According to Yorke, Seaxburh's retirement to Ely is an example an Anglo-Saxon custom represented in a law: whereby a married woman remained the responsibility of the paternal side of her family, perhaps to spend the rest of her days as a nun or an abbess. Described by the "Liber Eliensis" as a ""pretiosa virago"" (precious lady-warrior) she succeeded as abbess when Æthelthryth died, probably of plague, in 679. Seaxburh's previous political experience in East Anglia and Kent would have been useful in preparing her for the role of abbess at the double monastery at Ely.