Aelfred's Britain

by Adams, Max;

  24 CKA. Woolf 2007, 126.

  25 Woolf 2007, 136.

  26 Blunt 1985.

  27 Blackburn and Pagan 2002. The location of the mints is unknown. The Christianized message invoking a saint with local affiliations is paralleled on the Continent, and in Scandinavian York, also issuing a saintly coinage in St Peter’s name in the early tenth century.

  28 Campbell 2001, following Dorothy Whitelock.

  29 ASC 904.

  30 Lyon 2001.

  31 EHD I 101: Whitelock 1979, 543.

  32 ASC Parker MS ‘A’. Garmonsway 1972, 94.

  33 ASC Peterborough MS ‘E’. Garmonsway 1972, 95.

  8

  1 Foot 2011, 205, quoting a letter of Alcuin.

  2 ASC Parker MS ‘A’. Garmonsway 1972, 94–6.

  3 Heighway 2001; Blair 2005, 342ff.

  4 Foot 2011, 204ff.

  5 Bede HE III.12.

  6 ASC Peterborough MS ‘E’. Garmonsway 1972, 95.

  7 Lyon 2001. Eadweard’s coins did not carry the names of moneyers, but each moneyer used diagnostic characteristics that later, in Æðelstan’s reign, were accompanied by names allowing the identification of many of the minting sites with some confidence.

  8 ASC Worcester MS ‘D’: Garmonsway 1972, 97.

  9 ASC Worcester MS ‘D’: Garmonsway 1972, 99.

  10 ASC Parker MS ‘A’ under the corrected year 916.

  11 ASC Parker MS ‘A’, Garmonsway 1972, 101.

  12 ASC Parker MS ‘A’, Garmonsway 1972, 102. Original Old English transcription retrieved from http://asc.jebbo.co.uk/a/a-L.html, September 2016. The identity of the Danish king is not known but see p. 299.

  13 ASC Mercian Register MS ‘C’: Garmonsway 1972, 101, 105.

  14 For example, Wainright 1975d.

  15 ASC Parker MS ‘A’. Original Old English transcription retrieved from http://asc.jebbo.co.uk/a/a-L.html, September 2016.

  16 Blinkhorn 2013.

  17 Boyd 2013.

  18 Hall and Kenward 2005, 395ff.

  19 Hall 2004, 287.

  20 Stocker 2013.

  21 Ten Harkel 2013.

  22 Hadley 2006, 119ff.

  23 Symonds and Ling 2002.

  24 See also the definitive early paper on perception, effort and time surfaces (PETS) by Stead 1995.

  25 S396: AD 926. King Athelstan to Ealdred, minister; confirmation of 5 hides (manentes) at Chalgrave and Tebworth, Beds., formerly purchased from the Danes for 10 pounds of gold and silver. And S397: AD 926. King Athelstan to Uhtred; confirmation of 60 hides (manentes) at Hope and Ashford, Derbys., formerly purchased from the Danes for 20 pounds of gold and silver. Source: http://www.esawyer.org.uk/browse/ch_date/0900.html, retrieved September 2016.

  26 Original Old English transcription retrieved from http://asc.jebbo.co.uk/a/a-L.html, September 2016. ASC Parker MS ‘A’, Garmonsway 1972, 104–5.

  27 Bailey 2001.

  28 By Wainright 1975c. Wainright, in the same paper, makes a case for two battles at Corbridge, the first in 914 and the second in 918. The current consensus, argued by Woolf (2007) and South (2002), is that the Cuthbert chronicler was confused and that there was a single battle at Corbridge in 918.

  29 HSC 23. South 2002, 61. The narrative is partly reinforced and partly confused by the entry in HSC 24, which records another estate lost by St Cuthbert to Rægnald’s men and confuses the story of the Corbridge battle with a second account that has taken the efforts of several historians to unravel.

  30 AU 917.1.

  31 HSC 24 South 2002, 63.

  32 HSC 23 South 2002, 61–3.

  PART III

  Going native

  9

  1 HSC South 2002: see the maps after p. 118.

  2 South 2002. Sections 22–24 of the HSC carry the narrative for the Rögnvaldr episodes.

  3 Hadley 2006, 153; Hall 2000.

  4 Molyneux 2011, arguing for a later tenth-century date. An English translation can be found in Noble 1983.

  5 Noble 93, 105; original transcription by Felix Liebermann, Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, 3 volumes, Volume 1, 374–8. Halle 1903–16.

  6 Attenborough 1922, 121.

  7 ASC Parker MS ‘A’, Garmonsway 1972, 100.

  8 A much cited example from the Liber Eliensis may provide evidence of such a case, later contested. Sharp 2001, 138.

  9 ASC Parker MS ‘A’, Garmonsway 1972, 104.

  10 Ritchie 2011.

  11 Woolf 2007b.

  12 Blackburn 2004.

  13 Blackburn 2004, 332–3.

  14 Rollason 2004.

  15 Blackburn 2004.

  16 Gesta Regum Anglorum: EHD Whitelock 1979, 305.

  17 Sharp 2001, 82.

  18 Gesta Regum Anglorum II, 5: Giles 1847, 124.

  19 Gesta Regum Anglorum: EHD Whitelock 1979, 308.

  20 Coatsworth 2001, 301.

  21 Gesta Regum Anglorum: EHD Whitelock 1979, 305.

  22 ASC Parker MS ‘A’, Garmonsway 1972, 104.

  23 ASC Worcester MS ‘D’, Garmonsway 1972, 105.

  24 HSC 25. South 2002, 65.

  25 S395; Foot 2011, 73.

  26 S394 Foot 2011, 75.

  27 Nelson 2008, 125.

  28 Foot 2011, 115–16

  29 Adams 2013; Tolkien 1936; 2014.

  30 ASC Worcester MS ‘D’, Garmonsway 1972, 105.

  31 Rahtz and Meeson 1992.

  32 AU 927.

  33 ASC Worcester MS ‘D’, Garmonsway 1972, 107.

  34 Charles-Edwards 2012, 512. See also below, Chapter 11, on the Laws of Hywel Dda.

  35 Lapidge 1980, 83–4.

  36 Lapidge 1980, 98.

  10

  1 Lavelle 2005.

  2 Attenborough 1922, 134.

  3 Attenborough 1922, 135 (for the Old English); EHD 35, Whitelock 1979, 421 for the translation.

  4 Blunt 1974.

  5 Blunt 1974, 114.

  6 From the Acts of the abbots of St Bertin by Folcwine the deacon. EHD 26, Whitelock 1979, 346. See also Woolf 2007, 163.

  7 Under 933. EHD: Secular Narrative Sources 3. Whitelock 1979, 278.

  8 AClon 933 (corrected from 928). Murphy 1896, 149.

  9 S425.

  10 S407: 930 for 934. EHD 104: Whitelock 1979, 548–50. Doubts about its authenticity are addressed by Whitelock.

  11 EHD 104: Whitelock 1979, 548.

  12 Ekwall 1922.

  13 ASC MSS ‘B’ and ‘C’ Mercian Register under 911. Townend 2014, 67. It is possible, though unproven, that Agmundr is an alternative for Ingimundr, the invader of Anglesey in 902.

  14 Eddius Stephanus: Vita Wilfridi, chapter 17.

  15 Higham 2004.

  16 S456–7.

  17 HSC 26: South 2002, 65.

  18 HSC 27: South 2002, 65.

  19 S407.

  20 HR 934: EHD Whitelock 1979, 278.

  21 Foot 2011, 88. The charter was copied into the archives of the monastic community at Glastonbury and the witness list seems to have been abbreviated: we cannot declare the Welsh kings absent.

  22 S1792. Translation courtesy of The electronic Sawyer, retrieved from http://www.esawyer.org.uk/charter/1792.html#, November 2016.

  23 Blair 2005, 126–7.

  24 Gesta Regum Anglorum: Giles 1847, 134.

  25 Isaac 2007 for a discussion of the date and a full English translation. The text is contained in the Book of Taliesin in a manuscript catalogued as NLW Peniart 2.

  26 APF 107–9. Isaac 2007, 177.

  27 APF 72. Isaac 2007, 175.

  28 APF 31. Isaac 2007, 171. The original story is preserved in the Kentish Chronicle belonging to the Historia Brittonum often attributed to Nennius. Morris 1980.

  29 APF 40. Isaac 2007, 173.

  30 APF 5–7. Isaac 2007, 171. Caer Wair is unidentified, despite a tempting association with the River Wear and Durham.

  31 APF 55–60. Isaac 2007, 173.

  32 AC under 919, corrected to 920. The Annals say that he was ‘killed’.

  33 APF 88–91.
Isaac 2007, 175.

  34 S434: a grant to the familia, the community at Malmesbury Abbey of 60 hides at Bremhill, Wiltshire.

  35 EHD, Secular narrative sources 24. Whitelock 1979, 344, footnote 5.

  36 Gesta Regum Anglorum: Giles 1847, 134.

  37 Foot 2011, 54.

  38 EHD 25. Whitelock 1979, 345.

  39 Townend 2014, 63–4. The entry from the Portable Antiquities Scheme can be found at: https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/198978

  40 Townend 2014, 64.

  41 Rollason 2004, 311.

  42 Townend 2014, 114–16.

  43 Prose Edda. Bycock 2005, 63–5.

  44 Townend 2014, 125–6.

  11

  1 Annals of Ulster 937. Retrieved from http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/T100001A, November 2016.

  2 EHD, Secular narrative sources 3. Whitelock 1979, 279.

  3 ASC Parker ‘A’ Chronicle, retrieved from http://asc.jebbo.co.uk/a/a-L.html, November 2016; translated in EHD, Secular narrative sources 1. Whitelock 1979, 219.

  4 Whitelock 1979, 220.

  5 Woolf 2007a, 169.

  6 Gesta Regum Anglorum 132; 135. EHD Secular narrative sources 8. Whitelock 1979, 305; 309ff

  7 Campbell 1938, 58; 147.

  8 Annals of the Four Masters 935 for 937. Downham 2007, 241.

  9 Downham 2007, 150–1.

  10 Wood 2013, in which he opts for the second of these possibilities.

  11 Adams 2013, 285–7.

  12 Cavill 2014.

  13 Cavill, Harding and Jesch 2004.

  14 Cavill 2014; Breeze 2016.

  15 Lavelle 2010, 299–300.

  16 Egil’s Saga chapter 48, verse 14. Scudder 2004, 84.

  17 Campbell 1970.

  18 Egil’s Saga chapter 55, verse 19. Scudder 2004, 100–1.

  19 Flodoard Annals 21(d). Fanning and Bachrach 2004, 31.

  20 II Æðelstan. EHD 35. Whitelock 1979, 420.

  21 VI Æðelstan. Attenborough 1922, 156ff; EHD 37. Whitelock 1979, 423ff.

  22 VI Æðelstan. EHD 37. Whitelock 1979, 424.

  23 VI Æðelstan. EHD 37. Whitelock 1979, 425.

  24 VI Æðelstan. EHD 37. Attenborough 1922, 163.

  25 ASC Worcester MS ‘D’, Garmonsway 1972, 111.

  26 ASC Worcester MS ‘D’, Garmonsway 1972, 111. The Chronicle records this episode under 943

  27 Hadley 2007, 212.

  28 Blackburn 2006, 217.

  29 S511 King Eadmund to his minister Æðelgeard, a grant of 7 hides at Tisted in Hampshire.

  30 Rahtz 1976; 1979; Adams 2015, chapter 5.

  31 Rahtz 1976; Rahtz, Anderson and Hirst 1979.

  32 Stenton 1971, 446.

  33 Giles 1849, 250.

  34 S466.

  35 Stenton 1971, 447ff; Blair 2005, 350.

  36 According to an entry in the Historia Regum.

  37 ASC Parker ‘A’ Chronicle, retrieved from http://asc.jebbo.co.uk/a/a-L.html, November 2016; I have used Alex Woolf’s translation. Woolf 2007, 181–2.

  38 Beresford 1987.

  39 There is much useful information and analysis at http://www.earlyenglishlaws.ac.uk/laws/texts/rspger; the text and translation appear online at: http://www.earlyenglishlaws.ac.uk/laws/texts/rspger/view/#edition,1_0_c_29/translation,1; see Crossley-Holland 1984, 257ff for a modern translation in print of the bulk of the text.

  40 See, for example, the arguments in Williamson 2013, chapter 5.

  41 Downham 2007, 109; and Peter Sawyer cited by Downham. Downham, imposing sense on some of the confusion of annalistic entries for these years, has Eadmund’s taking of the Five Boroughs before the Tamworth and Leicester raid, following a straight reading of the Chronicle. ‘D’ version for 943. I have not been able to reconcile the conflicting accounts in that way. It seems to me that the Norse campaign in Danish Mercia must come first.

  42 Evidence for the expulsion is discussed in Charles-Edwards 2013, 508. Iago made a comeback in the 950s, as shown by his attestation of a charter, S566, in 955.

  43 Dykes 1966.

  44 Jenkins 1990; Charles-Edwards 2013, 267ff.

  45 Jenkins 1990, xxix.

  46 Jenkins 1990, 45–6.

  47 Campbell 1962, 54.

  48 The first charter is S442 which records a gift of 6 hides in Devon from King Æðelstan to his comes, and namesake, Æðelstan. The last is S666 issued by King Eadwig in 956, witnessed by the dux. The epithet ‘half-king’ is recorded by Byrtferth of Ramsey, biographer of Archbishop Oswald of York, around the turn of the eleventh century. He offers considerable detail on the family, which enjoyed various links with the West Saxon dynasty.

  49 HSC 28. South 2002, 67.

  50 Flores Historiarum under 946; EHD Secular narrative sources 4: Whitelock 1979, 283; Woolf 2007, 183.

  51 ASC Worcester MS ‘D’.

  12

  1 Stevenson 1993, 681.

  2 AU 865; Carver 2008, 144.

  3 Carver 2008, 145.

  4 Ritchie 2011, 16.

  5 Asser, chapter 81. Keynes and Lapidge 1983, 996–7; I have followed Blair’s (2005, 325) selection.

  6 EHD Secular Narrative Sources 8. Whitelock 1979, 307.

  7 Foot 2011, 200ff.

  8 Liber Eliensis Book I, 41. Fairweather 2005, 75.

  9 Liber Eliensis Book II, 32. Fairweather 2005, 128.

  10 Hill 1981, 133; 143.

  11 See Sawyer 1981 for a developed discussion of the phenomenon.

  12 Stocker 2013, 120ff.

  13 See Hill 1981, 127 for distribution maps and much more.

  14 Sawyer 2013, 95.

  15 Hill 2001.

  16 Thornton 2013 for the most coherent and up to date summary of the institution.

  17 Stenton 1971, 507.

  18 Stenton 1971, 511.

  19 S520. EHD Charters and laws 105. Whitelock 1979, 551–2.

  20 ASC Parker MS ‘A’, Garmonsway 1972, 112.

  21 Anderson 1922, 411.

  22 Downham 2007, 115ff; Woolf 2007, 187–8.

  23 Woolf 2007, 177ff.

  24 ASC Worcester MS ‘D’.

  25 Egil’s Saga, chapter 60 (verse 32). Scudder and Óskarsdóttir 2004, 124–5.

  26 Egil’s Saga, chapter 61. Scudder and Óskarsdóttir 2004, 128ff.

  27 Egil’s Saga, chapter 62. Scudder and Óskarsdóttir 2004, 132.

  28 EHD Secular Narrative Sources 4. Whitelock 1979, 284.

  29 Williams 1984.

  30 Jarlshof underwent several campaigns of excavation in the early twentieth century, the records of whose work have caused considerable problems for later archaeologists trying to understand its tremendously complex occupation sequence. For a recent summary see Graham-Campbell and Batey 2011, a work which also includes summaries of the other major excavated sites of the period in Scotland, Portmahomack aside.

  31 For the theory that Haraldr Bluetooth created the first centralized authority on Orkney, see Woolf 2007, 308.

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