by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2025
Cristina of Wessex, Abbess of Romsey Abbey; Credit – Wikipedia
Cristina of Wessex was the third of the three children and the second of the two daughters of Edward the Exile and his wife Agatha. She was born an Anglo-Saxon princess, circa 1057, probably in Hungary, where her father, Edward the Exile, the son of Edmund II Ironside, King of the English, had found refuge after Edmund II’s death and the 1016 conquest of England by Cnut the Great, King of Denmark and Norway, who also then became King of England.
Cristina had an elder sister and an elder brother:
In 1057, Edward the Confessor, the childless King of England, discovered that his nephew and Cristina’s father, Edward the Exile, was still alive and summoned him to England as a potential successor. Edward the Exile arrived in England with his wife Agatha and their children, but he died within a few days of his arrival, on April 19, 1057, without meeting King Edward the Confessor. The cause of his death has never been determined. Murder is a possibility, as he had many powerful enemies. After the death of her father, Cristina’s brother Edgar the Ætheling had the best hereditary claim to the English throne. Edward the Exile’s three children were then raised in the court of Edward the Confessor, who died in January 1066.
In October 1066, William of Normandy (the Conqueror) invaded England and defeated King Harold II at the Battle of Hastings. Following Harold II’s death in battle, the Witenagemot elected Cristina’s brother, Edgar the Ætheling, the last of the House of Wessex, as King of England. As William of Normandy’s position grew stronger, it became evident to those in power that King Edgar should be abandoned and that they should submit to William, who then reigned as King William I of England, the first English monarch of the House of Normandy. In 1067, a year after the Norman Conquest, Cristina’s mother Agatha fled with her children to Scotland, finding refuge with her future son-in-law, Malcolm III, King of Scots, who married Cristina’s sister Margaret, circa 1070.
Circa 1086, Cristina returned to England and entered the nunnery at Romsey Abbey in Hampshire, where she became a nun. Her sister Margaret, Queen of Scots, sent two of her daughters, Matilda of Scotland and Mary of Scotland, to Romsey Abbey so Cristina could take charge of their education. Cristina’s burial site and death date are unknown, but she probably died circa 1093.
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Works Cited
- Christine (fille d’Édouard l’Exilé) (2025). Wikipedia. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_(fille_d%27%C3%89douard_l%27Exil%C3%A9)
- Flantzer, Susan. (2025). Agatha, wife of Edward the Exile, King of the English. Unofficial Royalty. https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/agatha-wife-of-edward-the-exile-king-of-the-english/
- Flantzer, Susan. (2025). Edgar the Aethling. Unofficial Royalty. https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/edgar-the-aetheling-disputed-claimant-to-the-throne-of-england/
- Wikipedia Contributors. (2025). Cristina (daughter of Edward the Exile). Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation.
