Ethelbert of Kent (Æthelberht of Kent, Edilbertus of Kent) (560–616), the first Christian Anglo-Saxon king. Although he had been defeated by Ceawlin of Wessex at the battle of Wimbledon in 568, Ethelbert became the third bretwalda of England, exercising overlordship, if not effective rule, over all the country south of the Humber. Under his rule Kent was the most cultured of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms; it was closely associated with the Frankish Rhineland; and Ethelbert had married the Christian Bertha, daughter of Chilperic's brother Charibert, king of Paris, before 588. She brought with her as chaplain Liudhard, but their role in the conversion of Kent has often been exaggerated: as late as 601 Gregory the Great reproached her for not having converted her husband. Although he had received Augustine and his monks in 597 in a friendly way in Thanet, he was nevertheless reserved, insisting on a conference in the open air, according to Bede, through fear of magic. After giving them a fair hearing, he declared himself unable to accept Christian teaching and abandon the age-old beliefs of his nation. But recognizing their sincerity, he gave them a house in Canterbury and allowed them to preach. They used a Romano-British church, dedicated (perhaps by Liudhard) to St. Martin. In July 598 Gregory wrote to Eulogius, patriarch of Alexandria, that 10, 000 English had been baptized. The number is exaggerated and it is likely that Ethelbert was baptized c.601 rather than in 597. In 601 Gregory wrote an encouraging letter to Ethelbert, congratulating him on becoming a Christian: his conversion was certainly decisive in the Christianization of Kent, and later England. Augustine restored an old church which he dedicated to Christ and made his cathedral; Ethelbert had the monastery of SS. Peter and Paul (later St. Augustine's) built outside the walls of Canterbury; Augustine received the pallium and reinforcements of personnel; with Ethelbert's strong support he established sees at Rochester and at London, then the principal town of the East Saxons.
Ethelbert was the first Anglo-Saxon king to leave a code of laws: it includes one which protected the clergy and the churches by exacting very high compensation for damage done to them or their property. In spite of Bede they seem nearer to the Salic law of Clovis than Roman law, but Roman influence, probably through Augustine, is evident in the oldest Canterbury charters.
Ethelbert died on 24 February 616 and was buried beside his first wife Bertha in the porticus (side-chapel) of St. Martin in the church of the monastery of SS. Peter and Paul. C.S.P. noted that he was ‘the first Anglo-Saxon king to receive faith in Jesus Christ through the preaching of Augustine. From his stock there has arisen a numerous and holy race, which shines with virtue through the whole world.’ There seems to have been an unofficial cult at Canterbury from early times, but his feast is found in calendars only from the 13th century, and generally on 25 or 26 February because St. Matthias occupied 24 February.
Bibliography
Click here for a list of abbreviations used in this bibliography.
- Bede, H.E., i. 25–6, 32–3; ii. 2–3, 5. A.S.C., s.a. 565, 618; G.R., i. 13–21; N.L.A., i. 409–11. For his laws, F. Liebermann, Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, i (1903), 3–8 and D. Whitelock, E.H.D. i. 357–9. For his charters, W. Levison, England and the Continent in the Eighth Century (1946), pp. 174–233; for the cult, E. M. Thompson, Customary of the Benedictine Monasteries of St. Augustine, Canterbury and St. Peter, Westminster (1904), ii. 289, 294, 303. See also F. M. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England (1943), pp. 54–61, 109–12; S. Brechter, Die Quellen zur Angelsachsenmission Gregors des Grossen (1941), pp. 241–8; R. A. Markus, ‘The Chronology of the Gregorian Mission to England’, J.E.H., xiv (1963), 16–30; N. Brooks, The Early History of the Church of Canterbury (1984), pp. 3–14
