Sledd (or Sledda) was King of

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

in the late 6th century, possibly between (?) 587 and ''c''. 604. Extremely little is known about him. An East-Saxon

genealogy Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kin ...

preserved as

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

Add. MS 23211, possibly of the late 9th century, makes him a son and successor of King Æscwine. The post-

Conquest Conquest involves the annexation or control of another entity's territory through war or Coercion (international relations), coercion. Historically, conquests occurred frequently in the international system, and there were limited normative or ...

historians

Henry of Huntingdon Henry of Huntingdon (; 1088 – 1157), the son of a canon in the diocese of Lincoln, was a 12th-century English historian and the author of ''Historia Anglorum'' (Medieval Latin for "History of the English"), as "the most important Anglo- ...

(''Historia Anglorum''),

Roger of Wendover Roger of Wendover (died 6 May 1236), probably a native of Wendover in Buckinghamshire, was an English chronicler of the 13th century. At an uncertain date he became a monk at St Albans Abbey; afterwards he was appointed prior of the cell ...

(''Flores Historiarum''), and

Matthew Paris Matthew Paris, also known as Matthew of Paris (; 1200 – 1259), was an English people, English Benedictine monk, English historians in the Middle Ages, chronicler, artist in illuminated manuscripts, and cartographer who was based at St A ...

(''Chronica Majora'') substitute the name Eorcenwine (''Erkenwine'', ''Erchenwine'') as his father. Though their testimony is centuries removed from Sledd's

floruit ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...

, it is thought that they drew on alternative pre-Conquest material. Although Æscwine or Eorcenwine is sometimes credited with the foundation of the kingdom, genealogies included in the works of

William of Malmesbury William of Malmesbury (; ) was the foremost English historian of the 12th century. He has been ranked among the most talented English historians since Bede. Modern historian C. Warren Hollister described him as "a gifted historical scholar and a ...

and

John of Worcester John of Worcester (died c. 1140) was an English monk and chronicler who worked at Worcester Priory. He is now usually held to be the author of the . Works John of Worcester's principal work was the (Latin for "Chronicle from Chronicles") or ...

(''Chronicon'' B) make Sledd the first king of Essex, while the genealogies in Add. MS 23211 use Sledd as their point of convergence. This suggests that Sledd may have been regarded as the founder of the East Saxon house. On no known authority, Roger of Wendover and Matthew Paris state that Sledd directly succeeded his father on his death in 587. Sledd married Ricula, sister of King

Æthelberht of Kent Æthelberht (; also Æthelbert, Aethelberht, Aethelbert or Ethelbert; ; 550 – 24 February 616) was Kings of Kent, King of Kingdom of Kent, Kent from about 589 until his death. The eighth-century monk Bede, in his ''Ecclesiastical Hist ...

. Sledd was father of Sæberht, whose rule began in ''c''. 604, and of another son, Seaxa, whose descendants supplanted those of Sæberht in the mid-8th century. Seaxa is perhaps identical to Seaxbald, father of king Swithelm, of unknown placement within the royal family, but Yorke thinks this unlikely on chronological grounds.

References

* Yorke, Barbara. "The Kingdom of the East Saxons." ''Anglo-Saxon England'' 14 (1985): 1-36. 6th-century births 600s deaths East Saxon monarchs 7th-century English monarchs 6th-century English monarchs Year of birth unknown {{England-bio-stub