Church of Saint Mary and Saint Ethelburga, Lyminge, Kent
Today in the Orthodox Church we commemorate the daughter of Saint Æþelberht King of Kent and Saint Berhte his queen. When her brother Éadbald ascended to the Kentish throne on their father’s blessed repose, Éadbald arranged Æþelburg’s marriage to the still-heathen Northumbrian king Éadwine, himself later glorified as a saint. The marriage was – with some reluctance – blessed by Pope Boniface, and evidently it was much to the mind of Æþelburg herself as well as her brother. The young woman was both politically-astute, knowing the marriage to be advantageous to Éadwine and to her folk. The inducement of Éadwine’s handsome figure seems not to have been lost on Æþelburg’s eye, either. Her correspondence with Pope Boniface indicates an acknowledgement of her physical attraction to Éadwine, but also exhortations to bend her powers to her husband’s conversion.
Their early marriage was troubled both by political intrigue and by infirmity. In order to marry Æþelburg, Éadwine had had to put aside his Mercian mistress, which caused some bad feelings between him and Penda. Also several months after their marriage, the king of Wessex, Cwichelm (ally of Penda), fearing the power of Northumbria and her new alliance with Kent, attempted to assassinate Éadwine. Cwichelm’s herald, Éomer, feigning to stretch forth his hand in friendship, instead drew his dagger when Éadwine approached and tried to run him through with it. Éadwine’s faithful þegn Lilla’s eye caught the wicked flash of the blade, however, and he threw himself bodily between Éomer and his king. Lilla was killed on the spot by the fearsome thrust; and Éomer’s baneful blade went straight through his body and into Éadwine’s. The king’s life was spared by his faithful retainer’s self-sacrifice, but he was still badly wounded. The others of the king’s household managed to hold and slay Éomer before the wretch could flee, but not before another of the king’s men, Forðhere, lost his life to Cwichelm’s hired killer.
The heavily-pregnant Æþelburg, witnessing this gruesome sight, went into labour. Both mother and child were in grave danger throughout. Through the prayers of her chaplain Saint Paulinus, she gave birth to her and Éadwine’s daughter, Éanflæd, that same night – and both lived. Éadwine, who along with his wife and daughter lived through that terrible night, sustained by the grace of God. On account of this, Éanflæd and twelve others in Éadwine’s household and retinue were baptised by Saint Paulinus.
The king himself, however, was moved to wrath, and desired to punish Cwichelm for his underhanded treachery. When he had recovered from his wounds, he promised to Paulinus that he would convert to Christianity himself if he was given victory over Cwichelm in battle. As soon as he was able, Éadwine marched south with his here against the West Saxons, whose much larger army he met at the Battle of Win Hill and Lose Hill. The smaller Northumbrian army won, reputedly, because they had the high ground, and were able to roll boulders from the top of the hill onto the ranks of the West Saxons. After this battle (and after some hemming and dithering which seems to have been typical of Éadwine’s personality), Éadwine (eventually) held to his word and was baptised by Saint Paulinus.
Éadwine was eventually killed by Penda and Cadwallon ap Cadfan at the Battle of Hatfield, after which Northumbria’s power was broken and divided. His widowed queen-consort Æþelburg fled south once again by sea, Paulinus going with her, and taking with them her children Wuscfrea and Éanflæd and her step-grandchild Yffe. The boys Wuscfrea and Yffe she sent into the realm of Dagobert in Francia out of fear of their ill-treatment at her brother Éadbald’s hands, but they died of illness soon after their arrival.
Her beloved husband dead and his realm in tatters, Æþelburg herself soon quit the world and took the wimple in her home country of Kent. She found an old disused Roman villa near Folkestone, and used the foundations to build a Benedictine house for women at Lyminge, where she passed the rest of her days in peace. Holy Mother Æþelburg, pray to Christ our God to save us!
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