Eanflæd (19 April 626 – after 685, also known as Enfleda) was a Deiran princess, queen of Northumbria[1] and later, the abbess of an influential Christian monastery in Whitby, England.
The monastery had strong association with members of the Northumbrian royal family and played an important role in the establishment of Roman Christianity in England.
Eanflæd's mother had grown up as a Christian, but her father was an Anglo-Saxon pagan and he remained uncommitted to the new religion when she was born on the evening before Easter in 626 at a royal residence by the River Derwent.
Afterward, Edwin, prompted by Æthelburg's bishop, Paulinus, agreed to Eanflæd's baptism and promised to become a Christian if he was granted a victory over Cwichhelm.
[5] In 642 Oswiu, King of Bernicia, head of the rival Northumbrian royal family, sent a priest named Utta to Kent, which then was ruled by Eanflæd's cousin, Eorcenberht, to ask for her hand in marriage.
[11] Eanflæd was the early patroness of Wilfrid, who played a large part in Northumbrian politics during the reigns of Ecgfrith, Aldfrith, and Osred, and elsewhere in seventh century Britain.
Divisions within the Northumbrian church led to the Synod of Whitby held at this monastery in 664, during which Oswiu had agreed to settle a calendar controversy about Easter by adopting the Roman dating method.
Whitby Abbey was a double monastery, housing the nuns and monks in separate quarters although they shared the church and religious rites.