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II. The Anti-Monastic Reaction in the Reign of Edward the Martyr

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 December 2011

D. J. V. Fisher
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Extract

It is unfortunate for our understanding of the history of the tenth century that, for several critical periods for which the historian would most appreciate a full and reliable account of events, contemporary sources of information fail him at vital points. Until quite recently it was difficult to feel certain about the date of King Edward the Elder's death and the circumstances in which Aethelstan ascended the throne of England. The years between the death of King Eadred in 955 and the succession of Edgar to the reunited kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex in 959 are still obscure. Of the character of the reign of Edward the Martyr, ‘Little can be gathered…beyond a vague impression of disorder, and the knowledge that a period was abruptly set to the endowment of monasteries which Edgar had encouraged’. For this reign the historian's complaint is less of the dearth of evidence than that it is nearly all of the same kind.

Type
Research Article
Information
Cambridge Historical Journal , Volume 10 , Issue 3 , 1952 , pp. 254 - 270
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1952

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References

1 F. M. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, p. 367.

2 E. A. Freeman, The Norman Conquest, I, p. 265.

3 Op. cit. p. 367.

4 E. Miller, The Abbey and Bishopric of Ely, p. 18.

5 (W. de G.) Birch, C[artulariuni] S[axonicum], nos, 1351, 1290.

6 There is a charter of Aethelred which says, ‘Omnes utriusque ordinis optimates … fratrem meum Eadwardum unanimiter elegerunt’. (J. M.) Kemble, C[odex] D[iplomaticus] Aevi Saxonici, no. 1312. This is directly at variance with all the other evidence. It protests too much to inspire confidence.

7 Kemble, CD. no. 629. Recently edited by H. P. R. Finberg, Tavistock Abbey, pp. 278–83.

8 Kemble, CD. no. 1258. Edited by A. J. Robertson, Anglo-Saxon Charters, pp. 122–5.

9 Memorials of Saint Dunstan, ed. W. Stubbs (Rolls Series), pp. 396–7.

10 Vita Ethelwoldi, c. 40: in Mabillon, Acta SS. Ord. Bened. Saec. v, pp. 608–24, and in Migne, Patrologia Latina, cxxxvii, cols. 81–108.

11 Vita Oswaldi Auctore Anonymo in Historians of the Church of York, ed. J. Raine (Rolls Series), 1, pp. 399–475.

12 J. Armitage Robinson, St Oswald and the Church of Worcester (British Academy. Supplemental Papers, 1919).

13 ‘Byrhtferth and the anonymous life of St Oswald’ in Speculum Religionis, Essays … presented to C. G. Montefiore (1929).

14 J. Armitage Robinson, ‘Byrhtferth and the life of St Oswald’, J. Theological Studies (1929).

15 Vita Oswaldi, p. 456.

16 Ibid. pp. 428–9.

17 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ‘D ’, s.a. 965, and the note on this annal in C. Plummer, Two Saxon Chronicles Parallel, II, pp. 158–9.

18 Before this vexed problem of authorship is finally settled another work, the Vita Ecgwini, will have to be taken into account. It is to be found in MS. Nero El immediately after the Vita Oswaldi, is written in the same hand, and bears some striking resemblances to it. A few may be cited.

These instances are taken at random from a large number.

19 Vita Oswaldi, p. 449.

20 Vita Sancti Dunstani Auctore Osberno, in Memorials of Saint Dunstan, p. 114.

21 Chronicon ex Chronicis, ed. B. Thorpe, pp. 144–6.

22 Gesta Regum, ed. W. Stubbs (Rolls Series), p. 182.

23 Chronicon Abbatiae de Evesham, ed. W. D. Macray (Rolls Series), pp. 78–9.

24 Liber de Hyda, ed. E. Edwards (Rolls Series), p. 206.

25 Cambridge Medieval History, iii, pp. 378–9.

26 Gesta Regum, 1, p. 163.

27 Stenton, op. cit. p. 360.

28 D. Knowles, The Monastic Order in England, pp. 31–6.

29 Cartulaire de I'Abbaye de Saint-Bertin, ed. M. Guérard, p. 145.

30 F. E. Harmer, Anglo-Saxon Writs, pp. 380 and 396–7. The translation is Miss Harmer's.

31 Birch, C.S., nos. 1300, 1301.

32 Gesta Pontificum, ed. N. E. S. A. Hamilton (Rolls Series), p. 143.

33 Liber Eliensis, ed. D. J. Stewart, p. 115.

34 Historia Monasterii de Abingdon, ed. J. Stevenson (Rolls Series), 1, p. 367.

35 Liber Eliensis, p. 120.

36 Ibid. pp. 130–1.

37 Liber Eliensis, p. 114.

38 Ibid. p. 131.

39 Ibid. p. 126; for a somewhat similar transaction see ibid. p. 134.

40 Liber Vitae, Register and Martyrology of New Minster and Hyde Abbey, Winchester, ed. W. de Gray Birch, p. 7.

41 Vita Oswaldi, p. 411.

42 Finberg, op. cit. p. i.

43 G. Barraclough, Medieval Germany, I, p. 68.

44 Plummer, op. cit. ii, p. 164.

45 Vita Oswaldi, p. 428.

46 Ibid. pp. 443–4.

47 Valuable information about Aelfhere may be found in The Crawford Collection of Early Charters and Documents, ed. A. S. Napier and W. H. Stevenson, p. 84.

48 Op. cit. 1, pp. 200, 224, 355.

49 Kemble, CD. no. 593; Birch, C.S. no. 1174, edited by D. Whitelock, Anglo-Saxon Wills, pp. 22–5.

50 Op. cit. p. 171.

51 Ibid. pp. 129–30.

52 Ibid. pp. 140–1.

53 Ibid. p. 153.

54 Ibid. p. 158.

55 Ibid. pp. 170–1.

56 For references to the proprietary church in England see Miller, op. cit. p. 21, n. 4.

57 Vita Oswaldi, p. 445.

58 Ibid. p. 449.

59 Supra nn. 49 and 50.

60 They are mentioned by name as being specially responsible for the execution of the provisions of Edgar's last code of laws.

61 Vita Oswaldi, p. 451.

62 Op. cit. II, pp. 162–3.

63 Finberg, op. cit. p. 279 n.

64 Gesta Region, 1, pp. 178–9.

65 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, D and E, s.a. 979.

66 Chronicon de Abingdon, I, pp. 357–70.