Eadberht III Præn was the

King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

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 ...

from 796 to 798. His brief reign was the result of a rebellion against the

hegemony Hegemony (, , ) is the political, economic, and military predominance of one State (polity), state over other states, either regional or global. In Ancient Greece (ca. 8th BC – AD 6th c.), hegemony denoted the politico-military dominance of ...

Mercia Mercia (, was one of the principal kingdoms founded at the end of Sub-Roman Britain; the area was settled by Anglo-Saxons in an era called the Heptarchy. It was centred on the River Trent and its tributaries, in a region now known as the Midlan ...

, and it marked the last time that Kent existed as an independent kingdom.

Offa of Mercia Offa ( 29 July 796 AD) was King of Mercia, a kingdom of Anglo-Saxon England, from 757 until his death in 796. The son of Thingfrith and a descendant of Eowa, Offa came to the throne after a period of civil war following the assassination of ...

seems to have ruled Kent directly from 785 until 796, when the ''

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' is a collection of annals in Old English, chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the ''Chronicle'' was created late in the ninth century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of ...

'' records that Offa died and Eadberht, "who was by another name Præn", took possession of Kent. Eadberht had apparently previously been in exile on the continent under the protection of

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( ; 2 April 748 – 28 January 814) was List of Frankish kings, King of the Franks from 768, List of kings of the Lombards, King of the Lombards from 774, and Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian ...

, and his rebellion has been seen as serving Frankish interests.D. P. Kirby, ''The Earliest English Kings'' (1991, 2000), pages 147–149. The pro-Mercian

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...

Æthelhard Æthelhard (died 12 May 805) was a Bishop of Winchester then an Archbishop of Canterbury in medieval England. Appointed by King Offa of Mercia, Æthelhard had difficulties with both the Kentish monarchs and with a rival archiepiscopate in sout ...

, fled during the rebellion. Cœnwulf of Mercia was engaged in correspondence with

Pope Leo III Pope Leo III (; died 12 June 816) was bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 26 December 795 to his death on 12 June 816. Protected by Charlemagne from the supporters of his predecessor, Adrian I, Leo subsequently strengthened Charlem ...

at this time concerning the situation of the Church in England, and in the course of this Leo accepted a Mercian reconquest of Kent and excommunicated Eadberht, on the grounds that he was a former priest. Having received papal approval, Cœnwulf reconquered Kent. He placed his brother in charge and captured Eadberht in 798. According to the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', Cœnwulf "ravaged over Kent and captured Eadberht Præn, their king, and led him bound into Mercia." A later addition to the ''Chronicle'' says that Eadberht was blinded and had his hands cut off,''The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', manuscript E, year 796 (798). Translation by

Michael Swanton Michael James Swanton (born 1939) is a British historian, linguist, archaeologist and literary critic, specialising in the Anglo-Saxon period and its Old English literature. Early life Born in Bermondsey, in the East End of London, in ch ...

, 1996. but

Roger of Wendover Roger of Wendover (died 6 May 1236), probably a native of Wendover in Buckinghamshire, was an English chronicler of the 13th century. At an uncertain date he became a monk at St Albans Abbey; afterwards he was appointed prior of the cell ...

states that he was set free by Coenwulf at some point as an act of clemency.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Praen, Eadberht III Anglo-Saxon warriors Kentish monarchs 8th-century births 8th-century English monarchs Year of death unknown 8th-century Christian clergy

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