Cristina, daughter of Edward the Exile and Agatha, was the sister of

Edgar Ætheling Edgar Ætheling or Edgar II ( – 1125 or after) was the last male member of the royal house of Cerdic of Wessex. He was elected King of England by the Witan in 1066 but never crowned. Family and early life Edgar was probably born in Hu ...

and

Saint Margaret of Scotland Saint Margaret of Scotland (; , ), also known as Margaret of Wessex, was Queen of Alba from 1070 to 1093 as the wife of King Malcolm III. Margaret was sometimes called "The Pearl of Scotland". She was a member of the House of Wessex and was b ...

, born in the 1040s. Cristina's nieces

Edith Edith is a feminine given name derived from the Old English word , meaning ''wealth'' or ''prosperity'', in combination with the Old English , meaning ''wiktionary:strife, strife'', and is in common usage in this form in English language, Englis ...

and Mary were sent to

Romsey Abbey Romsey Abbey is the name currently given to a parish church of the Church of England in Romsey, a market town in Hampshire, England. Until the Dissolution of the Monasteries it was the church of a Benedictine Order, Benedictine nunnery. The surv ...

, near

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

, in 1086 when she was abbess.

Life

Cristina came to the

Kingdom of England The Kingdom of England was a sovereign state on the island of Great Britain from the late 9th century, when it was unified from various Heptarchy, Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, until 1 May 1707, when it united with Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland to f ...

with her family in 1057, from

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. Along with her siblings, she went into exile in the

Kingdom of Scotland The Kingdom of Scotland was a sovereign state in northwest Europe, traditionally said to have been founded in 843. Its territories expanded and shrank, but it came to occupy the northern third of the island of Great Britain, sharing a Anglo-Sc ...

, at the court of

Malcolm III Malcolm III (; ; –13 November 1093) was List of Scottish monarchs, King of Alba from 1058 to 1093. He was later nicknamed "Canmore" (, , understood as "great chief"). Malcolm's long reign of 35 years preceded the beginning of the Scoto-Norma ...

, her future brother-in-law. At some time before 1086, Cristina returned to England and entered the nunnery at

, where she tutored her nieces

and Mary. Edith gave testimony to a conclave of bishops summoned by Archbishop

Anselm of Canterbury Anselm of Canterbury OSB (; 1033/4–1109), also known as (, ) after his birthplace and () after his monastery, was an Italian Benedictine monk, abbot, philosopher, and theologian of the Catholic Church, who served as Archbishop of Canterb ...

to determine whether Edith could lawfully marry

Henry I of England Henry I ( – 1 December 1135), also known as Henry Beauclerc, was King of England from 1100 to his death in 1135. He was the fourth son of William the Conqueror and was educated in Latin and the liberal arts. On William's death in 1087, Henr ...

. During that enquiry she stated that she had never taken holy vows, insisting that her parents had sent her and her sister to England for educational purposes, and that her aunt Cristina had veiled her to protect her "from the lust of the

Normans The Normans (Norman language, Norman: ''Normaunds''; ; ) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norsemen, Norse Viking settlers and locals of West Francia. The Norse settlements in West Franc ...

". Edith claimed she had pulled the veil off and stamped on it, and that Cristina had beaten and scolded her for it. Cristina's land-holdings in Ulverley,

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

and

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

are recorded in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

. The date of her death is not known, but she does not appear to have given evidence to the conclave, suggesting she died sometime before 1100. Additional evidence of her death includes the transfer before 1093 of her nieces to

Wilton Abbey Wilton Abbey was a Benedictine convent in Wiltshire, England, three miles west of Salisbury, probably on the site now occupied by Wilton House. It was active from the early tenth century until 1539. History Foundation Wilton Abbey is first re ...

for further education and the appointment of Eadgyth as the next abbess of Romsey Abbey.

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cristina, Daughter Of Edward The Exile Anglo-Saxon royalty Anglo-Saxon nuns 1040s births 11th-century deaths House of Wessex English princesses 11th-century English nuns 11th-century Christian nuns

Life

Notes

Further reading

External links