Life
Edith was the illegitimate daughter of Edgar, by Wilfrida (or Wulfthryth), a woman of noble birth whom Edgar carried off forcibly from the nunnery at Wilton Abbey. He took her to his manor house at Kemsing, near Sevenoaks, where Edith was born. Under Dunstan's direction, Edgar did penance for this crime by not wearing his crown for seven years. As soon as Wulfthryth could escape from Edgar, she returned to Wilton, taking Edith with her.
Edith was educated by the nuns of the abbey, where her mother had become abbess. Standing not far from a royal residence at Wilton, the abbey included as part of its devotional work the contemporary equivalent of a boarding school for young ladies. Edith took the veil very early, with her father's consent. He offered to make the child the abbess of three different communities, but she chose to remain with her mother at Wilton. Edgar died in 975.
In 979, Edith had a dream that she had lost her right eye. She believed that the dream had been sent to warn her of te death of her half-brother Edward, who was indeed murdered at that time whilst on a visit to his stepmother Ælfthryth, at Corfe Castle, in Dorset.
Edith was offered the crown of England by those noblemen who had supported her murdered brother Edward against her young half-brother, Ethelred, but she refused the offer. She always dressed magnificently and was reported by the mediaeval chronicler William of Malmesbury to have worn luxurious golden garments. When rebuked by Æthelwold of Winchester, she answered that the judgment of God, which alone penetrated through the outward appearance, was alone true and infallible, adding, "For pride may exist under the garb of wretchedness; and a mind may be as pure under these vestments as under your tattered furs".
Edith built a church at Wilton and dedicated it to Saint Denis. Saint Dunstan was invited to the dedication and is said to have wept during the Mass. When he was asked why he wept, Dunstan said it was because he knew that Edith would die in three weeks. His prediction was proved to be correct when she died on 15 September 984: the story suggests that Edith was suffering from a fatal illness. She was buried at Wilton in the newly dedicated church.
Read more about this topic: Edith Of Wilton
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