Royal Blood, Sacred Lives
Abbesses of the Seventh Century
Hello there! I’m currently studying for a PhD in Archaeology at Oxford, researching the role of women in the social and political developments of 6th- and 7th-century England and France. With a worldwide readership of over 4,400 PLUS featuring regularly in Substack’s top 100 fastest-growing history publications, I share medieval history as you rarely hear it. I combine written and archaeological evidence to share the experiences of overshadowed individuals, ask challenging questions of dominant interpretations, and recommend books and writers doing a wonderful job of unearthing the past. My top 3 posts of all time have been a review of Rebecca Stott’s Dark Earth, biography of Æthelthryth of the Northumbrians (the queen who wouldn’t sleep with her husband), and my interview with fellow early medievalist Lydia Rodgers.
Royal Blood, Sacred Lives
Abbesses of the Seventh Century
‘While her husband Hereric was living in exile under the British king Cerdic, where he was poisoned, Breguswith had a dream that he was suddenly taken away, and though she searched most earnestly for him, no trace of him could be found anywhere. But suddenly, in the midst of her search, she found a most precious necklace under her garment and, as she gazed closely at it, it seemed to spread such a blaze of light that it filled all Britain with its gracious splendour. This dream was truly fulfilled in her daughter Hild; for her life was an example of the works of light, blessed not only to herself but to many who desired to live uprightly.’1
One of a number of women who slipped from the royal court into the monastic enclosure during the 7th century, Hild is perhaps the best known of all the early medieval royal abbesses thanks to a biography preserved in the pages of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History (c. A.D. 731), the major narrative source for this period.
A minor member of the Northumbrian royal family, she was born in c. A.D. 614 to a nephew of powerful king Edwin who had united the rival warring dynasties of Bernicia and Deira under one crown. Ruling first the monastery at Hartlepool before being given land by King Oswiu to set up a new foundation at nearby Whitby, Hild became famous for her focus on literacy and excellence, educating multiple kings and bishops and becoming a go-to for advice.2
The generation before her were born pagans, worshipping Woden and Thunor in their sacred groves and hilltops, but they had witnessed the arrival of the first Christian mission for centuries. These visiting preachers brought not just a new God but a new cultural identity, social structure, and political affiliation. No longer would kings look to their Scandinavian and Germanic homelands for models of royal rule; now they would be inspired by their powerful contemporaries in nearby Francia (roughly what is now France), whose connection to Roman and Byzantine worlds had been less thoroughly dismantled than in England.
Christianity had been brought to the province of Britannia under the Romans centuries before but it had retreated from its eastern lands on the coattails of retreating troops in the 5th century. The papacy, however, was not willing to lose these islands so easily and in A.D. 596 Gregory the Great launched a mission under local abbot Augustine, who arrived in Kent the following year. England was then a collection of kingdoms of varying sizes and over the course of the next century all of them would profess faith in Augustine’s God.
Augustine didn’t just bring Christianity to England, though. He also brought a new way for kings to display their power and patronage, particularly through their women: monasteries.
Who were the women who lived in and ruled over these powerful establishments? Why did they choose the holy life? Or were they forced into it?