who was sent to england to convert the pagan anglo-saxons
Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England In 595, when Pope Gregory I decided to send a mission to convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity,[1] the Kingdom of Kent was ruled by Æthelberht. He had married a Christian princess named Bertha before 588,[2] and perhaps earlier than 560.[3] Bertha was the daughter of Charibert I, one of the Merovingian kings of the Franks. As one of the conditions of her marriage she had brought a bishop named Liudhard with her to Kent as her chaplain.[4] They restored a church in Canterbury that dated to Roman times,[5] possibly the present-day St Martin's Church. Æthelberht was at that time a pagan, but he allowed his wife freedom of worship.[4] Liudhard does not appear to have made many converts among the Anglo-Saxons,[6] and if not for the discovery of a gold coin bearing the inscription Leudardus Eps (Eps is an abbreviation of Episcopus, the Latin word for bishop) his existence may have been doubted.[7] One of Bertha's biographers states that, influenced by his wife, Æthelberht requested Pope Gregory to send missionaries.[4] The historian Ian Wood feels that the initiative came from the Kentish court as well as the queen.[8]
Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain The Chronica Gallica of 452 records for the year 441: "The British provinces, which to this time had suffered various defeats and misfortunes, are reduced to Saxon rule." The Chronicle was written some distance from Britain.[11] There is uncertainty about precise dates for fifth-century events especially before 446.[12] This, however, does not undermine the position of the Gallic Chronicles as a very important contemporary source, which suggests that Bede's later date for 'the arrival of the Saxons' was mistaken. In the Chronicle, Britain is grouped with four other Roman territories which came under 'Germanic' dominion around the same time, the list being intended as an explanation of the end of the Roman empire in the west.[13] The four share a similar history, as they were all given into the "power of the barbarians" by Roman authority: three were deliberately settled with German federates and though the Vandals took Africa by force their dominion was confirmed by treaty.[11]