Æthelberht of Kent

Saint Æthelberht
Statue of Æthelberht Interior of Rochester Cathedral
King of Kent
Reign	c.589 – 616 AD
Predecessor	Eormenric
Successor	Eadbald
Died	24 February 616 AD
Consort	Bertha of Kent
Issue	Eadbald Æthelburg
House	House of Kent
Father	Eormenric
Religion	Anglo-Saxon paganism Christianity

Æthelberht /ˈæθəlbərt/ (also Æthelbert, Aethelberht, Aethelbert, or Ethelbert, Old English Æðelberht /ˈæðelberxt/; c. 560 – 24 February 616) was King of Kent from about 589 until his death. The eighth-century monk Bede, in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, lists him as the third king to hold imperium over other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. In the late ninth century Anglo-Saxon Chronicle he is referred to as a bretwalda, or "Britain-ruler". He was the first English king to convert to Christianity.

Æthelberht was the son of Eormenric, succeeding him as king, according to the Chronicle. He married Bertha, the Christian daughter of Charibert, king of the Franks, thus building an alliance with the most powerful state in contemporary Western Europe; the marriage probably took place before he came to the throne. Bertha's influence may have led to Pope Gregory I's decision to send Augustine as a missionary from Rome. Augustine landed on the Isle of Thanet in east Kent in 597. Shortly thereafter, Æthelberht converted to Christianity, churches were established, and wider-scale conversion to Christianity began in the kingdom. He provided the new church with land in Canterbury, thus establishing one of the foundation stones of what ultimately became the Anglican Communion.