200 SOME SAXON SAINTS OF WIMBORNE. 



acted as subregulus, or Regent, to his brother Ceadwalla 

 the King of Wessex. In 688 Ceadwalla was succeeded on the 

 throne by Cuthburga's brother Ina, the celebrated lawgiver. 

 Cuthburga was married to Aldfrid, the king of Northumbria. 

 Whether the marriage was ever consummated is uncertain. 

 Both Florence of Worcester * and Capgrave are of the opinion 

 that it was. The latter states that, at the earnest entreaty 

 of his wife, Aldfrid released her from her marriage vows. 

 The former tells us that before the close of their lives, moved 

 by the love of God, both husband and wife renounced the 

 married state, f On the other hand, in the Sarum Kalendar, 

 under the date August 31, St. Cuthburga is described as "a 

 virgin, but not a martyr." And in the Sanctorale of Sarum the 

 Collect for St. Cuthburga's day runs : 



" Deus, qui eximiae castitatis privilegio famulam tuam 

 Cuthburgam multipliciter decorasti : da nobis famulis tuis, 

 ejus promerente intercessione, utriusque vitae prosperitatem, 

 ut sicut ejus festivitas nobiscum agitur in terris, ita per ejus 

 interventum nostri memoria apud te semper habeatur in 

 caelis. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum. Amen." 



But at any rate her desire was for the religious life and not 

 for a secular one ; and she persuaded her husband, who was 

 apparently in sympathy with her desires, to allow her to 



* Florence of Worcester, Chron. : B. Thorpe, Vol. I., p. 49. London, 

 1848. 



f " Like Ethelreda, she is said to have been a Virgin ; but there is 

 some reason to suppose that Aldfrid had a son, Osred, by her." 

 Bateson. Transactions of R.Hist. Soc., 1899, p. 180. 



Miss Eckerstein (Woman under Monasticism, p. 116) says that the 

 statement that Cuthburga was the mother of Osred, afterwards King 

 of Northumbria (706-717), is perhaps unfounded. In the MSS. 

 department of the British Museum Library J is a 14th Century MS., 

 which formerly belonged to the nunnery of Romsey, which contains a 

 collection of lives of the saints. In the life of St. Cuthburga is given 

 a full account of a conversation which she had with her husband 

 before their separation. 



J Lansdowne MSS. 436f. 38 (b). 



