Anna Chlumsky (born December 3, 1980) is an American actress best known for playing Vada Sultenfuss in the 1991 movie My Girl and the 1994 sequel My Girl 2.

Child acting career[link]

Her father, Frank Chlumsky, is an instructor in the culinary program at Kendall College in Chicago. Her surname (pronounced kh-lum-skee) is Czech in origin. Chlumsky entered show business at an early age, modeling with her mother in an advertising campaign. Her roles in My Girl and My Girl 2 brought her fame.

She was in Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain with Christina Ricci, and screen tested for the part of Lex in Jurassic Park, which eventually went to Ariana Richards.

Columbia Pictures expressed serious interest in My Girl 3 (also known as Still My Girl) and a script has been in development since 2003, according to series costar Dan Aykroyd. Aykroyd revealed in media outlets that Columbia was attempting to sign Chlumsky for the role.^[1] However, Chlumsky has since stated that the film is not in development.^[2]

Hiatus from acting and return[link]

Chlumsky never intended acting to be her lifelong career. As a child she considered working with horses or in paleontology. Once she reached adulthood, roles became scarce and she began to move away from acting. She attended the University of Chicago, majoring in International Studies, and graduated with an AB in 2002. During this time she ceased paying dues to the Screen Actors Guild. After graduation she worked as a fact-checker for the Zagat Survey and served as an editorial assistant for a HarperCollins science fiction-fantasy imprint. She came to find this work dissatisfying and decided she wanted to return to acting. She went to the Atlantic Acting School in Manhattan to receive more formal training (in her youth she deemed herself "a natural", so had not had as much formal training^{[citation needed]}) and now intends to remain an actor.^[3]

Career as an adult[link]

Chlumsky appeared on the March 8, 2007, episode of 30 Rock, called "The Fighting Irish," as Liz Lemler. She appeared as Mary Calvin in an episode of the NBC drama series Law & Order (Season 17, Episode 12) first airing on January 12, 2007, and as Lisa Klein in an episode (Season 20, Episode 16) first airing March 15, 2010.^[4] She was in three episodes of the ABC dramedy Cupid."

Chlumsky starred in the Off Broadway production of Unconditional by Brett C. Leonard at The Public Theater. It was produced by Philip Seymour Hoffman's theater group, LAByrinth Theater Company, which opened on February 2008. She also starred in Lanford Wilson's Balm in Gilead in November 2005 at the American Theatre of Actors in New York City. ^[5]

She appeared in Armando Iannucci's BBC Films political satire In The Loop, costarring with Peter Capaldi, Tom Hollander, Chris Addison, James Gandolfini, and Mimi Kennedy, a quasi-spinoff of Iannucci's BBC TV series The Thick of It.^[6] She plays Liza, a State Department assistant in the movie.

On December 3, 2010, it was announced that Chlumsky would play the chief of staff of Julia Louis-Dreyfus's vice president in HBO's upcoming Veep.^[7]

Personal life[link]

Chlumsky graduated from Walther Lutheran High School, and in 2002 from the University of Chicago. In October 2007, she announced her engagement to Chinese-American Army Reserve member Shaun So. They were married on March 8, 2008. "Shaun's family is Chinese, and my family is Catholic. So we're going to do a fusion of the two cultural traditions," Chlumsky said at the Condé Nast Traveler Readers Choice Awards.^[8]

Filmography[link]

Film & television credits[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Anna Chlumsky at the Internet Movie Database
• Official website

Gillian Jacobs
Jacobs in March 2012.
Born	(1982-10-20) October 20, 1982 (age 29) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2005–present

Gillian Jacobs ( /ˈɡɪlɪən/; born October 20, 1982)^[1] is an American film, theater and television actress, best known for her role as Britta Perry on the NBC comedy series Community.

Personal life[link]

Jacobs was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh.^[2]

She made her name locally at the Pittsburgh Public Theater. There she was a perennial contender in the Public's Shakespeare Monologue Contest, which led to her being cast as Titania in its production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.^[3] After graduating from Mt. Lebanon High School in 2000, Jacobs moved to New York City, New York, to study acting at The Juilliard School, where she was a member of the Drama Division's Group 33.

Jacobs is of Irish, Scottish, German and French heritage.^[4]

Career[link]

Jacobs's first national exposure came as Adele Congreve on the television series The Book of Daniel. Although she played Kimberly in the television pilot of Traveler, the role was recast when ABC acquired the series. She subsequently made guest appearances on Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Fringe.

In 2006, Jacobs starred in an Off-Off-Broadway theatre production of playwright Chris Denham's cagelove. While overall critical reaction to the play was negative, Jacobs earned praise in several reviews.^[5][6][7] The New York Times advised readers to "make sure to remember the name of Gillian Jacobs, a stunning Juilliard graduate who has the glow of a star in the making".^[8]

She has also appeared in theatrical productions of The Fabulous Life of a Size Zero (2007), A Feminine Ending (2007)^[9] and The Little Flower of East Orange (2008), directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman.^[10]

Jacobs's film work includes Gardens of the Night (2007); writer-director Adam Rapp's Blackbird (2007); Choke (2008), based on the Chuck Palahniuk novel, and The Box (2009).^[11]

Jacobs at PaleyFest in March 2010.

In 2009, she became a regular on Community. Jacobs comments on it in an interview in Venus Zine's Fall 2010 Issue, "There's an absurdity to the show. We exist in a world in which anything can happen week to week, and that pushes me in so many ways."^[12]

Filmography[link]

Television work[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Gillian Jacobs on Twitter
• Gillian Jacobs at the Internet Movie Database
• Gillian Jacobs at the Internet Off-Broadway Database

Larry King
King in September 2010
Born	Lawrence Harvey Zeiger (1933-11-19) November 19, 1933 (age 78) Brooklyn, New York City, U.S.
Occupation	Television/Radio personality
Years active	1957–present
Religion	Judaism
Spouse	Freda Miller (1952-1953; annulled) Annette Kaye (1961; divorced) Alene Akins (1961-1963; divorced) Mickey Stuphin (1963-1967; divorced) Alene Akins (1967-1972; divorced) Sharon Lepore (1976-1983; divorced) Julie Alexander (1989-1992; divorced) Shawn Southwick (1997–present)

Larry King (born November 19, 1933) is an American television and radio host whose work has been recognized with awards including two Peabodys and ten Cable ACE Awards. He began as a local Florida journalist and radio interviewer in the 1950s and 1960s and became prominent as an all-night national radio broadcaster starting in 1978. From 1985-2010, he hosted the nightly interview TV program Larry King Live on CNN.

Early life[link]

King was born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger in Brooklyn, New York City, to an Austrian immigrant Edward Zeiger, a restaurant owner and defense plant worker, and his wife Jennie Gitlitz, a garment worker, who emigrated from Belarus.^[1][2][3] King grew up in a religiously observant Jewish home,^[4] but in adulthood became an agnostic.^[5]

King's father died at 44 of heart disease,^[6] and his mother had to go on welfare to support her two sons. His father's death greatly affected King, and he lost interest in school. After graduating from high school, he worked to help support his mother. From an early age, however, he had wanted to go into radio.^[7] King is a fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Career[link]

Miami radio and television[link]

A CBS staff announcer, whom King met by chance, told him to go to Florida, a growing media market where openings still existed for inexperienced broadcasters. King rode a train to Miami. After initial setbacks, King persisted and got his first job in radio. The manager of a small station, WAHR (now WMBM) in Miami Beach, hired him to clean up and perform miscellaneous tasks.^[8] When one of their announcers quit, they put King on the air. His first broadcast was on May 1, 1957, when he worked as the disc jockey from 9 a.m. to noon.^[9] He also did two afternoon newscasts and a sportscast. He was paid $55 a week. He acquired the name Larry King when the general manager Marshall Simmonds said that Zeiger was too ethnic and difficult to remember, so Larry chose the surname King, which he got from an ad in The Miami Herald for King's Wholesale Liquor, minutes before air.^[10] He started interviewing on a midmorning show for WIOD, at Pumpernik's Restaurant in Miami Beach.^[11] He would interview anyone who walked in. His first interview was with a waiter at the restaurant.^[12] Two days later, singer Bobby Darin, in Miami for a concert later that day, walked into Pumpernik's as a result of coming across King's show on his radio; Darin became King's first celebrity interview guest.^[13]

His Miami radio show launched him to local stardom. A few years later, in May 1960, he hosted Miami Undercover, airing Sunday nights at 11:30 p.m. on WPST-TV Channel 10 (now WPLG).^[14] On the show, he moderated debates on important issues of the time. King credits his success on local TV to the assistance of another showbiz legend, comedian Jackie Gleason, whose national TV variety show was being filmed in Miami Beach during this period. "That show really took off because Gleason came to Miami," King said in a 1996 interview he gave when inducted into the Broadcasters' Hall of Fame. "He did that show and stayed all night with me. We stayed till five in the morning. He didn't like the set, so we broke into the general manager's office and changed the set. Gleason changed the set, he changed the lighting, and he became like a mentor of mine."^[15] Jackie Gleason was instrumental in getting Larry a hard-to-get on air interview with Frank Sinatra during this time.

During this period, WIOD gave King further exposure as a color commentator for the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League, during their 1970 season and most of their 1971 season.^[16] However, he was dismissed by both WIOD and television station WTVJ as a late-night radio host and sports commentator as of December 20, 1971, when he was arrested after being accused of grand larceny by a former business partner.^[17] Other staffers covered the Dolphins' games into their 24–3 loss to Dallas in Super Bowl VI. King also lost his weekly column at the Miami Beach Sun newspaper. The charges were dropped on March 10, 1972, and King spent the next several years in reviving his career, including a stint as the color announcer in Louisiana for the Shreveport Steamer of the World Football League in 1974–75 on KWKH. Eventually, King was rehired by WIOD in Miami. For several years during the 1970s in South Florida, he hosted a sports talk-show called "Sports-a-la-King" that featured guests and callers.

National radio[link]

Interviewing Vladimir Putin

In 1978, he went national, inheriting the nightly talk show slot on the Mutual Broadcasting System, broadcast coast-to-coast, that had been "Long John" Nebel's until his death, and had been pioneered by Herb Jepko.^[18] One reason King got the Mutual job is that he had once been an announcer at WGMA-AM in Hollywood, Florida, which was then owned by C. Edward Little. Little went on to become president of Mutual and was the one who hired King when Nebel died. King's Mutual show developed a devoted audience.^{[citation needed]}

It was broadcast live Monday through Friday from midnight to 5:30 a.m. Eastern Time. King would interview a guest for the first 90 minutes, with callers asking questions that continued the interview for another 90 minutes. At 3 a.m., he would allow callers to discuss any topic they pleased with him, until the end of the program, when he expressed his own political opinions. That segment was called "Open Phone America". Some of the regular callers used the pseudonyms "The Portland Laugher", "The Miami Derelict", "The Todd Cruz Caller", "The Scandal Scooper", "Mr. Radio" and "The Water Is Warm Caller". "Mr. Radio" made over 200 calls to King during Open Phone America. The show was successful, starting with relatively few affiliates and eventually growing to more than 500. It ran until 1994.^{[citation needed]}

For its final year, the show was moved to afternoons, but, because most talk radio stations at the time had an established policy of local origination in the time-slot (3 to 6 p.m. Eastern Time) that Mutual offered the show, a very low percentage of King's overnight affiliates agreed to carry his daytime show and it was unable to generate the same audience size.^{[citation needed]} The afternoon show was eventually given to David Brenner and radio affiliates were given the option of carrying the audio of King's new CNN evening television program. The Westwood One radio simulcast of the CNN show continued until December 31, 2009.

CNN[link]

He started his Larry King Live CNN show in June 1985, hosting a broad range of guests from controversial figures of UFO conspiracy theories and alleged psychics,^[19] to prominent politicians and leading figures in the entertainment industry, often doing their first or only interview on breaking news stories on his show.

King during a recording of his Larry King Live program at the Pentagon in Arlington, VA in 2006

Unlike many interviewers, King has a direct, non-confrontational approach. His reputation for asking easy, open-ended questions has made him attractive to important figures who want to state their position while avoiding being challenged on contentious topics.^[20] His interview style is characteristically frank, but with occasional bursts of irreverence and humor. His approach attracts some guests who would not otherwise appear. King, who is known for his general lack of pre-interview preparation, once bragged that he never read the books of authors before they made their appearances on his program.

In a show dedicated to the surviving Beatles, King asked George Harrison's widow about the song "Something", which was written about George Harrison's first wife. He seemed surprised when she did not know very much about the song.

Throughout his career King has interviewed many of the leading figures of his time. CNN claimed during his final episode that he had performed 60,000 interviews in his career.

King also wrote a regular newspaper column in USA Today for almost 20 years, from shortly after that newspaper's origin in 1982 until September 2001.^[21] The column consisted of short "plugs, superlatives and dropped names" but was dropped when the newspaper redesigned its "Life" section.^[22] The column was resurrected in blog form in November 2008^[23] and on Twitter in April 2009.^[24]

Departure[link]

On June 29, 2010, King announced that after 25 years, he would be stepping down from his nightly job hosting Larry King Live. However, he stated that he would remain with CNN to host occasional specials.^[25] The announcement came in the wake of speculation that CNN had approached Piers Morgan, the British television personality and journalist, as King's primetime replacement,^[26] which was confirmed in September.^[27][28]

The final edition of Larry King Live aired on December 16, 2010.^[29] The show concluded with his last thoughts and a thank you to his audience for watching and supporting him over the years.^[30]

On February 17, 2012 CNN announced that he would no longer host specials.^[31]

Other ventures[link]

King was the moderator of the 6th KAZENERGY Eurasian Forum in Astana, Kazakhstan, an annual forum for Kazakhstan's energy sector occurring in October 2011.^[32][33][34]

Charitable works[link]

As a result of heart attacks, he established the Larry King Cardiac Foundation, an organization to which David Letterman, through his American Foundation for Courtesy and Grooming, has also contributed. King gave $1 million to George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs for scholarships to students from disadvantaged backgrounds.^{[citation needed]} King serves as a member of the Board of Directors on the Police Athletic League of New York City, a nonprofit youth development agency serving inner-city children and teenagers.^{[citation needed]}

On September 3, 2005, following Hurricane Katrina, King aired "How You Can Help", a three-hour special designed to provide a forum and information clearinghouse for viewers to understand and join nationwide and global relief efforts. On January 18, 2010, in the wake the 2010 Haiti earthquake, King aired "Haiti: How You Can Help", a special two-hour edition designed to show viewers how to take action and be a part of the global outreach. Following the Deepwater Horizon explosion, King aired "Disaster in the Gulf: How You Can Help", a special two-hour edition designed to show viewers how to take action in the clean-up efforts on the Gulf Coast.

On August 30, 2010, King served as the host of Chabad's 30th annual "To Life" telethon, in Los Angeles.

Controversial positions[link]

On September 10, 1990, while on The Joan Rivers Show, Rivers asked King which contestant in the Miss America pageant was "the ugliest". King responded, "Miss Pennsylvania. She was one of the 10 finalists and she did a great ventriloquist bit [...] The dummy was prettier."^[35] King was a judge for the September 8, 1990 pageant. King later sent Miss Pennsylvania, Marla Wynne, a dozen long-stemmed roses and a telegram apologizing for saying she was the ugliest contestant in the pageant that year.^[36]

In 1997, King was one of 34 celebrities to sign an open letter to then-German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, published as a newspaper advertisement in the International Herald Tribune, which protested the treatment of Scientologists in Germany, comparing it to the Nazis' oppression of Jews in the 1930s.^[37] Other signatories included Dustin Hoffman and Goldie Hawn.^[37]

Personal life[link]

King has been married eight times, to seven different women.^[38] He married high-school sweetheart Freda Miller in 1951 at age 18.^[39] The union ended the following year at the behest of their parents, who reportedly had the marriage annulled.^[39] King was later briefly married to Annette Kaye^[39] who gave birth to his son, Larry Jr., in November 1961. King did not meet Larry Jr. until the son was in his thirties.^[40] Larry Jr. and his wife, Shannon, have three children.^[38]

In 1961, King married his third wife, Alene Akins, a Playboy bunny at one of the magazine's eponymous nightclubs. The couple had son Andy in 1962, and divorced the following year.^[39] In 1963, King married his fourth wife, Mary Francis "Mickey" Stuphin, who divorced King.^[39] He remarried Akins, with whom he had a second child, Chaia, in 1969.^[39] The couple divorced a second time in 1972.^[39] In 1997, Dove Books published a book written by King and Chaia, Daddy Day, Daughter Day. Aimed at young children, it tells each of their accounts of his divorce from Akins.

On September 25, 1976, King married his fifth wife, math teacher and production assistant Sharon Lepore. The couple divorced in 1983.^[41]

King met businesswoman Julie Alexander in summer 1989, and proposed to her on the couple's first date, on August 1, 1989.^[42] Alexander became King's sixth wife on October 7, 1989, when the two were married in Washington, D.C.^[43] The couple lived in different cities, however, with Alexander in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and King in Washington, D.C., where he worked. The couple separated in 1990 and divorced in 1992.^[43] He became engaged to actress Deanna Lund in 1995, after five weeks of dating, but they never married.^[44]

He married his seventh wife, Shawn Southwick, born in 1959^[45][46] as Shawn Oro Engemann,^[45] a former singer and TV host,^[47] in King's Los Angeles, California, hospital room three days before King underwent heart surgery to clear a clogged blood vessel.^[46] The couple have two children: Chance, born March 1999,^{[citation needed]} and Cannon, born May 2000.^{[citation needed]} He is stepfather to Danny Southwick.^{[citation needed]} On King and Southwick's 10th anniversary in September 2007, Southwick boasted she was "the only [wife] to have lasted into the two digits".^[47] On April 14, 2010, both Larry and Shawn King filed for divorce.^[46][48] but have since stopped the proceedings, claiming "We love our children, we love each other, we love being a family. That is all that matters to us".^[49]

On February 24, 1987, King suffered a major heart attack and then had quintuple-bypass surgery.^{[citation needed]} Since then, King has written two books about living with heart disease. Mr. King, You're Having a Heart Attack: How a Heart Attack and Bypass Surgery Changed My Life (1989, ISBN 0-440-50039-7) was written with New York's Newsday science editor B. D. Colen. Taking On Heart Disease: Famous Personalities Recall How They Triumphed over the Nation's #1 Killer and How You Can, Too (2004, ISBN 1-57954-820-2) features the experience of various celebrities with cardiovascular disease including Peggy Fleming and Regis Philbin.

In July 2009, King appeared on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, where he told host O'Brien about his wishes to be cryonically preserved upon death,^[50] as he had revealed in his book My Remarkable Journey.^[51] In December 2011, preceding a CNN Special on the topic, the Kings had a special dinner with friends Conan O'Brien, Tyra Banks, Shaquille O'Neal, Seth MacFarlane, Jack Dorsey, Quincy Jones and Russell Brand where his intent to do so was reiterated, among other topics that were discussed.^[52]

On February 12, 2010, Larry King revealed that he had undergone surgery five weeks earlier to place stents in his coronary artery to remove plaque from his heart. During the segment on Larry King Live which discussed Bill Clinton's similar procedure, King said he was "feeling great" and had been in hospital for just one day.^{[citation needed]}

Awards[link]

King has received many broadcasting awards. He won the Peabody Award for Excellence in broadcasting for both his radio (1982) and television (1992) shows. He has also won 10 CableACE awards for Best Interviewer and for Best Talk Show Series.

In 1989, King was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame,^{[citation needed]} and in 1996 to the Broadcasters' Hall of Fame.^[7] In 2002, the industry magazine Talkers named King both the fourth-greatest radio talk show host of all time and the top television talk show host of all time.^[53]

in June 1998, King received an Honorary Degree from Brooklyn College, City University of New York, for his life achievements.

King was given the Golden Mike Award for Lifetime Achievement in January 2009, by the Radio & Television News Association of Southern California.

King is an honorary member of the Rotary Club of Beverly Hills. He is also a recipient of the President's Award honoring his impact on media from the Los Angeles Press Club in 2006.

King is the first recipient of the Arizona State University Hugh Downs Award for Communication Excellence,^[54] presented April 11, 2007, via satellite by Downs himself.^[55] Downs sported red suspenders for the event and turned the tables on King by asking "very tough questions" about King's best, worst and most influential interviews during King's 50 years in broadcasting.^{[citation needed]}

References[link]

External links[link]

Find more about Larry King on Wikipedia's sister projects:
	Definitions and translations from Wiktionary
	Images and media from Commons
	Learning resources from Wikiversity
	News stories from Wikinews
	Quotations from Wikiquote
	Source texts from Wikisource
	Textbooks from Wikibooks

• CNN profile
• Larry King Cardiac Foundation - Foundation to fund treatments cardiac patients with little or no insurance
• Clark lawsuit
• Larry King at the Internet Movie Database
• Larry King Live - Transcripts of all interviews since 2000
• Larry King interviewed by Gianluca D'Agostino
• Larry King Archive of American Television video interview

Anna (or Onna; killed 653 or 654) was King of East Anglia from the early 640s until his death. Anna was a member of the Wuffingas family, the ruling dynasty of the East Angles. He was one of the three sons of Eni who ruled East Anglia, succeeding some time after Ecgric was killed in battle by Penda of Mercia. He was praised by Bede for his devotion to Christianity and was renowned for the saintliness of his family: his son Jurmin and all his daughters – Seaxburh, Æthelthryth, Æthelburh and possibly a fourth, Wihtburh – were canonised.

Little is known of Anna's life or his reign, as few records have survived from this period. In 631 he may have been at Exning, close to the Devil's Dyke. In 645 Cenwalh of Wessex was driven from his kingdom by Penda and whilst living as an exile at the East Anglian court and as a result of Anna's influence, he was converted to Christianity. Upon his return from exile, Cenwalh was able to re-establish Christianity in his own kingdom and the people of Wessex then remained firmly Christian. Around 651 the land around Ely was absorbed into East Anglia, following the marriage of Anna's daughter Æthelthryth. Following the attack in 651 by Penda on the monastery at Cnobheresburg, which Anna richly endowed, he was forced by Penda to flee into exile. He may have travelled to the western kingdom of the Magonsæte and returned in about 653, but East Anglia was attacked again by Penda soon afterwards and at the Battle of Bulcamp the East Anglian army, led by Anna, was defeated by the Mercians, and Anna and his son Jurmin were both killed. He was succeeded by his brother, Æthelhere. Botolph's monastery at Iken may have been built in commemoration of the king. After Anna's reign, East Anglia seems to have been eclipsed by its more powerful neighbour, Mercia.

Sources[link]

In contrast with the kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex, little reliable evidence about the Kingdom of the East Angles has survived, because of the destruction of the kingdom’s monasteries and the disappearance of the two East Anglian sees that occurred as the result of Viking raids and settlement.^[1] The main primary sources for information about Anna’s life and reign are the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (Ecclesiastical History of the English People), completed in Northumbria by Bede in 731, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, initially written in the ninth century, which mentions Anna’s death. The mediaeval work known as the Liber Eliensis, written in Ely in the twelfth century, is a source of information about Anna’s daughters Æthelthryth and Seaxburh, and also describes Anna’s own death and burial. ^[2]

Early life and marriage[link]

The Devil's Dyke, near Exning. Anna may have been at Exning in 631

Anna was the son of Eni, a member of the ruling Wuffingas family, and nephew of Rædwald, king of the East Angles from 600 to 625.^[3] East Anglia was an early and long-lived Anglo-Saxon kingdom in which a duality of a northern and a southern part existed, corresponding with the modern English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk.^[4]

Anna was married, according to Bede, who refers to the saint Sæthryth as "daughter of the wife of Anna, king of the East Angles".^[5] In Abbott Folcard's Life of St Botolph, written in the 11th century, Botolph is described as having been at one time the chaplain to the sisters of a king, Æthelmund, whose mother was named Sæwara. Folcard names two of Sæwara's kinsmen as Æthelhere and Æthelwold. Since these are the names of two of Anna's brothers, Steven Plunkett suggests that it is "tempting" to consider that Sæwara was married to Anna, and that Æthelmund might either be Anna's full name, or the name of an otherwise unknown East Anglian sub-king.^[6] The Liber Eliensis names Hereswith, the sister of Hild, abbess of Whitby, as Anna’s wife and the mother of Sæthryth, Seaxburh of Ely and Æthelthryth.^[7] However, the Liber Eliensis is regarded with caution by historians: Rosalind Love says that the mediaeval writers who interpreted Bede's information about Hereswith made an "erroneous assumption" regarding her connection with Anna and his family.^[3][8] Historians now believe that Hereswith was Anna’s sister-in-law and that around the time that she married into the East Anglian royal family, Anna had already been king for a decade.^[9]

In 631 Anna was probably at the Suffolk village of Exning, an important settlement with royal connections,^[10] and, according to the Liber Eliensis, the birthplace of his daughter Æthelthryth.^[11] By tradition, Æthelthryth is said to have been baptised at Exning in a pool known as St Mindred's Well.^[12] Exning was an important place strategically, as it stood just on the East Anglian side of the Devil's Dyke, a major earthwork stretching between the Fen edge and the headwaters of the River Stour, built at an earlier date to defend the East Anglian region from attack. An early Anglo-Saxon cemetery discovered there suggests the existence of an important site nearby, possibly a royal estate or regio.^[13]

King of the East Angles[link]

Accession and rule[link]

During 632 or 633 Edwin of Northumbria, with his centre of Christian power north of the River Humber, was overthrown. Edwin was slain and Northumbria was ravaged by Cadwallon ap Cadfan, supported by the Mercian king, Penda.^[14] The Mercians then turned on the kingdom of the East Angles and their king, Ecgric. At an unknown date (possibly in the early 640s),^[15] they routed the East Anglian army and Ecgric and his predecessor Sigeberht were both slain.^[16] D. P. Kirby has suggested that as Sigeberht was alive when the Irish monk Fursey left for Gaul and found Erchinoald, (which happened after Erchinoald became Mayor of the Neustrian palace in 641), Sigeberht was probably killed around 640 or 641.^[17] Penda's victory marked the end of the line of kings of the East Angles who were directly descended from Rædwald.^[18] Some time after Penda's victory, Anna became king of the East Angles, though the date of his accession is quite uncertain. The Liber Eliensis says that Anna died in the nineteenth year of his reign, and since he died in the mid-650s this would indicate a date around 635.^[19] However, the Liber Eliensis is regarded by some historians as unreliable on this point,^[3] and Barbara Yorke suggests a possible date in the early 640s for Anna's accession, noting that it could not have been after 645 as Anna is recorded as giving refuge to Cenwalh of Wessex in that year.^{[20][note 1]} It is probable that Anna became king with the assistance of the northern Angles.^[23] Throughout his reign he was the victim of Mercian aggression under Penda, but he also seems to have been able to challenge the rise of Penda's power.^[24] The British medievalist David Dumville has written that as a result of their rivalry for control over the Middle Anglian people, Mercia and East Anglia probably became hereditary enemies and Penda repeatedly attacked the East Angles from the mid-630s to 654.^[25]

Anna was able to arrange an important diplomatic marriage between his daughter Seaxburh and Eorcenberht of Kent, cementing an alliance between the two kingdoms.^[26] It was by means of marriages such as this that the kings of Kent were able to become well-connected to other royal dynasties.^[27] Not all of Anna's daughters were married into other royal families. During the 640s Anna's daughter Æthelburg and his stepdaughter Sæthryth entered Faremoutiers Abbey in Gaul to live religious lives under abbess Fara.^[26] The first royal Anglo-Saxons to become nuns, they made religious seclusion "an acceptable and desirable vocation for ex-queens and royal princesses", according to Barbara Yorke.^{[note 2]}

D. P. Kirby uses the presence of East Anglian princesses living under the veil in Gaul as evidence of the Frankish orientation of Anna's kingdom at this time, continued since the reign of his predecessor Rædwald.^[30] The Wuffingas dynasty may have been connected with monastic foundations in the area around Faramoutiers through Anna's predecessor Sigeberht, who had spent several years as an exile in Gaul and had become a devout and learned Christian as a result of his experiences of monastic life.^[31]

In 641 Oswald of Northumbria was slain in battle by Penda (probably at Oswestry in Shropshire). As a result of his death, Northumbria was split into two. The northern part, Bernicia, accepted Oswald's brother Oswiu as their new king, but the southern Deirans refused to accept him and were ruled instead by a king of the original Deiran house, Oswine.^[32] Soon afterwards Cenwalh of Wessex, the brother of Oswald's widow and himself married to Penda's sister, renounced his wife.^[33] In 645, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Penda drove Cenwalh from his kingdom and into exile. During the following year, whilst a refugee at Anna's court, he was converted to Christianity,^[34] returning in 648 to rule Wessex as a Christian king.^[3] Anna probably provided military support for Cenwalh's return to his throne.^[35]

Anna's hold on the western limits of his kingdom, which bordered on the Fen lands that surrounded the Isle of Ely, was strengthened by the marriage in 651 (or slightly later) of his daughter Æthelthryth to Tondberht, a prince of the South Gyrwe, a people living in the fens who may have been settled in the area around Ely.^{[20][note 3]} Æthelthryth, accompanied by her minister Owine, travelled from Ely to Northumbria when she married for the second time, to Ecgfrith.^[37]

Exile[link]

The ruins of Burgh Castle, the possible site of the monastery at Cnobheresburg, as depicted in 1845

During his reign Anna endowed the monastery at Cnobheresburg with rich buildings and objects.^[38] The monastery was built in about 633 by Fursey after he arrived in East Anglia. In time, weary of attacks on the kingdom, Fursey left East Anglia for good, leaving the monastery to his brother Foillan.^[16] When in 651 Penda attacked the monastery, Anna and his men arrived and were able to hold the Mercians back. This gave Foillan and his monks enough time to escape with their books and valuables, but Penda defeated Anna and drove him into exile, possibly to the kingdom of Merewalh of the Magonsætan, in western Shropshire.^[39] He returned to East Anglia in about 654.^[40]

Death, burial place and successors[link]

Marshland around Blythburgh, near where Anna met his death

Soon after 653, when Penda made his son Peada the ruler of the Middle Angles (but still continued to rule his own country),^[41] the Mercian assault on East Anglia was repeated. 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.^[16] Anna's death is mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in the entry for 653 or 654, "Her Anna cining werð ofslagen..." – 'Here Anna was killed' – but no other details of the battle in which he died are given.^{[42][note 4]}

Blythburgh, a mile from Bulcamp and situated near the fordable headwaters of the Blyth estuary, was afterwards believed to be the location of the tombs of Anna and Jurmin.^[3][37] It is a candidate for a monastic site or a royal regio (estate). According to Peter Warner, the Latin derivation of part of the nearby place-name 'Bulcamp' indicates its ancient origins, and mediaeval sources which claim continuous Christian worship at Blythburgh throughout the Anglo-Saxon period provide circumstantial evidence of its connections with East Anglian royalty and Christianity.^[44] Part of an 8th century whalebone diptych or writing-tablet, used for liturgical purposes, has been found near the site.^[45]

Saint Botolph began to build his monastery at Icanho, now conclusively identified as Iken, Suffolk,^[46] in the year that Anna was killed, possibly to commemorate the king.^[37] Anna was succeeded in turn by his two brothers Æthelhere and Æthelwold, who may have ruled jointly.^[47] It is possible that Æthelhere was set up as a puppet ruler by Penda or was his ally, as he was one of the thirty duces that accompanied Penda when he attacked Oswiu of Northumbria at an unidentified location called the Winwæd in 655 or 656. Penda himself was killed at the Winwæd, after having steadily increased his power over a period of thirteen years.^[48] Æthelhere (who was also slain at the Battle of the Winwæd) and Æthelwold were succeeded by the descendants of Anna's youngest brother, Æthelric.^[49]

Bede praised Anna's piety in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People,^[50] and modern historians have since regarded Anna as a devout king,^[51] but his reputation as a devoted Christian is mainly because he produced a son and four daughters who were all made into Anglo-Saxon saints.^[52] Five hundred years after his death, his tomb at Blythburgh was (according to the Liber Eliensis) still "venerated by the pious devotion of faithful people".^[53]

Descendants[link]

Anna's children were all canonised. The eldest, Seaxburh, was the wife of Eorcenberht of Kent, who from 664, until her son Ecgberht came of age, ruled Kent. Her sister Æthelthryth, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, founded the monastery at Ely in 673. Another daughter, Æthelburh, spent her life at the nunnery of Faremoutiers. Anna's son, Jurmin, was of warrior age in 653 when he was killed in battle.

By tradition, Anna is said to have had a fourth daughter, Wihtburh, an abbess at Dereham (or possibly West Dereham), where there was a royal double monastery.^[54] She may never have existed: Bede fails to mention her and she first appears in a calendar in the late 10th century Bosworth Psalter.^[55] She may have been a character specifically created by the religious community at Ely, where her remains were supposed to have been taken after being stolen from Dereham^[37][56] and subsequently used as visual proof of the incorruptibility of a saint's body, a substitute for her sister Æthelthryth, whose body had to remain unexamined in her tomb.^[57] The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mentions her death when it records that her body was found uncorrupted in 798, 55 years after she died. The resulting date for her death of 743 is much too late for her to have been a sister of Æthelthryth, who was born in 636.^[58][59]