JOINT KINGSHIP IN KENT c. 560 TO 785
Dr BARBARA A.E. YORKE
Like most of the southern kingdoms of England during the early
Saxon period, the kingship system of Kent was characterized by joint
rule, two or more kings ruling at the same time, rather than the
simpler pattern of individual reigns with which we are familiar from
later Anglo-Saxon and medieval history.' Unfortunately, many of the
southern kingdoms are poorly recorded for the Anglo-Saxon period
and the details of their kingship systems remain shadowy. Although
there are gaps in the Kentish evidence and questions that must go
unanswered, enough remains to reconstruct the main sequence of
reigns and to understand something of the principles which lay
behind the Kentish pattern of kingship.
Traditions of joint reigns apparently stretch back to the time of the
formation of the kingdom of Kent. Bede records that the first Saxons
who came to Britain were under the leadership of two brothers,
Hengest and Horsa,2 and that the later kings of Kent claimed descent
from the former.3 The details of how they acquired control of Kent
are revealed more fully by the early ninth-century Historia
Brittonum• and in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle which records the
elevation to the kingship of Hengest and his son, Aesc, after the
death of Horsa in 455. These sources have been discussed so often
that the details need not be repeated here.5 Unfortunately, frequent
1 The West Saxons, South Saxons and East Saxons all practised variations of joint
rule.
2 EH, i, 15.
3 EH, ii, 5. In this chapter, Bede refers to the joint arrival of Hengest and Oisc at
the invitation of Vortigern. There is no mention of Oisc in I, 15.
• Nennius, British History, and the Welsh Annals, (Ed.) J. Morris, Arthurian Period
Sources, vol. 8 (1980), eh. 31, 36-8 and 4. This edition will be superseded by that
being prepared by D.N. Dumville.
5 For views at different ends of the spectrum of opinion about the early sources see
D.N. Dumville, 'Sub-Roman Britain - History and Legend', History, 62 (1977),
173--92, and J. Morris, The Age of Arthur, a History of the British Isles from 350-650
(1973).
1
B.A.E. YORK
TABLE
Genealogy of Kentish Kings
Oisc1
Eormenric'
I
Aethelbertl = Bertha, d. of K. Charibert of Paris
(c.560-616)
I
I
Eadbald'
(616-640)
I
Oslava = Eormenred
I
I
Aethelbert
I
Aethelred
- - -,
I
Aethelwald?
I
Eorcenbert
(640-664)
Ecgbert 16 Hlothere'
(664-673) (673-685)
Eadric"
(685-686)
Aethelbert II'"
(725-74 7 /8)
Wihtred"
(690/1-725)
Eadbert11
(747/S-762)
I
Eardwulf
1. Only individuals referred to in- the text are included.
Alric
2. Senior kings have been numbered in the order in which they ruled (omitting
Oswine and foreign rulers).
3. Eardwulf is the last of the Oiscingas for whom we have genealogical information.
repetition does not make these accounts any more reliable and there
are fundamental problems in using sources of the eighth and ninth
centuries to illuminate events of the pre-literate fifth century.
Although there may well be some reliable oral traditions behind the
stories of Hengest and Horsa, it is impossible to isolate these. The
accounts of the foundation of Kent that survive are undoubtedly
influenced by the only near-contemporary source which describes
events in fifth-century Britain, the De excidio et conquestu Britanniae
of Gildas. The Kentish leaders are identified with the federate bands
2
JOINT KINGSHIP IN KENT
which Gildas says were settled in orientali parte insulae, but with no
indication that Kent was meant.• Other aspects of their story draw on
common story-telling motifs ,1 while the concept of two brothers
establishing a new kingdom recalls the foundation myths of other
Indo-European peoples, the mythic element being reinforced by the
unlikely pairing of their names ('gelding' and 'horse')."
Further problems exist in linking Hengest and Horsa with the later
Kentish kings. We know that Oisc (the Aesc of the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle) was of the greatest significance to the Kentish royal house.
Bede tells us that the Kentish kings called themselves Oiscingas,
presumably with the implication that Oisc was the founder king from
whom descent had to be traced to claim royal status, a position
analogous to that of Cerdic in the West Saxon dynasty.9 However,
Bede also says that Oisc was only the cognomen of Oeric, the son of
Hengest. According to Bede, Oisc/Oeric's own son was Octa and he
was the grandfather of the first Christian king, Aethelbert I. 111 A
different version of the Kentish genealogy was also circulating in
Northumbria in the eighth century as the Kentish genealogy in the
Anglian collection of regnal lists and genealogies calls Hengest's son
Ocga (presumably cognate with Octa) and Aethelbert's grandfather
is called Oese. 11 The deeds of Octa and his cousin Ebissa in
Northumbria are revealed in the Historia Brittonum,12 while an Oessa
is credited elsewhere with the foundation of the kingdom of
Bernicia. 13 Two separate dynasties seem to be claiming descent from
the same ancestors. Clearly, there can be no certainty about Aethelbert's
progenitors and the link between Oeric/Oisc, whose historical
• Gildas, The Ruin of Britain and Other Works, (Ed.) M. Winterbottom (1978), eh.
23. Sites like Mucking on the Thames may represent the first settlements of federates,
but Gildas' words do not necessarily refer to anywhere in southern England; see E.A.
Thompson, 'Gildas and the History of Britain', Britannia, x (1979), 203-26.
' For example, 'the night of the long knives' (Historia Bri11011um, eh. 45-6) in which
the English killed three hundred of Vortigern's followers. Variations of this ruse are to
be found in Greek, Roman and Scandinavian literature.
"J.E. Turville-Petre, 'Hengest and Horsa', Saga Book of the Viking Club 14, part 4
(1956-7), 273-90, connects traditions about them with Anglo-Saxon horse-cults.
• EH, ii, 5, where it is linked with the claim that Hengest and Oisc were the first
Anglo-Saxons to come to Britain.
10 Ibid.
" D.N. Dumville, 'The Anglian Collection of Royal Genealogies and Regnal Lists',
Anglo-Saxon England, (Ed.) P. Clemoes, 5 (1976), 31 and 33. The genealogy is for
Aethelbert II.
12 Historia Brittonum, eh. 38.
13 D.N. Dumville, 'A new Chronicle Fragment of early British History', English
Historical Review, 88 (1973), 312-14. The tenth-century translator of the Chronicle,
Aethelweard, perhaps in desperation at the variant forms, equates Ochta with Ese
(Oisc): Chronicon Aethelweardi, (Ed.) A. Campbell (1962), II, 2.
3
B.A.E. YORK
existence is probable," and Hengest, who seems to belong to the
world of Germanic heroic poetry, 15 is crudely made and lacks
credibility.
It would also be unwise to use the references to the reigns of
Hengest and Horsa and Hengest and Oisc to argue for the existence
of joint kingship in the fifth century. They do, however, show us that
in the eighth century, when the foundation legends were definitely in
circulation, it was natural for kingship in Kent to be perceived in
terms of joint rule. A common function of foundation traditions is
not so much to illuminate the past, but to explain or justify the
present by projecting its conditions back into an earlier period. 16
Hengest and Horsa may have more to tell us about the eighth than
the fifth century. Kent in the sixth century is as badly recorded as in
the fifth and we only know of the reign of Aethelbert I's father,
Eormenric, through Gregory of Tours' History of the Franks. 1'
Contemporary records probably only began to be kept after the
conversion of King Aethelbert,13 though they are never sufficiently
extensive to answer all the questions we might wish to ask. The study
of Kent's kingship system is made much easier after the appearance
of charters in the reign of Hlothere,19 though we are largely depen-
" The fact that the Kentish royal family called themselves 'Oiscingas' after Oisc
suggests that he was the first of the house to rule, like Cerdic from whom all
subsequent West Saxon kings traced descent. However, Turville-Petre would see Oisc
as another divine ancestor ('Hengest and Horsa', 284-6).
15 Hengest appears as a Danish or Jutish leader in the poems Beowulf and the
Finnsburg Fragment. His appearance in the poems is against his historical existence in
Britain rather than evidence for it as a number of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms seem to
have artificially boosted their royal genealogies by incorporating heroes from the past
within them; see K. Sisam, 'Anglo-Saxon Royal Genealogies', Proceedings of the
British Academy, xxxix (1953), 30f>..7.
16 R. Wenskus, Stammesbildung und Verfassung (1961) and H. Moisl, 'Anglo-Saxon
royal Genealogies and Germanic oral Tradition', Journal of Medieval History, vii
(1981), 215-48. It has been suggested that Bede's stress on Kent as the first province to
be settled by Germanic invaders can be linked with the concern of archbishops of
Canterbury in the early eighth century to preserve their primacy over the Anglo-Saxon
church; see J.M. Wallace-Hadrill, 'Bede and Plummer', Early Medieval History
(1975), 90.
11 Eormenric appe.ars in the Kentish genealogies, but the only reference to him
ruling comes from Gregory's record of the marriage of Bertha, daughter of King
Charibert, to Aethelbert who is described as 'the son of a certain king of Kent' (i.e.
Eormenric): Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum, (Ed.) O.M. Dalton, 2 vols (1927),
ix. 26.
18 Though literacy did come to Kent with the marriage of Aethelbert and Bertha, see
K. Harrison, The Framework of Anglo-Saxon History to A.D. 900 (1976), 121-30.
19 The first authentic charters date from Hlothere's reign, but P. Chaplais, 'Who
Introduced Charters into England? The Case for Augustine', Journal of the Society of
Archivists, iii (1965-9), 315-36, argues for their introduction in the reign of Aethelbert.
4
JOINT KINGSHIP IN KENT
dent on the archives of just four religious houses.20
Bede represents Aethelbert I (560--616) as sole ruler in Kent with
Canterbury as his chief city. 21 Although Bede's account of the work of
the Augustinian mission in Kent provides few insights into the nature
of kingship in the province, he does imply a major administrative
division within the kingdom. For Kent was provided with its two
bishoprics of Canterbury and Rochester from the early years of the
conversion,22 whereas the normal pattern elsewhere in Anglo-Saxon
England was for the kingdom to be treated initially as one bishopric,
with subdivision a secondary development. Kent's uniqueness in this
respect suggests that the subdivision into east and west Kent, as
revealed by the bounds of the two dioceses, was a significant
administrative division within the kingdom before the arrival of
Christianity."
Charters surviving in Aethelbert's name present a rather different
perspective of his reign from that of Bede's narrative. The charters
are referred to with some hesitancy as, with possibly one exception,
they are without doubt spurious in their present form,2• though
Aethelbert undoubtedly did grant lands to his foundations at Canterbury
and Rochester. 25 They are of interest because the system of
kingship they present for Aethelbert's reign resembles that which we
can trace in subsequent reigns in Kent. Two of Aethelbert's supposed
grants to Canterbury are witnessed by his son, Eadbald,26 in one of
them with the title of king,21 and Eadbald is made to consent with
Aethelbert to an equally spurious grant of privileges from Augustine
to Canterbury. 28 Aethelbert's grant to Rochester is actually addressed
to Eadbald as well as to St. Andrew, Rochester's patron saint. 29
Levison was inclined to look more favourably on this charter than on
those for Canterbury3° and it lacks obviously anachronistic features,
though it is not without problems and is, of course, earlier than the
accepted date for the introduction of the charter to England!' It is
20 SS. Peter and Paul (subsequently known as St. Augustine's), Canterbury;
Rochester; Reculver and Minster-in-Thane!. 21 EH, i, 25. 22
EH, ii, 3. Rochester was created a see in 604. 13 Venerabilis Baedae Opera Historica, (Ed.) C. Plummer (1896), II, 79. 2' W. Levison, England and the Continent in the eighth Century (1946), appendix I,
174-233.
25 EH, ii, 3.
26 B 5, Sawyer 3 and B 6, Sawyer 4.
21 B 6, Sawyer 4.
" B 7, Sawyer 1244.
29 B 3, Sawyer 1.
30 Levison, England and the Continent, 223-5. 31 See n. 19.
5
B.A.E. YORK
curious that all these charters imply that Eadbald shared in the
government of the kingdom during Aethelbert's reign even though
none of the known sources which were available to later forgers
contain any such information. Did Canterbury and Rochester possess
some record of their foundation grants which implied ruling status for
Eadbald while his father was alive?
Eadbald (616-<540) is represented by Bede as sole ruler of Kent
after his father's death,32 though a letter from Pope Boniface V to
Bishop Justus, included in the Ecclesiastical History implies that he
had a co-ruler.33 Pope Boniface refers to letters which he has received
from a king Aduluald about his conversion by Justus. As P. Hunter
Blair has shown/' the form appears to represent the Anglo-Saxon
name 'Aethelwald' rather than the name 'Eadbald' which appears as
Audubald in a letter from Pope Boniface to Edwin of Northumbria.3;
As Justus was Bishop of Rochester when Aethelwald's conversion
took place, it is reasonable to associate the latter with the western
province as well. We do not, of course, know Aethelwald's relationship
to Eadbald, but brother would be likely from analogy with
later Kentish reigns.
Bede has little to say about any of Eadbald's children except
Earconbert who succeeded his father in the chief kingship of Kent
(640-664).36 Further details of his family are to be found in the
so-called Kentish Legend, perhaps best described as a genealogical
narrative about the Kentish royal house and its relations by marriage,
with particular emphasis on those who were deemed to be saints. A
version of the Legend was in existence in the eighth century, but none
of the surviving texts represent this version in its entirety and all
contain later accretions and hagiographical elaborations. 37 There are
therefore problems in establishing the original historical core of the
Legend. All versions, however, are agreed that Earconbert had a
brother called Eormenred and his two sons, the martyrs Aethelbert
and Aethelred, are leading members of the saintly contingent.
Although there is some disagreement over details, most of the texts
agree that Eormenred was the elder of the two brothers, but was
passed over by Eadbald in favour of Earconbert when he nominated
32 EH, ii, 5.
33 EH, ii, 8.
34 P. Hunter Blair, 'The Letters of Pope Boniface V and the Mission of Paulinus to
Northumbria', England Before the Conquest: Studies in primary Sources presented to
Dorothy Whitelock, (Eds.) P. Clemoes and K. Hughes (1971), 5-15.
35 EH, ii, 10.
36 EH, iii, 8.
37 D. Rollason, The Mildfrith Legend: A Study in early medieval Hagiography
(1983), passim.
6
JOINT KINGSHIP IN KENT
his successor.3s According to the compiler of the Historia Regum, who
used the earliest known version of the Legend, Eormenred lived on
powerless, while his brother ruled. But perhaps he was relatively
powerless rather than completely without royal authority, as several
other versions believed he obtained the status of king or regulus. That
he did achieve some form of ruling status is suggested by the main
story of the Legend, the murder of Eormenred's sons by their cousin,
Ecgbert, son of Earconbert, (see Table), because he felt they were a
threat to his tenure of the throne. As we shall see, only those who
were sons of kings tended to become kings themselves in Kent and
Ecgbert's action is more readily understood if Eorrnenred had ruled
as one of the kings of Kent. We can therefore tentatively identify
Eormenred as junior king of Kent during his brother Earconbert's
reign.39
Ecgbert (664-673) is not known to have shared the throne with
anyone, though his brother, Hlothere, who succeeded him, (673-
685), is an obvious candidate for the junior position.'0 Hlothere
undoubtedly did share power with his nephew, Eadric, the son of
Ecgbert, who issued laws jointly with his uncle41 and in 679 gave his
consent to a grant from Hlothere to Reculver which survives in a
contemporary manuscript.•: The partnership ended when Eadric
raised the South Saxons against Hlothere and wounded his uncle
fatally in battle.'3 Eadric (685-686) reigned only a year and a half
before his reign was ended by foreign conquest. The assault of
Caedwalla of Wessex and his brother, Mui, is recorded in the
Chronicle sa 686 and Mui became king of Kent for long enough to
confirm previous royal gifts to Minster-in-Thanet.44 However, in a
grant of land in Kent Caedwalla refers to the East Saxon conquest of
the province by King Sighere who witnesses the charter. •s It would
seem that the twofold division of Kent was preserved in a time of
foreign invasion.
38 Ibid.
39 There are other possibilities: Eorrnenred could have ruled with his father after the
death of Aethelwold which cannot, of course, be dated.
40 EH, iii, 8 and iv, 5. There are problems with Hlothere's dates which have not
been satisfactorily resolved. Bede's information puts his accession in 673, but two of
his charters imply he succeeded in 674 (B 36 and 44).
41 F. Liebermann, Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, 3 vols. (1903-16), I, 9-11.
42 B 45, Sawyer 8. Two other charters of Hlothere (B 36 and 44) do not refer to
Eadric.
0 EH, iv, 26.
•• Thomas of Elmham, Historia Monasterii S. Augustini Cantuariensis, (Ed.) C.
Hardwick, Rolls ser. 8 (1858), 232-8.
45 B 89, Sawyer 233.
7
B.A.E. YORK
In 689, two different rulers shared authority in Kent, both of whom
acknowledged the overlordship of Aethelred of Mercia:• The East
Saxon interest was continued by Swaefheard, under the supervision
of his father Saebbe who had been co-ruler of the East Saxons with
Sighere-◄' Ruling with Swaefheard in Kent was Oswine who claimed
membership of the Kentish royal house and kinship with Abbess
Aebbe of Minster-in-Thanet,4" but like Mui and Swaefheard was not
acknowledged as a legitimate king in any of the surviving regnal lists
and was summed up by Bede in the adjective dubius.'" Although one
might have expected the two rulers to divide the kingdom between
them, they evidently regarded themselves as joint rulers and
approved and witnessed each other's charters.50 Oswine is not heard
of after 690 and Bede records that Swaefheard was ruling with
Wihtred, son of Ecgbert, 'the rightful king' in 692st and they are
linked together in B 89. Wihtred seems to have ousted Swaefheard in
694. 52
Wihtred (691-725) appears as sole ruler of Kent after Swaefheard's
departure - his laws and early charters are made in his name alone,53
but by the end of his reign there are signs that one, or possibly two, of
.,. There have been problems with the dates of Swaefheard and Oswine, but these
have been satisfactorily resolved by D. Whitelock in Harrison, Framework of
Anglo-Saxon History, appendix 1, 142-6. Grants of Oswine (B 73) and Swaefheard (B
42) were made with the consent of Aethelred of Mercia.
47 As revealed by B 42, Sawyer 10 and EH, iii, 11. It is possible that a second East
Saxon king ruled in Kent for a short while. B 41, Sawyer 11, is a grant from Suabertus
rex Cantuariorum. The name is more typically East Saxon than Kentish, but is distinct
from that of Swaefheard; possibly it should be reconstructed as 'Swaefbert'. The
charter is undated, but the only witnesses given also witness a charter of Swaefheard,
dated 690 (B 42). It may be that Swaefbert originally took over Sighere's interests in
Kent, but was soon replaced by Swaefheard. The two could have been brothers.
'" B 73, Sawyer 12 and B 35, Sawyer 13.
49 Bede (EH, iv, 26) describes how reges dubii uel externi ruled Kent after Eadric's
death. The externi are presumably Mui, Sighere, Swaefbert and Swaefheard. G. Ward,
'King Oswin - A forgotten Ruler of Kent', Arch. Cant., I (1938), 60-5, suggested
Oswine might be descended from Eormenred whose wife was called Oslave, but we
have no definite evidence to support tbis.
5'J B 35, 40 and 42; neither Oswine nor Swaefheard used their regnal titles when
witnessing the other's grants. B 73, Sawyer 12, is a grant of 689 from Oswine which is
not witnessed by Swaefheard. A 'Sabertus' is included among the witnesses, but this is
probably not 'Suabertus' as the name does not head the witnesses as we would expect
that of a co-ruler to do.
51 EH, v, 8 and iv, 26.
52 His accession is recorded in the Chronicle under this year. As we know from Bede
and the regnal years of his charters that he was already king by this time, the entry is
likely to record the date he commenced ruling without Swaefheard; Baedae Opera
Historica, (Ed.) Plummer, II, 284.
$) Liebermann, Die Gesetze, pp. 12-14 and B 86 and 90.
8
JOINT KINGSHIP IN KENT
his sons was sharing power with him. The Council of Bapchild, which
cannot be closely dated, was witnessed by Wihtred's son, Aethelbert,
on behalf of himself and his brother, Eadbert. 54 Aethelbert made a
grant in his own right in 724, but with the consent of his father and the
charter was witnessed by Eadbert at Aethelbert's request. ss Neither
son is given a title, but Aethelbert's ability to grant land suggests that
he may have been of ruling status, while Eadbert also appears to have
had some share in royal authority, though subordinate to his brother.
The situation after Wihtred's death requires some discussion as
there are contradictory versions of events. Bede states that Wihtred
left three sons as heirs - Aethelbert, Eadbert and Alric- a statement
which led at least two post-Conquest writers to assume that they
ruled successively.56 In fact, Alric is not heard of again and Bede's
statement need not necessarily mean that it was intended he should
have a share in the kingdom. s, Certainly there is no evidence that he
ever ruled. Bede names Aethelbert as the eldest son, or, at least, the
son who ranked first, and this is consistent with the evidence already
reviewed from Wihtred's reign. That Aethelbert was the senior king
is also implied by B 159 in which Bishop Ealdwulf of Rochester
apologetically seeks Aethelbert's confirmation to a grant made by
Eadbert as he had not realised that he needed it. Eadbert's consent to
Aethelbert's grants was apparently not required. ss
The Chronicle, however, has a different picture of the relative
position of the two brothers. It records the death of King Eadbert in
748 (747 C) and that of King Aethelbert in 762. The implication is
that Eadbert ruled first and was succeeded by Aethelbert on his
death, and this was how the Kentish succession was interpreted by
some of the post-Conquest chroniclers who used the Chronicle.59
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge MS 173 has a Kentish regnal list
with this sequence.60 The charters, on the other hand, appear to show
5' B 91, Sawyer 22.
55 B 141, Sawyer ll80.
56 EH, v, 23. This was the assumption of1bomas Elmham (see n. 44) and William
of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum Anglorum, (Ed.) W. Stubbs, Rolls ser. 90 (1887), 17-8.
57 Alric could have been given a grant of land or movables. His only other
appearance is at the council of Bapchild (B 91) where his mother Werburga witnessed
on his behalf, presumably because he was under age. He was probably only
half-brother to Aethelbert and Eadbert.
58 B 148 and 160 are grants by Aethelbert which do not refer to Eadbert.
59 William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum, 17-8 and Chronicon ex Chronicis (attributed
to Florence of Worcester), (Ed.) B. Thorpe (1848), 50.
60 The manuscript also contains the 'A' version of the Chronicle (Parker manuscript).
The regnal list is printed in M.R. James, A descriptive Catalogue of the
Manuscripts in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (1912), I, 399 (folio
55 v.). The list ends with the reign of Aethelbert II and was added to the manuscript in
a twelfth-century hand.
9
B.A.E. YORK
Aethelbert in the senior position between 732 and 748 and Eadbert
and Aethelbert both alive in 762.
One solution might be to conclude that Aethelbert and Eadbert
ruled together from 725 to 762 and that the Chronicle record is
entirely mistaken. However, there is another explanation which
requires only a slight emendation of the Chronicle. Matthew Paris in
his Flores Historiarum has a regnal list which differs from any other
surviving.0
' It has the reading 'Wihtred. Aethelbert. Eadbert. Aethelbert.
', and thus implies that there were two kings called Aethelbert in
the period 725 to 762. This fits very well with the available evidence.
In the charter record Aethelbert appears as the dominant king until
747 or 748, when Eadbert seems to inherit the position. There is not
another charter in the name of Aethelbert until 762, and it is
reasonable to assume that the Aethelbert of 762 is a different
individual to that of 725 to 747/8. The only emendation required is
that the Chronicle should read under 748 accession, rather than death
of Eadbert, while the entry for 762, as we shall see, can be allowed to
stand.
A third king appears to have been ruling in Kent before Aethelbert's
death. In B 175 an Eardwulf rex Cantuariorum granted land to
St. Andrew's, Rochester. The charter is witnessed by King Aethelbert
and Eardwulf is presumably to be identified with King Eadbert's
son of that name.02 Unfortunately, like the majority of the Kentish
charters, this grant is only preserved in a post-Conquest copy. It has
the date 762, indiction fifteen, but the anno domini date would seem
to be incorrect. Not only is 762 not the equivalent of indiction fifteen,
but it is also too late for Archbishop Cuthbert who attested the grant
and who died in 760. The date generally proposed for this charter is
747 which does have the indiction number fifteen, and it is assumed
that the date of 762 was added by a later copyist.63 This would mean
that the first evidence for Eardwulf as king occurs just before
Aethelbert's death. The end of the latter's reign is implied by the
61 Matthew Paris, Flores Historiarum, (Ed.) H.R. Luard, Rolls ser. 95 (1890), 464. 11
is the only regnal list that includes the names of the kings of Kent who are not
mentioned by Bede. Matthew had access to a number of primary sources for the
Anglo-Saxon period at St. Albans, some reliable, others not. He knew, for instance,
some of the Rochester charters from the Textus Roffensis. His Northumbrian regnal
list is also of considerable interest as it includes late kings not recorded elsewhere (see
W. Davies, 'Annals and the Origin of Mercia', Mercian Studies, (Ed.) A. Dornier
(1977), 27, n. 12).
62 As revealed in B 176, Sawyer 31. The charter is in a contemporary manuscript, but
undated.
"-' Charters of Rochester, (Ed.), A. Campbell, Anglo-Saxon Charters I (1973), no. 4
and xxii.
10
JOINT KINGSHIP IN KENT
Chronicle to have been in 748, but there is a record of Eadbert
granting toll to Reculver in 74704 and, as one might expect the
granting of toll to have been the prerogative of the senior king, it is
possible that Aethelbert ceased to rule before the end of 747.
After Aethelbert Il's disappearance from the records, Eadbert
took over his senior position and ruled for an unspecified length of
time with his son, Eardwulf.05 Sometime after 754 Eardwulf joined
with Bishop Ealdwulf of Rochester in writing to Boniface,6° but when
he ceased to rule is unknown. However, in 762 Eadbert is found
ruling with a King Sigered who granted land to Rochester in that
year.•1 Sigered's name is reminiscent of the East Saxon royal house,
but as the abbess of the royal nunnery of Minster-in-Thanet in 761
was called Sigeburga,08 it would seem likely that the element Sige- was
being used at this time by members of the Kentish royal house.
From 762 until 764 the political situation in Kent is complex. We
may assume that Eadbert died in 762 as his witness to Sigered's grant
is his last appearance. It would seem that he was briefly succeeded by
Aethelbert III who appears in Matthew Paris' list as his successor and
exchanged land with SS. Peter and Paul, Canterbury, in 762 before
disappearing from view.00 As the Chronicle records the death of
Aethelbert, King of Kent, in 762 it would appear that he died in the
same year in which he succeeded to the throne. Sigered meanwhile
seems to have remained associated with the Rochester diocese.
Unfortunately, his second charter to Rochester in which he describes
himself as rex dimidiae partis provinciae Cantuariorum is undated,
although it was made by 764 as Archbishop Bregowine who died in
that year is a witness. 10 The charter is confirmed by an otherwise
unrecorded King Eanmund, possibly he was Aethelbert III's successor
in the eastern province .
.., B 173, Sawyer 1612. It is odd that Eadbert is not referred to in Eardwulf's grant for
Rochester. It is conceivable that there was conflict between Aethelbert and Eadbert
which led, say, to the temporary banishment of Eadbert in 747 and perhaps civil war
between them which resulted ultimately in Aethelbert's death.
65 Though in fact we lack records for Eadbert between 748 (B 177) and 761 (B 190).
B 190, Sawyer 28, states that Eadbert is making the grant pro aetema redemptione
animarum nostrarum meae uidelicet atque c/ementissimi regis Aethelberti. It may be a
reference to his (presumably) dead brother or could be an indication that he was by
this time ruling with Aethelbert III, in which case the appearance of Sigered (see
below) makes the situation more complex.
66 Die Briefe der Heiligen Bonifatius und Lullus, (Ed.) M. Tang(, Monumenta
Germaniae Historica, Epistolae Selectae 1 (1916), no. 122.
67 B 193, Sawyer 32; the grant is witnessed by Eadbert.
68 She was granted a remission of toll by Eadbert in B 189, Sawyer 29.
69 B 191, Sawyer 25.
70 B 194, Sawyer 33.
11
B.A.E. YORK
The reigns of Sigered and Eanmund may well have been ended by
Offa of Mercia who first appears in Kent in 764 when he re-granted
the land Sigered had given to Rochester in B 194. 11 Associated with
him in the grant was a King Heaberht who appears elsewhere with
the title 'King of Kent' and may have been the man of that name who
witnessed B 194. The name is relatively common in Mercia, but
Heaberht's origins are unknown. Heaberht is subsequently found
associated with Ecgbert II who may more confidently, from the form
of his name, be identified as an Oiscingas and is acknowledged as
king in Matthew's list.72 Ecgbert made a grant to Rochester in 765
which was witnessed by Heaberht and Offa73 and another undated
grant to Rochester was witnessed by Heaberht1◄ who then disappears
from view and is only otherwise recorded on his extremely rare
coinage.75 However, we do not know exactly when Heaberht ceased
to rule as there are no more Kentish charters until 774 when Offa
granted lands to Canterbury without reference to any local king,76
though Ecgbert had witnessed a grant of Offa's in Sussex in 772. n
There was a major battle between the Mercians and the men of Kent
at Otford in 776 which may have resulted in reduced Mercian control
in Kent.78 In 778 and 779 Ecgbert granted lands to Rochester without
reference to Off a or any other king. 79 It seems that he also granted
land to Canterbury at this time, but that these grants were revoked
subsequently by Offa 'as though it were not lawful for Ecgbert to
grant lands in perpetuity by a written instrument•.w It is possible that
Offa was prepared to countenance Ecgbert as king in west Kent as
the Rochester charters were apparently allowed to stand. Offa
presumably regarded himself as ruler of the eastern province, but in
fact seems to have had little authority in Kent between 776 and 785.
Towards the end of that period, in 784, a King Ealhmund of Kent
granted land to Reculver.81 It is the only appearance of a king of that
71 B 195, Sawyer 105.
72 Matthew included the name 'Ecgferthus' between that of Aethelbert III and
Ecgbert II. The significance of the name is not clear.
73 B 196, Sawyer 34.
" B 260, Sawyer 37.
75 C.E. Blunt, 'Toe Anglo-Saxon Coinage and the Historian', Med. Arch., iv (1960),
1-15. Rather more coins survive in Ecgbert's name.
76 B 123, Sawyer 110 and B 214, Sawyer 111.
n B 208, Sawyer 108.
76 The battle is recorded in the Chronicle, but the outcome is not given.
79 B 227, Sawyer 35 and B 228, Sawyer 36.
80 B 293, Sawyer 155, cite·d by F.M. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England (3rd ed., 1971),
36, n. 1. B 293, Sawyer 155 and B 319, Sawyer 1259 also refer to grants by Ecgbert
subsequently revoked by Offa.
81 B 243, Sawyer 38.
12
JOINT KINGSHIP IN KENT
name who may have been partner or successor to Ecgbert II. Later
tradition identified Ealhmund of Kent with the father of Ecgbert of
Wessex of the same name,S2 but the identification seems doubtful and
there is no evidence that Wessex had authority in Kent at this time.
From 785 Offa seems to have reasserted his authority in Kent and
ruled there as king without reference to any local rulers.3 Eadbert
Praen, who may well have been a member of the Kentish royal
house,114 temporarily won back Kent from Mercian control between
796 and 798, as did Baldred between c. 823 and 825, though his defeat
saw Kent pass permanently into West Saxon hands. But it was Offa
who finally destroyed the joint kingship of Kent, though the division
into two provinces persisted throughout the ninth century when east
and west Kent each had its own ealdorman."-'
Joint reigns were evidently a very significant feature of the Kentish
kingship system before the province's annexation by Mercia. Of the
nine Oiscingas reigns between Aethelbert I and Aethelbert II,
recorded in the king-lists as single reigns,!16 all but two of the reigns
can be shown to have been shared, though the evidence for the early
seventh century is not entirely satisfactory. Of the two exceptions,
Eadric's reign lasted only one and a half years and so is not
well-documented, while for Ecgbert's we have scarcely any evidence
outside Bede's Ecclesiastical History. The pattern continues after
Aethelbert II's death, when most of the regnal lists cease, with
Eadbert ruling with Eardwulf and then Sigered; followed by Aethelbert
III and Sigered; Eanmund and Sigered; Ecgbert II and
Heaberht. What is particularly striking is that the pattern of joint
112 The claim is made in the twelfth-century 'F' version of the Chronicle, written at
Canterbury. It may have been no more than the coincidence of names and Ecgbert of
Wessex's later connection with Kent which suggested it. There is no other sign of West
Saxon involvement in Kent during the reign of Offa.
!ll Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, 206.
114 Eadbert Praen was in holy orders which made his accession illegal in the eyes of
the church (B 288, letter from Pope Leo III to King Coenwulf of Mercia). The placing
of royal rivals in the church was common in the Anglo-Saxon period for this very
reason. There is an interesting possible parallel to Eadbert in contemporary Northumbria
where Osbald broke his monastic vow in 796 to become king.
ss H.M. Chadwick, Studies on Anglo-Saxon Institutions (1905), 192-3, 271.
86 It excludes Oswine who is not acknowledged as king by Bede nor in the Chronicle
whose compiler took much of his Kentish information from Bede, but may also have
used a Kentish king-list for the reigns of Wihtred's sons. Apart from CCCC 173 no
separate king-lists exist, though post-Conquest chronicles including the Gesra Regum
of William of Malmesbury (n. 56), Matthew Paris' Flores (n. 61), Chronicon ex
Chronicis (n. 59) and the Historia Anglorum of Henry of Huntingdon, (Ed.) T.
Arnold, Rolls ser. 74 (1879), 64 and 134, list the names of Kentish kings. Of these, only
Matthew's list shows signs of independence of Bede and the Chronicle.
13
B.A.E. YORK
reigns continues at times of foreign conquest. Sighere and Mul seem
to have ruled Kent after Eadric's deposition, to be replaced by
Swaefheard and Oswine, under the supervision of Aethelred of
Mercia. Even Off a, not renowned as a respecter of local custom, may
have permitted the kingdom to be divided between himself and
Ecgbert II. At the beginning of the eighth century there are some
signs of a third joint ruler, though the evidence is not entirely clear.
The exact status of Eadbert in the latter part of Wihtred's reign is not
certain and he definitely did not use the title of 'king' until after his
father's death. in 747, Aethelbert II, Eadbert and Eardwulf do seem
to have been ruling at the same time, but Aethelbert died later that
year or in the following year and we do not know how long the
arrangement had been in existence or whether it came into being to
meet a particular situation in 747. Although it would be unwise to be
too categoric in view of the limitations of the sources, particularly for
the first three quarters of the seventh century, it does appear that
dual reigns were the norm in Kent and that no more than three kings
can be found ruling together in Kent at any one time."'
To a certain extent, at least, the dual kingship can be connected
with the division of the kingdom into the two dioceses of Canterbury
and Rochester. In a number of instances the junior partner can be
associated with the diocese of Rochester. Aethelwald, for instance,
was converted by Bishop Justus of Rochester, while the senior ruler,
Eadbald, was the prize of Archbishop Lawrence. Eardwulf who ruled
with his father, Eadbert, not only granted land to Rochester, but sent
a letter jointly with its bishop to the Anglo-Saxon missionary,
Boniface. Sigered who styled himself 'King of half Kent' appears only
in Rochester charters, while Offa seems to have been prepared to
allow Ecgbert II to grant land within the Rochester diocese, but not
elsewhere in Kent. The senior kings, on the other hand, granted
lands more often in eastern Kent and tended to issue charters from
places within the eastern province.RH As far as we can tell, the two
kings did tend to have different territorial bases and B 159 was
witnessed separately by Eadbert and Aethelbert II, each with his own
entourage. If the two provinces were organised so that each could
, One can contrast the position in Wessex where charters, regnal tables and the
Chronicle indicate a rather more diverse system of multiple kingship; B.A.E. Yorke,
'The Kingship Systems of the early West Saxon Kings' (forthcoming).
k8 The places of issue of charters (where given) are as follows:
Hlothere - Canterbury (B 36), Reculver (B 45)
Aethelbert II - Canterbury (B 148 and 1S9), Lyrninge (B 160)
Eadbert (as chief king) - Canterbury (B 190)
Aethelbert III - Canterbury (B 191)
Ecgbert II - Canterbury (B 227)
14
JOINT KINGSHIP IN KENT
support its own royal court, it would help to explain the persistence of
the two ealdormanries in Kent after the removal of the native
dynasty.
The provision of the two dioceses is more likely to have accommodated
an existing subdivision within the kingdom than to have been
the cause of it. The origin of the division into east and west Kent
would thus belong to the pre-Christian period and so be lost to
written tradition. Archaeology may throw more light on events of the
fifth and sixth centuries in Kent. Work already done reveals that the
main concentration of Jutish settlement lay in eastern Kent and that
settlement of the Rochester area was secondary and on a lesser
scale."" Up until the seventh century, the Medway appears to have
been a boundary between the Jutes and the Saxons who settled
between it and the Thames."" The need to keep this important
frontier under permanent supervision may provide an explanation of
the origins of the junior kingship based in western Kent, though it
does not explain the persistence of dual kingship up to the third
quarter of the eighth century.
Although the two kings seem to have had different territorial
bases, it does not mean that they necessarily ruled independently of
each other or were of equal status. When the two kings were both
from the same branch of the royal family the premier king, whose
name appears in the regnal lists, seems to have possessed far greater
authority than his junior partner: Eadbert had to have his charters
approved by Aethelbert II, but the reverse does not seem to have
been true. Frequently, the senior king seems to have all but eclipsed
the junior - Wihtred did not allow his eldest son to use the title 'king',
though Aethelbert seems to have been allowed some share in royal
government. The junior position was not necessarily permanently
filled, for although we can show that the majority of Oiscingas shared
part of their reign with another ruler, we cannot usually demonstrate
that the whole of the reign was shared. Wihtred began ruling with
Swaefheard and ended (probably) ruling with his son, Aethelbert,
but did not necessarily have a partner in the intervening period, the
evidence is not sufficient to be sure one way or the other. However,
we need not assume that relationships between the rulers were always
the same. They might vary depending on the exact kinship of the two
kings, not to mention differences in personality and ability and other
such factors which are impossible to measure. The fact that Aethel-
•• S. Chadwick Hawkes, 'Anglo-Saxon Kent, c. 425-725', Archaeology in Kent to
AD 1500, (Ed.) P. Leach, CBA Research Report no. 48 (1982), 64-78.
"'Ibid., 74.
15
B.A.E. YORK
bert I and Wihtred issued laws in their own names alone, but
Hlothere issued his jointly with his nephew, Eadric, may point to
differences in their partnerships. A man might be less willing to
accept subordinaton to a brother, than to a father. Bishop Ealdwulf s
embarrassed explanation that he had not realised that he needed the
confirmation of Aethelbert 11 to a grant by Eadbert may indicate a
difference of opinion between the two brothers about their spheres of
influence, and when Eadbert succeeded his brother he calculated his
regnal years from the end of his father's reign, not his brother's, as
one would normally have expected. 91
When two closely related members of the Kentish royal family
ruled together, they do not appear to have done so as equals, but
when the two rulers were not closely related they were more likely to
claim equal status. Oswine and Swaefheard both witnessed and
consented to each other's grants of land•2 and although one might
have expected Swaefheard to have been most interested in the
western Kentish province which was closest to the East Saxon
kingdom, both kings granted land in eastern Kent. Swaefheard also
seems to have claimed equal status with Oswine's successor, Wihtred.
Bede records that Berhtwald was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
while Swaefheard and Wihtred were ruling.93 It is the only joint
reign he refers to in Kent and this may be an indication of its rather
different quality. Sigered with his title 'King of half Kent' seems to be
claiming equal status with his partners. Even if Sigered could claim
descent from Oisc, the form of his name suggests he was not a
member of the main line. The equality claimed by foreign intruders
and distant cousins underlines the fact that, although the division into
east and west Kent was obviously of great significance, the kingdom
of Kent was also viewed as a whole. When the two kings were close
relatives power was not equally divided between them and the senior
king had control of the whole kingdom with only aspects of the royal
authority delegated to his junior partner. But when the two kings
were not part of the same family unit, there was equality between the
partners as both wished to have the authority and advantages enjoyed
by the chief king.
When one compares Kent with other early AngloSaxon kingdoms
•• In B 189, Sawyer 29, dated 761, Eadbert is said to be in the thirty-sixth year of his
reign, that is he is dating the charter from the time of his father's death. Eadbert seems
to have been very conscious of his dignity as king. In B 190, Sawyer 28, he is described
as Eadbertus dei di.spensatione ab uniuersa prouincia Cantuariorum constitutus rex et
princeps.
Previous
Previous
Rules
Next
Next