Bathild was an Anglo-Saxon girl sold into slavery to the Frankish mayor of the palace Erchinoald, perhaps at twelve or thirteen. She rose by her ability and grace to become a household manager for him. Around 649 King Clovis II saw her at court and married her — a slave-girl become queen of Neustria and Burgundy.
She bore Clovis three sons, all of whom became kings. After his death in 657 she ruled as regent for the eldest, Clotaire III. She used her position decisively: she ordered the buying-back of slaves to liberate them (especially the children of the Slavic and Anglo-Saxon trade), prohibited the trade in Christian slaves throughout the Frankish kingdom, and founded several great monasteries — including Corbie and Chelles, both pillars of Frankish monastic life for the next four centuries.
Around 665 a court faction forced her into retirement at Chelles, the convent she had founded. She accepted with humility and lived there fifteen years as an ordinary nun, dying on January 30, 680. She is one of only a handful of slaves to be venerated as a saint of the Latin Church.