EANFLED, born possibly York, 20 April 626, died Whitby after 685. Queen of Bernicia, later co-abbess of Streanaeshalch/Whitby. Daughter of Aedilburg daughter of Aedilberct, and Edwini, King of Deira and Bernicia.

Daughter of a Christian mother and a father about to convert, Eanfled was the first of her father's people to be baptised. Her family fled to Kent at her father's death in 633, but she returned in the 640s to marry Oswy of Bernicia (611/12—670), son of her father's enemy. Oswy's kingdom included much of northern England and southern Scotland. Eanfled proved an outspoken and successful queen. Though Oswy had at least one son already by his first wife *Raegnmaeld, it was Eanfled's sons who inherited. Her daughters *Osthryd and *Aelffled were remarkable in their own right. Eanfled openly criticised Oswy when his client murdered a king who was her kinsman, and opposed his support of unorthodox ecclesiastical practices. This led to the adoption of Roman rather than ‘Celtic’ practices in the Bernician church at the Council of Whitby. The importance of Eanfled's influence upon Bernicia, and through Oswy's imperialism upon the spiritual life of much of Britain, was recognised by papal letter. When Oswy died in 670, Eanfled retired to Streanaeshalch/ Whitby, where Aelffled was a nun; in 680 she and Aelffled became coabbesses. Eanfled was buried there. Commemorated as a saint, her feast day was 24 November. JEF

• BEHEP; Colgrave, B. (ed.) (1927) The Life of Bishop Wilfrid; ODNB (2004) (Eanflred).

EARDLEY, Joan Kathleen Harding,‡ born Warnham, Sussex 18 May 1921, died Killearn Hospital, near Glasgow, 16 August 1963. Artist. Daughter of Irene Morrison, and Capt. William Eardley, dairy farmer.

Joan Eardley's father, who had been gassed in the trenches, took his own life in 1929, and the family moved to Blackheath, London. At art school in 1938, her teacher was ‘convinced that Joan had a unique career in front of her’ (Connell 1:975, p. 3). Money was tight, but she applied to Glasgow School of Art in 1939 and studied under Hugh Adam Crawford (1940—3). War work, painting camouflage on ships, interrupted her studies. In 1947, after a summer school tutored by James Cowie, she spent her diploma year in Italy and France. Her travelling companion, Bronwen Pulsford, remembered her persistence: ‘she managed to get into places where I would have given up’ (SNGMA 1983, p. 2).