Ethelthryth

Family: East Angles · Role: queen · First appears: Book IV · Chap. III

Ethelthryth was queen of the East Angles, and Owini came with her from that province as her chief thegn and governor of her household. Around 668, Owini abandoned secular life and entered Ceadda’s monastery at Laestingaeu as a laboring monk.

Around 678, Egfrid took Ethelthryth as his wife; she was the daughter of Anna, king of the East Angles, and had previously been married to Tondbert, who died soon after their marriage. She entered Aebba’s monastery at Coludi, received the religious veil from Wilfrid, and a year later became abbess at Elge, where she built a monastery. “Twelve years she had reigned, a bride dedicated to God, then in the cloister dwelt, a bride dedicated to God.” She gave up her soul after living wholly consecrated to Heaven, and was buried among her flock in a wooden coffin.

Sixteen years after her burial, her sister Sexburg moved her bones into a new coffin in the church. Cynifrid, the physician present at her death and exhumation, found the body intact and the incision from her illness healed. Her relationship with Mary was expressed through the image of a consecrated bride following the Mother of Heaven’s King, while Hlothere, son of her sister, had once been her thegn.