Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU Master's Theses Graduate College 12-1977 Ecclesiastics of the Crown under King Edgar: A Prosopographical Study of Bishops and Abbots in Anglo-Saxon England, 959-975 Valerie Catherine Hauch Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses Part of the Medieval History Commons Recommended Citation Hauch, Valerie Catherine, "Ecclesiastics of the Crown under King Edgar: A Prosopographical Study of Bishops and Abbots in Anglo-Saxon England, 959-975" (1977). Master's Theses. 2227. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses/2227 This Masters Thesis-Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate College at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ECCLESIASTICS OF THE CROWN UNDER KING EDGAR: A PROSOPOGRAPHICAL STUDY OF BISHOPS AND ABBOTS IN ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND, 959-975 by Valerie Catherine Hauch A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate College in partial fulfillment of the Degree of Master of Arts Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, Michigan December 1977 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The preparation of this thesis has owed much to the encourage ment and advice of Professors George Beech and John Sommerfeldt. I wish to thank them, as well as others at Western Michigan Univer sity, who provided me with assistance. My debt to them of course in no way absolves me of complete responsibility for what I have written. Valerie C. Hauch ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INFORMATION TO USERS This material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. 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Xerox University Microfilms 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. MASTERS THESIS 13-10,927 HAUCH, Valerie Catherine ECCLESIASTICS OF THE CROWN UNDER KING EDGAR: A PROSOPOGRAPHICAL STUDY OF BISHOPS AND ABBOTS IN ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND, 959-975. Western Michigan University, M.A., 1977 History, medieval University Microfilms International,Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGES I AN INTRODUCTION TO KING EDGAR'S REIGN, HIS ECCLESIASTICAL CHARTER WITNESSES, AND THE SOURCES AND METHODOLOGY EMPLOYED IN THIS INQUIRY ............ 1 II A DESCRIPTION OF THE CHARTERS AND WITNESS LISTS AND A GENERAL CHARACTERIZATION OF THE W I T N E S S E S .................... 16 III THE LEADERSHIP OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH UNDER EDGAR .......................... 38 The Bishops ........................... 38 The A b b o t s .......................... 70 IV THE PROSOPOGRAPHY OF EDGAR'S BISHOPS AND ABBOTS AND THE CHURCH, MONARCHY, SOCIETY AND POLITICS IN LATE TENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND ................... 83 APPENDIX I A LIST OF KING EDGAR'S WITNESSED CHARTERS WITH AN ASSESSMENT OF AUTHENTICITY..... 94 Authentic or Probably Authentic Charters. 95 Questionable Charters ................... 103 Spurious Charters ....................... 105 Charters with Anachronistic Witness Lists . 106 II BIOGRAPHIES OF THE BISHOPS AND ABBOTS .... 107 III WITNESSES APPEARING ONLY ON SPURIOUS CHARTERS OR ANACHRONISTIC WITNESS LISTS . 168 Spurious Witnesses ..................... 168 Anachronistic Witnesses ................. 169 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................ 170 iii with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER I AN INTRODUCTION TO KING EDGAR’S REIGN, HIS ECCLESIASTICAL CHARTER WITNESSES, AND THE SOURCES AND METHODOLOGY EMPLOYED IN THIS INQUIRY King Edgar's royal charters frequently contain a formula which indicates that a grant of land or privilege was confirmed by the leading persons of the kingdom. For example, a representative charter sets forth the rights and duties attendant upon a certain estate, which the king declares he granted "with the consent of my chief men."'*' The same charter concludes by reiterating the formula of consent: "This charter has been written in the year of the incarnation of our Lord 968, and confirmed by the king together 2 with all of his chief men whose names are seen to be present below." Thereupon follows a list of witnesses to the royal transaction. Although the consenting formula is not explicitly present in every royal charter, the principle of confirmation by various prominent individuals in the kingdom is evidenced repeatedly in the lists of witnesses which accompany almost all of Edgar's grants. This paper sets forth the results of an examination and identification of a selected group of these "chief men" who acted as ^William Birch, ed., Cartularium Saxonicum (3 vols.; New York: Johnson Reprint Corp., 1964), III, B 1213. All references to specific charters from Birch's edition will be cited with the abbre­ viation B and the number of the document. 2Ibid. 1 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 witnesses to King Edgar's royal charters, the ecclesiastics. The approach involved in this inquiry is prosopographical rather than biographical. My object has been to glean from the sources the surviving information concerning the basic details of the lives and careers of the bishops and abbots whose names appear in Edgar's witness lists. In the great majority of cases it is not possible to produce fullfledged biographies owing to the paucity of evidence. This study has a twofold purpose. I have first sought to discover the identity of each of the chosen witnesses through establishing his title, office, family relationships, economic status, political activities, and all other information which reveals his significance in the affairs of England during Edgar's reign. Secondly, I have attempted to apply the results of my findings toward a fuller understanding of the components of government and society in Anglo-Saxon England during Edgar's reign. In tenth-century England the starting point for the proso- pography of bishops and abbots is the royal charter. The higher clergy were one of the three basic categories of witnesses to the king's charters in addition to royalty and the secular nobility. It is the charter evidence for this period and not ecclesiastical sources which provides the most complete list of names and titles for the church leadership at that time. Furthermore, although the bishops and abbots form distinct groups of witnesses owing to their ecclesiastical status, they must not be considered apart from the other groups of people who attested. One of the basic defining characteristics of the bishops and abbots whose names appear in the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. lists is their function and status as charter witnesses. All of the witnesses to royal charters, members of the royal family, bishops, abbots, ealdormen, and thegns, belonged to an elite segment of society, representing those closest to the king and invested with the right and privilege to witness his grants. The ecclesiastics shared with the other categories of witnesses the basic attribute of being at the center of power in England while Edgar was king. It is clear that the role which bishops and abbots played as charter witnesses and the information which charters yield about their careers gain greater illumination through comparison and contrast with, and not apart from, what charters tell