10. THE ABBEY OF LYMINGE
Ethelburga daughter of Ethelbert, king of
Kent, married Edwin, king of Northumbria, in
625; and after his death in 633 she returned
with Paulinus, the bishop, to Kent, and founded
a monastery at ' Limninge' which her brother
Eadbald, king of Kent, had granted to her;
taking the veil herself with other nuns, and
being buried there at her death. (fn. 1)
The monastery appears to have been double,
for men and women, as was often the case in
early times; for Cuthbert, archbishop of Canterbury, is said in a charter (fn. 2) granted to it by Ethelbert, king of Kent, in 741 to have been abbot
there; while a charter of Cynewulf, kingof Mercia,
and Cuthred, king of Kent, in 804 is addressed to
Selethrytha, abbess. Charters were also granted
by Wihtred, king of Kent, in 694, and Ethelstan
in 964; but little is, known of the history of the
monastery, which eventually came into the
possession of Christchurch, Canterbury.
Footnotes
| 1 |
Hist. Mon. St. Aug. (Rolls Ser.), 176, 177, 227. |
| 2 |
For these charters see Dugdale, Mon. i, 452;
Twysdeh, Decem Scriptores, 2208-9, 2213, 2223. |