was the first strife that occurred between different tribes of the invaders. But on the fall of Ceawlin in 592 and the subsequent decay of Wessex, Ethelbert made himself overlord of the East Saxons, obtained possession of London, and extended his authority over ‘all the English race’ as far as the Humber.²²  He married Bertha, daughter of Charibert of Paris,²³  and from this union resulted the mission of Augustine and the conversion of England. Augustine became bishop of Canterbury, and in 604 a second bishopric was established at Rochester. This has led to the supposition that from early times Kent was divided into two kingdoms of East and West Kent, as the early bishoprics were usually coterminous with kingdoms. There is a good deal of later evidence for divided sovereignty, but as regards the earliest period the question must remain doubtful.²⁴
   Another advance made by Ethelbert was the recording of the laws or ‘dooms ‘ of Kent ‘after the example of the Romans.’²⁵  This was done ‘cum consilio sapientium ‘—the first recorded instance of the legislative action of the witenagemot.²⁶ Bede, followed by the Chronicle,²⁷  places Ethelbert third in the list of the supreme rulers of England, whom the Chronicle terms Bretwaldas.²⁸  But the supremacy of Kent was already weakened during Ethelbert’s reign by the rising power of East Anglia under Redwald, and on his death in 616 it entirely disappeared. His son Eadbald at first rejected Christianity until he was converted by Laurentius. Though ‘his power was not such as his father’s had been,’²⁹  yet he maintained the independence of Kent when all the rest of England submitted to Edwin, the great king of Northumbria.³⁰  Edwin married Eadbald’s sister Ethelburga, and Paulinus accompanied her to York as bishop. Thus a Christian princess from Kent introduced the new religion to the north, as one from Paris had introduced it to Kent. Eadbald was followed in 640 by Earembert, who was the first English king to order the destruction of idols and the strict observance of Lent.³¹  Then came Egbert (664) and Hloththere (673), the only incident of whose reign was an invasion of Kent in 676 by Etheired of Mercia, who plundered the city of Rochester and destroyed many churches and monasteries.³² Contemporary with these there is a king Oswine,³³  of whom Bede makes no mention. Edric succeeded in 685, and reigned a year and a half.³⁴  In 686 Ceadwalla of Wessex raided the
   ²²  Bede, loc. cit. Green (Making of England, 211, 214, 308) interprets ‘gens Anglorum’ as excluding the Saxon tribes, but this seems unlikely.
   ²³  Bede, op. cit. i, 25.
   ²⁴  Kemble, Saxon: in Engl. i, 148—9, collects the evidence from charters. The most definite mention of division is in a charter of 762, in which Sigiraed calls himself  ‘rex dimidiae partis provinciae Cantuariorum.’ Two centuries later the Chronicle distinguishes the West Kentings (sub anno 999) from the East Kentings (sub anno 1009); cf. Kemble, Cod. Dipl. iv, 266, ‘pegenas ge of East Cent ge of West Cent’ (ann. 995-1005).
   ²⁵  Bede, Hist. Eccl. ii, 5. The laws are printed in Thorpe, Ancient Laws, i, 2—25; they chiefly relate to the fines for various offences.
   ²⁶  The Anglo-Saxon version of Bede (made c. 900) does not, however, use the term ‘witenagemot,’ but verbally translates the Latin phrase as ‘mid snotera gepeahte.’
   ²⁷  Sub anno 827.
   ²⁸  See Kemble, Saxons in Engl. ii, 8—22, and Freeman, Norm. Conq. i, App. B, for various views as to the meaning of this term.
   ²⁹  Bede, op. cit. ii, 5, 6.
   ³⁰  Bede, Hist. Eccl. ii, 5. Edwin ‘Angborum pariter et Brettonum populis praefuit, praeter Cantuariis tantum.’
   ³¹  Ibid. iii, 8.                                    ³³  Ibid. iv, 12.
   ³³  Birch, Cartul. Sax. No. 35, ann. 675; No. 73, ann. 689.
   ³⁴  Bede, op. cit. iv, 26. Edric and Hloththere appear to have reigned jointly for a time. A short Kentish code of laws (680) bears their joint names.