Reign and Christian Influence
Anna married Sæwara and exercised significant Christian influence throughout his reign. Around 645, when Penda of Mercia expelled King Cenwalh from his West Saxon throne, Cenwalh took refuge at Anna's court, and during his year of exile there he was converted to Christianity.
Anna richly endowed the coastal monastery at Cnobheresburg — thought to have stood near Burgh Castle in Suffolk — before it was attacked by Penda's forces around 651. He also supported the monastic work of Saint Botolph: according to an account referencing the life of Botolph, the king offered part of his royal estate to help found the Monastery of Ikanhoe (Ox-island), established in 654.
He arranged a strategically important diplomatic marriage for his daughter Seaxburh to Eorcenberht of Kent, strengthening the alliance of Christian kingdoms in England. His daughter Æthelburh and his stepdaughter Sæthryth entered Faremoutiers Abbey in Gaul during the 640s, becoming among the first royal Anglo-Saxons to become nuns abroad.
Conflict with Mercia and Death
Throughout his reign Anna faced persistent Mercian aggression under the pagan King Penda. Around 651 Penda attacked the monastery at Cnobheresburg that Anna had endowed, and Anna was driven into exile — possibly to the Magonsæte kingdom in western Shropshire. He returned to rule East Anglia around 654, but the Mercian assaults continued.
The opposing armies of Penda and Anna met at Bulcamp, near Blythburgh in Suffolk. The East Anglians were defeated and many were slain, including King Anna and his son Jurmin. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records simply, 'Her Anna cining werð ofslagen' ('Here Anna was killed'). His death is dated to 653 or 654.
Saint Botolph's monastery at Iken, Suffolk, was built in the year that Anna was killed, possibly to commemorate the king.
Relics & Shrines
Anna was probably buried at Blythburgh, alongside his son Jurmin, though his original tomb is now lost. According to the Liber Eliensis, five hundred years after his death his tomb at Blythburgh was still 'venerated by the pious devotion of faithful people.'
An eighth-century whalebone writing tablet discovered at Blythburgh suggests connections to East Anglian royalty and Christianity in the period following Anna's death.
Family and Veneration
Anna and his wife Sæwara had at least five children who were later venerated as saints: Seaxburh, who married King Eorcenberht of Kent; Æthelthryth (Etheldreda), who founded the monastery at Ely in 673; Æthelburh, who became a nun at Faremoutiers in Gaul; possibly Wihtburh, an abbess whose historical existence some scholars dispute, as she first appears in late tenth-century records; and Jurmin, who was killed alongside his father. Anna also had a stepdaughter, Sæthryth, who entered Faremoutiers Abbey.
No dedicated feast day for King Anna himself is recorded in the sources consulted; his veneration appears to have been local and informal, centred on his tomb at Blythburgh. His son Jurmin is venerated with a feast day of 24 February.
