A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Saxburga
SAXBURGA
Was the daughter of Webba, King of Mercia, and the wife of Cenwalch, who married her previous to his accession to the throne of Wessex, which happened on the death of his father, the Christian King Kynigils, A. D. 643. When her husband, who still remained unconverted, became monarch, he dismissed Saxburga from his court with ignominy, and took another to share his throne, without, as historians generally agree, any just cause for such a step; to avenge which the Mercian king made war upon Cenwalch, and succeeded in expelling him from his dominions. He retired to the protection of Anna, King of East Anglia, and was there converted to the Christian faith, and reconciled to his excellent wife, with whom, after the recovery of his kingdom, he enjoyed many years of uninterrupted harmony. He completed the cathedral at Winchester begun by his father, and died in 672, having given a most convincing proof of his respect for Saxburga by bequeathing to her the administration of the affairs of the kingdom, a step the more remarkable as it was quite without precedent. Saxburga is the solitary instance of a Queen-regnant during the entire dominion of the Anglo-Saxons. During the brief period that she held this power, she proved herself in every respect worthy to discharge the duties of the office. An old chronicler describes her as "levying new forces and preserving the old in their duty, ruling her subjects with moderation, and overawing her enemies; in short, conducting all things in such a manner that no difference was discernible except that of sex." But this was a difference, in those rude times, altogether fatal to the continuance of her rule. She was displaced from her high office by her rebellious subjects, as some say, at the end of two years, and henceforth she disappears from the page of history, unless she be the Queen Saxburga mentioned in a Welsh record, who, when the yellow plague, which lasted about eight years in Britain, had ceased its ravages, came back from Germany, whither she had fled, with many others, and founded a new settlement In "Nowry," on Northumberland. The date of this event is somewhat uncertain.