Aelfthryth of Crowland

Saint Aelfthryth of Crowland (Ælfthryth, also called Alfreda or Etheldritha) was a Mercian princess, the daughter of King Offa and Queen Cynethryth. She was betrothed to, or loved by, Æthelberht II, king of the East Angles, who was murdered in 793 while visiting her. Medieval chroniclers blame her mother rather than King Offa. Horrified by the murder, Aelfthryth left the court and withdrew to Crowland Abbey in the Lincolnshire fens, where she lived for forty years as a recluse. She died of natural causes in 834 or 835. She was known for her prophecies, and her tomb was arranged around that of Saint Guthlac. A Crowland tradition says that her relics were destroyed by the Danes in 870, but the evidence is slight.

She is venerated in the Catholic Church and in the Antiochian Orthodox Church, and commemorated on 2 August.