Eormenric of Kent was King of Kent from c. 534/540 to 564/580. His father may have been

Octa of Kent Octa (or Octha) (c. 500 – c. 543) was an Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon List of monarchs of Kent, King of Kingdom of Kent, Kent during the 6th century. Sources disagree on his relationship to the other kings in his line; he may have been the son of H ...

, whom Eormenric succeeded. His son,

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 turn succeeded him around 580/590, according to 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 ...

''.

Gregory of Tours Gregory of Tours (born ; 30 November – 17 November 594 AD) was a Gallo-Roman historian and Bishop of Tours during the Merovingian period and is known as the "father of French history". He was a prelate in the Merovingian kingdom, encom ...

records that the marriage of Æthelberht to 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, Bertha, took place while he was ''filius regis'' (the son of the king), most likely during the reign of his father, whom the genealogies name Eormenric. Therefore, Eormenric can be regarded as the first historical King of Kent. As the date of the marriage is not known, Eormenric's reign cannot be dated.

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 ...

placed his death in 560, but since his son's wife was not even born at that time, it seems unlikely. Rather, Gregory implies that Æthelberht's father was still reigning as of his writing (589). Eormenric's Frankish connection goes deeper than his daughter-in-law. The first component of his name ''Eormen-'' was uncommon in England at the time, but common in

Francia The Kingdom of the Franks (), also known as the Frankish Kingdom, or just Francia, was the largest History of the Roman Empire, post-Roman barbarian kingdom in Western Europe. It was ruled by the Franks, Frankish Merovingian dynasty, Merovingi ...

. Both ''Eormen-'' and ''-ric'' were used repeatedly in naming by the Oiscingas thereafter.

References

*Yorke, Barbara (2004)
"Kent, kings of (act. c.450–c.590)".
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Oxford: Oxford University Press

External links

* {{Kentish Monarchs Kentish monarchs 6th-century English monarchs Jutish people

See also

References

External links