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[[Image:Kent Arms.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Arms of Kent County Council, granted 17 October 1933]]

[[Image:Kent Arms.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Arms of Kent County Council, granted 17 October 1933]]

Kent is a [[county]] that covers the south east tip of [[England]], and is the closest part of England to mainland [[Europe]] (20 miles/33 km across the Strait of Dover).<ref>The Strait of Dover [http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images_topic.php3?topic=oceans&img_id=17367 Earth Observatory/NASA] Accessed July 16 2007</ref> Towns and cities include the [[Medway Towns]], [[Maidstone]], [[Margate]], [[Canterbury]], and the passenger ferry ports [[Dover]] and [[Folkestone]]. In addition, the [[Channel Tunnel]] runs from Cheriton, near Folkestone, to Sangatte, near [[Calais]] in northern [[France]]. Canterbury is the headquarters of the [[Church of England]].

'''Kent''' (derivation from ancient [[Celt]]ic is either ''“coastal district”'' or ''“land of armies”'' - the [[Roman]]s called it ''Cantia''.) is a [[county]] in the extreme south-east of[[England]].  It is bounded on the north by the [[River Thames|Thames Estuary]], to the east and south by the [[English Channel]] to the west and north-west by [[Surrey]], East [[Sussex]] and [[London]].

It is the closest part of England to the [[Europe]]an mainland and, therefore, has  been  the most favoured point of arrival for visitors and invaders alike from before history. [[Julius Caesar]] landed there in 55 BC as did the Germanic invader/settlers, the [[Jutes]], Tradition has it that two Jutish brothers, Hengist and Horsa, settled there and founded the [[Kingdom]] of Kent with its capital at [[Canterbury]] in the 5th century AD. History is more complicated than tradition with evidence of Romano-British revival, traces of lingering Christianity and the survival in parts of Roman administrative divisions among the detritus of Germanic invaders and signs that the land was not always united during this shadowy era.

By the late 6th century, though, the Kingdom of Kent under Ӕthelbert, controlled much of southern England. It would be Bertha, Ӕthelbert ‘s Frankish [[Christian]] wife,  who would welcome [[Saint Augustine of Canterbury in AD 597. The Kentish kings held overlordship of much of the island south of the [[River Humber]] for much of the 6th and 7th centuries .  

Kent is known as 'the garden of England'.

Kent disappeared as an independent kingdom in 825 although it retained he prestige associated with the pre-eminence of the See of Canterbury. Canterbury is still central in the world-wide [[Anglican]] communion.

 

 

Kent has a relatively equable climate, has good soil and very little high ground to speak of. It is a well-known fruit and vegetable growing area and has excellent vineyards, earning it praise as “the garden of England”.

==References==

==References==

<references/>

‘’”The Oxford Companion to British History”’’ 1997 pp 544/6

[[Category:United Kingdom Counties]]

 

 

 

[[Category:United Kingdom Counties]][[Category:English History]]