Kingdom of Kent
Encyclopedia
The Kingdom of Kent was a Jutish colony and later independent kingdom in what is now south east
England
. It was founded at an unknown date in the 5th century by Jutes
, members of a Germanic people from continental Europe, some of whom settled in Britain after the withdrawal of the Romans
. It was one of the seven traditional kingdoms of the so-called Anglo-Saxon heptarchy
, but it lost its independence in the 8th century, when it became a sub-kingdom of Mercia
. In the 9th century, it became a sub-kingdom of Wessex
, and in the 10th century, it became part of the unified Kingdom of England
which was created under the leadership of Wessex. Its name has been carried forward ever since as the county
of Kent
.
Cantiaci
tribe or Ceint after which the kingdom is named. Caesar
referred to Cingetorix
, Carvilius
, Taximagulus
and Segovax
as kings of the four regions of Cantiacia. Later kings known from their coins include Dubnovellaunus
, Vosenos, Eppillus
, and Amminus
.
The Kentish coastline was known as the Saxon Shore
and was guarded by a series of very effective fortresses. After the evacuation of the last Roman legions from Britain, the local tradition reported much later that a number of Jutish
ships made landfall in Britain. The British ruling council offered them payment in return for federati service defending the realm in the north from the incursions of Pict
s and Scot
s. According to legend they were promised provisions and offered the island of Ruoihm (as originally spelt by Nennius
) - now known as the Isle of Thanet
- in perpetuity to use as a base for their operations. It is recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles that their leader, Hengist, advised:
Apparently the Jutes
assaulted the enemy and brought much needed relief to the beleaguered Romano-British communities of the north. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth
's fanciful Historia Regum Britanniae
, the British king Vortigern
married Rowena
, the daughter of Hengist, with the civitas of the Cantiaci (Kent) as the bride-gift.
Gwrangon was king of Ceint in the time of Vortigern
according to Nennius
. The word 'king' may be misleading and it is more likely that the 'province' of the Cantiaci was ruled jointly by a civil governor (Gwrangon?) and a military governor, according to Roman custom, and that Hengist became the new military governor.
The establishment of barbarian bases inland rendered the extensive coastal forts of the Saxon Shore almost useless as the 6th Century British monk Gildas
laments:
The Jutes began making ever increasing demands for provisions from their hosts, who became increasingly divided and fractious. Each time the Britons threatened to withhold the supplies the Jutes threatened to break the alliance and ravage the country. Vortimer
, Vortigern's son, assembled an army and attacked the Jutes. Vortimer died at the Battle of Aylesford
alongside Horsa, the Jutish co-ruler of Kent. The next year the Jutes were attacked again at the Battle of Crecganford.
A banquet is said to have taken place ostensibly to seal a peace treaty between the Britons and their Germanic foes, which may have involved the cession of modern-day Essex. The story tells that the "Saxons"—which probably includes Angles and Jutes—arrived at the banquet armed, surprising the British, who were slaughtered. This event was dubbed the Night of the Long Knives
by Geoffrey of Monmouth
and is the original event to bear that name. The only escapees from this slaughter were said to be Vortigern himself. The historical existence of this event and of persons involved in it is conjectural, as textual evidence is weak and only begins in the 7th century.
The British government under Vortigern unravelled, and civil war spread across the country. There was further action at the Battle of Wippedesfleot
, but Kent was never recovered. From then on, the pacified territory of Ceint was known as Cantware, "dwellers in Kent" and its kings traced their lineage from Hengist.
. The poorer one, still occasionally practising cremation
, has affinities in its pottery and its brooch
es with Saxons and Frisians
. The other Myres distinguished by their wheel-thrown pottery of Frankish technique and precious metals, garnets, glass, amethysts and other luxuries in personal adornment and in skilful metalworking techniques in enamel, niello
and filigree
unparalleled elsewhere in sub-Roman Britain
. A critical unsolved problem in the early history is the relationship of these cultures, overlapping in time, the Frankish material culture, perhaps, according to H.R. Loyn the remains of a richer culture of foederati and their successors, the poorer culture setting up farmsteads under the protection of a warrior aristocracy that expanded from a base in East Kent, the Isle of Thanet
and Canterbury
.
Kent achieved its greatest power under Æthelbert
at the beginning of the 7th century: Æthelbert was recognized as Bretwalda
until his death in 616, and was the first Anglo-Saxon king to accept Christianity
, as well as the first to introduce a written code of laws, in 616. He had relations with the Franks and his queen (a Christian) was a Frank. After his reign the power of Kent began to decline: by around 650, Kent seems to have been dominated by more powerful Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.
In 686, Kent was conquered by Caedwalla of Wessex
; within a year, Caedwalla's brother Mul
was killed in a Kentish revolt, and Caedwalla returned to devastate the kingdom again. After this, Kent fell into a state of disorder. The Mercia
ns backed a client king named Oswine
, but he seems to have reigned for only about two years, after which Wihtred
became king. Wihtred, famous for the Law of Wihtred
, did a great deal to restore the kingdom after the devastation and tumult of the preceding years, and in 694 he made peace with the West Saxons
by paying compensation for the killing of Mul.
The history of Kent following the death of Wihtred in 725 is one of fragmentation and increasing obscurity. For the 40 years that followed, two or even three kings typically ruled simultaneously. It may have been this sort of division that made Kent the first target of the rising power of Offa of Mercia
: in 764, he gained supremacy over Kent and began to rule it through client kings. By the early 770s, it appears that Offa was attempting to rule Kent directly, and a rebellion followed. A battle was fought at Otford
in 776, and although the outcome was not recorded, the circumstances of the years that followed suggest that the rebels of Kent prevailed: Egbert II
and later Ealhmund
seem to have ruled independently of Offa for nearly a decade thereafter. This did not last, however, as Offa firmly re-established his authority over Kent in 785.
From 785 until 796, Kent was ruled directly by Mercia. In 796 Offa died, and in this moment of Mercian weakness a Kentish rebellion under Eadbert Praen temporarily succeeded. Offa's eventual successor, Coenwulf, reconquered Kent in 798, however, and installed his brother Cuthred
as king. After Cuthred's death in 807, Coenwulf ruled Kent directly. Mercian authority was replaced by that of Wessex
in 825, following the latter's victory at the Battle of Ellandun
, and the Mercian client king Baldred
was expelled.
In 892, when all southern England was united under Alfred the Great
, Kent was on the brink of disaster. A hundred years earlier pagan Vikings had begun their raids on Britain—they first attacked Lindisfarne
on the coast of Northumbria
, killing the monks and devastating the Abbey. They then made successive raids further south until in the year 878 the formidable Alfred defeated them, later drawing up a treaty allowing them to settle in East Anglia
and the North East. However, countrymen from their Danish homeland were still on the move and by the late 880s Haesten, a highly experienced warrior-leader, had mustered huge forces in northern France
having besieged Paris
and taken Brittany
.
Up to 350 Viking ships sailed from Boulogne
to the south coast of Kent in 892. A massive army of between 5000 and 10,000 men with their women, children and horses came up the now long-lost Limen estuary (the east-west route of the Royal Military Canal
in reclaimed Romney Marsh
) and attacked a Saxon fort near lonely St Rumwold's church, Bonnington
, killing all inside. They then moved on and over the next year built their own giant fortress at Appledore
. On hearing of this, resident Danes in East Anglia and elsewhere broke their promises to Alfred and rose up to join in. At first they made lightning raids out of Appledore, in one of these they razed to the ground a large settlement, Seleberhtes Cert (present-day Great Chart
near Ashford
); later, the whole army moved further inland and engaged in numerous battles with the English, but after four years they gave up. Some retreated to East Anglia and others went back to northern France. There they were the forebears of the Normans
who returned in triumph less than two centuries later.
observed. The institutional evidence for Kent's uniqueness was marshaled by J. E. A. Jolliffe, who instanced the hamlet
of free peasant cultivators, not the nucleated village
, the inheritance pattern of kindred
's common right called gavelkind
, and the dominant landscape pattern of the uniquely Kentish lathes, each with its share in the forested Weald
, four lathes of East Kent centred on Wye, Canterbury
, Lympne
and Eastry
, and three in West Kent, administered from Rochester.
South East England
South East England is one of the nine official regions of England, designated in 1994 and adopted for statistical purposes in 1999. It consists of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Surrey and West Sussex...
England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It was founded at an unknown date in the 5th century by Jutes
Jutes
The Jutes, Iuti, or Iutæ were a Germanic people who, according to Bede, were one of the three most powerful Germanic peoples of their time, the other two being the Saxons and the Angles...
, members of a Germanic people from continental Europe, some of whom settled in Britain after the withdrawal of the Romans
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
. It was one of the seven traditional kingdoms of the so-called Anglo-Saxon heptarchy
Heptarchy
The Heptarchy is a collective name applied to the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of south, east, and central Great Britain during late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, conventionally identified as seven: Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Sussex and Wessex...
, but it lost its independence in the 8th century, when it became a sub-kingdom of Mercia
Mercia
Mercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was centred on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries in the region now known as the English Midlands...
. In the 9th century, it became a sub-kingdom of Wessex
Wessex
The Kingdom of Wessex or Kingdom of the West Saxons was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the West Saxons, in South West England, from the 6th century, until the emergence of a united English state in the 10th century, under the Wessex dynasty. It was to be an earldom after Canute the Great's conquest...
, and in the 10th century, it became part of the unified Kingdom of England
Kingdom of England
The Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe. At its height, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands; what today comprises the legal jurisdiction of England...
which was created under the leadership of Wessex. Its name has been carried forward ever since as the county
Counties of England
Counties of England are areas used for the purposes of administrative, geographical and political demarcation. For administrative purposes, England outside Greater London and the Isles of Scilly is divided into 83 counties. The counties may consist of a single district or be divided into several...
of Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
.
Romano-British Ceint
The origins of Kent are obscure, but its boundaries are likely to correspond to the ancient tribal lands of the BrythonicBritons (historical)
The Britons were the Celtic people culturally dominating Great Britain from the Iron Age through the Early Middle Ages. They spoke the Insular Celtic language known as British or Brythonic...
Cantiaci
Cantiaci
The Cantiaci or Cantii were a Celtic people living in Britain before the Roman conquest, and gave their name to a civitas of Roman Britain. They lived in the area now called Kent, in south-eastern England...
tribe or Ceint after which the kingdom is named. Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
referred to Cingetorix
Cingetorix (Briton)
Cingetorix was one of the four kings of Kent during Caesar's second expedition to Britain in 54 BC, alongside Segovax, Carvilius and Taximagulus. The four were allies of the British leader Cassivellaunus, and attacked the Roman naval camp in an attempt to relieve him when he was besieged by Caesar...
, Carvilius
Carvilius
Carvilius was one of the four kings of Kent during Caesar's second expedition to Britain in 54 BC, alongside Cingetorix, Segovax and Taximagulus. The four were allies of the British leader Cassivellaunus, and attacked the Roman naval camp in an attempt to relieve him when he was besieged by Caesar...
, Taximagulus
Taximagulus
Taximagulus was one of the four kings of Kent during Caesar's second expedition to Britain in 54 BC, alongside Cingetorix, Carvilius and Segovax. The four were allies of the British leader Cassivellaunus, and attacked the Roman naval camp in an attempt to relieve him when he was besieged by Caesar...
and Segovax
Segovax
Segovax was one of the four kings of Kent during Caesar's second expedition to Britain in 54 BC, alongside Cingetorix, Carvilius and Taximagulus. The four were allies of the British leader Cassivellaunus, and attacked the Roman naval camp in an attempt to relieve him when he was besieged by Caesar...
as kings of the four regions of Cantiacia. Later kings known from their coins include Dubnovellaunus
Dubnovellaunus
Dubnovellaunus or Dumnovellaunus was the name of at least one, and possibly several kings of south-eastern Britain in the late 1st century BC/early 1st century AD, known from coin legends and from a mention in the Res Gestae Divi Augusti....
, Vosenos, Eppillus
Eppillus
Eppillus was the name of a Roman client king of the Atrebates tribe of the British Iron Age. He was the son of Commius, the Gaulish former ally of Julius Caesar who fled to Britain following the uprising of Vercingetorix, or possibly of his son.After Commius's death in about 20 BC, based on...
, and Amminus
Adminius
Adminius, Amminius or Amminus was a son of Cunobelinus, ruler of the Catuvellauni, a tribe of Iron Age Britain. His name can be interpreted as Celtic *ad-mindios, "to be crowned"....
.
The Kentish coastline was known as the Saxon Shore
Saxon Shore
Saxon Shore could refer to one of the following:* Saxon Shore, a military command of the Late Roman Empire, encompassing southern Britain and the coasts of northern France...
and was guarded by a series of very effective fortresses. After the evacuation of the last Roman legions from Britain, the local tradition reported much later that a number of Jutish
Jutes
The Jutes, Iuti, or Iutæ were a Germanic people who, according to Bede, were one of the three most powerful Germanic peoples of their time, the other two being the Saxons and the Angles...
ships made landfall in Britain. The British ruling council offered them payment in return for federati service defending the realm in the north from the incursions of Pict
PICT
PICT is a graphics file format introduced on the original Apple Macintosh computer as its standard metafile format. It allows the interchange of graphics , and some limited text support, between Mac applications, and was the native graphics format of QuickDraw.The original version, PICT 1, was...
s and Scot
Scot
A Scot is a member of an ethnic group indigenous to Scotland, derived from the Latin name of Irish raiders, the Scoti.Scot may also refer to:People with the given name Scot:* Scot Brantley , American football linebacker...
s. According to legend they were promised provisions and offered the island of Ruoihm (as originally spelt by Nennius
Nennius
Nennius was a Welsh monk of the 9th century.He has traditionally been attributed with the authorship of the Historia Brittonum, based on the prologue affixed to that work, This attribution is widely considered a secondary tradition....
) - now known as the Isle of Thanet
Isle of Thanet
The Isle of Thanet lies at the most easterly point of Kent, England. While in the past it was separated from the mainland by the nearly -wide River Wantsum, it is no longer an island ....
- in perpetuity to use as a base for their operations. It is recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles that their leader, Hengist, advised:
- Take my advice and you will never fear conquest from any man or any people, for my people are strong. I will invite my son and his cousin to fight against the Irish [the Scoti], for they are fine warriors.
Apparently the Jutes
Jutes
The Jutes, Iuti, or Iutæ were a Germanic people who, according to Bede, were one of the three most powerful Germanic peoples of their time, the other two being the Saxons and the Angles...
assaulted the enemy and brought much needed relief to the beleaguered Romano-British communities of the north. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth was a cleric and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur...
's fanciful Historia Regum Britanniae
Historia Regum Britanniae
The Historia Regum Britanniae is a pseudohistorical account of British history, written c. 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. It chronicles the lives of the kings of the Britons in a chronological narrative spanning a time of two thousand years, beginning with the Trojans founding the British nation...
, the British king Vortigern
Vortigern
Vortigern , also spelled Vortiger and Vortigen, was a 5th-century warlord in Britain, a leading ruler among the Britons. His existence is considered likely, though information about him is shrouded in legend. He is said to have invited the Saxons to settle in Kent as mercenaries to aid him in...
married Rowena
Rowena
Rowena is a figure in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, the daughter of the Saxon king Hengest and wife of Vortigern.Rowena can also refer to:* Rowena Cortes, Hong Kong singer during 1980s...
, the daughter of Hengist, with the civitas of the Cantiaci (Kent) as the bride-gift.
Gwrangon was king of Ceint in the time of Vortigern
Vortigern
Vortigern , also spelled Vortiger and Vortigen, was a 5th-century warlord in Britain, a leading ruler among the Britons. His existence is considered likely, though information about him is shrouded in legend. He is said to have invited the Saxons to settle in Kent as mercenaries to aid him in...
according to Nennius
Nennius
Nennius was a Welsh monk of the 9th century.He has traditionally been attributed with the authorship of the Historia Brittonum, based on the prologue affixed to that work, This attribution is widely considered a secondary tradition....
. The word 'king' may be misleading and it is more likely that the 'province' of the Cantiaci was ruled jointly by a civil governor (Gwrangon?) and a military governor, according to Roman custom, and that Hengist became the new military governor.
The establishment of barbarian bases inland rendered the extensive coastal forts of the Saxon Shore almost useless as the 6th Century British monk Gildas
Gildas
Gildas was a 6th-century British cleric. He is one of the best-documented figures of the Christian church in the British Isles during this period. His renowned learning and literary style earned him the designation Gildas Sapiens...
laments:
They sealed its [Britain's] doom by inviting in among them (like wolves in to the sheep fold), the fierce and impious Saxons [sic] a race hurtful both to God and men, to repel the invasions of the northern nations. Nothing was ever so pernicious to our country, nothing was ever so unlucky. What palpable darkness must have enveloped their minds--darkened, desperate and cruel! Those very people whom, when absent, they dreaded more than death itself, were invited to reside, as one may say, under the selfsame roof.
The Jutes began making ever increasing demands for provisions from their hosts, who became increasingly divided and fractious. Each time the Britons threatened to withhold the supplies the Jutes threatened to break the alliance and ravage the country. Vortimer
Vortimer
Vortimer is a figure in British tradition, a son of the 5th-century Britonnic ruler Vortigern. He is remembered for his fierce opposition to his father's Saxon allies...
, Vortigern's son, assembled an army and attacked the Jutes. Vortimer died at the Battle of Aylesford
Battle of Aylesford
The Battle of Aylesford or Epsford is a battle between Britons and Anglo-Saxons recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the Historia Brittonum. Both sources concur that it involved the Saxon leaders Hengist and Horsa on one side and the family of Vortigern on the other, but neither mentions who...
alongside Horsa, the Jutish co-ruler of Kent. The next year the Jutes were attacked again at the Battle of Crecganford.
A banquet is said to have taken place ostensibly to seal a peace treaty between the Britons and their Germanic foes, which may have involved the cession of modern-day Essex. The story tells that the "Saxons"—which probably includes Angles and Jutes—arrived at the banquet armed, surprising the British, who were slaughtered. This event was dubbed the Night of the Long Knives
Night of the Long Knives (Arthurian)
The Night of the Long Knives is the name Geoffrey of Monmouth gave to the treacherous killing of native British chieftains by Anglo-Saxon mercenaries on Salisbury Plain in the 5th century...
by Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth was a cleric and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur...
and is the original event to bear that name. The only escapees from this slaughter were said to be Vortigern himself. The historical existence of this event and of persons involved in it is conjectural, as textual evidence is weak and only begins in the 7th century.
The British government under Vortigern unravelled, and civil war spread across the country. There was further action at the Battle of Wippedesfleot
Battle of Wippedesfleot
The Battle of Wippedesfleot in c. 466 was a battle between the Saxons led by Hengest and the post-Roman Britons. It is described in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle thus:-...
, but Kent was never recovered. From then on, the pacified territory of Ceint was known as Cantware, "dwellers in Kent" and its kings traced their lineage from Hengist.
Two cultures
Archaeologists, following J.N.L. Myres, detect in the post-Roman period two distinct principal pre-Christian cultures in Kent, identifiable by their by no means homogeneous grave goodsGrave goods
Grave goods, in archaeology and anthropology, are the items buried along with the body.They are usually personal possessions, supplies to smooth the deceased's journey into the afterlife or offerings to the gods. Grave goods are a type of votive deposit...
. The poorer one, still occasionally practising cremation
Cremation
Cremation is the process of reducing bodies to basic chemical compounds such as gasses and bone fragments. This is accomplished through high-temperature burning, vaporization and oxidation....
, has affinities in its pottery and its brooch
Brooch
A brooch ; also known in ancient times as a fibula; is a decorative jewelry item designed to be attached to garments. It is usually made of metal, often silver or gold but sometimes bronze or some other material...
es with Saxons and Frisians
Frisians
The Frisians are a Germanic ethnic group native to the coastal parts of the Netherlands and Germany. They are concentrated in the Dutch provinces of Friesland and Groningen and, in Germany, East Frisia and North Frisia, that was a part of Denmark until 1864. They inhabit an area known as Frisia...
. The other Myres distinguished by their wheel-thrown pottery of Frankish technique and precious metals, garnets, glass, amethysts and other luxuries in personal adornment and in skilful metalworking techniques in enamel, niello
Niello
Niello is a black mixture of copper, silver, and lead sulphides, used as an inlay on engraved or etched metal. It can be used for filling in designs cut from metal...
and filigree
Filigree
Filigree is a delicate kind of jewellery metalwork made with twisted threads usually of gold and silver or stitching of the same curving motifs. It often suggests lace, and in recent centuries remains popular in Indian and other Asian metalwork, and French from 1660 to the late 19th century...
unparalleled elsewhere in sub-Roman Britain
Sub-Roman Britain
Sub-Roman Britain is a term derived from an archaeological label for the material culture of Britain in Late Antiquity: the term "Sub-Roman" was invented to describe the potsherds in sites of the 5th century and the 6th century, initially with an implication of decay of locally-made wares from a...
. A critical unsolved problem in the early history is the relationship of these cultures, overlapping in time, the Frankish material culture, perhaps, according to H.R. Loyn the remains of a richer culture of foederati and their successors, the poorer culture setting up farmsteads under the protection of a warrior aristocracy that expanded from a base in East Kent, the Isle of Thanet
Isle of Thanet
The Isle of Thanet lies at the most easterly point of Kent, England. While in the past it was separated from the mainland by the nearly -wide River Wantsum, it is no longer an island ....
and Canterbury
Canterbury
Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....
.
Historic period
The first securely dateable event in the kingdom is the arrival of Augustine with 40 monks in 597. Maybe because Kent was the first kingdom in England to be established by the Germanic invaders, it was relatively powerful in the early Anglo-Saxon period. It is the only Anglo-Saxon kingdom to have had two bishops in the 7th century; even in modern Kent the eastern and western parts of the county have some cultural differences. As the only part of England not taken by force in the Norman invasion it has the Latin motto "Invicta".Kent achieved its greatest power under Æthelbert
Ethelbert of Kent
Æthelberht was King of Kent from about 580 or 590 until his death. In his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, the eighth-century monk Bede lists Aethelberht as the third king to hold imperium over other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms...
at the beginning of the 7th century: Æthelbert was recognized as Bretwalda
Bretwalda
Bretwalda is an Old English word, the first record of which comes from the late 9th century Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. It is given to some of the rulers of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms from the 5th century onwards who had achieved overlordship of some or all of the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms...
until his death in 616, and was the first Anglo-Saxon king to accept Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, as well as the first to introduce a written code of laws, in 616. He had relations with the Franks and his queen (a Christian) was a Frank. After his reign the power of Kent began to decline: by around 650, Kent seems to have been dominated by more powerful Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.
In 686, Kent was conquered by Caedwalla of Wessex
Caedwalla of Wessex
Cædwalla was the King of Wessex from approximately 685 until he abdicated in 688. His name is derived from the British Cadwallon. He was exiled as a youth, and during this time attacked the South Saxons and killed their king, Æthelwealh, in what is now Sussex. Cædwalla was unable to hold the...
; within a year, Caedwalla's brother Mul
Mul of Kent
Mul may have briefly ruled as king of Kent following its conquest by his brother, Caedwalla of Wessex, in 686. Mul's father was Coenberht, making him a member of the House of Wessex The name Mul is very unusual and it has been postulated that it derives from the Latin mulus meaning mule, a word...
was killed in a Kentish revolt, and Caedwalla returned to devastate the kingdom again. After this, Kent fell into a state of disorder. The Mercia
Mercia
Mercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was centred on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries in the region now known as the English Midlands...
ns backed a client king named Oswine
Oswine of Kent
Oswine, King of Kent, jointly with Swæfberht and Swæfheard.Oswine is known from three charters: one is dated July 689 and apparently witnessed by Swæfberht ; another is dated 26 January 690, witnessed by Swæfheard, and implies Oswine's descent from Eormenred; and in third , which is undated, but...
, but he seems to have reigned for only about two years, after which Wihtred
Wihtred of Kent
Wihtred was king of Kent from about 690 or 691 until his death. He was a son of Ecgberht I and a brother of Eadric. Wihtred acceded to the throne after a confused period in the 680s, which included a brief conquest of Kent by Cædwalla of Wessex and subsequent dynastic conflicts...
became king. Wihtred, famous for the Law of Wihtred
Law of Wihtred
The Law of Wihtred is an early English legal text attributed to the Kentish king Wihtred . It is believed to date to the final decade of the 7th century and is the last of three Kentish legal texts, following the Law of Æthelberht and the Law of Hlothhere and Eadric...
, did a great deal to restore the kingdom after the devastation and tumult of the preceding years, and in 694 he made peace with the West Saxons
Wessex
The Kingdom of Wessex or Kingdom of the West Saxons was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the West Saxons, in South West England, from the 6th century, until the emergence of a united English state in the 10th century, under the Wessex dynasty. It was to be an earldom after Canute the Great's conquest...
by paying compensation for the killing of Mul.
The history of Kent following the death of Wihtred in 725 is one of fragmentation and increasing obscurity. For the 40 years that followed, two or even three kings typically ruled simultaneously. It may have been this sort of division that made Kent the first target of the rising power of Offa of Mercia
Offa of Mercia
Offa was the King of Mercia from 757 until his death in July 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 Æthelbald after defeating the other claimant Beornred. In the early years of Offa's reign it is likely...
: in 764, he gained supremacy over Kent and began to rule it through client kings. By the early 770s, it appears that Offa was attempting to rule Kent directly, and a rebellion followed. A battle was fought at Otford
Otford
Otford is a village and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent known for its classically British countryside. The village is located on the River Darent, flowing north down its valley from its source on the North Downs...
in 776, and although the outcome was not recorded, the circumstances of the years that followed suggest that the rebels of Kent prevailed: Egbert II
Egbert II of Kent
Ecgberht II was King of Kent jointly with Heaberht.Ecgberht II is known from his coins and charters, ranging from 765 to 779 , two of which were witnessed or confirmed by Heaberht.Ecgberht II acceded by 765, when he issued his earliest surviving charter...
and later Ealhmund
Ealhmund of Kent
Ealhmund was King of Kent in 784.The only contemporary evidence of him is an abstract of a charter dated in that year, in which Ealhmund granted land to the Abbot of Reculver...
seem to have ruled independently of Offa for nearly a decade thereafter. This did not last, however, as Offa firmly re-established his authority over Kent in 785.
From 785 until 796, Kent was ruled directly by Mercia. In 796 Offa died, and in this moment of Mercian weakness a Kentish rebellion under Eadbert Praen temporarily succeeded. Offa's eventual successor, Coenwulf, reconquered Kent in 798, however, and installed his brother Cuthred
Cuthred of Kent
Cuðred was a King of Kent .After the revolt of Kent under Eadberht III Præn was defeated in 798 by Cœnwulf, he established Cuðred as a client king...
as king. After Cuthred's death in 807, Coenwulf ruled Kent directly. Mercian authority was replaced by that of Wessex
Wessex
The Kingdom of Wessex or Kingdom of the West Saxons was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the West Saxons, in South West England, from the 6th century, until the emergence of a united English state in the 10th century, under the Wessex dynasty. It was to be an earldom after Canute the Great's conquest...
in 825, following the latter's victory at the Battle of Ellandun
Ellandun
Ellandun was the site of the Battle of Ellandun between Egbert of Wessex and Beornwulf of Mercia in 825. Sir Frank Stenton described it as "One of the most decisive battles of English history", effectively ending the Mercian supremacy over the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy...
, and the Mercian client king Baldred
Baldred of Kent
Baldred was a king of Kent, until 825, when he was expelled by Æthelwulf, son of King Egbert of Wessex, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, "because formerly they had been wrongly forced away from their allegiance to his kinsmen"....
was expelled.
In 892, when all southern England was united under Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great was King of Wessex from 871 to 899.Alfred is noted for his defence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of southern England against the Vikings, becoming the only English monarch still to be accorded the epithet "the Great". Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to style himself...
, Kent was on the brink of disaster. A hundred years earlier pagan Vikings had begun their raids on Britain—they first attacked Lindisfarne
Lindisfarne
Lindisfarne is a tidal island off the north-east coast of England. It is also known as Holy Island and constitutes a civil parish in Northumberland...
on the coast of Northumbria
Northumbria
Northumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...
, killing the monks and devastating the Abbey. They then made successive raids further south until in the year 878 the formidable Alfred defeated them, later drawing up a treaty allowing them to settle in East Anglia
East Anglia
East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
and the North East. However, countrymen from their Danish homeland were still on the move and by the late 880s Haesten, a highly experienced warrior-leader, had mustered huge forces in northern France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
having besieged Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and taken Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
.
Up to 350 Viking ships sailed from Boulogne
Boulogne-sur-Mer
-Road:* Metropolitan bus services are operated by the TCRB* Coach services to Calais and Dunkerque* A16 motorway-Rail:* The main railway station is Gare de Boulogne-Ville and located in the south of the city....
to the south coast of Kent in 892. A massive army of between 5000 and 10,000 men with their women, children and horses came up the now long-lost Limen estuary (the east-west route of the Royal Military Canal
Royal Military Canal
The Royal Military Canal is a canal running for 28 miles between Seabrook near Folkestone and Cliff End near Hastings, following the old cliff line bordering Romney Marsh.-Construction:...
in reclaimed Romney Marsh
Romney Marsh
Romney Marsh is a sparsely populated wetland area in the counties of Kent and East Sussex in the south-east of England. It covers about 100 mi ² .-Quotations:*“As Egypt was the gift of the Nile, this level tract .....
) and attacked a Saxon fort near lonely St Rumwold's church, Bonnington
Bonnington
Bonnington is a dispersed village and civil parish on the northern edge of the Romney Marsh in Ashford District of Kent, England. The village is located eight miles to the south of the town of Ashford on the B2067 ....
, killing all inside. They then moved on and over the next year built their own giant fortress at Appledore
Appledore, Kent
Appledore is a village and civil parish in the Ashford District of Kent, England. The village centre is 12 miles south-west of Ashford town, and on the northern edge of the Romney Marsh The northerly part of this village is Appledore Heath....
. On hearing of this, resident Danes in East Anglia and elsewhere broke their promises to Alfred and rose up to join in. At first they made lightning raids out of Appledore, in one of these they razed to the ground a large settlement, Seleberhtes Cert (present-day Great Chart
Great Chart
Great Chart is a village in civil parish of Great Chart with Singleton in the Ashford District of Kent, England. The parish is split between the ancient village of Great Chart and the modern Singleton housing development, which is part of the western outskirts of Ashford...
near Ashford
Ashford, Kent
Ashford is a town in the borough of Ashford in Kent, England. In 2005 it was voted the fourth best place to live in the United Kingdom. It lies on the Great Stour river, the M20 motorway, and the South Eastern Main Line and High Speed 1 railways. Its agricultural market is one of the most...
); later, the whole army moved further inland and engaged in numerous battles with the English, but after four years they gave up. Some retreated to East Anglia and others went back to northern France. There they were the forebears of the Normans
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
who returned in triumph less than two centuries later.
Unique aspects of Kent
The mixed cultures of its settlers in the fifth and sixth centuries, its connections with Frankish culture on the Continent—whether interpreted as trade merchandise, marriage gifts or ceremonial exchanges— and its early stabilization and independence as a kingdom continued to be reflected in several uniquely Kentish cultural features, "a constant theme in English social history", H. R. LoynH. R. Loyn
Henry Royston Loyn , FBA, was a British historian specialising in the history of Anglo-Saxon England. His eminence in his field made him a natural candidate to run the Sylloge of the Coins of the British Isles, which he chaired from 1979 to 1993.-Works:The Sylloge's natural emphasis is on...
observed. The institutional evidence for Kent's uniqueness was marshaled by J. E. A. Jolliffe, who instanced the hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
of free peasant cultivators, not the nucleated village
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
, the inheritance pattern of kindred
Kindred
In the Heathen movements, a kindred is a local worship group and organisational unit. Other terms used are hearth, theod , blotgroup, sippe, and other less popular ones such as garth, stead, and others....
's common right called gavelkind
Gavelkind
Gavelkind was a system of land tenure associated chiefly with the county of Kent, but found also in other parts of England. Its inheritance pattern bears resemblance to Salic patrimony and as such might testify in favour of a wider, probably ancient Germanic tradition.It was legally abolished in...
, and the dominant landscape pattern of the uniquely Kentish lathes, each with its share in the forested Weald
Weald
The Weald is the name given to an area in South East England situated between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It should be regarded as three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in the centre; the clay "Low Weald" periphery; and the Greensand Ridge which...
, four lathes of East Kent centred on Wye, Canterbury
Canterbury
Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....
, Lympne
Lympne
Lympne is a village situated on the former sea cliffs above the Romney Marsh in Kent. It lies approximately west of Folkestone, 2 miles west of Hythe and east of Ashford....
and Eastry
Eastry
Eastry is a civil parish and remote, yet historically significant village four kilometres SW of Sandwich, in Kent, that was voted "Kent Village of the Year 2005".-Etymology:...
, and three in West Kent, administered from Rochester.
Further reading
- K. P. Witney, (1982), The Kingdom of Kent. Phillimore. ISBN 0850334438
- John Williams (editor), (2007), The Archaeology of Kent to AD 800. Boydell Press. ISBN 0851155804
- Sue Harrington, Stuart Brookes, (2010), The Kingdom and People of Kent, AD 40-1066: Their History and Archaeology. The History Press Ltd. ISBN 0752456946
External links
- Anglo-Saxon Kent Electronic Database (ASKED), cemetery database from the Institute of ArchaeologyInstitute of ArchaeologyThe UCL Institute of Archaeology is an academic department of the Social & Historical Sciences Faculty of University College London , England. It is one of the largest departments of archaeology in the world, with over 80 members of academic staff and 500 students...