 An important source for this period in Kentish history is The Ecclesiastical History of the English People , written in 731 by Bede , a Benedictine monk from Northumbria . Bede was primarily interested in the Christianization of England , but he also provides substantial information about secular history , including the reigns of Æthelberht and Eadbald . One of Bede 's correspondents was Albinus , abbot of the monastery of St. Peter and St. Paul ( subsequently renamed St. Augustine 's ) in Canterbury . A series of related texts known as the Legend of St Mildrith provides additional information about events in the lives of Eadbald 's children and throws some light on Eadbald himself . The Anglo @-@ Saxon Chronicle , a collection of annals assembled in about 890 in the kingdom of Wessex , also provides information . Other sources include papal letters , regnal lists of the kings of Kent , and early charters . Charters were documents drawn up to record grants of land by kings to their followers or to the church , and they provide some of the earliest documentary sources in England . None survive in original form from Eadbald 's reign , but some later copies exist . 
