Aethelred of Kent
Encyclopedia
- For the tenth century English king, see Ethelred the UnreadyEthelred the UnreadyÆthelred the Unready, or Æthelred II , was king of England . He was son of King Edgar and Queen Ælfthryth. Æthelred was only about 10 when his half-brother Edward was murdered...
.
Saint Aethelred (also Ethelred) and his brother Aethelberht were princes of the Kingdom of Kent
Kingdom of Kent
The Kingdom of Kent was a Jutish colony and later independent kingdom in what is now south east England. It was founded at an unknown date in the 5th century by Jutes, members of a Germanic people from continental Europe, some of whom settled in Britain after the withdrawal of the Romans...
who were murdered in around 669 AD, and later commemorated as saint
Saint
A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...
s and martyr
Martyr
A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...
s. Their story forms an important element in the legend of Saint Mildrith
Mildrith
Saint Mildthryth , also Mildrith, Mildryth or Mildred, was an Anglo-Saxon abbess.Mildthryth was the daughter of King Merewalh of Magonsaete, a sub-kingdom of Mercia, and Eormenburh , herself the daughter of King Æthelberht of Kent. Her sisters Milburh and Mildgytha were considered to be saints...
, because the monastery of Minster
Minster-in-Thanet
Minster-in-Thanet, also known as Minster, is a village and civil parish in the Thanet District of Kent, England. The village is situated to the west of Ramsgate and to the north east of Canterbury; it lies just south west of Kent International Airport and just north of the River Stour...
in Thanet
Thanet
Thanet is a local government district of Kent, England which was formed under the Local Government Act 1972, and came into being on 1 April 1974...
is said to have been founded in atonement for the crime.
Historical context
King Eorcenberht of KentEorcenberht of Kent
Eorcenberht of Kent was king of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Kent from 640 until his death, succeeding his father Eadbald....
seized the rule of Kent in 640 AD in precedence to his elder brother Eormenred
Eormenred of Kent
Eormenred was a member of the royal family of the Kingdom of Kent, who is described as king in some texts. There is no contemporary evidence for Eormenred, but he is mentioned in later hagiographies, and his existence is considered possible by scholars.Eormenred is described as a son of Eadbald,...
. Both were sons of Eadbald of Kent (r. c616-640). The legend, contained in a Latin Passio, tells that Eormenred and his wife Oslava had several children including the two sons Aethelred and Aethelberht, and a daughter Eormenbeorg. Eormenbeorg married Merewalh
Merewalh
Merewalh Merewalh Merewalh (sometimes given as Merwal or Merewald was a sub-king of the Magonsæte, a western cadet kingdom of Mercia thought to have been located in Herefordshire and Shropshire...
, ruler of the Maegonsaetan, a people situated in the west Midlands in the Shropshire
Shropshire
Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...
area. King Eorcenberht married Seaxburh
Seaxburh of Ely
Seaxburh ; also Saint Sexburga of Ely, was the queen of King Eorcenberht of Kent, as well as an abbess and a saint of the Christian Church....
, daughter of King Anna of East Anglia
Anna of East Anglia
Anna was King of East Anglia from the early 640s until his death. Anna was a member of the Wuffingas family, the ruling dynasty of the East Angles. He was one of the three sons of Eni who ruled East Anglia, succeeding some time after Ecgric was killed in battle by Penda of Mercia...
, and ruled as a Christian king: he was the first ruler to order the abandonment and destruction of idols throughout his kingdom, and to establish the forty days' fast of Lent
Lent
In the Christian tradition, Lent is the period of the liturgical year from Ash Wednesday to Easter. The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer – through prayer, repentance, almsgiving and self-denial – for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and...
to be observed by royal authority (Bede
Bede
Bede , also referred to as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede , was a monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria...
, Ecclesiastical History iii,8). He had two sons, Ecgberht
Ecgberht of Kent
Ecgberht was a King of Kent who ruled from 664 to 673, succeeding his father Eorcenberht s:Ecclesiastical History of the English People/Book 4#1....
and Hlothhere, and two daughters, Eormenhild and Eorcongota. On Eorconberht's death of the plague in 664, Ecgberht succeeded him as King of Kent.
The murder and its discovery
According to the legend, the princes were very pious Christian youths and lived at EastryEastry
Eastry is a civil parish and remote, yet historically significant village four kilometres SW of Sandwich, in Kent, that was voted "Kent Village of the Year 2005".-Etymology:...
, Kent, at a royal dwelling belonging to their cousin King Egberht. (It is likely that such a residence existed, for Sir Frank Stenton
Frank Stenton
Sir Frank Merry Stenton was a 20th century historian of Anglo-Saxon England, and president of the Royal Historical Society . He was the author of Anglo-Saxon England, a volume of the Oxford History of England, first published in 1943 and widely considered a classic history of the period...
pointed out that the placename Eastry, comparable to Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
in formation, represented an early administrative centre.) A royal retainer named Thunor wished to secure the succession of King Ecgberht from a possible rival claim by these youths. He therefore had them secretly murdered, and their bodies hidden beneath the royal seat in the Hall at Eastry. After they were missed, but nowhere found, the crime was revealed by a column of light which appeared shining above the place of concealment.
Miracle of the princes' burial
When King Egberht learned of the crime he was filled with sorrow and remorse at the act which had been done in his name, and planned to have the bodies buried at CanterburyCanterbury
Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....
. However, the people charged with the task of taking the bodies there found it impossible to move them. After these efforts the king took advice from his religious leaders, who recommended that he have them taken to Wakering in the Kingdom of Essex
Kingdom of Essex
The Kingdom of Essex or Kingdom of the East Saxons was one of the seven traditional kingdoms of the so-called Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was founded in the 6th century and covered the territory later occupied by the counties of Essex, Hertfordshire, Middlesex and Kent. Kings of Essex were...
for burial, where a monastery already existed. The site was probably Great Wakering
Great Wakering
Great Wakering is a village in Essex, England. The nearest large town is Southend which is approximately four miles to the west of the village...
, not many miles away from the possibly royal burial-site of Prittlewell
Prittlewell
Prittlewell is an area of Southend-on-Sea in Essex. Historically, Prittlewell is the original town, Southend being the south end of Prittlewell.Originally a Saxon village, Prittlewell is centred on St...
, Essex. With this new destination the bodies consented to be moved, and were venerated in their final resting-place as royal Christian martyr
Martyr
A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...
s.
Ecgberht's atonement by religious endowments
At about this time Egberht's mother Queen Seaxburh founded her own double monastery at Minster in SheppeyIsle of Sheppey
The Isle of Sheppey is an island off the northern coast of Kent, England in the Thames Estuary, some to the east of London. It has an area of . The island forms part of the local government district of Swale...
, on the south bank of the Thames Estuary
Thames Estuary
The Thames Mouth is the estuary in which the River Thames meets the waters of the North Sea.It is not easy to define the limits of the estuary, although physically the head of Sea Reach, near Canvey Island on the Essex shore is probably the western boundary...
nearly opposite Wakering. The monastery at Reculver
Reculver
Reculver is a hamlet and coastal resort situated about east of Herne Bay in southeast England. It is a ward of the City of Canterbury district in the county of Kent. Reculver once occupied a strategic location at the western end of the Wantsum Channel, between the Isle of Thanet and the Kent...
was founded in 669. Ecgberht then founded the monastery of Minster in Thanet, to be ruled over by the sister of the murdered princes. She was the mother of Saint Mildrith, who afterwards succeeded her as abbess. Some sources also claim that another monastery was established at Eastry for the same reason, over which a sister of Mildrith
Mildrith
Saint Mildthryth , also Mildrith, Mildryth or Mildred, was an Anglo-Saxon abbess.Mildthryth was the daughter of King Merewalh of Magonsaete, a sub-kingdom of Mercia, and Eormenburh , herself the daughter of King Æthelberht of Kent. Her sisters Milburh and Mildgytha were considered to be saints...
's ruled as abbess. Another sister, Mildburg, remained among the Magonsaetan and governed the monastery of Much Wenlock
Much Wenlock
Much Wenlock, earlier known as Wenlock, is a small town in central Shropshire, England. It is situated on the A458 road between Shrewsbury and Bridgnorth. Nearby, to the northeast, is the Ironbridge Gorge, and the new town of Telford...
in Shropshire.
In addition to the Latin Passio (edited by David Rollason) a version of the story appears in Roger of Wendover
Roger of Wendover
Roger of Wendover , probably a native of Wendover in Buckinghamshire, was an English chronicler of the 13th century.At an uncertain date he became a monk at St Albans Abbey; afterwards he was appointed prior of the cell of Belvoir, but he forfeited this dignity in the early years of Henry III,...
's Flowers of History, compiled in the early thirteenth century. Excavations at Great Wakering have recently uncovered a site of Middle Saxon occupation including a fragment of ornamented stone-sculpture, which may derive from the place named in the legend.
Sources
- Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, Ed. and Trans. by B. Colgrave and R.A.B. Mynors (Oxford 1969).
- J.A. Giles, Roger of Wendover's Flowers of History, Translation, Vol.1 (London 1849).
- S. Plunkett, Suffolk in Anglo-Saxon Times (Stroud 2005).
- D.W. Rollason, The Mildrith Legend. A Study of Early Medieval Hagiography in England (Leicester 1982).
- F.M. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, 3rd Edition (Oxford 1971).