Æthelburh of Kent

Saint Æthelburh, also called Tata, was queen of Northumbria, the second wife of King Edwin. A Christian from Kent, her marriage opened the first stage of the conversion of the pagan north of England. She was born about 601 and died in 647 at Lyminge, as abbess of the convent she had founded. She is commemorated on 8 September.

Early life and marriage

She was the daughter of King Æthelberht of Kent and Queen Bertha and the sister of Eadbald. In 625 she married Edwin of Northumbria as his second wife. A condition of the marriage was that Edwin should become a Christian and accept the mission of Paulinus at the Northumbrian court. Her children with Edwin were Eanflæd, Ethelhun, Wuscfrea and Edwen.

The conversion of Northumbria

Edwin's conversion was due to his marriage to Æthelburh, who brought her bishop Paulinus with her. Both she and her mother Bertha received letters from popes, Boniface to Æthelburh and Gregory to Bertha, urging them to do their Christian duty and bring their pagan husbands to the faith. Their daughter Eanflæd was among the first to be baptized in Northumbria. After King Edwin was wounded, the queen's alarm brought on her labour early. Both mother and infant seemed to be in danger. Paulinus prayed for the queen and child. After they recovered, twelve members of the royal household, with the baby, were baptized with Edwin's consent and at his request.

Widowhood and the convent

Edwin died in 633 at the battle of Hatfield Chase. According to the Kentish Royal Legend, Æthelburh then returned to Kent. She founded at Lyminge, near Folkestone, one of the first Benedictine convents for women in England, which she led until her death in 647. Her remains were later venerated there. Research today shows that the buildings at Lyminge were designed to hold monks as well as nuns. The church is built of Roman masonry, perhaps from the fragments of a villa, as was Anglo-⁠Saxon practice, or perhaps from a Roman basilica.

Her daughter Eanflæd grew up under the protection of her uncle, King Eadbald of Kent. According to Bede, Æthelburh trusted neither her brother nor Edwin's successor, the saintly Oswald, with the lives of Edwin's male descendants and sent them to the court of King Dagobert I, her mother's cousin.