EADBALD (ed'bawld) (d. 64o), king of Kent, succeeded on the death of his father Aethelbert in 616. He had not been influenced by the teaching of the Christian missionaries, and on his accession he followed the heathen custom and married his father's widow. After his subsequent conversion by Laurentius, archbishop of Canterbury, he recalled the bishops Mellitus and Justus, who had fled from his persecution, and built a church dedi cated to the Virgin at Canterbury. He arranged a marriage be tween his sister Aethelburh and Edwin of Northumbria, on whose defeat and death in 633 he received his sister and Paulinus, whom he had sent with her, and offered the latter the bishopric of Rochester. After his conversion Eadbald ceased to live with his first wife, and married Emma, a Frankish princess. He died on Jan. 20, 640.
See Bede, Historia ecclesiastica (ed. C. Plummer, 1896) ; Saxon Chronicle (ed. J. Earle and C. Plummer, 1899).