Saint Æthelthryth of East Anglia

Æthelthryth was a woman who, from a young age, knew what she wanted from her life and was determined get it, not matter how long it took her.

She was a Princess from birth, being the daughter of King Anna of East Anglia and his wife, Sæwara, and her royal lineage was the house of Wuffingas. She was one of at least three daughters, all of whom would later be canonised as saints. The entire family was known for their devotion and piety, with King Anna himself being renowned as the patron of various monasteries.

Æthelthryth's sister and step-sister,  Æthelburh and Sæthryth respectively, had been sent to a monastery at Brie in Francia, to be educated, with both eventually becoming Abbesses there. This is a fate which would have definitely pleased Æthelthryth, but for her, it was not to be.

 

Æthelthryth was born around the year 636, near Newmarket in Suffolk. Possible due to the example set by her family, the young Princess proved to harbour a pious nature from her early days. It is said in the Liber Eliensis that she would wander off to churches alone and pray happily, "while neglecting the pastimes of girls." In all honesty, this sounds like the origins of the "not like the other girls" trope, which is not only outdated, but offensive to women everywhere. Nevertheless, you will find a lot of quotes just like this weaved throughout historical records, as they were mostly written by men and we've already touched upon the heavy misogyny that was rife in the country's earlier years.

 

Unfortunately for the devout Æthelthryth, who would have loved nothing more than to become a nun immediately, she, as with her elder sister, Seaxburh, was not bound for a life in the church. Instead, King Anna wished to marry off his elder daughters to make alliances with neighbouring Kingdoms.

While Seaxburh was married off to King Eorcenberht of Kent and would later rule herself as Regent for her young son, Æthelthryth was married to an Ealdorman of South Gyrwas.

In 652, when Æthelthryth would have been roughly 16 years of age, she was wed to the Ealdorman Tondberht and she was furious about it. She tried desperately to resist the marriage her father had arranged for her, determined as she was to remain chaste and a virgin for life. She was finally persuaded to agree to the match after her husband-to-be agreed to uphold her vow of perpetual chastity.

 

We do not really know anything about her first marriage, other than that it was short-lived. In 655, around three years after the wedding, Tondberht died, leaving Æthelthryth a widow.

She immediately set out for the Isle of Ely, which had been given to her by her father as a wedding gift, to retire to the church there and begin her life as a nun.

Her father, however, had different plans for his pious daughter.

In 658, Æthelthryth found herself again forced into a marriage, this time with the teenaged heir to the Kingdom of Northumbria, Ecgfrith.

 

Æthelthryth had no desire to marry again, nor to be a Queen. She reluctantly agreed to the second marriage, though retained her vow of chastity. She must have been an incredibly persuasive woman to have been able to convince two husbands to respect her vow. It must be remembered that this was an age when men literally owned women. Wives and daughters were possessions, to be traded and used as they wished. Both of these men believed they owned her and would have had, by law, the right to do whatever they wanted with her, and yet Æthelthryth was able to convince them to respect her wishes. She truly does sound like a remarkable woman.

Nevertheless, in 658, Æthelthryth, who was by this point in her early 20's, was married to the roughly 13-year old Ecgfrith ætheling.

 

She lived with Ecgfrith, unhappily, for 12 years, remaining a virgin the entire time. However, she was never happy in her marriage and desired nothing but to retire to a nunnery. After 12 years of marriage, Ecgfrith succeeded as King of Northumbria and Æthelthryth begged her husband to release her to the monastic life she so desired.

King Ecgfrith, by now a man in his mid-to-late 20's, was reluctant to allow his wife to leave him, despite the fact that he would never have any heirs from her and at this point in time, repudiation of marriages was legal and, especially in the case of royalty, common. This suggests that perhaps Ecgfrith had some feelings for his wife, though it may have been a more maternal relationship that Æthelthryth shared with him, as opposed to the traditional one shared by spouses. She was significantly older than her husband, being in her mid-30's at the time of his accession to the throne, and her vow of chastity, which had been strictly adhered to, meant that she was useless to Ecgfrith as a consort. A woman's role in Anglo-Saxon society, much as it was in most periods of history that followed, was purely to birth heirs. The role of a Queen was no different and many women throughout history were repudiated, divorced, or even murdered, for not providing their husband with sufficient heirs. Therefore, there is only one option left that I can see for why Ecgfrith was so determined to keep his wife by his side; love. Whether that be a maternal or romantic love, I believe Ecgfrith, who had grown up from his early teenage years and into manhood with Æthelthryth by his side, did indeed hold love for her in his heart.

Ecgfrith asked for aid from Bishop Wilfrid, the Queen's spiritual counsellor, to help him convince Æthelthryth to remain at court. He wished to assert his dominance as her King and enforce the marital rights he held as her husband to divert her from her desired religious vocation. However, Bishop Wilfrid of York, who would have known of Queen Æthelthryth's devout nature and the strong call she felt to the monastic life, persuaded the King to allow her to leave. It is known that Bishop Wilfrid actively encouraged Æthelthryth to abide by her vow and remain chaste throughout her second marriage, so he certainly understood her devotion.

After 12 years of an unhappy marriage, Æthelthryth was allowed to retire to a nunnery, though one chosen by King Ecgfrith. He decided upon the convent at Coludesbyrig, which was run by his aunt, Abbess Æbbe of Coldingham. Upon her arrival, Æthelthryth received her veil from Bishop Wilfrid, who had left court with her, to stay by her side at the nunnery.

 

The life she led at the convent must have been refreshing for Æthelthryth, but it was not to last.

In 671, her husband tried to return her to his court. It is possible that he had only allowed her to go believing, perhaps, that she would not care for the simplicity of the convent or that she would willingly choose to return to him. When this proved not to be the case, he tried to order her back to his side, to take her place once more as his Queen.

Fearing that she would be forcibly removed from her new home, and perhaps not trusting that the Abbess, the King's aunt, would support her monastic vows, Æthelthryth fled to the Isle of Ely, taking with her Bishop Wilfrid and two nuns as her companions. Until the Fens were drained in the 17th century, the Isle was only accessible by boat and thanks to the rising tide, Æthelthryth and her companions were able to evade capture and landed safely on the Isle. The Isle of Ely was in East Anglian and bordered Mercian territory, so King Ecgfrith would have risked causing a small war, had he chosen to invade the Isle to get his wife back. Therefore, Æthelthryth was able to breathe safely at last.

 

When she had first been married to Ecgfrith, Æthelthryth was given lands as part of her jointure. One of these lands was at Hexham, and in 672 she gifted the land at Hexham to Bishop Wilfrid, commanding him to build a monastery there.

Æthelthryth, meanwhile, became the Abbess of Ely and built a double monastery there in 673, with one part for monks and the other for nuns. At Ely, she was the Abbess ruling over both sections of the double monastery and she became the "virgin mother" to all the other virgins in her care who had dedicated themselves to God. Unfortunately, the convent was later destroyed in a Danish invasion in 870, so it cannot be seen today.

Wilfrid did not fare so well, as King Ecgfrith, having given up on Æthelthryth at last, married Eormenburg, a member of the Kentish royal family; she was the direct descendant, and great-granddaughter, of Queen Bertha and the niece, through marriage, to Æthelthryth's own sister, Seaxburh. Queen Eormenburg quarrelled with Bishop Wilfrid and he was later, in 678, expelled from Northumbria, by King Ecgfrith.

 

Bede, a near-contemporary monk and chronicler born around about the time of Æthelthryth's death, wrote of her in his Chronicle, stating that she "displayed the pattern of a heavenly life in word and deed." From the evidence we have of her, it seems this described Abbess Æthelthryth fairly well.

Æthelthryth threw herself deep into the piety of the monastic life from the very first. Due to her rank she was entitled to finer clothing, but she shunned this notion, wearing only the woollen cloth of the lower nuns. She spent the majority of her nights in prayer and would only eat a single meal every day. Though she bathed regularly, she refused to bathe in hot water; the only exceptions to this was on the eve of a great festival.

At some point, probably in the early-to-mid 670's, Æthelthryth welcomed her elder sister, Seaxburh, to her convent.

Æthelthryth led a hard life and it took its toll on her health, developing a tumour in her jaw, which would one day prove fatal to her. According to Bede's account, she withstood the pain in good faith. Æthelthryth told her nuns that she deserved the tumour because of her sins of vanity; when she was younger, Æthelthryth had worn jewelled necklaces and it was her belief that God had replaced those necklaces with the tumour so that she might be absolved of this sin.

 

Æthelthryth was believed to have the gift of foresight and it is also believed that she prophesized her own death. It is strange, then, that a woman who believed so very strongly in God's will would have asked her physician to cure her. It is possible, of course, that like most people, Æthelthryth grew fearful of her impending death and sought help, but unlikely as she would have believed that she was going to ascend to a better place when she did pass. It is slightly more plausible then, that the rumours of her prophetic gifts were spread after her death. The earliest surviving sources we have for Æthelthryth's time in the convent at Ely were written after Æthelthryth's death and therefore cannot be considered truly reliable in the matters of how she was viewed when she was still alive. When a person dies, the image of them is often distorted or embellished and this was a common occurrence in Chronicles.

Nevertheless, in June 679, Æthelthryth asked her physician, Cynifrid, to find a cure for her. For the two days after Cynifrid attempted to cure her, Æthelthryth seemed to improve, but suddenly, on 23rd June 679, Æthelthryth died.

 

Her death was lamented by the nuns in her care and she was succeeded as Abbess by her sister, Seaxburh, who ensured an honourable burial for her.

Sixteen years after her sister's death, Seaxburh decided to reinter Æthelthryth's body into a white marble sarcophagus. When the tomb was opened, Æthelthryth was perfectly intact and it is said that her wound, from where the tumour had been opened, was completely healed. This would have been proof enough of Æthelthryth's sanctity, but more was to come. As Abbess Seaxburh prepared her sister for reburial, Æthelthryth's body was washed and wrapped in new robes and during this it is said that Seaxburh heard voices from the sky calling out "Glory to the name of the Lord!"

 

Æthelthryth was venerated as a saint soon after her death and the events of her reburial only sought to prove her sanctity. Her feast day is 23rd June and today she is commonly known as Saint Audrey.

It is claimed that those who pray to Æthelthryth can be healed by her and, whilst the double monastery she constructed no longer survives, her shrine at Ely Cathedral can still be seen today.

 

Æthelthryth lived a Queen, retired an Abbess and died a Saint. Bede declared that after her death she was "all the more a Queen because the bride of Christ."

All Æthelthryth had desired, from a young age, was to live the life of a nun. It took her 35+ years but eventually, after two marriages and a crown, Æthelthryth was able to live and die in the life she had so desired.