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Birth:          ABT  630 
Death:          ABT  699 

Notes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaxburh_of_Ely
Seaxburh (Old English: Sexburh); also Saint Sexburga of Ely, (died about 699) was the 
queen of King Eorcenberht of Kent, as well as an abbess and a saint of the Christian 
Church.

Seaxburh's sisters were Æthelburg of Faremoutiers, Saethryth, Æthelthryth and 
possibly Withburga. Her marriage to Eorcenberht produced two sons, both of whom 
ruled, and two daughters. After her husband's death in 664, Seaxburh remained in 
Kent to bring up her children. She acted as regent until her young son Ecgberht came 
of age.

Seaxburh founded the abbeys at Milton Regis and Minster-in-Sheppey, where her 
daughter Ermenilda was also a nun. She moved to the double monastery at Ely where 
her sister Æthelthryth was abbess and succeeded her when Æthelthryth died in 679. 
According to Bede, in 695, Seaxburh organised the movement (or translation) of 
Æthelthryth's remains to a marble sarcophagus, after they had lain for sixteen years in 
a common grave. On opening the grave, it was discovered that her body was 
miraculously preserved. The legend is described in Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the 
English People, which celebrates the saintly virtues of Æthelthryth, but speaks less 
highly of Seaxburh, referring only to her marriage, succession as abbess and 
translation of her sister's relics. The date of Seaxburh's death at Ely is not known. The 
surviving versions of the Vita Sexburge, compiled after 1106, describe her early life, 
marriage to Eorcenberht, retirement from secular life and her final years as a nun and 
abbess at Ely.
Family[edit]

Further information: Kentish royal legend

Seaxburh was a daughter of Anna, King of East Anglia, the son of Eni, who ruled the 
East Angles from the early 640s and was slain together with his son Jurmin, at the 
Battle of Bulcamp in 653 or 654.[1] She was the sister of Æthelburg and Saethryth, 
who were both abbesses of Faremoutiers Abbey in Brie, and also the sister of 
Æthelthryth, who married firstly Tonberht, an ealderman of the South Gyrwe in the 
Fens, and secondly Ecgfrith of Northumbria. Withburga, who died in 743, may also 
have been her sister.[2]

Seaxburh married Eorcenberht of Kent, and was the mother of kings Ecgberht (d. 673), 
Hlothhere (d. 685), and of Saints Eormenhild and Ercengota. Seaxburh was buried at 
Ely with her sisters Æthelthryth Wihtburh, and with her daughter Eormenhild.

Marriage and widowhood[edit]

Seaxburh was connected with the royal family of the Magonsætan by her marriage to 
Eorcenberht, who was king of Kent from 640 to 664. Eorcenberht was the great-uncle 
of Mildburh and her sisters, the daughters of King Merewalh of the Magonsætan.[3]

Their sons Ecgberht and Hlothhere both became kings of Kent. Their daughter 
Ercongota was a nun at Faremoutiers, who was eventually canonised.[4] Eorcenberht 
is mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle within the annal for 640: "Then his son 
Eorcenberht succeeded to the kingdom; he overthrew all devil-worship in his kingdom, 
and was the first of the English kings to establish the Easter festival". In the same 
passage is the Chronicle's single reference to Seaxburh and Eorcengota, "...þaes 
dohter wæs ge haten Erchongata halifemne. and wundorlic man. thære modor wæs 
Sexburh Annan dohter East Engla ciningas" – '...his daughter was called Eorcengota, 
a holy and a remarkable person, whose mother was Seaxburh, daughter of Anna, king 
of the East Anglians'.[5][6] Seaxburh and Eorcenberht had a second daughter, 
Ermenilda, who married Wulfhere of Mercia and after his death became a nun and was 
later canonised. According to Barbara Yorke, Seaxburh's marriage was itself of 
seminal importance in the establishment of monastic life for women during the Anglo-
Saxon period, as she became an example of an ex-queen who made retreating to an 
nunnery a desirable royal vocation.[7]

Eorcenberht died on 14 July 664,[8] in an outbreak of plague that occurred that year. 
After her husband's death, Seaxburh remained in Kent to bring up her children. She 
played an important political and religious influence in the kingdom: she acted as 
regent for her son Ecgberht, ruling Kent until her young son came of age, and was the 
founder of Kent's first abbey for women at Milton.[9] Thereafter, Seaxburh became a 
nun and founded the abbey of Minster-in-Sheppey.[note 1] According to the Liber 
Eliensis, a 12th-century chronicle and history written at Ely, an English source related 
that Seaxburh received "the veil of holiness" from Theodore, the Archbishop of 
Canterbury, in her church on the Isle of Sheppey and that her daughter Eormenhild 
also became a nun there.[11] Seaxburh is said by her hagiographer to have sought 
refuge as a nun after living a secular role that she had found hard to tolerate: having 
reluctantly submitted to marriage, she hastened from queenhood to "a timely 
widowhood and a hasty withdrawal to the religious life", according to Susan Ridyard.
[12]
Religious life at Ely[edit]
Shortly afterwards Seaxburh moved to the double monastery at Ely, which was the 
precursor to Ely Cathedral, and where her sister Æthelthryth was abbess. The historian 
Barbara Yorke mentions the possibility that Seaxburh and her namesake Seaxburh of 
Wessex were the same person, but also notes that the accounts of Seaxburh's 
religious life at Ely contradict this suggestion.[13]

According to Yorke, Seaxburh's retirement to Ely is an example an Anglo-Saxon 
custom, represented in a law, whereby a married woman remained the responsibility of 
the paternal side of her family, perhaps to spend the rest of her days as a nun or an 
abbess.[14] Described by the Liber Eliensis as a "pretiosa virago", or precious lady-
warrior,[15] she succeeded as abbess when Æthelthryth died, probably of plague, in 
679.[16] Seaxburh's previous political experience in East Anglia and Kent would have 
been useful in preparing her for the role of abbess at the double monastery at Ely.[17]

In 695, in a vivid demonstration of the dynastic value of the cult of royal saints in 
Anglo-Saxon England, Seaxburh decided to translate the remains of her sister 
Æthelthryth, who had been dead for sixteen years,[18] from a common grave to the 
new church at Ely. Professor Patrick Sims-Williams has identified Seaxburh as "the 
chief mover behind the translation of her body and the promulagation of her cult".[19] 
The Liber Eliensis describes these events in detail.[20] When her grave was opened, 
Æthelthryth's body was discovered to be uncorrupted and her coffin and clothes 
proved to possess miraculous powers. A sarcophagus made of white marble was taken 
from the Roman ruins at Grantchester, which was found to be the right fit for 
Æthelthryth. The architectural historian John Crook questions how such miraculous 
coincidences feature in hagiographies (the studies of the lives of saints), when he 
observes that "the miraculous discovery of a suitable coffin is, however, a 
hagiographic commonplace".[21] Seaxburh's supervised the preparation of her sister's 
body, which was washed and wrapped in new robes before being reburied.[22] She 
apparently oversaw the translation of her sister's remains without the supervision of 
her bishop, using her knowledge of procedures gained from her family's links with the 
abbey at Faremoutiers as a basis for the ceremony.[23]

The fourth book of the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, completed by the 
Northumbrian monk Bede in 731, celebrates the monastery at Ely and focuses on 
Æthelthryth's piety and the translation of her relics. Bede does not mention the 
matrilinear succession established at Ely by Æthelthryth, where power passed in turn 
to Seaxburh before subsequently transferring to Seaxburh's daughter Eormenhild and 
to her granddaughter, Werburh.[24] He praises the virtues of Æthelthryth, a princess 
who was married twice but still preserved her virginity. Seaxburh receives little praise 
from Bede, as she had borne children before becoming a nun.[25] He only mentions 
Seaxburh's marriage to Eorcenberht, succession as abbess and translation of her 
sister's relics.[26]

Death and veneration[edit]

The date of Seaxburh's death is not known, but when she died at Ely,[14] she was at 
"a good, late age", according to the Liber Eliensis, which also related that 'Richard, 
Bishop of Ely' translated the remains of Seaxburh and of "all the saintly women 
reposing in that place".[11][27] Her feast day is 6 July.[28]

Seaxburh is mentioned in a written account of Kent's earliest Christian kings and their 
canonised relatives, known as the Kentish Royal Legend (Old English: Þá hálgan). 
These kings, queens and princesses were unified by their holiness and royal 
connections. Pauline Stafford notes that the Legend "may have been a Christian 
alternative to pagan genealogy" to the rulers of 10th- and 11th-century mediaeval 
England, as it described an earlier period of sustained Christian piety within the royal 
dynasty of Kent. Being both a queen and a saint, Seaxburh was held in high regard 
within the Legend:[29] within it her role as queen and the founder of the minster at 
Sheppey was highlighted.[26]

The 1913 edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia lists several separate accounts of the 
saint's deeds and miracles, or so-called Lives. The Life (or Vita) printed in John 
Capgrave's Nova, Legenda and used by the Bollandists, was perhaps copied from a 
Cotton manuscript in the British Museum. There is another Vita in Latin in the same 
collection, but it was so damaged by fire that it is useless. The surviving versions of 
the Vita Sexburge were compiled after 1106 (the year the relics of Seaxburh were 
translated) and are copies from an earlier manuscript, now lost. The Vita describes 
Seaxburh's early life, marriage to Eorcenberht, withdrawal to Milton and then Minster-
in-Sheppey, and her final years as a nun and the abbess at Ely. The section relating 
to her life at Sheppey is similar to another fragment, dating between the 9th and 11th 
centuries, and currently kept at Lambeth Palace. It has been suggested that part of 
the Vita Sexburge was derived from this manuscript, or that both parts originated from 
an earlier version of Seaxburh's Life.[30]

Parents
____ Anna (Onna) ( -  654)
____ Saewara ()

Siblings
OF EAST ANGLIA Sexburga (ABT  630 - ABT  699)

Marriage To ____ Earconbert (ABT  620 - 14 Jul  664)
    m.  

Notes

Parents
____ Eadbald (ABT  590 -  640)
OF AUSTRASIA Emma (ABT  600 -  642)

Children by ____ Earconbert ABT  620 - 14 Jul  664
____ Egbert I (ABT  650 - 4 Jul  673)

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