April 23, 725. Wihtred of Kent dies
725-760s. The kings of Kent
Bede gives the date of Wihtred's death, and notes that he left as heirs three sons, Æthelberht, Eadberht, and Alric (HE, v.23).
No more is known of Alric, but the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that Eadberht, king of Kent, died in 748 and Æthelberht, king of Kent, died in 762. While these two kings are known from the Chronicle, the charters reveal several more kings operating in Kent in this period, and an understanding of the succession is therefore heavily dependent on analysis of the charters. The following discussion is based on that of Kelly, pp.198-203. To sum up, it seems that Æthelberht and Eadberht and their followers ruled jointly. On Eadberht's death in 748, he was succeeded by Eardwulf, and at some point before 762 Eardwulf was probably succeeded by Sigered. On Æthelberht's death in 762, he was succeeded by Eadberht. Later medieval historians confused this second Eadberht (762-4?) with the first (725-48), but Kelly has explained how this confusion came about and demonstrated that there were two separate people. [Eardwulf issues two charters, one of them witnessed by Æthelberht (S 30, dated 762 but this date is impossible since one of the witnesses had died by 760, and S 31, undated). The second Eadberht issues two charters in 762/3 (S 28-9), and Sigered grants estates near Rochester in the early 760s (S 32, dated 762, and S 33, datable to 761?764).]
The fine details are perhaps only of local interest, because Kent had fallen under the control of Offa of Mercia by 764, and was clearly under the shadow of Æthelbald of Mercia (716-57) long before that. Bede notes that in his day (731) the various southern kings were all subject to Æthelbald of Mercia, and he also notes that the archbishop of Canterbury appointed in 731, Tatwine (731-4), was a Mercian (HE, v.31). Tatwine's successor Nothhelm (735-9) was also Mercian, which argues strong Mercian influence if not outright control, though we are less well-informed about the next two archbishops (see Brooks, p.80). There is no reason to believe that Mercian overlordship of Kent wavered between Bede's comment of 731 and Æthelbald's death in 757. Since Offa was not Æthelbald's chosen successor, Kent probably regained its independence after Æthelbald's death in 757, but it was only eight years later that Offa demonstrated Mercian control much more obviously, since in 764 the charters in the names of the kings of Kent cease outright. Aside from a couple of later interludes, where Mercian control wavered and independent Kentish kings reappeared briefly (Ecgberht and Ealhmund in 776-784, Eadberht Præn in 796-8), Kent became a province of Mercia until the 820s, when it was conquered by Wessex in its turn.
N. Brooks, The Early History of the Church of Canterbury (Leicester: 1984)
S. Kelly, Charters of St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury, and Minster-in-Thanet (Oxford: 1995)