Seaxburg Queen of Kent [7160] 1696
- Born: 620, Ely, Cambridgeshire, England 1696
- Marriage (1): King Eorcenberht of Kent [7159]
- Died: 6 July 699, Ely, Cambridgeshire, England at age 79 1696
- Buried: 699, Ely, Cambridgeshire, England 1696
FamilySearch ID: GJ1W-1JC.
General Notes:
Wikipedia
Seaxburh (Old English: Sexburh), also Saint Sexburga of Ely (died about 699) was a Queen as well as an abbess, and is a saint of the Christian Church. She was married to King Eorcenberht of Kent.
After her husband's death in 664, Seaxburh remained in Kent to bring up her children. She acted as regent until her young son Ecgberht came of age.
Seaxburh founded the abbeys at Milton Regis and Minster-in-Sheppey where her daughter Ermenilda was also a nun. She moved to the double monastery at Ely where her sister Æthelthryth was abbess and succeeded her when Æthelthryth died in 679.
According to Bede, in 695, Seaxburh organised the movement (or translation) of Æthelthryth's remains to a marble sarcophagus, after they had lain for sixteen years in a common grave. On opening the grave, it was discovered that her body was miraculously preserved. The legend is described in Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, which celebrates the saintly virtues of Æthelthryth, but speaks less highly of Seaxburh, referring only to her marriage, succession as abbess and translation of her sister's relics. The date of Seaxburh's death at Ely is not known. The surviving versions of the Vita Sexburge, compiled after 1106, describe her early life, marriage to Eorcenberht, retirement from secular life and her final years as a nun and abbess at Ely.
Family
Further information: Kentish Royal Legend
Seaxburh was a daughter of Anna, King of East Anglia, the son of Eni, who ruled the East Angles from the early 640s and was slain together with his son Jurmin at the Battle of Bulcamp in 653 or 654.[1]
Seaxburh married Eorcenberht of Kent, and was the mother of kings Ecgberht (d. 673), Hlothhere (d. 685), and of Saints Eormenhild and Ercengota. Her marriage to Eorcenberht produced two sons, both of whom ruled, and two daughters.
Seaxburh's sisters were Æthelburg of Faremoutiers, Saethryth, Æthelthryth and possibly Withburga. She was the sister of Æthelburg and Saethryth, who were both abbesses of Faremoutiers Abbey in Brie, and also the sister of Æthelthryth, who married firstly Tonberht an ealderman of the South Gyrwe in the Fens, and secondly Ecgfrith of Northumbria. Withburga, who died in 743, may also have been her sister.[2]
The historian Barbara Yorke mentions the possibility that Seaxburh and her namesake Seaxburh of Wessex were the same person, but also notes that the accounts of Seaxburh's religious life at Ely contradict this suggestion.[3]
Seaxburh was buried at Ely with her sisters Æthelthryth Wihtburh, and with her daughter Eormenhild.
Marriage and widowhood
A map of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the 7th century
Seaxburh was connected with the royal family of the Magonsætan by her marriage to Eorcenberht, who was king of Kent from 640 to 664. Eorcenberht was the great-uncle of Mildburh and her sisters, the daughters of King Merewalh of the Magonsætan.[4]
Their sons Ecgberht and Hlothhere both became kings of Kent. Their daughter Ercongota was a nun at Faremoutiers, who was eventually canonised.[5] Eorcenberht is mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle within the annal for 640: "Then his son Eorcenberht succeeded to the kingdom; he overthrew all devil-worship in his kingdom, and was the first of the English kings to establish the Easter festival". In the same passage is the Chronicle's single reference to Seaxburh and Eorcengota, "...þaes dohter wæs ge haten Erchongata halifemne. and wundorlic man. thære modor wæs Sexburh Annan dohter East Engla ciningas" \endash '...his daughter was called Eorcengota, a holy and a remarkable person, whose mother was Seaxburh, daughter of Anna, king of the East Anglians'.[6][7] Seaxburh and Eorcenberht had a second daughter, Ermenilda, who married Wulfhere of Mercia and after his death became a nun and was later canonised. According to Barbara Yorke, Seaxburh's marriage was itself of seminal importance in the establishment of monastic life for women during the Anglo-Saxon period, as she became an example of an ex-queen who made retreating to an nunnery a desirable royal vocation.[8]
Eorcenberht died on 14 July 664,[9] in an outbreak of plague that occurred that year. After her husband's death, Seaxburh remained in Kent to bring up her children. She played an important political and religious influence in the kingdom: she acted as regent for her son Ecgberht, ruling Kent until her young son came of age, and was the founder of Kent's first abbey for women at Milton.[10] Thereafter, Seaxburh became a nun and founded the abbey of Minster-in-Sheppey.[note 1] According to the Liber Eliensis, a 12th-century chronicle and history written at Ely, an English source related that Seaxburh received "the veil of holiness" from Theodore, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in her church on the Isle of Sheppey and that her daughter Eormenhild also became a nun there.[12] Seaxburh is said by her hagiographer to have sought refuge as a nun after living a secular role that she had found hard to tolerate: having reluctantly submitted to marriage, she hastened from queenhood to "a timely widowhood and a hasty withdrawal to the religious life", according to Susan Ridyard.[13]
Noted events in her life were:
1. She was Roman Catholic in Monastery of Ely, Kingdom of Kent, Anglo Saxon England. 1699
2. Saint Seaxburga: Canonized, in 699,. 1699
Seaxburg married King Eorcenberht of Kent [7159] [MRIN: 5575], son of Eadbald King of Kent [7163] and Princess Emma of Austrasia [7164]. (King Eorcenberht of Kent [7159] was born in 618 in Kent, , Kingdom of Kent, Anglo Saxon England,1696 died on 14 July 664 in Kent, , Kingdom of Kent, Anglo Saxon England 1696 and was buried after 17 July 664 in Canterbury, , Kingdom of Kent, Anglo Saxon England 1696.)
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