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Ecgberht of Kent

For the later king of Kent of the same name, see Egbert II of Kent.

Ecgberht
King of Kent
Reign14 July 664 – 4 July 673
PredecessorEorcenberht
SuccessorHlothhere
Died4 July 673
IssueEadric
Wihtred
FatherEorcenberht
ReligionChalcedonian Christianity

Ecgberht I (also spelled Egbert) (died 4 July 673) was a king of Kent (664-673), succeeding his father Eorcenberht.[1]

He may have still been a child when he became king following his father's death on 14 July 664, because his mother Seaxburh was recorded as having been regent.

Ecgberht's court seems to have had many diplomatic and ecclesiastic contacts. He hosted Wilfrid and Benedict Biscop, and provided escorts to Archbishop Theodore and Abbot Adrian of Canterbury for their travels in Gaul.

The various versions of the Kentish Royal Legend state that, spurred on by his adviser Thunor, he had his cousins Æthelred and Æthelberht (sons of his uncle Eormenred) killed, and so had to pay Weregild to their sister Domne Eafe, enabling her to build a Monastery at Thanet;[2] this may reflect a dynastic struggle that ended in the success of Eorcenberht's line. The two murdered princes were later venerated as saints at Ramsey Abbey in Huntingdonshire.[3]

A charter records Ecgberht's patronage of the monastery at Chertsey Abbey in Surrey.

Ecgberht was succeeded by his brother Hlothhere, who was in turn succeeded by Ecgberht's sons, Eadric and still later Wihtred.

  1. ^ s:Ecclesiastical History of the English People/Book 4#1
  2. ^ Wasyliw, P.H. (2008). Martyrdom, Murder, and Magic: Child Saints and Their Cults in Medieval Europe. Studies in church history. P. Lang. p. 74. ISBN 978-0-8204-2764-5.
  3. ^ Rollason, D. W. (1982), The Mildrith Legend: A Study in Early Medieval Hagiography in England, Leicester: Leicester University Press, p. 16, ISBN 0-7185-1201-4

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