A Few Historical Personages
Ethelbert
- King of Kent
- Had a Christian wife, Bertha
- Talked with Augustine, finally converted to Christianity and was baptized
- Pope Gregory corresponded with this king
- Died in 616 – he ruled for 56 years
Edwin - Ruled over all England except Kent
- Became a Christian through the teaching of Paulinus – baptized 627
- Married Ethelbert’s daughter Ethelburh
- King of Wessex sent Eomer to assassinate him
- Received correspondence from Boniface and Honorius
- Brought peace to Britain
- Died in 633 at the Battle of Hatfield Chase
Oswald - King of Northumbria
“the most Christian king of the Northumbrians” – Bede - Asked for a bishop from Ireland (Aidan came)
- Ruled 9 years
- Killed at the battle of Maserfelth
Alfred - d. 899
- Crowned king by Pope Leo in 872
- Son Edward took the throne in 901
- Buried in Winchester
- Occupied London 886
Canute - Denmark / England
- Reigned from 1016 – 1035
- Laid everything to waste from Sandwich to Wessex -1016
- 1017 – 1031 Reigned in England
- Went to Rome in the fifteenth year of his reign - to atone for sins
- Died and was buried at Winchester
Edward the Confessor - Reigned 1042 – 1066
- Son of Etheldred the Unready
- Crowned at Winchester
- Promised the kingdom first to William of Normandy, and then to Harold Godwin
Harold Godwin - 1066 - was crowned Jan. 5, (having been promised the kingdom on the deathbed of Edward the Confessor
- died in October 1066 at the Battle of Hastings, against William of Normandy (who was the first to be promised the kingdom by Edward the Confessor)
William of Normandy (William the Conqueror) - Lived from 1035 to 1087
- Ruled England from 1066 to 1087 after beating Harold Godwin at the Battle of Hastings
- Ended Saxon age of England, fused Norman culture to that of England, thereby establishing the start of modern English culture
William Rufus - William the Conqueror left the throne of England to Rufus
- Rufus scorned religion, exploited the church, ruled with a rod of iron.
- 1089 seized the lands of Canterbury
- (Rufus was killed by an arrow while hunting.)
Henry I - ruled from 1100 to 1135
- Anselm threatened to excommunicate him in 1105 AD
- Norman & Saxon combine under his reign, and he married a Saxon (Matilda)
- "Henry I's reign marks the coming of age of the royal administration. Indeed, some historians have sen it as the seedbed of the modern state. The functions of the royal household officials were growing in importance and specialization." - Hollister, 135.
