Eadbald of Kent
Eadbald was King of Kent from 616 until his death in 640. He made Kent the dominant force in England during his reign. He was the first Anglo-Saxon king to convert to Christianity. He died in 640 and was buried in the Church of St Mary in Canterbury.
About Eadbald of Kent in brief
Eadbald was King of Kent from 616 until his death in 640. He was the son of King Æthelberht and his wife Bertha, a daughter of the Merovingian king Charibert. He made Kent the dominant force in England during his reign and became the first Anglo-Saxon king to convert to Christianity from paganism. He died in 640 and was buried in the Church of St Mary, which he had built in the precincts of the monastery of St Peter and St Paul in Canterbury. Eormenred may have been his oldest son, but if he reigned at all it was only as a junior king. The earliest documentary sources in England provide some of the earliest documentary records of Kent. None survive in original form from EadbALD’s reign, but some later copies exist of Bede’s later copies of The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, written in 731 by Bede, a Benedictine monk from Northumbria. A series of related texts known as the Legend of St Mildrith provides additional information about events in Ead bald’s children and throws some light on himself. The Anglo- Saxon Chronicle, a collection of annals assembled about 890 in the kingdom of Wessex, also provides information about the kings of Kent and early charters of Kent, drawn up by Charters. The ancestry of E adbald’s father is given byBede, who states that he was descended from the founder of Kent Hengist, who was a legendary founder of the Kentish kingdom.
The king was succeeded by his son Eorcenberht, who may have reigned for only a few years before his death. The Kentish royal line made several strong diplomatic marriages over the succeeding years, including the marriage of Eanflæd, his niece, to Oswiu, and of Eorcinberht to Seaxburh, daughter of King Anna of East Anglia. In 597 Augustine was sent by Pope Gregory I to England to convert them to Christianity. Augustine landed in eastern Kent, and soon managed to convert Æthelfberht. Two other rulers, Sæberht,. king of Essex, and Rædwald, king of East. Anglia, were converted through Æ Athelberht’s influence. Kent was powerful enough to be omitted from the list of kingdoms dominated by Edwin of Northumbrian. When Edwin’s wife fled to Kent on Edwin’s death in about 633, she sent her children to Francia for safety, fearing the intrigues of both EAdbald and Oswald. Eorcanberht may have ruled for a few more years before he died in 636. He may have had two sons, Eorminred and Eorcainberht; Eormanred was the eldest son of his father, but he may have only reigned a few months before his father died.
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