RAEDWALD

also spelled Redwald died 616, 627 king of the East Angles in England from the late 6th or early 7th century, son of Tytili. Raedwald became a Christian during a stay in Kent, but on his return to East Anglia he sanctioned the worship of both the Christian and the heathen religions. For a time he recognized the overlordship of Aethelberht, king of Kent, but he seems to have shaken off the Kentish yoke and to have gained some superiority over the land south of the Humber with the exception of Kent. Raedwald protected the fugitive Edwin, afterwards king of Northumbria, and in his interests he fought a sanguinary battle with the reigning Northumbrian king, Aethelfrith, near Retford in Nottinghamshire, where Aethelfrith was defeated and killed in April 617.