Christina of Markyate
The Battle of Hastings Changed Anglo-Saxon Life for Ever.
In medieval society most young women accepted the suitors chosen by their parents and they married when they were instructed to do so. But what if they didn't?
What if they rebelled and refused to marry the men selected by their parents? What options did they have? They could stay at home and endure the frustration of their humiliated parents or they could enter a convent or perhaps adopt the life of an anchoress (or anchorite) and if that was their choice what was life like for these women?
The Battle of Hastings was the last time that England was successfully invaded by a foreign power. It changed the Anglo-Saxon way of life for ever. William the Conqueror took possession of the land with the result that the previously wealthy owner-occupiers often found themselves poverty stricken and robbed of their social standing.
In these changed and somewhat reduced circumstances it was not unusual for English families to seek to re-establish their position by offering the Normans their aunts, sisters, widows and especially their daughters in marriage. Such a union would immediately reinstate them on the social ladder. The conquering Normans, many of whom were a 'good catch', were keen to establish themselves in English society by intermarriage with the daughters and widows of those they had supplanted.
However, not all young women were compliant with their father's wishes. Christina, born Theodora de Markyate at Huntingdon, some thirty years after the Norman conquest, was just such a woman. In normal circumstances nothing much would be known about these private struggles but in 1150 Christina published her life story, "Life of Christina of Markyate".
As a young girl she had been taken to St. Albans Abbey and during that visit, impressed by the sincerity of the monks, Christina took a vow of chastity and promised herself to a life of service to the church.
Her father, Autti de Markyate had other plans. His sister, Alveva, was already mistress to the wealthy, but notoriously nasty, Bishop Ranulph Flambard, chief administrator to William Rufus. On one of Flambard's frequent visits to the family home he took a liking to Christina but an unsuccessful attempt to rape her caused him much embarrassment. The crafty Christina suggested it would be better if the door was locked. The unsuspecting Bishop immediately agreed so Christina nimbly flew to the door and locked it – from the outside!
The bishop took his revenge by arranging her marriage, with her family's approval, to the nobleman Burthred, one of his friends. Christina refused to be married. Flambard was furious and so were Christina's parents. The bitter entanglement between parents and daughter continued for another two years until eventually she gave in and the marriage took place in 1116.
However, a marriage is not a marriage without a consummation and Burthred made several unsuccessful attempts to coerce the unwilling Christina. On one occasion he was simply talked out of it when Christina lectured him on the virtues of chastity. On another occasion she escaped his unwanted attentions by hiding between the wall and the hanging tapestry of her bed chamber.
Christina ran away. She was "on the run" from Burthred and her parents for several years. The marriage was annulled in 1122 when her parents and husband finally accepted that Christina would not give in to them. In the interim she hid with different recluses until Roger the Hermit, a monk from St. Albans, agreed to hide her in his cell at Markyate. She remained for several years hidden in a closet barricaded in with a tree trunk only leaving the closet at night to visit the chapel and to answer the call of nature. The anchoritic life allowed Christina to fulfil her vow of virginity and devote her life to god: it was the middle route between domesticity and the communal life of the convent.
Christina attracted a following of like-minded religious women looking to her for spiritual guidance. This was not unusual for a woman in her position and resulted in the founding of a priory at Markyate in 1145.
Christina's life was well-documented through her own autobiography, "Life of Christina of Markyate", written in 1150, and also through the writings of Abbot Geoffrey de Gorham (Abbot of St. Albans – 1119-1145) who wrote the St. Alban's Psalter which gives additional information.
