Anglo-Saxon Kingship and Political Power

Kathrin McCann

Description

Works on Anglo-Saxon kingship often take as their starting point the line from Beowulf: ‘that was a good king’. This monograph, however, explores what it means to be a king, and how kings defined their own kingship in opposition to other powers. Kings derived their royal power from a divine source, which led to conflicts between the interpreters of the divine will (the episcopate) and the individual wielding power (the king). Demonstrating how Anglo-Saxon kings were able to manipulate political ideologies to increase their own authority, this book explores the unique way in which Anglo-Saxon kings understood the source and nature of their power, and of their own authority.

Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Timeline of Events
Introduction
Early Anglo-Saxon Politics
Diploma Politicum
The Anglo-Saxon Regina Gratia Dei
Reformers and Rulers
Rituals of King-Making
Conclusion
Appendix 1: Anglo-Saxon Kings
Appendix 2: Anglo-Saxon Archbishops
Appendix 3: Charter Elements
Table 1: Royal Styles
Table 2: Frequency of Legitimation Formulas
Table 3: Variants of Legitimation Formulas
Table 4: Historical Context
Table 5: Consecration Vocabulary in Charters
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary texts
Secondary texts
Websites

Sujets

• Histoire
• Great Britain
• History
• Europe

Informations

• Publié par: University of Wales Press
• Date de parution: 15 octobre 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781786832931
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

RELIGION AND CULTURE IN THE MIDDLE AGES
Anglo-Saxon Kingship and Political Power
00 Prelims AngloSaxon 2018_9_24.indd 1 24-Sep-18 8:09:39 PMSeries Editors
Denis Renevey (Université de Lausanne)
Diane Watt (University of Surrey)
Editorial Board
Miri Rubin (Queen Mary University of London)
Jean- Claude Schmitt (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris)
Fiona Somerset (Duke University)
Christiania Whitehead (University of Warwick)
00 Prelims AngloSaxon 2018_9_24.indd 2 24-Sep-18 8:09:39 PMRELIGION AND CULTURE IN THE MIDDLE AGES
Anglo-Saxon Kingship
and Political Power
REx GRATIA DEI
k ATHRIN McCANN
UNIVERSITY OF WALES PRESS
2018
00 Prelims AngloSaxon 2018_9_24.indd 3 24-Sep-18 8:09:39 PM© k athrin McCann, 2018
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any material form
(including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether
or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the
written permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions
of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act. Applications for the copyright owner’s
written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to
the University of Wales Press, University Registry, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardif
CF10 3NS.
www.uwp.co.uk
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-78683-292-4
e- ISBN 978-1-78683-293-1
The right of Kathrin McCann to be identifed as author of this work has been asserted in
accordance with sections 77 and 79 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Typeset by Eira Fenn Gaunt, Pentyrch, Cardif
Printed by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham, Wiltshire
00 Prelims AngloSaxon 2018_9_24.indd 4 24-Sep-18 8:09:39 PMContents
Series Editors’ Preface vii
Acknowledgements ix
List of Abbreviations xi
Timeline of events xiii
Introduction: 1
From Filius Ecclesiae to Defensor Ecclesiae
Emancipated Kings or Bishops’ Bailifs?
Conclusion
1 Early Anglo-Saxon Politics 17
Case Study I: Joint k ingship (Essex)
Case Study II: Overlordship (Sussex)
Case Study III: Conquest and Coinage (Mercia)
Case Study IV: k ingship and Legislation (k ent)
Case Study V: Royal Education (East Anglia) VI: Abdicating k ings (Wessex)
Case Study VII: Saintly Royalty (Northumbria)
Conclusion
2 Diploma Politicum 47
The Functional Title in the Royal Styles
The Legitimation Formulain the Royal Styles
Conclusion
3 The Anglo-Saxon Regina Gratia Dei87
Queenly Behaviour
Throneworthy Queens
Queenly Power
Conclusion
4 Reformers and Rulers 99
Ecclesiastical Politics I: Edgar – Royal Action
Ecclesiastical Politics II: Æthelred – Divine Retribution
00 Prelims AngloSaxon 2018_9_24.indd 5 24-Sep-18 8:09:39 PMvi CONTENTS
Ecclesiastical Politics III: From Speculum Principis to Speculum
Societatis
Conclusion
5 Rituals of k ing-making 123
The Development of the Royal Consecration Ritual
The Anglo-Saxon Consecration Ritual
Edgar’s Coronation
Visualising Rituals: Art and Architecture
Conclusion
Conclusion 151
Appendices155
Appendix 1: Anglo-Saxon k ings
Appendix 2: Anglo-Saxon Archbishops
Appendix 3: Charter Elements
Tables170
Table 1: Royal Styles
Table 2: Frequency of Legitimation Formulas
Table 3: Variants of Legitimation Formulas
Table 4: Historical Context
Table 5: Consecration Vocabulary in Charters
Bibliography 191
Primary texts
Secondary texts
Websites
Person Index207
Index211
00 Prelims AngloSaxon 2018_9_24.indd 6 24-Sep-18 8:09:39 PM
Series Editors’ Preface
Religion and Culture in the Middle Ages aims to explore the interface between medieval
religion and culture, with as broad an understanding of those terms as possible. It puts to
the forefront studies which engage with works that signifcantly contributed to the
shaping of medieval culture. However, it also gives attention to studies dealing with
works that refect and highlight aspects of medieval culture that have been neglected in
the past by scholars of the medieval disciplines. For example, devotional works and the
practice they infer illuminate our understanding of the medieval subject and its culture
in remarkable ways, while studies of the material space designed and inhabited by
medieval subjects yield new evidence on the period and the people who shaped it and
lived in it. In the larger feld of religion and culture, we also want to explore further the
roles played by women as authors, readers and owners of books, thereby defning them
more precisely as actors in the cultural feld. The series as a whole investigates the
European Middle Ages, from c.500 to c.1500. Our aim is to explore medieval religion
and culture with the tools belonging to such disciplines as, among others, art history,
philosophy, theology, history, musicology, the history of medicine, and literature. In
particular, we would like to promote interdisciplinary studies, as we believe strongly
that our modern understanding of the term applies fascinatingly well to a cultural period
marked by a less tight confnement and categorization of its disciplines than the modern
period. However, our only criterion is academic excellence, with the belief that the use
of a large diversity of critical tools and theoretical approaches enables a deeper
understanding of medieval culture. We want the series to refect this diversity, as we
believe that, as a collection of outstanding contributions, it ofers a more subtle
representation of a period that is marked by paradoxes and contradictions and which
necessarily refects diversity and diference, however difcult it may sometimes have
proved for medieval culture to accept these notions.
00 Prelims AngloSaxon 2018_9_24.indd 7 24-Sep-18 8:09:39 PM
Acknowledgements
Any project that takes years to ripen accumulates many debts. While it is often implicitly
understood that there are other scholars whose work informs some new project, I should
like to express my gratitude to all the medievalists who have gone before: their work
inspired me, their ideas informed mine and their inquiries raised my curiosity and desire
to pursue my own interests in the feld of Anglo-Saxon studies.
There is a handful of academics in particular to whom I owe special thanks: Professor
Dr Thomas Honegger (Jena), whose friendship has supported me since he frst taught
me, to my ‘Doktorvater’ Professor Hugh Magennis (Belfast), who supported me
throughout, to Professor Andy Orchard (Oxford), who encouraged me to pursue this
monograph, to Professor Denis Renevey (Lausanne), who recommended a good home
for it, and to other academics who read this work, among them Professor Vincent Gillespie
(Oxford) and the anonymous reviewer of the University of Wales Press.
I also owe debts of gratitude to my friends and colleagues at the Humanities Division
at the University of Oxford, foremost Miss Martha Buckley, who patiently read this work
and was a huge help in revising it. My greatest debt and thanks goes to my parents, to my
loving husband Daniel, and my little Eloise.
This work is dedicated to all of them.
00 Prelims AngloSaxon 2018_9_24.indd 9 24-Sep-18 8:09:39 PMAbbreviations
(See Bibliography for full reference.)
ASC Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (eds. Plummer, Rositzke, Classen and
Harmer).
ASPR Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records
Asser Life of King Alfred, cited according to chapter (ed. Stevenson, trsl.
k eynes and Lapidge).
Chronicon Æthelweard’s Chronicon, cited according to book and chapter (ed.
and trsl. Campbell).
Cf. confer
CHCatholic Homilies, Series I and II by Ælfric (eds. Clemoes,
Godden and Pope)
CP Cura Pastoralis by Gregory the Great, cited according to chapter
(ed. and trsl. Sweet).
C&S Councils and Synods, cited according to item number (ed.
Whitelock).
EETS Early English Text Society
o.s. original series
s.s. supplementary series
EHD I English Historical Documents Vol. 1, cited according to item
number (ed. Whitelock).
Ep. epistle
Haddan & Stubbs Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents Vol. 3 (ed. Haddan and
Stubbs).
HE Historia Ecclesiastica by Bede, Roman numerals refer to the
books, Arabic numerals to the chapters (ed. Plummer, trsl.
McClure and Collins’ ed. of Colgrave/Mynors trsl.).
LifeWilfrid Life of St Wilfrid, cited according to chapter (ed. Colgrave).
MGH Monumenta Germaniae Historica
Epp. Epistolae Merowingici et k arolini aevi I
LL Capit. Leges Capitularia Regum Francorum
LibLite Libelli de lite imperatorum et pontifcum
RGA Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde (revised ed.).
S Sawyer number for charters, based on revised edition of his
Annotated List and Bibliography (1999).
s.a. sub anno
00 Prelims AngloSaxon 2018_9_24.indd 11 24-Sep-18 8:09:39 PM
Timeline of Events
410 The Goths sack Rome, and the departure of the Romans leaves Britain open to
attacks
449 Adventus Saxonum: King Vortigern invites brothers Hengist and Horsa to fght
for him against the Picts; this leads to the arrival of Germanic tribes (Jutes,
Angles and Saxons) in Britain who begin to settle there
597 Pope Gregory the Great sends Augustine to convert the English people to
Christianity; Augustine later becomes the frst archbishop of Canterbury
664 Council of Whitby to discuss dating of Easter: the Roman order of Christianity
prevails
735 Bede, author of the Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum (731), dies
757 Ofa becomes King of Mercia (to 796); he consecrates his son Ecgfrith king in
787
793 Sack of Lindisfarne; a period of sustained Viking attacks commences
871 Alfred becomes k ing of Wessex, later styled ‘the Great’
878 k ing Alfred is driven into the fens on the island of Athelney by the Vikings, but
he resists and is successful at the Battle of Edington; Viking k ing Guthrum is
baptised and the Danelaw established
886 Alfred recovers London from the Danes and is considered to be king of all t