Anglia, the long-livedAnglo-Saxon kingdom which today includes the English counties ofNorfolk andSuffolk. The Wuffingas took their name fromWuffa, an earlyEast Anglian king. Nothing is known of the members of the dynasty beforeRædwald, who ruled from about 599 toc.624. TheViking invasions of the 9th century andDissolution of the monasteries in the 16th century both led to the destruction ofdocuments relating to the rule of the Wuffingas.

The last of the Wuffingas kings wasÆlfwald, who died in 749; he was succeeded by kings whose lineage is unknown.

TheKingdom of East Anglia was invaded by peoples from northern Europe during the 5th and 6th centuries. Historical sources relating to the genealogy of theEast Anglian kings include theAnglo-Saxon Chronicle and the 8th century English monkBede'sEcclesiastical History, both compiled many years after the kingdom was formed, as well as a pedigree of Ælfwald contained in theAnglian collection that dates from the 9th century. In the pedigree, Ælfwald is claimed to descend from the godWōden.^[1]

The earliest kings of East Anglia were known as theWuffingas, named after the semi-historical founder of the dynasty,Wuffa.Rædwald (diedc. 625) is the first of the country's kings known to have ruled. Bede identified Rædwald's father as Tytil and his grandfather as Wuffa; their respective accession dates of 571 and 578 were given by the 13th century EnglishchroniclerRoger of Wendover. TheHistoria Brittonum listsWehha, father of Wuffa as the first of the Wuffingas, which perhaps sets the date for the origins of the dynasty to the middle of the 6th century.^[2]

Wuffa is thought to mean "little wolf", suggesting that the dynastic nameWuffingas translates as "kin of the wolf", making itetymologically the same as theWulfings clan named inBeowulf and the Old English poem "Widsith".^[3]

The parallels between theSutton Hoo burials, which arethought to commemorate a Wuffingas king, and the Swedish burials atVendel has led some historians, such asRupert Bruce-Mitford to put forward a Scandinavian origin for the Wuffingas dynasty,^[4] although others regard this as unproven.^[5][6]

The following family tree includes the Wuffingas kings from Wehha toÆlfwald. They are numbered in order of ruling.^[7]Ecgric was also a member of the Wuffingas house, but his exact descent is not decided. He may have beenSigeberht's brother, or his step-brother.^{[citation needed]}

	Ancestor
	Ælfwald (Alfwold Aldwulfing)
	Ealdwulf (Aldwulf Æðelricing)
	Ethelric (Æþelric Ening)
	Eni (Eni Tytling)
	Tytla (Tytla Wuffing)
	Wuffa (Wuffa Wehhing)
	Wehha (Wehh Wilhelming)
	Wilhelm (Wilhelm Hrypping)
	Hryth (Hryp Hroðmunding)
	Hrothmund (Hroðmund Trigling)
	Trygil (Trygil Tytimaning)
	Tytiman (Tytiman Casericg)
	Caesar (Caser Wodning)
	Wōden (Woden Frealafing)
Pedigree of Ælfwald from the Anglian collection, preserved in theTextus Roffensis

After 749, East Anglia was ruled either by the rulers ofMercia, or by kings whose genealogy is not known.

Sutton Hoo, the site of two early medievalcemeteries dating from the 6th to 7th centuries, lies along a bank of the tidalestuary of theRiver Deben. It stands 7 miles (11 km) from theNorth Sea and below the lowest convenient fording place. It formed a path of entry into East Anglia during theperiod that followed the end of Roman imperial rule in the 5th century.^[8]

The territory between the Orwell and the watersheds of the Alde and Deben rivers may have been an early centre of royal power for the Wuffingas kings, originally centred uponRendlesham or Sutton Hoo, and a primary component in the formation of the East Anglian kingdom. In the early 7th century, Gipeswic (modernIpswich) began its growth as a centre for foreign trade,^[9]Botolph's monastery atIken was founded by royal grant in 654,^[10] and Bede identified Rendlesham as the site ofÆthelwold's royal dwelling.^[11]

The author Sam Newton has claimed that theOld English epic poemBeowulf may have been composed during the reign of Ælfwald. Before the end of his rule, East Anglia contained a group of ecclesiastical centres, all of which had strong associations with the Wuffingas dynasty. These included thesees atDommoc andHelmham,Botwulf of Thorney's monastery at Icanho, the religious foundations atEly andDereham founded by daughters ofAnna, the minster atBlythburgh and the monastery founded by Sigeberht prior to his abdication and subsequent death in battle.^[12]

• Bruce-Mitford, Rupert (1974).Aspects of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology: Sutton Hoo and Other Discoveries. London:Victor Gollancz Limited.ISBN 978-0-575-01704-7.
• Newton, Sam (2004).The Origins of Beowulf and the Pre-Viking Kingdom of East Anglia. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.ISBN 978-0-85991-472-7.
• Wade, Keith (2001). "Gipeswic – East Anglia's first economic capital, 600–1066". In Salmon, Neil & Malster, Robert (eds.).Ipswich from the First to the Third Millennium: Papers from an Ipswich Society Symposium. Ipswich: Ipswich Society. pp. 1–6.ISBN 978-0-9507328-1-7.
• West, Stanley E.; Scarfe, Norman &Cramp, Rosemary (1984)."Iken, St Botolph, and the Coming of East Anglian Christianity"(PDF).Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology.XXXV (4). Ipswich: Society of Antiquaries of London:279–301.
• West, Stanley E. (1998).Aspects of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology: Sutton Hoo and Other Discoveries(PDF).East Anglian Archaeology (Report). Ipswich: Suffolk County Council.ISBN 978-0-86055-246-8.
• Yorke, Barbara (2002).Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England. London and New York: Routledge.ISBN 978-0-415-16639-3.

• Johnson, Flint F. (2017).The British Heroic Age: A History, 367-664. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, Incorporated.ISBN 978-07864-9-522-1.
• Pluskowski, Aleksander; Agnarsdóttir, Anna; Ayers, Brian (2015).East Anglia and its North Sea World in the Middle Ages. Woodbridge, UK:Boydell Press.ISBN 978-17832-7-036-1.

• Information about the Wuffingas dynasty from Sam Newton
• William of Malmesbury'sChronicle of the Kings of England from the earliest period to the reign of King Stephen, Book 1, "Of the kings of the East Angles" inEnglish and inLatin

• East Anglian monarchs
• House of Wuffingas

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles containing Latin-language text
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from March 2023