Founded c.888 Shaftesbury Abbey was the first abbey in England just for women, it grew in importance and wealth until 1539 when it became the last abbey in England to be surrendered during the Reformation.
(Shaftesbury Abbey ruins – https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/521923)
The abbey was founded c.888 by Alfred the Great, who granted it one sixteenth of his royal revenues. Æthelgifu, his second daughter, was the first Abbess and was soon joined by “…many other nobel nuns.” Æthelgifu was the third surviving child of Alfred the Great and his wife Ealhswith. We know very little about her life, although it was said she suffered from ill health. What little we know comes from Asser, who was her father’s biographer, he wrote that she was “…devoted to God through her holy virginity, subject and consecrated to the rules of monastic life…” We don’t have a date of death for Æthelgifu but as the abbey never held any lands that would have become her’s upon the death of her father, it is likely that he outlived her.
The abbey had two notable burials; the first was Ælfgifu, the wife of King Edmund I. Ælfgifu was venerated as a saint and became regarded by the house as its true founder. The second was the bones of St Edward the Martyr, which were translated from Wareham and “…received at the abbey with great ceremony.” The journey was overseen by Saint Dunstan and Ælfhere, Ealdorman of Mercia; it was an event of “…great procession beginning on 13 February 981” arriving at the abbey a week later, where they were received by the nuns and “…buried with full royal honours on the north side of the altar.” According to some sources a miracle occurred during the procession when:
“…two crippled men were brought close to the bier and those carrying it lowered the body to their level, the cripples were immediately restored to full health.”
In June 1001, King Æthelred instructed the bishops to move the tomb of St Edward after it was seen to regularly “…rise from the ground.” The relics were moved into a casket and placed in “…the holy place of the saints together with other holy relics.” After this the abbey was rededicated to ‘the Mother of God and St Edward. The tomb of St Edward became a site of many miracles making the abbey a popular place of pilgrimage for all classes of people.
By the reign of Henry VIII the abbey had become the “…wealthiest and important Benedictine nunnery in England.” So much so that Bishop Thomas Fuller said; “…if the abbess of Shaftesbury and the abbot of Glastonbury Abbey had been able to wed, their son would have been richer than the King of England.” The wealth and power made the abbey a prime target for Thomas Cromwell and the king. In 1539, the last abbess, Elizabeth Zouche, signed a deed of surrender.
After the dissolution the abbey was demolished and its lands sold, today you can only visit the ruins and imagine the lives of the women that once called it home.
Written by – Gemma Apps.
Sources:
https://www.shaftesburyabbey.org.uk/
The Reformation of the Landscape: Religion, Identity, and Memory in Early Modern Britain and Ireland. By Alexandra Walsham
Sagas of She 