St Æthelberht I (552 – 615) King of Kent, 1st English Christian King, Founder of St Paul’s Cathedral and Canterbury Cathedral

Christopher Wren by Godfrey Kneller 1711

In 596, Pope Gregory the Great sent Saint Augustine to England, purportedly to convert Æthelberht to Christianity. His wife Bertha was already a Christian so it’s likely that he was as well. Mainly, it can be thought that Augustine galvanized his Christian spirit to convert all his subjects and rival kings to Roman Catholicism. He spent the remainder of his life doing just that. He, his wife, and their daughter were all canonized as a result.

According to my research, Queen Elizabeth I (1533 – 1603) and her mother Anne Boleyn (1501- 1536) were both matrilineal descendants of Saint Bertha of the Franks (541 – 616). She was the agnatic great-granddaughter of Clovis Meroving, 1st King of All Franks (466 – 511).

He’s also credited with founding both St Paul’s Cathedral and Canterbury Cathedral. He donated the land occupied by both present-day cathedrals were built. St Paul’s Cathedral is a historic London landmark that was designed by Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of 1666 destroyed Old St Paul’s Cathedral. The basic foundation and superstructure of Canterbury Cathedral remain pretty much the same as when the building construction was first completed in 1070.

Æthelberht was the first English king to codify his complex laws in writing. Other kings, such as Alfred the Great, later adopted his legal structure template in establishing their law codes. Law of Æthelberht is generally regarded by historians as the first legal document written in the English language and the first Germanic-language law code.

His sister Riccula married King Sledd of Essex (587 – 604), who was an agnatic descendant of Arminius, King of Teutonic Germans (21 BC – 17 AD). Their son Sæberht was the first East Saxon king to convert to Christianity. He founded the first Christian church in Essex on the present-day site of Westminster Abbey. His tomb is located at the entrance of the South Ambulatory.

He was an agnatic descendant of Hengest Wihtgilsson von Sachsen, 1st Jute King of Kent (414 – 488), who was an agnatic descendant of Sigge “Odin” Fridulfsson of Asgard (50 BC – 30 AD) 1st King of Scandinavia.

His feast is celebrated on 25 February.

By Steven Wood Collins

I spent most of my life unaware of my ancestral heritage. Sure, I knew of the personal history of my more immediate relatives; but beyond that, I never had any inkling as to my ancestral heritage. Then one day many years ago my sister said to me, “I sometimes wonder about our family background.” And so my quest to discover our genealogical roots commenced.

I started building my family tree with the very basic relationships, going back in time from my grandparents, one ancestor at a time. That initial effort proved to be the hardest part of the pursuit, mainly due to my lack of expertise as a novice genealogical researcher. As I gained familiarity with the databases and how to efficiently mine them, my progress gained ever-increasing momentum. Today, The Patricians! tree (Ancestry.com) contains nearly 120,000 individuals, stretching over 135 generations, 5,800 of which are my direct ancestors in a genealogical sense.

During this trek back in time, I encountered fascinating figures in both history and obscurity. This blog contains many stories about their genealogical relationship to me (and many of you). By far and away, as a student of history, the historically obscure individuals are of particular interest to me. I cite Baron “Blue Beard” Montmorency-Laval de Rais (1405 – 1440) as an example of a historically maligned personage whose real contribution to history, as both a playwright and hero of France, has yet to be properly recognized. Another example is Earl Edward de Vere (1550 – 1604), who’s yet to gain widespread recognition as the actual author of the body of literary work wrongly ascribed to William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616).

My life-long interest in international economics and finance continues unabated. I primarily demonstrate this professional involvement as a contributor to the Long Room, the members-only international finance professionals' forum hosted by the Financial Times of London.

I'm an avid recreational scuba diver who enjoys traveling to exotic dive sites. My love of the sea and marine life gives me an unbounded appreciation and support of “green” issues, especially those devoted to the conservation of endangered species and coral reefs.

He continually posts results of his personal genealogical research to his Goodreads Authors Blog. Entitled The Patricians - The Ancestral Heritage of Steven Wood Collins, the work represents thousand of hours of his research efforts and related commentary.

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