Bertha or Aldeberge (c. 565– d. in or after 601) was a

Frankish Frankish may refer to: * Franks, a Germanic tribe and their culture ** Frankish language or its modern descendants, Franconian languages, a group of Low Germanic languages also commonly referred to as "Frankish" varieties * Francia, a post-Roman ...

princess who became queen of

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

. She enabled the 597

Gregorian mission The Gregorian missionJones "Gregorian Mission" ''Speculum'' p. 335 or Augustinian missionMcGowan "Introduction to the Corpus" ''Companion to Anglo-Saxon Literature'' p. 17 was a Christian mission sent by Pope Pope Gregory I, Gregory the Great ...

, led by

Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced the development of Western philosop ...

, which resulted in the

conversion to Christianity Conversion to Christianity is the religious conversion of a previously non-Christian person that brings about changes in what sociologists refer to as the convert's "root reality" including their social behaviors, thinking and ethics. The sociol ...

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

England.

Life

Bertha was a

princess, the daughter of

Charibert I Charibert I (; ; 517 – December 567) was the Merovingian King of Paris, the second-eldest son of Chlothar I and his first wife Ingund. His elder brother Gunthar died sometime before their father's death. He shared in the partition of the Fran ...

and his wife Ingoberga, granddaughter of the reigning King

Chlothar I Chlothar I, sometime called "the Old" (French: le Vieux), (died December 561) also anglicised as Clotaire from the original French version, was a king of the Franks of the Merovingian dynasty and one of the four sons of Clovis I. With his eldes ...

and great-granddaughter of

Clovis I Clovis (; reconstructed Old Frankish, Frankish: ; – 27 November 511) was the first List of Frankish kings, king of the Franks to unite all of the Franks under one ruler, changing the form of leadership from a group of petty kings to rule by a ...

and

Clotilde Clotilde ( 474 – 3 June 545 in Burgundy, France) (also known as Clotilda (Fr.), Chlothilde (Ger.) Chlothieldis, Chlotichilda, Clodechildis, Croctild, Crote-hild, Hlotild, Rhotild, and many other forms), is a saint and was a Queen of the Fran ...

. Her father died in 567, her mother in 589. Bertha had been raised near

Tours Tours ( ; ) is the largest city in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabita ...

.Taylor, Martin. ''The Cradle of English Christianity''
Her marriage to the

pagan Paganism (, later 'civilian') is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Christianity, Judaism, and Samaritanism. In the time of the ...

Æthelberht of Kent Æthelberht (; also Æthelbert, Aethelberht, Aethelbert or Ethelbert; ; 550 – 24 February 616) was Kings of Kent, King of Kingdom of Kent, Kent from about 589 until his death. The eighth-century monk Bede, in his ''Ecclesiastical Hist ...

, in 580, was on condition that she be allowed to practise her religion.Wace, Henry and Piercy, William C., "Bertha, wife of Ethelbert, king of Kent", ''Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the sixth Century'', Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.
She brought her chaplain,

Liudhard Liudhard (; modern , also Letard in English) was a Frankish bishop. Life Alban Butler, citing Bede, places his see at Senlis. He was the chaplain of Queen Bertha of Kent, whom she brought with her from the continent upon her marriage to King Æt ...

, with her to

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. A former Roman church was restored for Bertha just outside

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

and dedicated to

Martin of Tours Martin of Tours (; 316/3368 November 397) was the third bishop of Tours. He is the patron saint of many communities and organizations across Europe, including France's Third French Republic, Third Republic. A native of Pannonia (present-day Hung ...

. It was the private chapel of Queen Bertha before

arrived from Rome. The present

St Martin's Church, Canterbury The Church of St Martin is an ancient Church of England parish church in Canterbury, England, situated slightly beyond the city centre. It is recognised as the oldest church building in Britain still in use as a church, and the oldest existin ...

continues on the same site, incorporating Roman walling of the original church in the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

. It is acknowledged by

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

as the oldest church in the English-speaking world where Christian worship has taken place continuously since 580. St Martin's (with

Canterbury Cathedral Canterbury Cathedral is the cathedral of the archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual leader of the Church of England and symbolic leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Located in Canterbury, Kent, it is one of the oldest Christianity, Ch ...

and

St Augustine's Abbey St Augustine's Abbey (founded as the Monastery of Ss Peter and Paul and changed after its founder St Augustine of Canterbury's death) was a Benedictine monastery in Canterbury, Kent, England. The abbey was founded in 598 and functioned as a mon ...

) make up Canterbury's UNESCO

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

Pope Gregory I Pope Gregory I (; ; – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great (; ), was the 64th Bishop of Rome from 3 September 590 until his death on 12 March 604. He is known for instituting the first recorded large-scale mission from Ro ...

requested that Bertha converted her husband to Christianity and upbraided her for not doing so. When Gregory decided to send a mission led by Augustine to restore Christianity to England in 596, the Pope requested that Bertha incline her husband's heart to give a favourable reception. Augustine was supposed to move on but upon arrival in 597 he decided to found the Abbey of St Peter and Paul on land granted by Æthelberht. Without her support and Æthelberht's good will, monastic settlements and the cathedral would likely have been developed elsewhere."Queen Bertha", Canterbury Historical and Archaeological Society
/ref> In 601, Pope Gregory addressed a letter to Bertha, in which he complimented her highly on her faith and knowledge of letters. Anglo-Saxon records indicate that Bertha had two children:

Eadbald of Kent 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. Æthelberht made Kent the dominant force in England during his reign and becam ...

and Æthelburg of Kent. She is named in the genealogies of various of the medieval accounts of the '

Kentish Royal Legend The Kentish Royal Legend is a diverse group of Medieval texts which describe a wide circle of members of the royal family of Kent from the 7th to 8th centuries AD. Key elements include the descendants of Æthelberht of Kent over the next four ge ...

'. The date of her death (possibly 606) is disputed.

Legacy

The

City of Canterbury Canterbury (), also known as the City of Canterbury, is a local government district with city status in Kent, England. It is named after its largest settlement, Canterbury, where the council is based. The district also includes the towns of ...

celebrates Queen Bertha in several ways. * The Bertha trail, consisting of 14 bronze plaques set in pavements, runs from the Buttermarket to St Martin's Church via Lady Wootton's Green. * In 2006, bronze statues of Bertha and Æthelberht by Stephen Melton were installed on Lady Wootton's Green as part of the Canterbury Commemoration Society's "Ethelbert and Bertha" project."6th Century royal statues on show", BBC News, 26 May 2006
/ref> There is a wooden statue of Bertha in St Martin's Church.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 565 births 601 deaths Merovingian dynasty Anglo-Saxon royal consorts 6th-century English nobility 7th-century English people Kentish saints Roman Catholic royal saints 7th-century Frankish saints Gregorian mission Christian female saints of the Middle Ages 6th-century English women 7th-century English women Frankish princesses Daughters of kings English Christian royal saints Frankish Christian royal saints