Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 1.djvu/296

282 282 ST. ETHELREDA Anna's brother. Anna's family of daughters were famous for their piety, namely, St. Ethelburoa, St. Sexburga, St. Ethelreda, and St. Withburga. Ethelreda was born at Exning, or Erming, in Suffolk, and was brought up in an atmosphere of piety. It was her ambition to be a nun like her sisters, but she was destined not to attain this goal until she had been twice married. In 652, she was given against her will to Tombert, or Tondbrecht, prince or caldorman of the Girvii, an East Anglian people settled in a place that now forms part of Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, and Lincolnshire. Tombert gave his wife as a settlement an estate then called Elge, and afterwards Ely. Tom- bert, either respecting and sympathizing with her monastic vocation, or regarding her with indifference, allowed her to live as a nun during the three years of their marriage. During that time occurred (in 654) the defeat and death of King Anna by Penda, and he was succeeded by his brother Ethelhere. After the deaths of her husband and father, Ethelreda settled on her own estate of Ely, intending to spend the rest of her life in religious retirement. But in 660, for family reasons, probably to secure for the house of the Uffings the alliance of the powerful kingdom of Northumbria, against the aggressions of the Mercians, she married Egfrid, second son of Oswy, king of Northumbria, by St. Eanfleda, daughter of Edwin and St. Ethblburga. At the time of his marriage, Egfrid was little more than a child. Ethelreda won his esteem and affection at once, and rapidly acquired a purifying and ennobling influence over him. He '^ held her as a thing enskied and sainted ; " he sat at her feet, and learnt wisdom and self-denial from her, and he assisted her in her good works. While Ethelreda was queen of North- umbria, she delighted in the society of monks and nuns, and took care to invite and attract to her house such of them as were most distinguished for learning and piety. Among these was St. Cuth- bert, the young prior of Lindisfame. She bestowed many gifts from her private property on his monastery, and desiring to give him also a token of her regard for himself, and to be specially remem- bered in his prayers, she made and embroidered with her own skilful fingers a stole and a maniple, that he might wear her gift only in the presence of God, and be reminded of her while offering the holy sacrifice. In 6 70, at the age of twenty-four, Egfrid ascended the throne of Northumbria. Immediately the Scots and Picts, who owed him service and tribute, despising his youth, rebelled, and the pious Wulfere of Mercia, with hereditary jealousy of the neighbouring kingdom, attempted to subjugate it. Egfrid, however, reduced the northern rebels to submission, and then turned his arms against the Mercians, who, instead of annexing Northumbria, were themselves annexed by that state. Egfrid, after a time, restored the kingdom to Ethelred, the brother of Wulfere, who had married St. Osthrida, Egfrid's sister. St. Wilfrid was the friend and adviser of the king and queen, Egfrid and Ethelreda. Ethelreda gave him the lands of Hexham which Egfrid had given her, and there Wilfrid buUt the fairest church that existed north of the Alps, after he had already rebuilt the Cathedral of York, and done much to improve and beautify his monastery of Ripon. Meantime, Egfrid, who had been the humble adorer of his beautiful wife for twelve years, had arrived at the age of passions, and his affection had grown to a love that could no longer be satisfied with worship at a distance. He had hitherto consented to let her live in his house like a nun in her convent, but now that ho was a man and a king, with the pride of success in war, and with more knowledge, wealth, and power, he demanded one thing more of Fate and of Ethelreda. He entreated Wilfrid to use his influence to induce her to become in fact what as yet she had been only in name. He promised Wilfrid great things for himself and for his churches, should he be able to persuade the queen that her duty to God was her duty to her husband. Wilfrid feigned to enter into the king's view of the matter, but, in fact,