![Part of Minster Abbey, formerly Minster Court - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Part_of_Minster_Abbey%2C_formerly_Minster_Court_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1638448.jpg)
Domne Eafe (;
floruit
''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they flourished") denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicatin ...
late 7th century), also ''Domneva'', ''Domne Éue'', ''Æbbe'', ''Ebba'', was, according to the
Kentish royal legend
The Kentish Royal Legend is a diverse group of Medieval texts which describe a wide circle of members of the royal family of Kent from the 7th to 8th centuries AD. Key elements include the descendants of Æthelberht of Kent over the next four ge ...
, a granddaughter of King
Eadbald of Kent
Eadbald ( ang, Eadbald) was King of Kent from 616 until his death in 640. He was the son of King Æthelberht and his wife Bertha, a daughter of the Merovingian king Charibert. Æthelberht made Kent the dominant force in England during his reign ...
and the foundress of the
double monastery
A double monastery (also dual monastery or double house) is a monastery combining separate communities of monks and of nuns, joined in one institution to share one church and other facilities. The practice is believed to have started in the East a ...
of
Minster in Thanet Priory
Minster Abbey is the name of two abbeys in Minster-in-Thanet, Kent, England. The first was a 7th-century foundation which lasted until the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Beside its ruins is St Mildred's Priory, a Benedictine community of women f ...
at
Minster-in-Thanet
Minster, also known as Minster-in-Thanet, is a village and civil parish in the Thanet District of Kent, England. It is the site of Minster in Thanet Priory. The village is west of Ramsgate (which is the post town) and to the north east of Cant ...
during the reign of her cousin King
Ecgberht of Kent
Ecgberht I (also spelled Egbert) (died 4 July 673) was a King of Kent (664-673), succeeding his father Eorcenberht.
He may have still been a child when he became king following his father's death on 14 July 664, because his mother Seaxburh was ...
. A 1000-year-old confusion with her sister Eormenburg means she is often now known by that name. Married to
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. Merewalh is thought to have lived in the mid to late 7th century, havin ...
of Mercia, she had at least four children. When her two brothers,
Æthelred and Æthelberht
Saints Æthelred and Æthelberht (also ''Ethelred'', ''Ethelbert'') according to the Kentish royal legend (attested in the 11th century) were princes of the Kingdom of Kent who were murdered in around AD 669, and later commemorated as saints and ...
, were murdered (and subsequently venerated as saintly martyrs) she obtained the land in Thanet to build an abbey, from a repentant King Ecgberht. Her three daughters all went on to become abbesses and saints, the most famous of which,
Mildrith
Saint Mildrith, also Mildthryth, Mildryth and Mildred, ( ang, Mildþrȳð) (born c. 660, died after 732), was a 7th and 8th-century Anglo-Saxon abbess of the Abbey at Minster-in-Thanet, Kent. She was declared a saint after her death, and later he ...
, ended up with a shrine in
St Augustine's Abbey
St Augustine's Abbey was a Benedictine monastery in Canterbury, Kent, England. The abbey was founded in 598 and functioned as a monastery until its dissolution in 1538 during the English Reformation. After the abbey's dissolution, it underwent ...
, Canterbury.
Origins
According to the
Kentish royal legend
The Kentish Royal Legend is a diverse group of Medieval texts which describe a wide circle of members of the royal family of Kent from the 7th to 8th centuries AD. Key elements include the descendants of Æthelberht of Kent over the next four ge ...
, Domne Eafe's father was Eormenred, son of King
Eadbald of Kent
Eadbald ( ang, Eadbald) was King of Kent from 616 until his death in 640. He was the son of King Æthelberht and his wife Bertha, a daughter of the Merovingian king Charibert. Æthelberht made Kent the dominant force in England during his reign ...
and
Emma of Austrasia
Emma ( fl. early seventh century) was a member of the Austrasian royal family. She is sometimes identified with the Emma (or Ymma) who married Eadbald of Kent.
Emma was a daughter of Theudebert II, King of Austrasia from 595 to 612. He had previo ...
, and grandson of
Æthelberht of Kent
Æthelberht (; also Æthelbert, Aethelberht, Aethelbert or Ethelbert; ang, Æðelberht ; 550 – 24 February 616) was King of Kent from about 589 until his death. The eighth-century monk Bede, in his ''Ecclesiastical History of the Engli ...
, England's first Christian king. Domne Eafe's mother is called Oslafa. It is probable that Eormenred shared the kingship of Kent with his brother
Eorcenberht, the senior king, and also that he predeceased Eorcenberht.
The legend records several children of Eormenred and Oslafa. Their sons Æthelberht and Æthelred were murdered during the reign of their cousin King
Ecgberht of Kent
Ecgberht I (also spelled Egbert) (died 4 July 673) was a King of Kent (664-673), succeeding his father Eorcenberht.
He may have still been a child when he became king following his father's death on 14 July 664, because his mother Seaxburh was ...
. Their daughters are less certainly identifiable. Eormengyth, according to the legend, was buried in the countryside near to Minster-in-Thanet and was reckoned a saint in later Anglo-Saxon times. Eormengyth was the sister of Æbbe and
Eormenburh
Domne Eafe (; floruit late 7th century), also ''Domneva'', ''Domne Éue'', ''Æbbe'', ''Ebba'', was, according to the Kentish royal legend, a granddaughter of King Eadbald of Kent and the foundress of the double monastery of Minster in Thanet P ...
. She was married to
King
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
Centwine
Centwine (died after 685) was King of Wessex from c. 676 to 685 or 686, although he was perhaps not the only king of the West Saxons at the time.
The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' reports that Centwine became king c. 676, succeeding Æscwine. Bede s ...
of
Wessex
la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum
, conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons
, common_name = Wessex
, image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg
, map_caption = S ...
who ruled from 676 to 685 but became
abbess
An abbess (Latin: ''abbatissa''), also known as a mother superior, is the female superior of a community of Catholic nuns in an abbey.
Description
In the Catholic Church (both the Latin Church and Eastern Catholic), Eastern Orthodox, Coptic ...
as a
widow
A widow (female) or widower (male) is a person whose spouse has Death, died.
Terminology
The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed ''widowhood''. An archaic term for a widow is "relict," literally "someone left over". This word ...
possibly back in
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
(c. 695–705) in succession to her sister.
Domne Eafe and Eormenburg
From at least the 1030s, Domne Eafe has been described as also named Eormenburg (or such variants as ''Irmenburg'' and ''Ermenburga''). The given name of Domne Eafe appears to be very uncertain. Domne would seem to be a title, implying that she was a highly respected lady, while ''Eafe'' could be a variant of Eve (and so could be her given name) or Abbess (i.e. yet another title). There are six Anglo-Saxon charters (legal documents) dating from the time she was Abbess, all of which simply refer to her by the Latin title (or name) ''Æbbe''. One of these, a Charter from 699, names three other 'renowned abbesses', Hirminhilda, Irminburga and Nerienda, who, along with Æbbe, are present to witness that various privileges had been granted to the Kent Churches. This enabled David Rollason, writing in 1982, to conclude, despite the variant spellings, that they were two individuals.
The next known references to either name are written some 300 years later, when various different accounts of the
Kentish Royal Legend
The Kentish Royal Legend is a diverse group of Medieval texts which describe a wide circle of members of the royal family of Kent from the 7th to 8th centuries AD. Key elements include the descendants of Æthelberht of Kent over the next four ge ...
were written up. Three of these documents introduce the idea that Domne Eafe and Eormenburg were the same person. Others, such as a genealogy from
Ramsey Abbey
Ramsey Abbey was a Benedictine abbey in Ramsey, Huntingdonshire (now part of Cambridgeshire), England. It was founded about AD 969 and dissolved in 1539.
The site of the abbey in Ramsey is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Most of the abbey's ...
, identify Eormenburg as a sister of Eafe. However, the 10th- and 11th-century texts, even those that offer Eormenburg as an alternative, then use Domne Eafe and its variants throughout their texts.
Uneasiness appears to set in after that date about the idea that there were sisters, Eormengith, Eormenburg and Domne Eafe, of which one name didn't seem to be part of the set. From the 12th century onwards, some writers have liked the idea that a Kentish monastic princess should be called Eormenburg rather than Domne Eafe, and thus only refer to Ermenburg (or variants), as the Abbess of Thanet and mother of Mildrith. Following a lead perhaps given by
William of Malmesbury
William of Malmesbury ( la, Willelmus Malmesbiriensis; ) was the foremost English historian of the 12th century. He has been ranked among the most talented English historians since Bede. Modern historian C. Warren Hollister described him as "a ...
in c. 1135 books such as 'Villages of Britain', web sites such as 'Hidden historical heroines', and modern lists of saints refer to her simply as Ermenburg.
The legend
The legend survives in varying forms in a number of manuscripts which date from the eleventh and twelfth centuries (and later copies).
These include a life of Saints
Æthelberht and Æthelred
Æthelberht, Aethelbert or Ethelbert is a masculine given name which may refer to:
People Æthelberht
* Æthelberht of Kent (c. 550–616), King of Kent
* Æthelred and Æthelberht (died c. 669), possibly legendary princes of Kent, saints and mart ...
in the ''
Historia Regum
The ''Historia Regum'' ("History of the Kings") is a historical compilation attributed to Symeon of Durham, which presents material going from the death of Bede until 1129. It survives only in one manuscript compiled in Yorkshire in the mid-to-lat ...
'', compiled at
Ramsey Abbey
Ramsey Abbey was a Benedictine abbey in Ramsey, Huntingdonshire (now part of Cambridgeshire), England. It was founded about AD 969 and dissolved in 1539.
The site of the abbey in Ramsey is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Most of the abbey's ...
by the monk
Byrhtferth
Byrhtferth ( ang, Byrhtferð; ) was a priest and monk who lived at Ramsey Abbey in Huntingdonshire (now part of Cambridgeshire) in England. He had a deep impact on the intellectual life of later Anglo-Saxon England and wrote many computistic, ha ...
; a life of
Mildrith
Saint Mildrith, also Mildthryth, Mildryth and Mildred, ( ang, Mildþrȳð) (born c. 660, died after 732), was a 7th and 8th-century Anglo-Saxon abbess of the Abbey at Minster-in-Thanet, Kent. She was declared a saint after her death, and later he ...
by
Goscelin
Goscelin of Saint-Bertin (or Goscelin of Canterbury, born c. 1040, died in or after 1106) was a Benedictine hagiographical writer. He was a Fleming or Brabantian by birth and became a monk of St Bertin's at Saint-Omer before travelling to Englan ...
and rebuttal, by him, to the claims by St Gregory's Priory, Canterbury to having the relics of Saints Mildrith and
Eadburg, by way of
Lyminge
Lyminge is a village in southeast Kent, England. It lies about five miles (8 km) from Folkestone and the Channel Tunnel, on the road passing through the Elham Valley. At the 2011 Census the population of Etchinghill was included. The N ...
. St Gregory's too produced their own account, preserved in a manuscript held in
Gotha
Gotha () is the fifth-largest city in Thuringia, Germany, west of Erfurt and east of Eisenach with a population of 44,000. The city is the capital of the district of Gotha and was also a residence of the Ernestine Wettins from 1640 until the ...
.
According to the legend, Domne Eafe, daughter of Eormenred, a sub-king of Kent, marries
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. Merewalh is thought to have lived in the mid to late 7th century, havin ...
, a Mercian king of
Magonsæte
Magonsæte was a minor sub-kingdom of the greater Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia, thought to be coterminous with the Diocese of Hereford.
The British territory of Pengwern was conquered by Oswiu of Northumbria in 656, while he was overlord of the ...
, by whom she has a son, Merfin (known as 'The Holy Child', who died while young) and three daughters, none of whom married, and all were proclaimed saints. On the death of Eormenred, Domne Eafe's younger brothers, Saints Æthelberht and Æthelred, were fostered by their cousin, king Ecgberht, and were murdered by the king's reeve, called
Thunor
Thor (; from non, Þórr ) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred groves and trees, strength, the protection of humankind, hallowing, and ...
, either on the king's command or on his own initiative.
In order to quench the family feud which this kinslaying would have provoked, Ecgberht agreed to pay a
wergild
Weregild (also spelled wergild, wergeld (in archaic/historical usage of English), weregeld, etc.), also known as man price (blood money), was a precept in some archaic legal codes whereby a monetary value was established for a person's life, to b ...
for the murdered princelings. The legend claims that Domne Eafe was offered (or requested) as much land as her pet hind could run around in a single lap. The result whether by miraculous guidance (as most texts imply), or because the hind goes wherever Domne Eafe guides it, (as the Caligula A text claims) was that she gained some eighty
sulungs of land on
Thanet Thanet may refer to:
*Isle of Thanet, a former island, now a peninsula, at the most easterly point of Kent, England
*Thanet District, a local government district containing the island
*Thanet College, former name of East Kent College
*Thanet Canal, ...
as
weregild
Weregild (also spelled wergild, wergeld (in archaic/historical usage of English), weregeld, etc.), also known as man price (blood money), was a precept in some archaic legal codes whereby a monetary value was established for a person's life, to b ...
, on which to establish a dual monastery. Domne Eafe is, by all the accounts, succeeded as abbess by her daughter Mildrith.
It is thought likely that the legend's details are all considerably earlier than the date of the surviving manuscripts. It contains features, such as the establishment of a monastery in compensation for kinslaying (an analogous case is recorded by
Bede
Bede ( ; ang, BÇ£da , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom o ...
in the case of the killing of King
Oswine of Deira
Oswine, Oswin or Osuine (died 20 August 651) was a King of Deira in northern England.
Life
Oswine succeeded King Oswald of Northumbria, probably around the year 644, after Oswald's death at the Battle of Maserfield. Oswine was the son of Osric. ...
by King
Oswiu of Bernicia
Oswiu, also known as Oswy or Oswig ( ang, Ōswīg; c. 612 – 15 February 670), was King of Bernicia from 642 and of Kingdom of Northumbria, Northumbria from 654 until his death. He is notable for his role at the Synod of Whitby in 664, which ult ...
), which would be unexpected to originate with an 11th-century text. Circumstantial evidence would date the earliest version of the legend from the time of
Saint Eadburg (died 751?), Mildrith's successor as abbess of Minster-in-Thanet.
Charter evidence
A number of Kentish charters from the reigns of Oswine and Wihtred name Domne Eafe, or rather "Æbbe", as witness or beneficiary of grants to Minster-in-Thanet. Rollason argues that these show that Minster-in-Thanet was the main beneficiary of Kentish royal patronage of monasteries, surpassing even
St Augustine's Abbey
St Augustine's Abbey was a Benedictine monastery in Canterbury, Kent, England. The abbey was founded in 598 and functioned as a monastery until its dissolution in 1538 during the English Reformation. After the abbey's dissolution, it underwent ...
in
Canterbury
Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour.
...
.
No charters survive from Ecgberht's reign, and written charters only began anywhere at around that period, so the original grant may have been oral rather than written. The 15th century historian
Thomas of Elmham
Thomas Elmham (1364in or after 1427) was an English chronicler.
Life
Thomas Elmham was probably born at North Elmham in Norfolk. He may have been the Thomas Elmham who was a scholar at King's Hall, Cambridge from 1389 to 1394. He became a Benedic ...
recorded a later charter, which has now been lost, in his history of St Augustine's, Canterbury. This dated from 678, during the reign of Egcberht's brother and successor
Hlothhere
Hlothhere ( ang, Hloþhere; died 6 February 685) was a King of Kent who ruled from 673 to 685.
Hlothhere succeeded his brother Ecgberht I in 673. His parents were Eorcenberht of Kent and Seaxburh of Ely, the daughter of Anna of East Anglia. In ...
. The
Rolls Series
''The Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages'' ( la, Rerum Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores), widely known as the is a major collection of British and Irish historical materials and primary sources publish ...
edition of Thomas's history includes as its frontispiece a map that he drew showing Thanet and the course taken across the island by Domne Eafe's pet hind, a route which followed a ditch and marked the boundary of Canterbury's estates on Thanet.
Family tree
The Kentish royal legend includes expansive genealogical sections which appear to differ from most Anglo-Saxon genealogies both in their fuller treatment of female lines, and in having no interest in Pagan warlord ancestors. By contrast its chief interest is in recording the ability of the royal line of Christian kings to produce female saints. At least eleven are incorporated into the genealogy, including not just the Kentish princesses, but those from the East Anglian, Mercian and Magonsaetan kingdoms into which they married. From Æthelberht I, whose reign may have begun in 560, down to Domne Eafe's three daughters, all acclaimed as saints, who are thought to have died in the early 8th century. The family tree below, based solely on the information in the various versions of the Kentish royal legend, finds various points of corroboration in
Bede
Bede ( ; ang, BÇ£da , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom o ...
's writings and in other early documents. Other individuals and relationships are known only from the legend.
[Family tree is from Rollason, 1982, p.45]
, -
, style="text-align: left;", Notes:
Notes
References
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External links
* and
{{DEFAULTSORT:Domne Eafe
People from Minster-in-Thanet
Anglo-Saxon nuns
Anglo-Saxon royalty
Kentish saints
7th-century English nuns
House of Kent
House of Icel