 Bede reported that soon after his conversion, Eorpwald was slain ("occisus") by a heathen ("uiro gentili") named Ricberht and that after he was killed, the kingdom reverted to heathen rule ("in errore uersata est") for three years.Eorpwald was the first English king to be killed because of his Christian faith.The circumstances are not recorded, so that it is not known whether Ricberht represented an internal East Anglian opposition to Christian rule, or if he was an emissary from abroad wishing to diminish Edwin of Northumbria's influence over the East Angles.