i6 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book 1. 



island it was separated, as it were, from the outside world, so 

 that nature seemed to have formed it for solitude and con- 

 templation. 



After she had lived some time in this recluse state, Prince 

 Egfrid, " son of Oswy, King of Northumberland and Monarch 

 of the English nation," hearing of her extraordinary virtues 

 and piety, desired to obtain her in marriage. But he soon 

 found that worldly riches and honours had little or no effect 

 to induce her to change her condition, and therefore had 

 recourse to her uncle Ethelwold, then king of East-Anglia, 

 and to others who might be thought to have the greatest 

 influence over her, to persuade her to accept his offer. The 

 kingdom of East-Anglia was then in an unsettled state, from 

 which it had not quite recovered since the death of her father 

 Anna. Ethelwold, therefore, judging that the offer of an 

 alliance with so great a prince was not to be neglected, and 

 that it would prove highly beneficial to his kingdom, most 

 earnestly persuaded her to accept the prince's offer ; and at 

 his solicitation she at length gave her consent, and was 

 accordingly conducted to York, attended by Ovin, her prime 

 minister, with many other of the East-Anglian nobility of 

 both sexes, and there married to Prince Egfrid with great 

 pomp and solemnity. The Venerable Bede, who flourished in 

 those days, and was personally acquainted with this model 

 husband and wife, asserts that, although Etheldreda continued 

 Egfrid's consort for twelve years, " yet she remained glorious 

 in the perpetual integrity of virginity." 



In the year 670, King Oswy died, and Egfrid, his son, who 

 had been his coadjutor in the latter part of his reign, succeeded 

 him both in the kingdom of Northumberland and the monarch 

 of the English nation ; in consequence of which Etheldreda 

 was raised to the highest degree of worldly honour, being now 

 queen to the greatest of the Saxon kings. Her exalted 

 station made no change in her estimation of secular honours, 

 as her sentiments continued invariably the same ; and indeed 

 her intention of quitting them seems rather to have been 

 hastened by that event ; for she soon after began to solicit 

 the king's leave to depart the court, and retire into some 



