Editing Eadbald of Kent (section)

==Early Kent and early sources==
[[File:Kingdoms in England and Wales about 600 AD.svg|thumb|200px|right|The state of Anglo-Saxon England at about the time of Eadbald's birth]]

Settlement of Kent by continental peoples, primarily [[Jutes]], was complete by the end of the sixth century.<ref name=Yorke_26>Yorke, ''Kings and Kingdoms'', p. 26.</ref> Eadbald's father, [[Æthelberht of Kent|Æthelberht]], probably came to the throne in about 589 or 590, though the chronology of his reign is very difficult to determine accurately.<ref name=Kirby_31>Kirby, ''Earliest English Kings'', pp. 31–33, provides an extended discussion of the chronology of Æthelberht's reign.</ref> Æthelberht was recorded by the early chronicler [[Bede]] as having overlordship, or ''imperium,'' over other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.<ref name=Bede_II_5>Bede, ''Ecclesiastical History'', bk. II, ch. 5, p. 111.</ref> This dominance led to wealth in the form of tribute, and Kent was a powerful kingdom at the time of Æthelberht's death in 616, with trade well-established with the [[Europe|European mainland]].<ref name = Campbell_TAS_44/>

Roman Britain had become fully Christianized, but the Anglo-Saxons retained their native faith. In 597 [[Augustine of Canterbury|Augustine]] was sent by [[Pope Gregory I]] to England to convert them to Christianity. Augustine landed in eastern Kent, and soon managed to convert Æthelberht, who gave Augustine land in [[Canterbury]]. Two other rulers, [[Saebert of Essex|Sæberht]], king of [[Kingdom of Essex|Essex]], and [[Rædwald of East Anglia|Rædwald]], king of [[East Anglia]], were converted through Æthelberht's influence.<ref name=Bede_I_25>Bede, ''Ecclesiastical History'', bk. I, ch. 25, p. 74.</ref><ref name=Kirby_30>Kirby, ''Earliest English Kings'', pp. 30–37.</ref>

An important source for this period in Kentish history is ''The [[Ecclesiastical History of the English People]]'', written in 731 by [[Bede]], a [[Benedictine]] [[monk]] from [[Northumbria]]. Bede was primarily interested in the Christianization of England, but he also provides substantial information about secular history, including the reigns of Æthelberht and Eadbald. One of Bede's correspondents was Albinus, abbot of the monastery of St. Peter and St. Paul (subsequently renamed [[St Augustine's Abbey|St. Augustine's]]) in Canterbury. A series of related texts known as the Legend of St [[Mildrith]] provides additional information about events in the lives of Eadbald's children and throws some light on Eadbald himself. The ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'', a collection of annals assembled in about 890 in the kingdom of [[Wessex]], also provides information. Other sources include papal letters, regnal lists of the kings of Kent, and early charters. Charters were documents drawn up to record grants of land by kings to their followers or to the church, and they provide some of the earliest documentary sources in England. None survive in original form from Eadbald's reign, but some later copies exist.<ref name=Yorke_25>Yorke, ''Kings and Kingdoms'', p. 25.</ref>