This is a list of rulers who converted to Christianity. The conversion of monarchs was often an important step in the process of

Christianization Christianization ( or Christianisation) is to make Christian; to imbue with Christian principles; to become Christian. It can apply to the conversion of an individual, a practice, a place or a whole society. It began in the Roman Empire, conti ...

4th century

Abgar V Abgar V (c. 1st century BC - c. AD 50), called Ukkāmā (meaning "the Black" in Syriac and other dialects of Aramaic),, syr, ܐܒܓܪ ܚܡܝܫܝܐ ܐܘܟܡܐ, ʾAḇgar Ḥmīšāyā ʾUkkāmā, hy, Աբգար Ե Եդեսացի, Abgar Hingeror ...

, King of

Osroene Osroene or Osrhoene (; grc-gre, Ὀσροηνή) was an ancient region and state in Upper Mesopotamia. The ''Kingdom of Osroene'', also known as the "Kingdom of Edessa" ( syc, ܡܠܟܘܬܐ ܕܒܝܬ ܐܘܪܗܝ / "Kingdom of Urhay"), according to ...

with his capital at

Edessa Edessa (; grc, Ἔδεσσα, Édessa) was an ancient city (''polis'') in Upper Mesopotamia, founded during the Hellenistic period by King Seleucus I Nicator (), founder of the Seleucid Empire. It later became capital of the Kingdom of Osroene ...

Tiridates III of Armenia Tiridates III (Armenian: Գ ''Trdat III''; – c. 330), also known as Tiridates the Great ( hy, Տրդատ Մեծ ''Trdat Mets''), or Tiridates IV, was the Armenian Arsacid king from c.298 to c. 330. In 301, Tiridates proclaimed Christianit ...

, King of Armenia, in 301 *

Ezana of Axum Ezana ( gez, ዔዛና ''‘Ezana'', unvocalized ዐዘነ ''‘zn''; also spelled Aezana or Aizan) was ruler of the Kingdom of Axum, an ancient kingdom located in what is now Eritrea and Ethiopia. (320s – c. 360 AD). He himself employed the ...

, King of Aksum *

Constantine I Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to Constantine the Great and Christianity, convert to Christiani ...

, Roman emperor, in 337 *

Mirian III of Iberia Mirian III ( ka, მირიან III) was a king of Iberia or Kartli (Georgia), contemporaneous to the Roman emperor Constantine the Great ( r. 306–337). He was the founder of the royal Chosroid dynasty. According to the early medieval Geo ...

, King of Iberia, c. 337 File:Tiridates III of Armenia-Baptism.jpg, Baptism of Tiridates III File:Raphael Baptism Constantine.jpg, ''

The Baptism of Constantine ''The Baptism of Constantine'' is a painting by assistants of the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael. It was most likely painted by Gianfrancesco Penni, between 1517 and 1524. After the master's death in 1520, Penni worked together with other mem ...

'' File:Mirian III fresco.JPG, Mirian III

5th century

Óengus mac Nad Froích Óengus mac Nad Froích (430-489) was an Eoganachta and the first Christian King of Munster. He was the son of Nad Froich mac Cuirc by Faochan, a British lady (called daughter of the King of Britain). In Geoffrey Keating's ''History of Ireland'' ...

King of Munster The kings of Munster ( ga, Rí Mumhan), ruled from the establishment of Munster during the Irish Iron Age, until the High Middle Ages. According to Gaelic traditional history, laid out in works such as the '' Book of Invasions'', the earliest ...

Clovis I Clovis ( la, Chlodovechus; reconstructed Frankish: ; – 27 November 511) was the first king of the Franks to unite all of the Frankish tribes under one ruler, changing the form of leadership from a group of petty kings to rule by a single kin ...

King of the Franks The Franks, Germanic-speaking peoples that invaded the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, were first led by individuals called dukes and reguli. The earliest group of Franks that rose to prominence was the Salian Merovingians, who con ...

, circa 496-506 *

Rechiar Rechiar or Flavius Rechiarius (after 415 – December 456) was the third Suevic king of Gallaecia, from 448 until his death, and also the first one to be born in Gallaecia. He was one of the most innovative and belligerent of the Suevi monarch ...

, King of the Suebi File:Chlodwigs taufe.jpg, The baptism of

Saint Remigius Remigius (french: Remi or ; – January 13, 533), was the Bishop of Reims and "Apostle of the Franks". On 25 December 496, he baptised Clovis I, King of the Franks. The baptism, leading to about 3000 additional converts, was an important event ...

File:James Barry's The Baptism of King Cashel by St Patrick.png, The baptism of

Saint Patrick Saint Patrick ( la, Patricius; ga, Pádraig ; cy, Padrig) was a fifth-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland. Known as the "Apostle of Ireland", he is the primary patron saint of Ireland, the other patron saints be ...

6th century

Constantine of Dumnonia Constantine (, cy, Cystennin, fl. 520–523) was a 6th-century king of Dumnonia in sub-Roman Britain, who was remembered in later British tradition as a legendary King of Britain. The only contemporary information about him comes from Gildas ...

Saint Constantine of Strathclyde Constantine was reputedly the son and successor of King Riderch Hael of Alt Clut, the Brittonic kingdom later known as Strathclyde. (The modern English name of Alt Clut is Dumbarton Rock.) He appears only in the '' Life of St. Kentigern'' by Joc ...

Rædwald of East Anglia Rædwald ( ang, Rædwald, ; 'power in counsel'), also written as Raedwald or Redwald (), was a king of East Anglia, an Anglo-Saxon kingdom which included the present-day English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. He was the son of Tytila of East A ...

Reccared I Reccared I (or Recared; la, Flavius Reccaredus; es, Flavio Recaredo; 559 – December 601; reigned 586–601) was Visigothic King of Hispania and Septimania. His reign marked a climactic shift in history, with the king's renunciation of Arianis ...

, king of

visigoths The Visigoths (; la, Visigothi, Wisigothi, Vesi, Visi, Wesi, Wisi) were an early Germanic people who, along with the Ostrogoths, constituted the two major political entities of the Goths within the Roman Empire in late antiquity, or what is ...

, and

Hermenegild Saint Hermenegild or Ermengild (died 13 April 585; es, San Hermenegildo; la, Hermenegildus, from Gothic ''*Airmana-gild'', "immense tribute"), was the son of king Liuvigild of the Visigothic Kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula and southern France ...

, sub-king in Baetica, converted from

Arianism Arianism ( grc-x-koine, Ἀρειανισμός, ) is a Christological doctrine first attributed to Arius (), a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt. Arian theology holds that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who was begotten by God ...

to the Nicene faith.

7th century

Æthelberht of Kent Æthelberht (; also Æthelbert, Aethelberht, Aethelbert or Ethelbert; ang, Æðelberht ; 550 – 24 February 616) was King of Kent from about 589 until his death. The eighth-century monk Bede, in his ''Ecclesiastical History of the Engli ...

before 601 (see

Gregorian mission The Gregorian missionJones "Gregorian Mission" ''Speculum'' p. 335 or Augustinian missionMcGowan "Introduction to the Corpus" ''Companion to Anglo-Saxon Literature'' p. 17 was a Christian mission sent by Pope Gregory the Great in 596 to conver ...

) *

Cenwalh of Wessex Cenwalh, also Cenwealh or Coenwalh, was King of Wessex from c. 642 to c. 645 and from c. 648 until his death, according to the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', in c. 672. Penda and Anna Bede states that Cenwalh was the son of the King Cynegils baptis ...

Cynegils of Wessex Cynegils () was King of Wessex from c. 611 to c. 642. Cynegils is traditionally considered to have been King of Wessex, but the familiar kingdoms of the so-called Heptarchy had not yet formed from the patchwork of smaller kingdoms in his life ...

Sigeberht of East Anglia Sigeberht of East Anglia (also known as Saint Sigebert), (Old English: ''Sigebryht'') was a saint and a king of East Anglia, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom which today includes the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. He was the first English king ...

Riderch I of Alt Clut Rhydderch Hael ( en, Rhydderch the Generous), Riderch I of Alt Clut, or Rhydderch of Strathclyde, ( ''fl.'' 580 – c. 614) was a ruler of Alt Clut, a Brittonic kingdom in the ''Hen Ogledd'' or "Old North" of Britain. He was one of the most famous ...

Peada of Mercia Peada (died 656), a son of Penda, was briefly King of southern Mercia after his father's death in November 655The year could be pushed back to 654 if a revised interpretation of Bede's dates is used. and until his own death in the spring of the n ...

Edwin of Northumbria Edwin ( ang, Ēadwine; c. 586 – 12 October 632/633), also known as Eadwine or Æduinus, was the List of monarchs of Northumbria, King of Deira and Bernicia – which later became known as Northumbria – from about 616 until hi ...

9th century

Boris I of Bulgaria Boris I, also known as Boris-Mihail (Michael) and ''Bogoris'' ( cu, Борисъ А҃ / Борисъ-Михаилъ bg, Борис I / Борис-Михаил; died 2 May 907), was the ruler of the First Bulgarian Empire in 852–889. At ...

(864) *

Guthrum Guthrum ( ang, Guðrum, c. 835 – c. 890) was King of East Anglia in the late 9th century. Originally a native of what is now Denmark, he was one of the leaders of the "Great Summer Army" that arrived in Reading, Berkshire, Reading during April ...

(878) * Borivoj I, Duke of Bohemia (883) *

Rorik of Dorestad Rorik (''Roricus, Rorichus''; Old Norse ''HrœrekR'', c. 810 – c. 880) was a Danish Viking, who ruled over parts of Friesland between 841 and 873, conquering Dorestad and Utrecht in 850. Rorik swore allegiance to Louis the German in 873. He ...

Harald Klak Harald 'Klak' Halfdansson (c. 785 – c. 852) was a king in Jutland (and possibly other parts of Denmark) around 812–814 and again from 819–827."Carolingian Chronicles: Royal Frankish Annals and Nithard's Histories" (1970), translation by Bernh ...

File:BorisIMichaelBaptism.jpg, Baptism of Boris I File:Křest knížete Bořivoje.jpg, Baptism of Borivoj I by Saint Methodius

10th century

Mieszko I of Poland Mieszko I (; – 25 May 992) was the first ruler of Poland and the founder of the first independent Polish state, the Duchy of Poland. His reign stretched from 960 to his death and he was a member of the Piast dynasty, a son of Siemomysł and ...

(966) *

Géza, Grand Prince of the Hungarians Géza ( 940 – 997), also Gejza, was Grand Prince of the Hungarians from the early 970s. He was the son of Grand Prince Taksony and his OrientalKhazar, Pecheneg or Volga Bulgarianwife. He married Sarolt, a daughter of an Eastern Orthodox Hun ...

(970s) *

Vladimir I of Kiev Vladimir I Sviatoslavich or Volodymyr I Sviatoslavych ( orv, Володимѣръ Свѧтославичь, ''Volodiměrъ Svętoslavičь'';, ''Uladzimir'', russian: Владимир, ''Vladimir'', uk, Володимир, ''Volodymyr''. Se ...

(980s) *

Harald Bluetooth Harald "Bluetooth" Gormsson ( non, Haraldr Blátǫnn Gormsson; da, Harald Blåtand Gormsen, died c. 985/86) was a king of Denmark and Norway. He was the son of King Gorm the Old and of Thyra Dannebod. Harald ruled as king of Denmark from c. 95 ...

of Denmark and Norway *

Eric the Victorious Eric the Victorious (Old Norse: ''Eiríkr inn sigrsæli'', Modern Swedish: ''Erik Segersäll''; c. 945 – c. 995) was a Swedish monarch as of around 970. Although there were earlier Swedish kings, he is the first Swedish king in a consecutive reg ...

Haakon the Good Haakon Haraldsson (c. 920–961), also Haakon the Good (Old Norse: ''Hákon góði'', Norwegian: ''Håkon den gode'') and Haakon Adalsteinfostre (Old Norse: ''Hákon Aðalsteinsfóstri'', Norwegian: ''Håkon Adalsteinsfostre''), was the king of ...

File:Baptism_of_Poland.Mural_in_Gniezno.JPG, Baptism of Mieszko Image:Vasnetsov Bapt Vladimir.jpg, The Baptism of Saint Prince Vladimir, by

Viktor Vasnetsov Viktor Mikhaylovich Vasnetsov (russian: Ви́ктор Миха́йлович Васнецо́в; May 15 ( N.S.), 1848 – July 23, 1926) was a Russian artist who specialized in mythological and historical subjects. He is considered the co-founde ...

(1890) Image:Harald Blaatand.jpg, Harald being baptized by Poppo the monk, probably c. 960

11th century

Olof Skötkonung Olof Skötkonung, (Old Norse: ''Óláfr skautkonungr'') sometimes stylized as ''Olaf the Swede'' (c. 980–1022), was King of Sweden, son of Eric the Victorious and, according to Icelandic sources, Sigrid the Haughty. He succeeded his father in ...

, King of Sweden (1008)

14th century

* Jogaila,

Grand Duke of Lithuania The monarchy of Lithuania concerned the monarchical head of state of Lithuania, which was established as an absolute and hereditary monarchy. Throughout Lithuania's history there were three ducal dynasties that managed to stay in power—House ...

and

King of Poland Poland was ruled at various times either by dukes and princes (10th to 14th centuries) or by kings (11th to 18th centuries). During the latter period, a tradition of free election of monarchs made it a uniquely electable position in Europe (16t ...

(1386)

16th century

Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba Nzinga Ana de Sousa Mbande ( – 1663) was a Southwest African ruler who served as queen of the Ambundu Kingdoms of Ndongo (1624–1663) and Matamba (1631–1663), located in present-day northern Angola. Born into the ruling family of Ndongo, ...

Afonso I of Kongo Mvemba a Nzinga, Nzinga Mbemba, Funsu Nzinga Mvemba or Dom Alfonso. (c. 1456–1542 or 1543), also known as King Afonso I, was the sixth ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo from the Lukeni kanda dynasty and ruled in the first half of the 16th century ...

* Humabon, Rajah of Cebu (1521) * Bunao Lakan Dula, Lakan of Tondo (c. 1571) *

Rajah Matanda Rajah Ache ( Abecedario: ''Rája Aché'' pronounced ''Aki''), better known by his title Rajah Matanda (1480–1572), was one of the rulers of Maynila, a pre-colonial Indianized and Islamized Tagalog polity along the Pasig River in what is now M ...

Maynila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populated ...

(1572) *

Ōtomo Sōrin , also known as Fujiwara no Yoshishige (藤原義鎮) and Ōtomo Yoshishige (大友義鎮), was a Japanese feudal lord (''daimyō'') of the Ōtomo clan, one of the few to have converted to Roman Catholicism (Christianity). The eldest son of , he ...

(although not a direct royalty, Japanese

daimyo were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominally ...

were de facto independent rulers of their territories) *

Arima Harunobu was a Japanese samurai lord who was the daimyo of Shimabara Domain and the head of the Hizen-Arima clan''.''_In_his_early_years,_he_was_a_retainer_of_Ryūzōji_clan.html" ;"title="DF 6-7 of 80/nowiki>">DF ...''.'' In his early years, he was a ...

Ōmura Sumitada Ōmura Sumitada (大村純忠, 1533 – June 23, 1587) was a Japanese ''daimyō'' lord of the Sengoku period. He achieved fame throughout the country for being the first of the daimyo to convert to Christianity following the arrival of the ...

19th century

Hone Heke Honing is a kind of metalworking. Hone may also refer to: * Hone (name) (incl. Hōne), a list of people with the surname, given name or nickname * Hõne language Hõne is a Jukunoid language spoken in Gombe State and Taraba State, Nigeria ...

* Keopuolani * Ka'ahumanu *

Kamehameha III Kamehameha III (born Kauikeaouli) (March 17, 1814 – December 15, 1854) was the third king of the Kingdom of Hawaii from 1825 to 1854. His full Hawaiian name is Keaweaweula Kīwalaō Kauikeaouli Kaleiopapa and then lengthened to Keaweaweula K� ...

Tāmati Wāka Nene Tāmati Wāka Nene (1780s – 4 August 1871) was a Māori rangatira (chief) of the Ngāpuhi iwi (tribe) who fought as an ally of the British in the Flagstaff War of 1845–46. Origin and mana Tāmati Wāka Nene from the ''Dictionary of New Zeala ...

Ranavalona II of Madagascar Ranavalona II (1829 – 13 July 1883) was Queen regnant of Madagascar from 1868 to 1883, succeeding Queen Rasoherina, her first cousin. She is best remembered for Christianity in Madagascar, Christianizing the royal court during her reign. Early ...

* Pomare II *

Duleep Singh Maharaja Sir Duleep Singh, GCSI (4 September 1838 – 22 October 1893), or Sir Dalip Singh, and later in life nicknamed the "Black Prince of Perthshire", was the last ''Maharaja'' of the Sikh Empire. He was Maharaja Ranjit Singh's youngest son ...

References

{{reflist Rulers