Wulfhilda (also rendered Wulfhild or Wulfreda) was an Anglo-Saxon abbess of the tenth century who governed the monasteries of Barking and Horton in England. Daughter of the Wessex nobleman Wulfhelm, she was raised and educated by the Benedictine nuns of Wilton Abbey and joined their community as a young woman. She is commemorated on September 9.
By tradition, while Wulfhilda was a novice at Wilton, King Edgar sought her in marriage. According to the account preserved in her life, her aunt, the abbess Wenfleda of Wherwell, invited her to Wherwell under the pretext of making her a successor but intended to deliver her to the king; discovering the trap, Wulfhilda fled, and when Edgar pursued her she took refuge among the altars and relics of the sanctuary and escaped his advances, remaining faithful to the monastic life.
Around 970 she was appointed abbess of Barking Abbey, a house that had been restored under King Edgar. Under her leadership the monastery flourished and expanded; she is said to have donated twenty villages to the abbey and to have established a second monastery at Horton. After Edgar's death she was deposed following complaints raised by some of the nuns, with the queen, Aelfthryth (Elfrida), acting against her. She withdrew to Horton for about twenty years before being recalled to Barking, after which she governed both houses for the last seven years of her life.
