St Cuthbert and the queen

St Cuthbert was believed to be unable to bear the company of women. About Easter 1333 the queen of Edward III followed him to Durham and went to bed with the king in the prior’s lodgings inside the abbey gate. A monk soon came to tell the king that the saint did not love her sex, so the queen rose, dressed in haste and spent the rest of the night in the castle, asking pardon for her offence against the patron of the church. Chambers took the story from Brand’s History of Newcastle.