#Anglo-Saxon England

[vox-anglosphere]

Venerable Bede's 7th century manuscript 'On the Reckoning of Time'

#De Temporum Rationae #Venerable Bede #British Library #UK #'On the Reckoning of Time' #Latin #Middle Ages #7th century #vellum #Anglo-Saxon England #Early Britain #church history

[wonder-worker]

"A tyrant after the manner of her father."

As one of the children of Offa of Mercia and his celebrated queen Cynethryth, Eadburh inherited an elevated view of queenship. By the time of Eadburh’s marriage, the office of queen was developing into something more akin to the position recognised in the 973 Regularis Concordia, which recognised queens with their own anointing ceremony and made them, like the king, protectors of monastic houses. The queenship Eadburh had modelled to her in the person of her mother was influential, involved in the everyday running of the court, and possessed considerable independent power.

Eadburh’s marriage to Beorhtric does not usually crop up in discussions of conventional peaceweaving marriages because she is most usually considered in terms of political biases reacting poorly against women: her story is recorded in a history written by the victors, in which she is both nemesis and victim. Nevertheless, when considered closely, her marriage does appear to fit the characteristics of a peaceweaving marriage. Her union with Beorhtric seems to have been intended to draw the two peoples more closely together, especially considering the adverse history between the two kingdoms.

The peaceweaving aspect of the marriage becomes more apparent when the considering the relationship between Offa and his son-in-law. Beorhtric’s succession to the West Saxon throne seems to have ushered in a spirit of cooperation between the two traditionally rival kingdoms. In 789, Offa banished Ecgberht, later king of Wessex, and the grandfather of King Alfred. Although he clearly also benefited from the removal of a rival for the throne, Beorhtric enforced this exile as well. There are no formal documents outlining what the relationship between Beorhtric and Offa constituted, although S.E. Kelly detects ‘some hint of subservience … betrayed in the three surviving charters of Beorhtric, where the royal styles are curiously humble and tentative’. Asser’s text similarly confirms the close political relationship between Offa and Beorhtric – which, according to traditions handed down by Ecgberht’s line, is attributed to Eadburh. Asser writes how Offa made the match: ‘Beorhtric, king of the West Saxons, received in marriage [Offa’s] daughter, called Eadburh. As soon as she had won the king’s friendship, and power throughout almost the entire kingdom, she began to behave like a tyrant after the manner of her father’ [...].

The account given by Alfred to Asser is designed to discredit Eadburh and explain why the office of queen had been abandoned in Wessex, and does so by undermining the wife of a dynastic rival. There is considerable bias in seeking to discredit both Beorhtric and Eadburh, but the account fails to conceal that Eadburh probably was, at least at first, a rather effective queen. Before her marriage, she had witnessed charters as the daughter of the king and queen of Mercia. To be able to muster power of the sort attributed to her suggests that she had good relationships: she won the friendship of the king, her most important relationship. For Eadburh to have power throughout the kingdom, she must have maintained a good relationship with her father and brother to protect her, but possibly also forged new relationships by a mixture of patronage and promoting their interests at court. These are skills she may have learned from her mother Cynethryth [.] [However, Cynethryth] had the distinct advantage of having a Mercian background herself, and as a result did not have to negotiate the difficult position of mediating between her natal family and identity and her status as queen of a different kingdom in quite the same way.

The West Saxon traditions handed on by Ecgberht’s descendants clearly blame Offa and his tyrannical ways for influencing his daughter’s practice of queenship [and indicates that she might have acted as ‘an active representative of Mercian interests at the West Saxon court', as Barbara York points out]. On closer consideration, Eadburh is far more likely to have emulated her mother’s practice. Unusually, Asser and Alfred ascribe Eadburh’s monstrous behaviour as deriving from her father’s model of kingship. Other texts tend to emphasise feminine monstrous and overly assertive behaviour, especially where Offa’s queen Cynethryth is concerned.

Misogynistic leanings influenced the way that both Cynethryth and her daughter Eadburh are portrayed. Traditions at St Albans blamed Cynethryth for the murder of Æthelberht, drawing on a biblical tradition associated with John the Baptist. It is hardly surprising, therefore, when Eadburh herself was blamed for the deaths of unnamed nobles as well as Beorhtric and a well-loved West Saxon noble, probably Worr, as recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry for 800 [...].

The accounts of Eadburh following the death of Beorhtric come solely from the West Saxon dynasty hostile to her husband and father, but other independent sources may corroborate certain details. The account of her behaviour at Charlemagne’s court in Asser’s text may contain some kernels of truth, but seems to be a wild attempt to further discredit Eadburh and her Mercian heritage. After her husband’s death, Eadburh fled with a quantity of treasure, which may have either been her own treasure, or the royal treasury. The West Saxon tradition states that Eadburh later sought refuge in Francia, where she came to Charlemagne’s court and was offered a choice of husbands – either Charlemagne, or one of his sons. In the story, Eadburh selfishly chose the younger option, and as punishment for her selfish choice, was given neither, but instead received a nunnery (V. Alfredi, c. 15). There is a kernel of truth at the core of this tradition: Offa and Charlemagne had been in negotiations for one of the Mercian princesses to wed to one of the Frankish king’s sons. The talks broke down, reportedly, because Offa insisted on a reciprocal Frankish princess bride for his son Ecgfrith. The attribution of Beorhtric’s death to Eadburh is difficult to either confirm or deny: Ealhflæd’s involvement in Peada’s death demonstrates that a queen could be involved in her husband’s death, and poison was a favoured accusation to use against unpopular queens from antiquity into the modern age*. The account contains yet one more kernel of truth: Eadburh’s geographic peregrinations. Asser’s account in Chapter 15 of his Life of Alfred records that Eadburh spent some time as an abbess in a Frankish abbey before being ejected for having an affair with one of her countrymen, and ended her life begging in Pavia. Janet Nelson’s analysis of this information points out that there are some reasons to believe Asser’s version: Frankish abbesses tended to be royal appointments, and an entry in the Reicheneau Liber Vitae has an ‘Eadburg’ who was abbess of a convent in Lombardy. Pavia was on the traditional pilgrimage route to Rome, which was popular with early English pilgrims. Eadburh’s continental peregrinations also fit with the developments in Mercia following her marriage. In 796, Offa died, leaving the throne to his son and heir Ecgfrith. Unfortunately, Ecgfrith passed away within months, ending the dynasty. With the passage of the throne to a relatively distant relative in Coenwulf, there was little to offer Eadburh on her return. Like Osthryth, the collapse of her family caused by the deaths of her nearest male relatives weakened her options to a delicate situation, thereby obliging her to seek assistance abroad.

Eadburh is vilified in the West Saxon sources as a wicked queen whose appetite for fame and power were her undoing. Because Offa helped drive Ecgberht from Wessex and into exile, the royal line descended from Ecgberht largely effaced the office of queen, recently expanded and abused by Offa’s daughter, from the way they ruled. Asser comments how the West Saxon kings following Ecgberht did not follow the custom of nominating the king’s wife as a queen as a response to Eadburh’s wickedness.He remarks on ‘the (wrongful) custom of that people … [f]or the West Saxons did not allow the queen to sit beside the king, nor indeed did they allow her to be called “queen”, but rather “king’s wife”.

Stefany Wragg, "Early English Queens, 650-850: Speculum Reginae"

*The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, when writing about Beorhtric's death in 802, makes no mention of any alleged treachery and/or poison on Eadburh's part. This is in sharp contrast to the way chronicles did almost unanimously emphasize the role of another queen - Ealhflæd - in the murder of her husband. It's possible, though unlikely, that Beorhtric may have simply died naturally. Alternatively, considering the death of his Mercian protector Offa just a few years before his death, considering that he was succeeded immediately by Ecgberht, an enemy he had exiled from the kingdom, and considering how there was apparently a battle between a Mercian and Wiltshire ealdorman on the same day Ecgberht ascended the throne (resulting in Mercian defeat), it's quite possible that the cause for Beorhtric's downfall was dynastic, and more akin to a traditional defeat or deposition, than any conveniently miscalculated treachery by his wife. In this context, Eadburh's sudden flight abroad with a quantity of treasure after his death resembles that of other queens who witnessed the downfall of their dynasties and had to flee to protect themselves.

#historicwomendaily #she and Seaxburh are the most interesting Anglo-Saxon queens to me for sure (though Ethelburh Aethelflaed and Edith of Wessex come close) #I want to do a separate post 'tracing' Eadburh and what we know of her + my own interpretation someday #but until then....here's this post #anglo-saxons #anglo-saxon england #eadburh #eadburh of wessex #english history #my post #queue

[ancientstuff]

The extent of ancient trade networks are endlessly fascinating.

#archaeology #ancient Africa #Aksum #elephant ivory #Anglo-Saxon England

[canuterex]

Miniature depicting the Battle of Hastings and Harold’s body being carried to Waltham Abbey, from the Grande Chronique de Normandie, Brussels, c. 1460–1468, Yates Thompson MS 33, f.167r

#battle of Hastings #Harold II of England #William of Normandy #Anglo-Saxons #Anglo-Saxon England #Harold II #Harald II #medieval England

[derwandelndegeist]

Sovngarde is the Battle Anthem Song of King Harold Godwinson's Anglo-Saxon England Epic in 1066! Harold Godwinson is the Dovakhin! Edyth Swannesha is Sovngarde! Harold Godwinson is the Sun! Edyth Swannesha is the Moon! Harold Godwinson's Battle Flag is the Wessex Wyvern! Anglo-Saxon Knecht 🦢 of Orfeo Power and Glory Sidney Empire and Glory 🦢⚜️❄️⛩️🦉💎 Harold Godwinson's Anglo-Saxon Imperial Huscarl Armies Fought like Lions the Epic Battle of Fulford, the Battle of Stamford Bridge, the Battle of Hastings, the Battle of Wales, the Battle of Northumbria and Defended the North from Guillaume le Batard's Cruel Harrowing of the North! Sovngarde is the Magic Battle Song of Queen Edyth Swannesha, the Anglo- Saxon Arch Witch of the Universe, Hexe of Anglo-Saxon England and the North, Gospodarka na Slavata i Svobodata, Lady of Mercia and Sussex and the Realm for the Anglo-Saxon War against the Norman Arch witch in the Norman Camp below Senlac Hill! Queen Edyth Swannesha Had Gothic Astral Drakoness in the Air Like in Van Helsing! Edyth Swannesha is the Dovakhiness! I'm Sent Here by Goddess Freyja! I'm Sent Here by Divine Providence and Lords of Light! Vladitsite na Nebesata! I'm in Samadhi Superconsciousness and Kaivalya Power! Sovngarde is the Anglo-Saxon War Song of Eorl Edwin and Morcar, Eorl Gyrth Godwinson and Eorl Leofwine Godwinson, Lord Siward, Hereward the Wake and Robin of Locksley and Wat Tyler and Thomas Wyatt the Younger's Battles' Wars, Skirmishes and Campaigns even in Uprising were for Liberation of England from the Normans and the Spaniards! Sovngarde is the Battle Anthem of Sir Philip Sidney's Divine Star Society and Order of the Drakon fov the war in Holland against Spain! The Revenge War for the Fate of Queen Jane Grey and King Guildford Dudley of England, Wales, Ireland and France! It's a Samadhi Heaven Song! Sovngarde is the Battle War Song of King Sigismund von Luxembrourg's Crusade of Nicopolis of a Pan-European Crusader Army Mainly French and Hungarian against the Turks of Sultan Bajaseth for Liberation of Bulgaria and the Saving of the Byzantine Empire and Constantinople! All of My Crusaders are Dovakhins and Samurai Knights, the Knights of the Drakon! It's 624 Yearss of Greatness of the Order of the Drakon! Bulgaria is a Free Country for 142 Years! I Live in Sofia, Bulgaria and I am a Free Man! The Dovakhin is an Archangel and a God! Az sam Gospodar na Slavata i Svobodata! Sovngarde is the Battle Song of Emperor Timur the Great's Timurid Army and Horde for the Battle of Angora in Which He Decisively Defeated the Turks of Sultan Bajaseth, Captured the Cruel Sultan and Put Him in a Cage! It was the Revenge of King Sigismund von Luxembourg and Count Jean de Nevers for the Decisive Crusader Battle of Nicopolis, and the Treatment and Fate of My Knights and Army by the Cruel Turks! I Shall Conquer with Angels and with Gins, with Archangels and Knights and Ladies for Everything that Has Happened to Me in Bulgaria! Beowulf el Elyon Shall Love and Defend Me! This is Knight Tervel Kamenov's Epic War Song the Mount Kailash Pan-Gaian Epic, Alone with Mikael the Great, Like Vlad Dracula, Gabriel, that Saved Gaia and the Universe! Beowulf Loves and Defends Mount Kailash! Let the Echoes Become Your Strenght! What You Do Echoes in Eternity! Let Your Actions Echo in Eternity! Hail Goddess Crystine Slagman, final Crystine! Hail Sovngarde Lord and Bard Orpheus, Jeremy Soule! I'm Always on the Side of Divine Providence and Divine Providence is Always on My Side! Promote Only Nobility, People! Fight for Love, Freedom and Nobility! Hail Goddess Crystine Slagman! Reward! Nagrada! I'm the Lord of Fortune Better than Boethius! Rex Tvmundos Majestatis, Qu Salvandos Slava GRatis, Salva Me Fons Pietatis, Salva Me Fons Pietatis! O King of Tremendous Majesty, who Save s wwithout Price Those Destined to Be Saved, Save Me Font of Piety! I'm a Legendary Hero of Hoary Glory, Lord of the Anglo-Saxon Folk and Nation, Kingdom and Anglo-Saxon Empire Worldwide, the British Empire!

#edyth swannesha #lady of the rose #bulgaria #art #nature #afina ariosofia #belisarius #lady of the lake #Anglo-Saxon England #yoga #self #isabella bronstrup

[zebydeb]

“Despite the stories delivered to us by the likes of Gildas and Bede, there’s no tangible evidence - so far - for an unusually high level of migration into southern Britain in the early medieval period. Of course there were incomers - there always are, there always have been. And ancient genomics will help to reveal the extent of the comings and goings in the first millennium. But there’s also a continuity we’ve tended to miss, or at least pass over, in popular accounts - from prehistory into Roman times, into the early medieval period - and beyond. The story of the Anglo-Saxon migration and colonisation of what would become England has become so widely accepted - on so thin an evidence base, when we actually pause to scrutinise it. …

And here we are at the dawn of this new age of archaeogenomics, and suddenly we have the tools available to start tackling some of these questions about population movement in the past, to look at how people travelling might have influenced the cultural changes that archaeologists have wondered about for so long.

And what we’re not seeing - not yet, at least - is anything which looks as profound, dramatic or widespread as the later medieval histories might have suggested. The Adventus Saxonum looks more like evolution than revolution.”

Alice Roberts, Buried: An alternative history of the first millennium in Britain

#history #archaeology #Anglo-Saxon England #studied all this at uni #then had twenty years to forget everything

[insidecroydon]

2023 in Croydon - as told through our best-read articles

THE YEAR IN REVIEW Part 1 – January to April Late response: the Allders building got a clean earlier this month. But plans of how to redevelop it have been delayed, again The parlous state of the council’s finances would remain a thorny issue throughout the year, after Tory Mayor Jason Perry issued a Section 114 notice of his own in November 2022 and then sprung a 15% Council Tax hike on the…

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#Allders #Anglo-Saxon England #Archbishop of Canterbury #Archbishop Wulfred #Conservative #Croydon #Croydon Council #Hammersfield #Hammerson #Labour #Marks and Spencer #Mayor Jason Perry #Purley Way #Sarah Jones MP #Tory #Wastefield #Westfield #Whitgift Centre #Whitgift Foundation

[lightdancer1]

Wrapped up the next book:

One of the more blatant illustrations of the role of propaganda and selective memory in terms of the British monarchy vs the history of the UK or its component states is that this history is often held to begin, for convenience, with the arrival of Duke William the Bastard in England and his victory over the last English king of the old English, Harold Godwinson, at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. This also has the equally unfashionable aspect that a strong centralized kingdom that built the wealth of the lords of Normandy and Anjou and had such a great impact on the history of the medieval world accordingly as their cash cow fell apart in a single battle.

A history that extended the history of the English to the centuries prior to that, with the semi-historical Hengist and Horsa (in the same sense that Abraham ben Tera and Romulus and Remus are historical, which is to say in terms of self-perception but not a red cent of truth past that), on the other hand, would have much broader topics to address.

Only in Roman Britain did a Germanic invasion displace a Latin culture with a Germanic one, only in Roman Britain was Christianization even temporarily reversed, though under the Viking lords of the Danelaw history very narrowly avoided repeating itself with this happening to the English as it had to the Britons before them.

It would also note that there was no innate reason for the various English petty states of the heptarchy to consolidate into the single super-state conquered at Hastings. This was a history that evolved in fits and starts and petty-kingdoms won by the sword were just as often lost by it. A history that places the idea of the English not with the monarchy but the Germanic colonists of the 5th Century would produce plenty of faults and pitfalls of its own, but it would ultimately be one way to note that the British monarchy is anything but a 'natural' stance of identity for the English, let alone the rest of the UK.

This work includes archaeology, paleobotany, genetics, and other aspects of modern new histories to update and go with and against, by equal measure, the old written chronicles. It is about as fair and straightforward and not ideologically predisposed to those alternative equally unpleasant paths to 'long live Charles III' as a book like this is reasonably going to get.

8/10.

#lightdancer comments on history #book reviews #anglo-saxon england #english history

[memories-of-ancients]

Hey Everyone! Look at this Gold and Rock Crystal Bottle from the Galloway Hoard!

In September of 2014 an avid metal detectorist named Derek Mclennan discovered one of the grandest historical finds in Scottish archaeological history. While searching on church lands near Balmaghie, Mclennan uncovered the Galloway Hoard, a viking age treasure hoard consisting of over 100 objects dating to around 900 AD. While the hoard has some gold objects, most are silver including pieces of jewelry, hack silver, and silver ingots.

Among the objects, the most incredible is a rock crystal bottle that is decorated with gold. The bottle was found inside of a silk pouch, the silk coming from either Byzantium or Asia. The crystal jar itself is not from the middle ages but is Roman and dates to the 4th century. Later in the early middle ages the jar was decorated in gold filigree, at the behest of Bishop Hyguald according to an inscription on the gold work. While the identity of "Bishop Hyguald" is unknown, it is thought that he mostly likely came from Northumbria, an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in northern England. Northumbria would be conquered and occupied by Danish Vikings in the 9th century, which explains how the bottle became a part of the Galloway Hoard.

Today, the bottle along with the rest of the Galloway Hoard is housed at the National Museum of Scotland

#history #antiquities #art #middle ages #medieval art #vikings #anglo saxon england #scotland #scottish history

[creswelllyn]

The Last Princess by Shelley Wilson

The Last Princess by Shelley Wilson

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#866AD #Anglo-Saxon #Anglo-Saxon England #Bamburgh Castle #battles #Changeling by Philippa Gregory #Coming-of-age #fiction #Historical #Historical adventure #Kingdom #Norse #Norse Mythology #Northumbria #Shelley Wilson #The Last Kingdom #The Last Princess #The Last Princess by Shellley Wilson #The Vikings #YA #Young Adult #Young Adult Fiction

[city-of-ladies]

"That Æthelswith was the bestower of such gifts is consistent with the other things we know about her. In 868 she witnessed a West-Saxon charter, in which she made a grant of fifteen hides of her own land in Berkshire. She also witnessed all of her husband King Burgred’s charters. Though we only see glimpses of her influence, Æthelswith, like other Mercian queens before her, was a politician.

In 874, twenty one years after Æthelswith married Burgred, the royal couple were forced out of their kingdom by an encroaching Viking army. They fled together to safety in Rome. While Burgred died soon after they arrived, Æthelswith outlived him for another decade, which she spent in Italy.

Queen Æthelswith passed away in 888 in Pavia, and was laid to rest there. She may have been undertaking a pilgrimage when she died. Her body and the ring that she once bestowed were both buried underground a thousand miles apart. And they say medieval women didn’t travel…"

#Æthelswith #history #women in history #women's history #9th century #english history #queens #leaders #english queens #anglo saxon history #anglo saxon england #medieval women #medieval history #middle ages #medieval #archeology

[vox-anglosphere]

How the celebration of Christmas began in the Western world

#Christmas #Anglo-Saxon England #English history #mediaeval #Middle Ages #Christianity #monastic life #Christendom #UK

[wonder-worker]

“…The Anglo-Saxon era is often thought of as having been a golden age for women. Since the late eighteenth century, it has been a commonplace that women in England had better rights before the Norman Conquest than they did afterwards, and were held in higher esteem by society. Before 1066, said one eminent historian in the mid-twentieth century, men and women enjoyed ‘a rough and ready partnership’. As so often with golden ages, however, this picture rests on a selective reading of very limited and debatable evidence. One of its principal props is an account of German women written by the Roman historian Tacitus towards the end of the first century AD. These women, claimed Tacitus, were virtuous, frugal and chaste, and supported their sons and husbands by encouraging them to acts of valour. But this was simply a Roman praising ‘barbarian’ society in order to criticize his own. German women were portrayed as laudable because, unlike their Roman counterparts, they did not conduct adulterous affairs or waste their time at baths and theatres. The reality, unfortunately, seems to be that the status of women in first-century Germany and Anglo-Saxon England was no better than it was in later centuries.”

-Marc Morris, "Anglo-Saxons: The History of the Beginnings of England, 400-1066” / Pauline Stafford, "Women and the Norman Conquest"

Anglo-Saxon England has thus been a Golden Age variously of women's domestication, women's legal emancipation, women's education and women's sexual liberation. The length of a tradition which has changed so fundamentally over time is no guarantee of its veracity. A cursory view of a range of evidence from either side of the 1066 divide casts immediate doubt on the idea of a brutal Norman ending of the Golden Age. The raw statistics of Domesday, for example, suggest a different picture of England on the eve of the Norman arrival. No more than five per cent of the total hidage of land recorded was in the hands of women in 1066. Of that five per cent, 80-85% was in the hands of only eight women, almost all of them members of the families of the great earls, particularly of earl Godwine, or of the royal family. By the tenth and eleventh centuries women other than the queen are virtually absent from the witness lists of the royal charters, and thus apparently from the political significance such witness lists record.”

#anglo-saxons #anglo-saxon england #norman conquest #english history #gender tag #medieval #I don't necessarily agree with Stafford about Henry I #He did name his daughter Matilda his heir but it's not really as simplistic as she makes it seem #We know he remarried soon after his son's death to a young woman who he travelled extensively with her to try and conceive another son #It was only after 5 years when it became clear that he and his second queen weren't having kids that he nominated Matilda #And even then he never shared authority with her (including authority in her own dower lands that HE gave her) #Also as multiple historians have pointed out - while Matilda was his immediate heir it's highly likely that he hoped to live long enough #to directly transfer the kingdom to his eldest grandson #Even some of Matilda's own supporters seem to have viewed the situation in a similar manner - for example the Gesta Stephani states that #Robert of Gloucester viewed Henry Plantagenet as his grandfather's true heir #ie: many contemporaries probably unfortunately viewed Matilda as a 'transitional point' so to speak #So while I do think that Henry I should be remembered as someone who tried to pass the throne to his daughter #I don't really think the picture was as straightforward or as empowering (in a sense) as Stafford paints it as #The reality was much more complex and frustrating and typical of its times #And I do think it does Matilda a disfavour to overlook that

[ancientstuff]

What an extraordinary find. Just fantastic.

#archaeology #Anglo-Saxon England #Anglo-Saxon burials #HS2 #Buckinghamshire

[canuterex]

On this day in History: coronation of Cnut the Great as King of England at St Paul’s Cathedral in 6 January 1017.

“In this year King Cnut succeeded to all the kingdom of England, and divided it in four, to himself Wessex, and Thorkell East Anglia, and Eadric Mercia, and Eric Northumbria. (…) And King Cnut drove out the atheling Eadwig and Eadwig king of the ceorls. And then before I August the king ordered to be fetched to him the widow of the other king, Æthelred, Richard’s daughter, to be his wife.”*

Historian Bartlett (2017: pp 162-165) presents us a study regarding Cnut’s kingship how he wisely aligned it with social expectations of his days. As we see below:

“Much was expected from a king of the times, though he got much back in return. The ideal king was required to deal our justice equitably (as defined by the law) but firmly. He should be a conqueror in battle for if he were not then he had forfeited the favour of God. He should be a protector of the rights of men and most particularly the Church. In return, the Church would encourage the king's subjects to be loyal to their true lord. If he did his job well, then a king might expect the ultimate reward of an entry into Heaven and a glorious life eternal.

(…) The position of a king in those far-off times has been well-described by a modern historian discussing a near-contemporary ruler in Edward the Confessor. He wrote:

The kingdom was the king's private estate; it was his to manage; and everyone directly under his power or protection owed him tribute. Such a theory was both permissive and restrictive. On the one hand it allowed the king a plenitude of power; the kingdom was his to exploit; and on the other it restrained his arbitrary action by investing him with all the duties of a good lord and, especially, of a good king: his dominions were a trust; he must be a father and protector to his men and, as God's vicar, must exhibit the Christian virtues in the management of his estate. [The king] knew - and sometimes was reminded - that after his death he would have to render to God an account of his stewardship.

It is possibly significant that there is no contemporary reference to a coronation ceremony for Cnut. But later accounts suggest that Cnut was duly crowned in London in the Church of st Pauls, in the same building where the late King Æthelred was buried.”

It’s noteworthy to add, in Lawson’s words, that “as late Anglo-Saxon rulers were often required to give undertakings of this sort at their coronations, Cnut was possibly crowned and anointed at this time”.

Furthermore, “John [of Worcester, chronicler] says that held a meeting at London, and asked the witnesses of his agreement to Edmund whether the latter’s brothers and sons were entitled to succeed him.” (LAWSON, 2011: p.82)

This is highlighted by Bartlett (2017; p.165) as we see next: “Edmund’s children were passed over and denied any claim to the crown. His two sons were after all no more than babes in arms.”

However, it is Lawson who is far richer in details when saying that the said witnesses told Cnut that “Edmund left no claim to his brothers and had wanted Cnut to support and protect his sons until they were old enough to rule, and they also swore that they wished to elect Cnut king, humbly obey him, and pay tribute to his army.” (2017: p.82)

As confirmed by Bartlet, who points that:

“Whilst the crown passed by election rather than automatically going to the eldest son of the late king, it was also normally given to an Ætheling of the Anglo-Saxon royal bloodline and Cnut was assuredly not qualified on those grounds. So this was essentially a right to rule proved by conquest, by sword, spear and axe, rather than the dictates of existing law.

Cnut was nevertheless probably formally crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Lyfing. The lack of a contemporary mention of this means that we cannot be certain of our facts here but it is highly likely that Cnut would want a coronation ceremony as part of the process of publicly legitimising his rule. Formal acceptance by the Church was an important part of establishing Cnut’s legitimacy.”

In this unspoken treaty accorded between the Church and the Crown, we see that Cnut’s reign was ready to start.

Bibliography:

*The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (1017-1035).

BARTLETT. W.B. King Cnut and the Viking Conquest of England.

LAWSON, M. K. Cnut: England’s Viking King. 1016-1035.

#happy coronation day Cnut! #King Cnut the Great #Cnut the Great #King Cnut #Cnut of England #Cnut of Denmark #Vikings #anglo saxons chronicles #Anglo-Saxon England #medieval England #Middle Ages #coronation #on this day #Charlie Hunnam

[illustratus]

The Boyhood of Alfred the Great by Edmund Blair Leighton

#alfred the great #osburh #osburga #mother #boyhood #art #edmund blair leighton #edmund leighton #wessex #anglo saxon #anglo saxons #history #english #england #middle ages #medieval #osburga oslacsdotter #education #christian #christianity #mediaeval #royal #royalty #royals #house of wessex