Your unpublished thesis, submitted for a degree at Williams College and administered by the Williams College Libraries, will be made available for research use. You may, through this form, provide instructions regarding copyright, access, dissemination and reproduction of your thesis. -The faculty advisor to the student writing the thesis wishes to claim joint authorship in this work. In each section, please check the ONE statement that reflects your wishes. I. PUBLICATIONAND @JOTATION:LITERARY PROPERTY RIGHTS A student author automatically owns. the copyright to hislher work, whether or not a copyright symbol and date are placed on the piece. The duration of U.S.copyright on a manuscript--and Williams theses are considered manuscripts--is the life of the author plus 70 years. -Uwe do not choose to retain literary property rights to the thesis, and I wish to assign them immediately to Williams College. Selecting this option will assign copyright to the College. This in no way precludes a student author from later publishing hislher work; the student would, however, need to contact the Archives for a permission form. The Archives would be free in this case to also grant pern~jssion to another researcher to publish small sections from the thesis. Rarely would there be any reason for the Archives to grant permission to another party to publish the thesis in its entirely; if such a sitlvation arose, the Archives would be in touch with the author to let them know that such a request had been made. -I/we wish to retain literary property rights to the thesis for a period of three years, at which time the literary property rights shall be assigned to Williams College. Sclectirlg this option gives the author a few yearc, to make exclusive u*;e of the thesis in up-coming projects: articles. later research, etc. -\he wish to retain literary property rights to the thesis for a period of years,* at which time the literary property rights shall be assigned to Williams College. Selecting this option allows the author great flexibility in extending or shortening the time of hidher automatic copyright period. Some students are interested in using their thesir in gradnate school work. In this casc, it would mdke sense for then1 to enter a number such as ' 10 years' in the blank, and line out the words 'or until my death, whichever is the later.' In any event, it is easier for the Archives to administer copyright on a manuscript if the period ends with the . individual's death--our sttaff won't have to search for cslate cxecutors in this case--but this is entirely up to each \[dent. 11. ACCESS The Williams College Libraries are investigating the posting of theses online, as well as their retention in hardcopy. -6illiams College is granted permission to maintain and provide access to my thesis in hardcopy and via the Web both on and off campus. Selecting this option allows researchers arouncl thiworld to access the digital version of your work. Bthelstan, "King of All Britain": Royal and Imperial Ideology in Tenth-Century England BY Shane Bobrycki Professor Eric Goldberg, Advisor A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree in Bachelor of Arts with Honors in History WILLIAMS COLLEGE Williamstown, Massachusetts April 16,2007 Figure 1: Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 183, iv (King mthelstan with St. Cuthbert) Acknowledgements iv Abbreviations v Map: "Xthelstan's England" vii Illustrations: Coins viii Introduction: Bthelstan, "King of All Britain" 1 Anglo-Saxon England to 934 3 llhe Reign of Athelstan, 924-939 9 Royal Ideology in the Early Middle Ages 15 Sources 19 Part I: Constructing a Royal Ideology 25 Precedents and Inspirations 26 Legitimacy and Consolidation: Early years and consecration 3 1 927 and Aftermath: the "King of the English" 43 Mature Ideology: King of All Britain 5 5 An English Charlemagne? 60 Part 11: Aspects of a Royal Ideology 65 Crowns and Crown-Wearing 65 Bthelstan 's Laws 74 Learning and Literature 77 Religion I: Prayers, Charity, and Gospel-Books 83 Religion 11: Relics 92 Conclusion: Ideology in Action 97 Appendix 102 Bibliography 106 Thanks, first of all, to Professor Goldberg, my exceptional advisor. His expertise, dedication, and incisive criticism were indispensable to this thesis. Thanks also to Professor Waters, my faculty shadow, who pushed me to clarify my thoughts. Thanks to Professors Wilcox and Dekel for their help with dead languages. Thanks to my fiiends and professors for being patient and good humored with an eccentric topic. Thanks to my parents for their warm support and last-minute editing. Finally, very heartfelt thanks to Dr. John Maddicott, who taught me Anglo-Saxon history and advised me to write on Bthelstan. Dr. Maddicott generously lent time and experience to this thesis, for which I am extremely grateful. I am more grateful still for his inspired, exhilarating teaching. I hope this work lives up to his rigorous standards. For Anna, with love, gratitude, and awe. (I-VI) AS. LEthelstan7sLaw Codes, I-VI, printed in F. Liebermann, ed. Die Gezetze der Angelsachsen. 3 vols. Halle: Niemeyer, 1903-19 16; and, with English tranlation, in F.L. Attenborough, ed. and trans. The Laws of the Earliest English Kings. New York: Russell, 1963; cited by heading and section number. Arm. P yd. Ifor Williams and Rachel Bromwich, eds. Armes Pydein: The Prophecy of Britainfiom the Book of Taliesin. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advances Studies, 1972. ASC Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, printed in Charles Plummer, ed. Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel, with supplementary extracts_fi.om the others: a Revised Text, 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1892-9; Translation in EHD, no. 1; cited sub anno (s.a.) and by MS sigla (A-G). A SE Anglo-Saxon England. Asser William Henry Stevenson, ed. Asser 's Life of King Alfred, together with the Annals of Saint Neots erroneously ascribed to Asser. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1904; cited by chapter. SehMac Airt and Gearoid Mac Niocaill, ed. and trans. The Annals of Ulster (to A.D. 1131). Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1983; cited sub anno (s.a.) Butt.Brun. Alistair Campbell. The Battle of Brunanburh. London: Heinemann, 1938. Chron.Kthe1. Campbell, A. The Chronicle of Athelweard. London: Nelson, 1962. CS Birch, Walter de Gray Birch. Cartularium Saxonicum: a Collection of Charters Relating to Anglo-Saxon History, 3 vols. London: Whiting, 1885-1893; cited by number. Bertram Colgrave and R.A.B. Mynors, Bede 's Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Oxford: Clarendon, 1969. EHD Dorothy Whitelock, ed. English Historical Documents, Volume 1: c. 500-1042. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1953. EHR English Historical Review. GP N.E.S.A. Hamilton, ed. WillelmiMalmesbiriensis Monachi de Gestis Pontlficum Anglorum. Wiesbaden: Kraus Reprint, 1964. R. A. B. Mynors, R. M. Thomson, and M. Winterbottom, eds. William of Malmesbuiy: Gesta Regum Anglorum, vol. 1. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998; cited by book, chapter, and section. Heimskringla Erling Monsen and A. H. Smith, ed. and trans. Heimskringla or the Lives of the Norse Kings by Snorre Sturlason. New York: D Appleton and Company, 1932. HSC Ted Johnson South, ed. Historia de Sancto Cutlzberto: A History of Saint Cuthbert and a Record of his Patrimony. Cambridge: Brewer, 2002. Keynes and Lapidge Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge, eds. Alf?ed the Great: 1983 Asser 's Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources. New York: Penguin, 1983. Lib. Vit. Simon Keynes, ed. The Liber Vitae of the New Minster and Hyde Abbey, Winchester. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger, 1996, cited by folio. MGH Monumenta Germaniae Historica PASE Nelson, Janet and Simon Keynes, directors. Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England: A comprehensive biographical register of recorded inhabitants of Anglo-Saxon England (c.450-1 066). http://www.pase.ac.uk/. Sawyer, P.H. Anglo-Saxon Charters: an Annotated List and Bibliography London: Royal Historical Society, 1968. Cited by number. SEHD Florence Elizabeth Harmer, ed. Select English Historical Documents of the Ninth and Tenth Centuries. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1914. Stenton 1971 I?. M. Stenton. Anglo-Saxon England. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971. Symeon HR Thomas Arnold, ed. Symeonis Monachi Opera Omnia, vol2. Historia Regum. London: Longrnan, 18 85. Symeon Libellus de David Rollason, ed. and trans. Symeon of Durham: Libellus de exordio Exordio atque Procursu istius, hoc est Dunhelmensis, Ecclesie (Tract on the Origins and Progress of this the Church of Durham). Oxford: Clarendon, 2000. BTHELSTAN'S ENGLAND D. Hill, An Atlas of Anglo-Saxon England (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1981), no. 155. Figure 2: Early Coins (diademed bust, top three; two-line, bottom three) Figure 3: Mercian rosette coins All fiom C.E. Blunt, "The Coinage of Athelstan, 924-939," British Numismatic Journal 42 (1974): 35-159, plates. Figure 4: Best of Both Worlds (crowned bust coins with rtx totius Britanniae legends) Figure 5: cross type (LEDELSTAN REX TO BRI) Figure 6: crowned bust coins On June 7,934 the Anglo-Saxon king Bthelstan (r. 924-939) held a great assembly at Nottingham. In attendance were the luminaries of his kingdom: king's thegns, ealdormen of both Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian descent, over a dozen bishops, the archbishops of Canterbury and York, and at least three Welsh subkings, all with their respective retinues. This vast crowd had convened eleven days earlier at Winchester, 160 miles to the south, whence they had traveled. The king was on his way to war against Constantine 11, king of the Scots, who had ruled in the north since the reign of Bthelstan's father Edward. The exact reasons for this expedition remain unclear, but it seems that Constantine had broken an oath of allegiance which he had sworn to Bthelstan in 927.