Marriage to Bertha and the Frankish Christian Presence
Around 580, before he became king, Ethelbert married Bertha of Kent, the Christian daughter of Charibert I, king of the Franks. The marriage was concluded on the condition that Bertha be allowed to practise her faith, and she brought with her a chaplain, Liudhard.
Bertha secured the use of a restored Roman church outside Canterbury, dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours, as her private chapel; it survives as the Church of St Martin's, Canterbury. Her established Christian presence prepared the ground for Augustine's mission, and Pope Gregory I engaged her directly in his strategy, writing to urge her to incline her husband's heart toward the faith and later, in 601, complimenting her on her faith and learning.
The Augustine Mission and Conversion
Pope Gregory I chose Kent as the target for Augustine's mission because Ethelbert commanded major influence over neighbouring Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and was already married to a Christian Frankish princess. The mission arrived on the Isle of Thanet in 597, and Ethelbert, wary of sorcery, at first insisted on meeting the missionaries outdoors.
An old tradition places his baptism on 1 June in the year Augustine arrived, and a later medieval chronicle names Whit Sunday, 2 June 597, though the sources note the exact date is uncertain. By 601 Pope Gregory's letters confirm the king had been baptised, addressing him as his son. Because large-scale conversion in the early medieval period generally required the ruler's conversion first, Ethelbert's own baptism allowed Augustine to win large numbers of converts within a year.
Ethelbert supported the mission concretely: he permitted the missionaries to settle and preach in Canterbury, granted them the use of St Martin's Church, donated land outside the city walls for a monastery (later St Augustine's Abbey, dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul), and helped build St Paul's in London. Through his authority he also influenced the conversion of his nephew Sæberht, king of Essex.
The Law Code and Legacy
About 602–603 Ethelbert issued a law code of ninety sections, written in Anglo-Saxon. It is described as the earliest surviving code composed in any of the Germanic countries and among the first documents written in the English language, and it was preserved in the twelfth-century manuscript known as the Textus Roffensis.
The code opens with a provision concerning the Church and sets graduated compensation fines for wrongs against bishops, deacons, and priests, calibrated to the victim's rank. It reflects the integration of Christian ecclesiastical order into Kentish law as a direct consequence of the king's conversion. Kent enjoyed strong trade connections across the English Channel during his reign, and the first coins minted in Kent may date to it, though none bear his name.
The Venerable Bede lists Ethelbert as the third king to hold imperium, or overlordship, over other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle names him bretwalda, 'Britain-ruler.' He is venerated as a saint for establishing Christianity among the Anglo-Saxons.
Veneration
Ethelbert died on 24 February 616 and was buried at St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury. His feast was originally kept on 24 February and was later moved to 25 February; he is listed in the 2004 Roman Martyrology under 24 February and is venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church as Saint Ethelbert, King of Kent.
As with other pre-schism Western saints venerated in the East, no formal modern act of glorification underlies his commemoration; Orthodox veneration rests on his traditional inclusion as a saint of the undivided Church.
