Etheldreda: Queen and Saint.

By Jim Linwood -  https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10289518

Etheldreda (also known as Aethlthryth or Audrey) was an Anglo-Saxon princess born in Suffolk about 636 AD. Her father was Anna (a straightforward name but to our ears more puzzling) King of the East Angles. 

 It is to Audrey that we owe Ely Cathedral. After two political marriages she founded the first monastery on this site in 673 AD.

Etheldreda (can’t say Audrey. Puts me in mind of a soap character) had always wanted to be a nun. Her father had different ideas, marrying her off to Tondbert, a local chieftain. She did though acquire the island of Ely as a present from her new husband.

Two years later Tondbert died and like a dutiful daughter she married Ecgrith, the future king of Northumbria. According to historians, Etheldreda ‘preserved the glory of perfect virginity’ so it is hardly surprising that after twelve years of marriage, Ecgrith released her from her vows. 

Free at last, she became a nun at Coldingham, where her aunt Ebbe was Abbess. In 673 she left Coldingham and journeyed south to Ely where she founded her own monastery – a double house—one for both nuns and monks. 

Despite or because of a pious life of abstinence, wearing only rough woollen clothing, eating only once a day and praying throughout the night, she died six years later —679 AD—from a tumour in her neck, and was buried in a simple wooden coffin outside the Abbey. Her sister Seaxburga the widowed Queen of Kent, succeeded her as abbess.

Sixteen years after her death, Etheldreda’s body was moved into the Abbey and was found to be ‘incorrupt’ – interpreted as a sign of her holiness. More than that, the wound in her neck where the doctor had tried to excise the tumour had completely healed. From then on, her tomb became a focus for pilgrims and the site of many miracles. 

Initially pilgrims were few because Ely pre conquest was an island and necessitated the hire of a boat. The rich though, were actively encouraged. Queen Emma, wife of Ethelred the Unready and then of his successor king Cnut, was an early benefactor, both she and Cnut taking the boat there in 1030. 

After the Norman Conquest, William the Conqueror built a road through the marshes, mainly to crush rebellions and subjugate the area.The road, of course, encouraged more pilgrims to visit. 

Her tomb became even grander when the Abbey grew into a cathedral in 1109—and grander still in 1252 when the Cathedral was extended to allow more space for the hordes of new pilgrims.

And then came  the Reformation and the even more malign Dean Goodrich. With malicious intent he destroyed the tomb so completely her body disappeared and hasn’t been found to this day. A simple stone marks the site of the original shrine.

But behind that, a rather splendid altar

There is though, a fascinating artefact that survived the malign dean Goodrich.

And for those who wish to raise a glass to the blessed Audrey, her feast day is fast approaching. June 23rd. Put it in your diaries. 

Ely Cathedral

 

Ely Cathedral, like all great cathedrals,  has  magnificent architecture and is awash with magical  stained glass. But what initially piqued my interest was less the stonework but  more the characters buried within. Stone is pretty enduring, so too is human nature which hasn't changed much over the years. Every one of these men are recognisable types, you could easily fit modern names to them.  In this case however, their stories mirror a key period in English history and reveal scoundrels and saints, the vain, the good  hearted. I’l leave you to decide who belongs to which category.

Bishop West’s Chantry

Nicholas West, Bishop of Ely 1515 – 1534

The young Nicholas West was apparently a wild one, but age sobered him. He became chaplain to Henry VII and later an important diplomatic envoy for Henry VIII. He truly was a prince of the church, living in ‘the greatest spleandour of any Prelate in his time.’ And yet he also fed ‘warm meat and drink to the excess of 200 people per day.' It was lucky he died when he did, because he was also an ardent supporter of Catherine of Aragon and would likely have been executed like Fisher and More, had he lived. 

Dean Humphrey Tyndall Dean of Ely 1591 – 1614

Dean Tyndall was heir to the throne of Bohemia but refused the kingdom saying that he ‘would rather be Queen Elizabeth’s subject than a foreign prince.' 

Good man! 

His memorial agrees.

His presence, government, good actions and in birth, 

Grave, wise, courageous, noble was this earth.

The poor, the Church, the college say here lies

A friend, a Dean, a master true, good and wise

Bishop Thomas Goodrich Bishop of Ely 1534 – 1554 Lord Chancellor of England.

Bishop Goodrich was a rabid reformer who published his intent in 1541: ‘… all images, relics, table monuments of miracles, shrines etc be so totally demolished and obliterated with all speed and diligence that no remains or memory of them might be found for the future.’ It is because of Goodrich that no trace of St Etheldreda  remains, that so many figures in the niches were destroyed, and that the C14^th and C15^th stained glass windows were damaged.

When however, the Catholic Queen Mary ascended the throne, Thomas Goodrich had a revelation. He suddenly realised he was Catholic after all and so retained his Bishopric – though not the office of Lord Chancellor. 

Sir Mark Steward, the cousin of Dean Robert Steward, and like him related to Elizabeth Steward, Oliver Cromwell’s mother. He was also touchingly vain. In keeping with his knighthood, he and his family boasted a genealogy to match. His monument suggests that they were not only of Scottish ancestry but members of the royal house of Stewart—which was a load of pleasing nonsense. The family name was Styward, meaning ‘keeper of the pig sties,’ and they came from Swaffham in Norfolk. It might have been embarrassing for Oliver Cromwell otherwise—beheading a relative. 

Praying for his lost money.

Dean Henry Caesar Dean of Ely 1614 – 1636

Has an interesting family history He was noted for his charity and left a considerable sum of money for scholarships at Jesus College, Cambridge. Unfortunately, the money was subsequently lent to King Charles I at the start of the Civil War. He lost his head and Jesus College lost the money bequeathed by the Dean Henry Caesar of blessed memory.

Next week, a remarkable saint.