David X Carpenter and Hugh Doherty of the Charters of William II and Henry I Project write:[1]
[Is the following an extended quote from an old book?] Edith was a beautiful woman who had been Concubine to King Henry the First, "and at her entreaty founded a Priory for Black Canons at Oseney, near Oxford, "among the Isles that Isis Ryver there maketh," in 1129.
"Sum write," continues Leland, "that this was the occasion of making of it. Edith usid to walk out of Oxford Castelle with her Gentilwomen to solace, and that often tymes, wher yn a certan place in a tre as often as she cam a certan pyes usid to gether to it, and ther to chattre, and as it wer to speke unto her. Edithe much marveling at this matter, and was sumtyme sore ferid as by a wonder.
"Wherupon she sent for one Radulph, a Chanon of S. Frediswide's, a Man of a vertuus Life and her Confessor, asking hym Counsels to whom he answerid, after that he had seen the fascion of the Pies Chattering only at her Cumming, that she should builde sum Chirch or Monasterie in that Place. Then she entreatid her Husband to build a Priorie, and so he did, making Radulph the first Prior of it."
This is a curiously characteristic story. Edith, whose antecedents may have made her suspicious of reproach, was evidently possessed with the idea that the clamour of the magpies was a malicious mockery designed to humiliate and reprove her, and to convey a supernatural warning that she must make speedy atonement for her sins. The whole scene was painted on the wall of the arch over her tomb at Oseney, where she was represented in the guise of a penitent, habited as a nun offering in her hand a heart.
Her husband was a great benefactor to the Church; besides Oseney, he founded and richly endowed Missenden Abbey in Oxfordshire.
See also Sigulfson-1
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Edith is 33 degrees from Herbert Adair, 26 degrees from Richard Adams, 30 degrees from Mel Blanc, 31 degrees from Dick Bruna, 29 degrees from Bunny DeBarge, 39 degrees from Peter Dinklage, 27 degrees from Sam Edwards, 29 degrees from Ginnifer Goodwin, 30 degrees from Marty Krofft, 26 degrees from Junius Matthews, 27 degrees from Rachel Mellon and 30 degrees from Harold Warstler on our single family tree. Login to find your connection.
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Categories: Royal Mistresses