The first Anglo-Saxon king to embrace Christianity and introduce a code of law, Ethelbert was overlord of southern England. A condition of his marriage to Bertha, daughter of the king of Paris, was that she would be free to practice her Christian faith. Ethelbert assisted St. Augustine of Canterbury, sent by Pope St. Gregory the Great to evangelize Britain, by giving him land for churches and a monastery. He became a Christian about 601, but never forced any of his subjects to convert.
