ABSTRACT
In the mid-sixth century Procopius heard of a king of the Angles in Britain who was said to have equipped his sister with a fleet and an army to go in pursuit of her betrothed, a prince of the continental Varni who was about to abandon her. The bride of a king of the northern Angles in the mid-seventh century was brought from Kent by sea. Moreover, Anglian communities in northern or midland England may have participated along with the eastern Angles in their probably long-established contacts with north-European commerce which are revealed by the range of goods from the famous East Anglian boat-burial of the early seventh century in the Sutton Hoo barrow cemetery. The region of Heathfeld land or Hatfield Chase, stretching southwards from the Rivers Idle, Don and Trent and through which passed Ryknield Street linking York and Doncaster to Lincoln, was certainly of particular strategic significance for the early warring Anglian principalities.
