2021-07-14 Wed

Eadbald was King of Kent reigning from 616 until his death in 640.

He was the son of King Ethelberht and his wife Bertha, a daughter of the Merovingian king Charibert. Ethelberht made Kent the dominant force in England during his reign and became the first Anglo-Saxon king to convert to Christianity from Anglo-Saxon paganism.

He had not been influenced by the teaching of the Christian missionaries, and his first step on his accession was to marry his father’s widow. After his subsequent conversion by Laurentius, archbishop of Canterbury, he built a church in Canterbury dedicated to the Virgin Mary. He arranged a marriage between his sister Aethelberg and Edwin of Northumbria, on whose defeat and death in 633 he received his sister in the company of Paulinus and offered the latter the bishopric of Rochester. Eadbald was succeeded as king by his son Eorcenberht.

There is little documentary evidence about the nature of trade in Eadbald's reign. Coins were probably first minted in Kent in Ethelberht's reign, though none bear his name. These early golden coins were probably the shillings (Old English: scillingas) that are mentioned in Ethelberht's laws. The coins are also known to numismatists as "thrymsas". Thrymsas are known from Eadbald's reign, but few are known that carry his name: one such was minted at London and inscribed "AVDVARLD". It has been suggested that kings did not have a monopoly on the production of coinage at that time.

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