| The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07. |
| |
| Æthelbert, king of Kent |
| |
| |
( ´th lbrt,  –) (KEY) , d. 616, king of Kent (560?–616). Although defeated by the West Saxons in 568, he became the strongest ruler in England S of the Humber River. His wife, Bertha, daughter of a Frankish king, was a Christian. Æthelbert received (597) the missionaries sent by Pope Gregory I to England and was converted by St. Augustine of Canterbury. The first Christian king in Anglo-Saxon England, he made his capital, Canterbury, a great Christian center. The code of laws issued by him is the earliest surviving document in the Anglo-Saxon vernacular. |
| |
| | | The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright © 2007 Columbia University Press. |
|
|
