Ælla of Deira

Ælla or Ælle is the first known king of the Anglian kingdom of Deira, which he ruled from around 560 until his death in 588.Ælla's kingdom is identified by Bede as Deira - the use of Northumbria could be based on a tradition whereby the most powerful Anglian king in the region would claim that title.[2] Ælla was almost certainly a pagan - when Pope Gregory the Great encountered two pale-skinned English boys (Deirans) at a slave market in Rome he is said to have remarked that they were "not Angles, but angels, if they were Christian".The Chronicle reports that he "passed away" in 588, although a later source expands and says that he was killed by Æthelfrith, son of Æthelric, the former king of Bernicia.In either case, after Ælla's death his family were forced to flee as the rulers of Bernicia seized control of the kingdom.
King of DeiraÆthelricAnglianAnglo-Saxon ChronicleBerniciaPope Gregory the GreatAnglesangelsÆthelfrithAugustine of CanterburyZuckermann, Ghil'adLanguage Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli HebrewPalgrave MacmillanChisholm, HughEncyclopædia BritannicaThorpe, BInternet ArchiveCramp, RosemaryProsopography of Anglo-Saxon EnglandAethelricMonarchs of NorthumbriaGlappaTheodricFrithuwaldEanfrithOswaldOswineŒthelwaldAlhfrithÆlfwine NorthumbriaEcgfrithEaldfrithEadwulf IOsred ICoenredCeolwulfEadberhtOswulfÆthelwald MollEalhredÆthelred IÆlfwald IOsred IIOsbaldEardwulfÆlfwald IIEanredÆthelred IIRedwulfOsberhtViking NorthumbriaEcgberhtRicsigeHalfdan IGuthfrith ISiefredusÆthelwoldAirdeconutEowilsHalfdan IIIngwærRagnall ISitric I CaechGuthfrith IIOlaf I GuthfrithsonSitric IIOlaf II CuaranRagnall II GuthfrithsonEric Bloodaxe