Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England

CHAP. XVIII. Of the life and death of the religious King Sigbert [Circ. 631 A.D.]
AT this time, the kingdom of the East Angles, after the death of Earpwald, the successor of
Redwald, was governed by his brother Sigbert, a good and religious man, who some time before
had been baptized in Gaul, whilst he lived in banishment, a fugitive from the enmity of Redwald.
When he returned home, as soon as- he ascended the throne, being desirous to imitate the good
institutions which he had seen in Gaul, he founded a school wherein boys should be taught letters,
and was assisted therein by Bishop Felix, who came to him from Kent, and who furnished them
with masters and teachers after the manner of the people of Kent.
This king became so great a lover of the ‘heavenly kingdom, that at last, quitting the affairs of
his kingdom, and committing them to his kinsman Ecgric, who before had a share in that kingdom,
he entered a monastery, which he had built for himself, and having received the tonsure, applied
himself rather to do battle for a heavenly throne. A long time after this, it happened that the nation
of the Mercians, under King Penda, made war on the East Angles; who finding themselves no match
for their enemy, entreated Sigbert to go with them to battle, to encourage the soldiers. He was
unwilling and refused, upon which they drew him against his will out of the monastery, and carried
him to the army, hoping that the soldiers would be less afraid and less disposed to flee in the presence
of one who had formerly been an active and distinguished commander. But he, still mindful of his
profession, surrounded, as he was, by a royal army, would carry nothing in his hand but a wand,
and was killed with King Ecgric; and the pagans pressing on, all their army was either slanghtered
or dispersed.
They were succeeded in the kingdom by Anna,the son of Eni, of the blood royal, a good man,
and the father of good children, of whom, in the proper place, we shall speak hereafter. He also
was afterwards slain like his predecessors by the same pagan chief of the Mercians.
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The Venerable Bede
Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England

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