island--to the Saxon name, and modern English influences have corrupted
Axeyholme into Axelholme, and contracted it into Axholme, and have
finally prefixed the English word _Isle_."[2]

The North Girvii and the South Girvii were two peoples that formed
districts of the East Anglian kingdom. In the early part of the seventh
century Anna was King of the East Angles; and Etheldreda, his daughter,
was born at Exning, near Newmarket,--a Suffolk parish, but detached from
the main county and entirely surrounded by Cambridgeshire,--about the
year 630. When quite young there were many suitors for her hand, but she
was altogether unwilling to accept any one of them. But the king, her
father, had so high an opinion of Tonbert--one of the noblemen of his
Court, who was alderman, or, as some render it, prince, of the South
Girvii--that he prevailed upon his daughter to be married to him, and
the marriage took place in 652, two years before Anna's death. From her
husband Etheldreda received the Isle of Ely--that is, the whole of the
region of the South Girvii--as a marriage settlement ("Insulam Elge ab
eodem sponso ejus accepit in dotem"). It is clear, therefore, that
Tonbert was something more than an officer of the king's if he had the
power of assigning such a district to his wife.

Tonbert only lived for three years after his marriage, and at his death
his widow came into possession of the Isle of Ely according to the
terms of her marriage settlement. She resided within it, and gave
herself up entirely to works of religion and devotion, entrusting the
civil government of her territory to Ovin. Her reputation for piety was
spread far and wide, and attracted the attention of Egfrid, son of Oswy,
King of Northumberland, who sought her hand in marriage. But no
attraction he could offer could persuade the princess to change her
state, until her Uncle Ethelwold, who was now King of East Anglia,
overcame her scruples. The disturbed state of his kingdom and the
importance of an alliance with so powerful a house as that of Oswy are
believed to have influenced Ethelwold to urge his niece to give her
consent to the proposed marriage; and the marriage took place at York.
It is constantly affirmed by all historians that in neither of these
marriages did the married couple live together as man and wife. At the
Northumbrian Court Etheldreda lived for twelve years, her husband
meanwhile, in 670, having become king. He had been for some years