Emma DES FRANKEN

   Research Notes:

Emma was a member of the Austrasian royal family. She is sometimes identified with the Emma (or Ymma) who married Eadbald of Kent.

Emma was a daughter of Theudebert II, King of Austrasia from 595 to 612. He had previously shown little interest in the Kingdom of Kent, but Gregory the Great had written to him in 601, encouraging him to back Paulinus and Mellitus' missionary campaign, which was to be based in Canterbury....

[Eadbald's] second marriage [was to] Emma, who is identified in the annals of St Augustine's Abbey as the daughter of a Frankish king - implying Emma, daughter of Theudebert....

However, S. E. Kelly, writing in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, holds that the belief that Eadbald married a daughter of Theudebert is the result of confusion between him and Adaloald, King of the Lombards. Kelly gives more credence to a suggestion that Eadbald's wife was the daughter of Erchinoald, the mayor of the palace in the Frankish kingdom of Neustria from 641 to 658. ¹

   Marriage Information:

Emma married Eadbeald OISCINGAS King of Kent, son of Æğelbeorht I OISCINGAS King of Kent (c.580-616) and Bercta (Berthe, Aldeberge) MEROVING. (Eadbeald OISCINGAS King of Kent was born about 582 in Kent, England and died on 20 Jan 640.)