Martha Bayless,  English, and 2021-22 OHC Faculty Research Fellow

“My project examines an overlooked but important early English narrative about a powerful queen who met disaster, Eadburh of Kent (d. 802 CE). Her legend forms an early landmark in the history of the critical narratives that come to surround powerful women. Eadburh becomes a sort of anti-hero, accused of murder, greed, and sexual misconduct, enduring the kind of critical malice against a woman in a position of power that remains in force even today.”