A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Domniva, or Dompneva
DOMNIVA, or DOMPNEVA.
This appears to be a contraction of the Latin name Domina Eva, or the Lady Eva. The historical personage who bore it is sometimes referred to as Ermenburger; she was the daughter of Ermenred Clito, King of Kent, and was married to Merowald, King of the West Hicanas, or Hertfordshire, notwithstanding which marriage, however, she appears to have assumed the religious veil, by the consent of her husband; and the occasion of her retirement from the world is said to have been grief for the violent death of her two brothers, who were murdered by their cousin Egbert, who had ascended the Kentish throne, and who regarded them as dangerous rivals to his power. It is said that a miraculous light falling on the spot where the murdered princes were interred, led to the discovery of the crime. Egbert professed great repentance, and offered to pay the usual were gild, or compensation for blood, to their sister Domniva. This she refused to receive, but pardoned her cousin, and requested that he would grant her a place on Tenet, or the Isle of Thanet, as it is now called, "where she might build a monastery in memory of her brothers, with a sufficient maintenance, in which she might, with the virgins devoted to God, pray to the Lord to pardon and forgive the king for their murder." To this Egbert assented, and agreed to bestow as much land upon the religious foundation as Domniva's tame deer could run over at one course. The animal was let loose, and notwithstanding the efforts made by some to arrest its course, passed without stopping from one side of the island to the other, having run over forty-eight ploughed lands, or ten thousand acres, which the king, returning thanks to Jesus Christ, forthwith "surrendered to his illustrious cousin and her ecclesiastical posterity for ever"
And thus was founded the new minster, dedicated to the blessed Virgin Mary, and the memory of the murdered brethren, which was commenced, say some authorities, in 664, and completed in 670. And there, as Lady Abbess, dwelt, for a time at least, the widowed wife Domniva, as Drayton has it
"Immonastered in Kent, where first she breathed the air."
Her daughter Mildred, commonly called St. Mildred, on account of her holy life, a w6nian remarkable for her humility, afterwards occupied the same distinguished position in this monastery, the memory of whose site is still preserved in the Kentish village called Minster. It does not appear how long Domniva remained fit Minster, nor at what date she founded her nunnery at Ebbsfleet, in the Isle of Thanet. She survived her husband many years, and is frequently mentioned by contemporary historians. The latter period of h&r widowhood was spent at Gloucester, where she died.