7. SAINTS AETHELRED AND AETHELBRICHT, MARTYR-PRINCES OF KENT

The holy princes Aethelred and Aethelbricht (Ethelbert) were the sons of King Ermenred of Kent and his queen Oslaf. When still young they were committed into the care of their cousin King Egbert, who became king in 664, and his queen, St. Sexburga. Their innocence and holiness of life offended one of the king's counts, Thunor, who feared that if the young princes lived long they would supplant him in the king's favour. So he began secretly to hate them, and to accuse them before the king, saying that if they lived they would deprive either him or his children of the kingdom. And he began to entreat the king for permission to king them. But the king refused, for they were dear to him and his family. Nevertheless, Thunor secretly killed the young princes one night in the king's palace and hid them under the king's throne, thinking that noone would think of looking for them there.

However, when the king at dawn saw a beam of light stood up through the roof of the hall up to heaven, he ordered Thunor to be fetched and asked him what he had done with his cousins. Thunor answered that he knew where they were, but would not tell him unless he had to. But when the king adjured him by their friendship to reveal the secret, he told him that he had buried them in the king's hall under his throne. Then the king was very disturbed, and after building a shrine for the princes, he summoned his counsellors and asked them what he should do. They, with the support of Archbishop Theodore, advised that the princes» sister, Ermenburga, be summoned from Mercia, where she had been given in marriage, so as to fix the compensation due to the relatives of the princes for their murder. She fixed the compensation at eighty hides of land in the isle of Thanet.

Now when she and the king had gone to Thanet, he asked her to choose which part of the land she wanted in compensation. She replied: as much land as her deer, which always ran in front of her when she travelled, would run round. The king agreed, and they set off after the deer until they came to the place which was called Thunor's leap. Then Thunor bowed to the king and said: «Sir, how long will you listen to this dumb animal, which will run round the whole of this land? Will you give it all to the queen?» At that moment the earth opened and swallowed him up.

Thus the king founded a monastery at Minster-in-Thanet, and Ermenburga became the first abbess.

The bodies of the martyr princes were translated to Wakering in Essex and then, towards the end of the tenth century, to Ramsey Abbey by St. Oswald of Worcester.

Holy Martyr-Princes Aethelred and Aethelbricht, pray to God for us!

(Sources: An Old English manuscript; William of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontificum Anglorum; David Farmer, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1978, p. 140)