Eorcenberht of Kent (also Ærconberht, Earconberht, or Earconbert) (died 14 July 664) was king of the

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 ...

kingdom of Kent The Kingdom of the Kentish (; ), today referred to as the Kingdom of Kent, was an Early Middle Ages, early medieval kingdom in what is now South East England. It existed from either the fifth or the sixth century AD until it was fully absorbed i ...

from 640 until his death, succeeding his father Eadbald. 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 ...

(also known as the

Mildrith Saint Mildrith, also Mildthryth, Mildryth and Mildred, () (born c. 660, died after 732), was a 7th- and 8th-century Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon abbess of the Abbey at Minster-in-Thanet, Kent. She was declared a saint after her death, and, in 1030, ...

legend) suggests that he was the younger son of Eadbald and

Emma of Austrasia Emma (fl. early seventh century) was a Frankish woman, possibly a Merovingian, who married Eadbald of Kent. Emma was a daughter of the Frankish king Theudebert II, who ruled Austrasia from 595 to 612. He had previously shown little interest in t ...

, and that his older brother

Eormenred Eormenred (died before 664) was a member of the royal family of the Kingdom of Kent, who is described as king in some texts. There is no contemporary evidence for Eormenred, but he is mentioned in later hagiographies, and his existence is conside ...

was deliberately passed over, although another possibility is that they ruled jointly. According to

Bede Bede (; ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, Bede of Jarrow, the Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable (), was an English monk, author and scholar. He was one of the most known writers during the Early Middle Ages, and his most f ...

(''HE'' III.8), Eorcenberht was the first king in Britain to command that

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 ...

" idols" (

cult image In the practice of religion, a cult image is a Cultural artifact, human-made object that is venerated or worshipped for the deity, Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit or Daimon, daemon that it embodies or represents. In several traditions, incl ...

s) be destroyed and that

Lent Lent (, 'Fortieth') is the solemn Christianity, Christian religious moveable feast#Lent, observance in the liturgical year in preparation for Easter. It echoes the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring Temptation of Christ, t ...

be observed, marking a key point in the

Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England The Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England was the process starting in the late 6th century by which population of England formerly adhering to the Anglo-Saxon paganism, Anglo-Saxon, and later Old Nordic religion, Nordic, forms of Germanic pag ...

. It has been suggested that these orders may have been officially committed to writing, in the tradition of Kentish law-codes initiated by Æthelberht, but no such text survives. After the death of

Honorius Honorius (; 9 September 384 – 15 August 423) was Roman emperor from 393 to 423. He was the younger son of emperor Theodosius I and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla. After the death of Theodosius in 395, Honorius, under the regency of Stilicho ...

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 ...

, Eorcenberht appointed the first

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

archbishop, Deusdedit, in 655. Eorcenberht married

Seaxburh of Ely Seaxburh, also Saint Sexburga of Ely (died about 699), was an Anglo-Saxon queen and abbess, venerated a saint of the Christian Church. She was married to King Eorcenberht of Kent. After her husband's death in 664, Seaxburh remained in Kent to ...

, daughter of king

Anna of East Anglia Anna (or Onna; killed 653 or 654) was List of monarchs of East Anglia, king of East Anglia from the early 640s until his death. He was a member of the Wuffingas family, the ruling dynasty of the East Angles, and one of the three sons of Eni of ...

. They had two sons, Ecgberht and Hlothhere, who each consecutively became king of Kent, and two daughters who both were eventually canonized: Saint

Eorcengota ''On the Resting-Places of the Saints'' is a heading given to two early medieval pieces of writing, also known as ''Þá hálgan'' and the ''Secgan'', which exist in various manuscript forms in both Old English and Latin, the earliest surviving m ...

became a nun at

Faremoutiers Abbey Faremoutiers Abbey () was an important Merovingian Benedictine monastery of nuns in the present Seine-et-Marne department of France. Closed by the French Revolution, the monastery was reestablished in the 20th century. In its early days, the comm ...

on the continent, and Saint Ermenilda became abbess at Ely. Eorcenberht was probably buried alongside his parents in the Church of St Mary, which his father had built in the precincts of the monastery of St Peter and St Paul in Canterbury, a church later incorporated within the Norman edifice of St Augustine's.S. E. Kelly, ''Eorcenberht'', Oxford Online Dictionary of National Biography, 2004
/ref> At that time, his relics were translated for reburial in the south transept ca. A.D. 1087.See, e.g., the guide booklet to ''St. Augustine's Abbey'' (London: English Heritage, 1997), 20, 25.

Notes

References

* Bede, '' The Ecclesiastical History of the English People'' *

External links

* {{Kentish Monarchs Kentish monarchs 664 deaths 7th-century English monarchs Year of birth unknown House of Kent