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The kingdom of the Kentish (; (ラテン語:Regnum Cantuariorum)), today referred to as the Kingdom of Kent (), was an early medieval kingdom in what is now South East England. Establishing itself in either the fifth or sixth centuries CE, it continued to exist until being fully absorbed into the Kingdom of England in the tenth century. Under the preceding Romano-British administration, the area of Kent faced repeated attacks from seafaring raiders during the fourth century CE, with Germanic-speaking ''foederati'' likely being invited to settle in the area as mercenaries. Following the end of Roman administration in 410, further linguistically Germanic tribal groups moved into the area, as testified by both archaeological evidence and Late Anglo-Saxon textual sources. The primary ethnic group to settle in the area appears to have been the Jutes, who established their Kingdom in East Kent, which was potentially initially under the dominion of the Kingdom of Francia. It has been argued that an East Saxon community initially settled West Kent, before being conquered by the expanding East Kentish in the sixth century. The earliest recorded king of Kent was Æthelberht, who as bretwalda wielded significant influence over other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the late sixth century. The Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons began in Kent under Æthelberht’s reign with the arrival of the monk Augustine of Canterbury and his Gregorian mission in 597. It was one of the seven traditional kingdoms of the so-called Anglo-Saxon heptarchy, but it lost its independence in the 8th century when it became a sub-kingdom of Mercia. In the 9th century, it became a sub-kingdom of Wessex, and in the 10th century, it became part of the unified Kingdom of England that was created under the leadership of Wessex. Its name has been carried forward ever since as the county of Kent. Knowledge of Anglo-Saxon Kent comes from scholarly study of Late Anglo-Saxon texts such as the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' and the ''Ecclesiastical History of the English People'', as well as archaeological evidence such as that left by Early Medieval cemeteries and settlements, and by the toponymical evidence of Kentish place-names. ==Decline of Romano-British Kent== In the Romano-British period, the area of modern Kent that lay east of the River Medway was a ''civitas'' known as ''Cantiaca''. Its name had been taken from an older Common Brittonic place-name, ''Cantium'' ("corner of land" or "land on the edge") that had been used for the area in the preceding pre-Roman Iron Age, although the geographical extent of this tribal area is unknown. During the late third and fourth centuries, Roman Britain had fallen victim to repeated raids by Franks, Saxons, Picts, and Scots. Given that it was the closest part of Britain to mainland Europe, it is likely that Kent would have experienced many attacks from seafaring raiders, resulting in the construction of four Saxon Shore Forts along the Kentish coast: Regulbium, Rutupiae, Dubris, and Portus Lemanis. It is also likely that Germanic-speaking mercenaries from northern Gaul, known as ''foederati'', would have been hired to supplement these official Roman troops during this period, being given land in Kent as payment. These ''foederati'' would have assimilated into wider Romano-British culture, making them difficult to distinguish archaeologically from the Romano-British population. At the same time, there is evidence that in the fourth and early fifth centuries, rural villa sites were coming to be abandoned, suggesting that the Romano-British elite were moving to the comparative safety of the fortified urban centres. However, various urban centres also witnessed decline; Canterbury showed evidence of a declining population and reduced activity from the late third century onward, while Dover was abandoned by the end of the fourth century. In 407, the Roman legions departed from Britain in order to deal with incursions by attacking forces in the Roman Empire's continental heartlands. In 410, the Roman Emperor Honorius sent a letter to his British subjects announcing that they must thenceforth look after their own defence and could no longer rely on the imperial military to protect them. According to the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', a text produced in late Anglo-Saxon England and which is not considered an accurate record of events in the fifth century, in 418 many Romans left Britain via Kent, taking much of their wealth with them, which may represent a memory of a genuine exodus of the Roman aristocracy. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kingdom of Kent」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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