Elfled

Family: Northumbrians · Role: daughter of Oswy; abbess · First appears: Book III · Chap. XXIV

Life events

c. 653 · Oswy dedicated Elfled to perpetual virginity and granted twelve estates for monasteries.(Book III · Chap. XXIV)
- With: Oswy
- “Then King Oswy, according to the vow he had made to the Lord, returned thanks to God for the victory granted him, and gave his daughter Elfled, who was scarce a year old, to be consecrated to Him in perpetual virginity; bestowing also twelve small estates of land, wherein the practice of earthly warfare should cease, and place and means should be afforded to devout and zealous monks to wage spiritual warfare, and pray for the eternal peace of his nation.”
c. 653 · Elfled was trained in monastic life and became abbess.(Book III · Chap. XXIV · 📍 Streanaeshalch)
- “in which the aforesaid king’s daughter was first trained in the monastic life and afterwards became abbess”

parent: Oswy “Then King Oswy, according to the vow he had made to the Lord, returned thanks to God for the victory granted him, and gave his daughter Elfled, who was scarce a year old, to be consecrated to Him in perpetual virginity;”
parent: Eanfled “In this monastery, she and her father, Oswy, her mother, Eanfled, her mother’s father, Edwin, and many other noble persons, are buried in the church of the holy Apostle Peter.”
with Hilda (Hilda ruled the monastery where Elfled was trained in the monastic life.) “the aforesaid king’s daughter was first trained in the monastic life and afterwards became abbess;”
mentor: Hilda “the aforesaid daughter of King Oswy, who was to be dedicated to God, entered the monastery called Heruteu, or, ‘The Island of the Hart,’ at that time ruled by the Abbess Hilda, who, two years after, having acquired an estate of ten families, at the place called Streanaeshalch, built a monastery there, in which the aforesaid king’s daughter was first trained in the monastic life and afterwards became abbess;”

parent: Eanfled (Eanfled is Elfled's mother.) “The royal virgin, Elfled, with her mother, Eanfled, whom we have mentioned before, then presided over that monastery”
with Trumwine (Trumwine helped Elfled govern the monastery and provided her personal comfort.) “but when the bishop came thither, that devout teacher found in him the greatest help in governing, and comfort in her private life”

Extracted from the original text of Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England. Made with Rho MD.