have been, the community at a later date
atoned for them, for in the C9, when the Danes invaded Northumbria, and
killed the men of this monastery, among others, the nuns are said to
have mutilated their faces in order to escape the marauders. The Danes,
in fury at the loss of their prey, burned the monastery to the ground,
and all that remains to mark the site is a small ruined chapel.

At Ely there was also a double monastery founded by Aethelthryth,[26]
later known as S. Awdrey. She was the daughter of Anna, King of the East
Angles, and therefore a niece of the great abbess Hild. She was married,
for the second time, probably for political reasons, when over thirty
years old to King Egfrith of Northumbria, then a boy of fifteen. After
living with him for twelve years, she left him and went to Coldingham,
where she received the veil. Whether Egfrith agreed to this or not, it
is impossible to say. There are reasons for believing that he was, at
any rate, unwilling; for Bede says that she had long requested the king
to permit her to lay aside worldly cares and serve God in a monastery
and that she at length, with great difficulty, prevailed.

She remained at Coldingham for a year and then went to Ely, the island
in the fens given to her by her first husband; and there she built a
monastery, of which she became abbess.

She renounced all the splendours and even ordinary comforts of her
former royal life. Bede says that from the time that she entered the
monastery, she wore no linen, but only woollen garments, rarely washed
in a hot bath, unless just before any of the great festivals, such as
Easter, Whitsuntide, and the Epiphany; and then she did it last of all,
after having, with the assistance of those about her, first washed the
other nuns.

After presiding over the monastery six or seven years, she died of a
tumour in her throat, which she used to say was sent as a punishment for
her excessive love of wearing necklaces in her youth. Hence the "tawdrey
lace" of "The Winter's Tale" and elsewhere, which was a necklace bought
at S. Awdrey's Fair, held on the day of her festival, October 17th. She
was succeeded by her sister, Seaxburh, the widow of Erconberht, King of
Kent, who had founded a double monastery at Sheppey, of which she was
the first abbess. There is no mention of monks as well as nuns before
her reign. Her daughter, Ermengild, succeeded her as Abbess of Sheppey,
and at her mother's death, of Ely. Ermengil