THE SAXON CATHEDRAL AT CANTERBURY
the sole heiress of an ealdorman of Kent of the name of Sigelm, a large landowner in the Hundred of Hoo, who was killed, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in fighting against the Danes in East Anglia in A.D. 905.
Queen Ediva outlived her husband and her sons, and toward the end of a happy life (she calls herself "Ediva felix") she, with the consent of King Edgar, conveyed to Christ's Church in the year of Odo's death, by a deed of gift[1] dated A.D. 961 eight Kentish manors, the title-deeds of which she placed on the High Altar of the Cathedral with her own hands. Her picture, evidently a copy of an older one, by an artist of the fifteenth century, shows her dressed in regal robes, her mantle fastened by a beautiful and enamelled morse, and round her neck a chain from which a jewel is suspended.
This picture now stands in the Chapel of St. Martin in the north-east transept of the Cathedral. On the north side of the altar in this apse her remains are interred, next to those of the Saxon Archbishop Livingus (1013-1020). Upon the wall above may be seen in a mediæval script the words "EDIVY REGINA."[2]
Queen Ediva's stepson, Athelstan, according to Florence of Worcester, was the son of Edward the Elder and of a noble lady called Ecgwyn, and was not the son of a shepherd's daughter as tradition has it. He was brought up to the Army, and had had a good education, being an excellent Latin scholar. He succeeded his father when he was thirty years of age, being crowned at Kingston in Surrey. He was a worthy follower of his father and pursued a policy which earned him the tide of "Glorious Athelstan." He consolidated the kingdom and became really the first King of the English. In Canterbury he is remembered for his valuable gifts of MSS. to the Cathedral, some of which still exist. Amongst them is the MacDurnan Book of the Gospels (now in Lambeth Palace Library), which has his name inscribed in it. This book was presented to him by Maeilbrihde MacDurnan, Abbot of Armagh (888-927). It was written in the ninth, or early part of the tenth century, is famous for its text and illustrations, and
- ↑ Ch. Ch., Cant., MSS., Reg. J, f. 310.
- ↑ For an account of the Picture of Queen Ediva, see article on Arch. Cant., Vol. XXXVI, p. 1, by Rev. C. E. Woodruff.
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