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]
England in the Middle Ages The Norman invasion of England in 1066 led to the defeat and replacement of the Anglo-Saxon elite with Norman and French nobles and their supporters. William the Conqueror and his successors took over the existing state system, repressing local revolts and controlling the population through a network of castles. The new rulers introduced a feudal approach to governing England, eradicating the practice of slavery but creating a much wider body of unfree labourers called serfs. The position of women in society changed as laws regarding land and lordship shifted. England's population more than doubled during the 12th and 13th centuries, fuelling an expansion of the towns, cities and trade, helped by warmer temperatures across Northern Europe. A new wave of monasteries and friaries were established, while ecclesiastical reforms led to tensions between successive kings and archbishops. Despite developments in England's governance and legal system, infighting between the Anglo-Norman elite resulted in multiple civil wars and the loss of Normandy.