Wulfthryth of Wilton

[6] Wulfthryth was an English noblewoman, a younger cousin of Wulfhild, born about 937, whom King Edgar of England carried off from the nunnery at Wilton Abbey and took to his residence at Kemsing, near Sevenoaks.

[8] Goscelin and William of Malmesbury agree that Edgar married her, but that she renounced their marriage shortly after Edith was born.

[11] According to scholar Katie Ann-Marie Bugyis, Wulfthryth "exemplifies the spiritual fecundity that a matron could achieve as a monastic leader', her "experience as a biological mother" did not prevent her from becoming an abbess, and the community did not consider her loss of virginity an obstacle to becoming a successful monastic leader.

[9] According to early monastic texts, under Saint Dunstan's direction Edgar did penance for this crime by not wearing his crown for seven years.

[12] As part of his penance, Edgar gave Wilfrida six estates in Wiltshire and the Isle of Wight which she passed on to Wilton Abbey in 965AD.

[13] Some form of bride abduction, often more simulated force than actual, by this time, may have existed as a vestige of earlier Anglo-Saxon tradition, and historians have alternatively referred to Wilfrida as Edgar's concubine or his second wife, although never as a captive.