Published on 2026-04-14

King Eadbald marries his stepmother and converts

Eadbald of Kent is a ruler who remained a pagan unlike his father Æthelberht. Upon the death of the latter in 616, he chooses to marry his stepmother and rejects the Christian religion. Struck afterwards by fits of madness that Bede attributes to a demon, he eventually abandons his union and converts to Christianity.