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7 unusual facts about Æthelberht of Kent


Æthelberht of Kent

Bede names Æthelberht as the third on the list, after Ælle of Sussex and Ceawlin of Wessex.

In his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, the eighth-century monk Bede lists Aethelberht as the third king to hold imperium over other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

Also of importance is the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a collection of annals assembled in about 890 in the kingdom of Wessex, which mentions several events in Kent during Æthelberht’s reign.

Sources for this period in Kentish history include The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, written in 731 by Bede, a Northumbrian monk.

Saints, Luton

Its name is taken from the group of streets off Montrose Avenue that are named after early Christian saints such St Ethelbert, St Catherine and St Augustine.

Taxation in medieval England

The first unequivocal mention of taxation in Anglo-Saxon England comes from the Law of Æthelberht, the law code of King Æthelberht of Kent, which specifies that fines from judicial cases were to be paid to the king.

Trinoda necessitas

For example, the land grant of Æthelberht of Kent to a thegn in 858 was free of obligation, except explicitly for military service, bridge repair, and fortification.


Anglo-Saxon law

Practically the entire code of Æthelberht, for instance, is a tariff of fines for crimes, and the same subject continues to occupy a great place in the laws of Hlothhere and Eadric, Ine and Alfred, whereas it appears only occasionally in the treaties with the Danes, the laws of Withraed, Edward the Elder, Æthelstan, Edgar, Edmund I and Æthelred.

Free Grammar School

Education had long been associated with religious institutions since a Cathedral grammar school was established at Canterbury under the authority of St Augustine's church and King Ethelbert at the end of the sixth century.


see also

Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England

The monk Goscelin recorded a short legend that after converting Æthelberht of Kent, Augustine traveled into Wessex to convert the population.