Ethelbert

Ethelbert, king of Kent, and third in direct descent from Hengist, was born in 552, and succeeded to the throne about the ninth year of his age. In a contest with Ceawlin, king of Wessex, for the title of Bretwalda, in 568, he was defeated at Wibbandune, now Wimbledon, in Surrey. About the year 590, however, he was acknowledged as Bretwalda of the Saxon octarchy. The most important events of his reign were his own conversion to Christianity, and the formal introduction of that religion into his kingdom, by St Augustine in 597. Ethelbert was also the author of the first written Saxon laws, the collection called Dooms, by Bede, 'which he established with the consent of his Witan in the days of St Augustine.' Ethelbert died in 616.