Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 16.djvu/311

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Eadbert
304
Eadbert

son Earconberht (Hist. Eccles. iii. 8). Nevertheless, he did what he could to promote the spread of christianity. He is said to have built a church at Canterbury and another church for a nunnery that his daughter Eanswith founded at Folkestone; he was claimed as a benefactor by both Christ Church and St. Augustine's at Canterbury, and it has been suggested that the ancient church in Dover Castle dates from his time (Norman Conquest, iii. 535 n.). When the Northumbrian king Eadwine asked his sister Æthelburh or Tata in marriage, he refused the request on the ground of Eadwine's heathenism, but finally agreed on being assured that she and her attendants should be allowed to practise their religion, and that Eadwine would embrace it if he was convinced of its excellence (Hist. Eccles. ii. 9). He sent Paulinus with Æthelburh. When she and Paulinus fled from Northumbria on the death of Eadwine in 633, he received them with great honour, and appointed Paulinus to the see of Rochester (ib. 20). He married Emma, a daughter of a Frankish king, probably of Theodeberht, king of Austrasia (Pagi, Baronius, Ann. Eccl. xi. 345), who survived him two years. He died on 20 Jan. 640, and was buried in the church of SS. Peter and Paul (St. Augustine's) at Canterbury. A gold coin of Eadbald with the legend avdvarld rege is described in Kenyon's ‘Gold Coins of England,’ p. 8. Two spurious charters are ascribed to him.

[Bædæ Hist. Eccles ii. 5–9, 20, iii. 8 (Engl. Hist. Soc.); Thorn's Chron. col. 1767–8, Twysden; Florence of Worcester, i. 258–9 (Engl. Hist. Soc.); Hasted's Hist. of Kent, iii. 382–3; Freeman's Norman Conquest, iii. 535; Dugdale's Monasticon, iv. 672; Kemble's Codex Dipl. 6, 983; Haddan and Stubbs's Councils and Eccl. Docs. iii. 69, 70, 239; Dict. of Christian Biog., art. ‘Eadbald.’]

W. H.

EADBERT or EADBERHT, Saint (d. 698), bishop of Lindisfarne, was a monk of Lindisfarne when, in 688, he succeeded St. Cuthberht [q. v.] in the bishopric. He was well versed in the holy scriptures and was exceedingly charitable, giving a tithe not only of animals but also of fruits and even clothes to the poor (Bæda). He took off the roof of wood and reeds with which Finan had covered the church of the monastery, and had the whole roofed with sheets of lead, which seem to have been turned down over the walls. It was his custom to retire to a hermitage on an island during the period of Lent and for forty days before Christmas. While he was thus absent from the monastery in the Lent of 698, the monks, with his consent, translated the body of St. Cuthberht; they found the body of the saint undecayed, and carried the news to the bishop. Eadberht bade them lay the body in the tomb that had been prepared for it, and declared that the grave from which it had been taken would not long remain empty. He used to pray most earnestly that he might not die suddenly, and now fell sick and lingered until 6 May, when he died, after much suffering. In obedience to his orders the brethren laid his body in the ground which had held the body of St. Cuthberht, beneath the new tomb of the saint. His bones were preserved by the congregation of Lindisfarne and carried by them in their wanderings along with St. Cuthberht's body, and were finally placed with it in the saint's shrine at Durham.

[Bædæ Hist. Eccles. iii. c. 24, 25, iv. 29, Vita S. Cudbercti, pp. 37, 125, 131 (Engl. Hist. Soc.); Reginaldi Libellus, p. 82 (Surtees Soc.); Symeon of Durham's Hist. Dunelm. i. 36, 38, 252 (Rolls Ser.); Dict. of Christian Biog. ii. 2.]

W. H.

EADBERT or EADBERHT (d. 768), king of the Northumbrians, son of Eata, a member of the royal house, came to the throne in 738 on the retirement of his cousin Ceolwulf. His brother Ecgberht [see Egbert] had been appointed to the see of York, probably in 732, and the two brothers worked together with one mind, each helping the other, the archbishop ruling the church and the king the state (Carmen de Pontiff. 1273–86). An evidence of their perfect accord and almost co-ordinate authority is afforded by the coins (sceattæ) which bear the names both of the king and of the archbishop (Kenyon). The glories of the church and school at York were equalled by the military glories of the reign. In 740 Eadberht was warring against the Picts. During his absence Æthelbald, the powerful king of Mercia, treacherously ravaged part of his kingdom (Bæda, Hist. Eccl. ap. p. 288). In 750 he took Kyle in Ayrshire from the Strathclyde Welsh and added it and other districts to his own dominions. All neighbouring kings, it is said, whether of the English, Picts, Britons, or Scots, were glad to be at peace with him and to do him honour. His fame was so great that Pippin, king of the Franks, made alliance with him and sent him gifts (Symeon of Durham). Cynewulf, bishop of Lindisfarne, grievously offended him, for one of his kinsmen named Offa, who had fled to the shrine of St. Cuthberht for shelter from his enemies, was left without food until he nearly perished with hunger, and was then taken from sanctuary and put to death. Eadberht caught the bishop, kept him prisoner for some time at Bamborough, and further ordered that Lin-