Anglo-Saxon charters
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Anglo-Saxon charters are documents from the
The term charter covers a range of written legal documentation, including diplomas,
Charters have provided
Survival and authenticity
The Anglo-Saxon charter can take many forms: it can be a lease (often presented as a chirograph), a will, an agreement, a writ or, most commonly, a grant of land.[1] Our picture is skewed towards those that regard land, particularly in the earlier period. Land charters can further be subdivided into royal charters, or diplomas, and private charters (donations by figures other than the king).
Over a thousand Anglo-Saxon charters are extant today, as a result of being maintained in the archives of
Anglo-Saxon charters were sometimes used in
The importance of charters in legal disputes over land as evidence of
Relatively few charters survive in their form as single sheets, and copies may have been altered for various purposes. Historians attempt to extract useful information from all types of charters, even outright fabrications, which may be of interest because they are apparently based on genuine documentation or for some other reason. Timothy Reuter, a specialist in German history, complained that "Anglo-Saxon diplomatists persist in the belief that it is possible to be slightly dead or slightly pregnant", but Simon Keynes argues that it is unhelpful to adopt the perspective of students of Continental charters, more of which survive as originals.[6]
Anglo-Saxon charters are catalogued in
Charter forms
The three most common forms of Anglo-Saxon charter are diplomas, writs and wills. They are certified by the attestations of witnesses, who are listed at the end of the charter.
Diplomas
The largest number of surviving charters are diplomas, or royal charters, that granted privileges and rights, usually over land. The typical diploma had three sections:
Much of the language of the diploma was explicitly religious[8] – that a grant was made for the benefit of the grantor's soul or that anyone breaking the charter would be excommunicated. Charters typically opened by situating themselves firmly within the Christian order, with a pictorial (cross, chrismon or alpha-omega) and a verbal invocation to God. Many early charters were granted in anticipation of the founding of a monastery. The document served a largely secular purpose – to document the legal possession of land and to free that land from certain duties that would otherwise be attached to it.
Writs
The second most common form of Anglo-Saxon charter, although far fewer in number than the diploma, is the royal writ. These differed from the diploma in both form and function. A writ was an instruction from the king to a named official or group of recipients. It started with a greeting and was authenticated by a royal seal. The writ did not require witnesses and was often written in Old English.[9] Under the Normans, the use of writs was extended to cover many other aspects of royal business and was written in Latin. Florence Harmer provided the text (and translation when written in Old English) of 120 pre-Conquest royal writs.
Wills
Anglo-Saxon wills were intended to make gifts of property (including land) after the writer's death, but they were not wills in the modern sense.[10]
Wills are rarer than writs. The first dedicated study, Anglo-Saxon Wills by Dorothy Whitelock was able to identify 39 documents.[10] The number grew to 55 with publication of another 16 among the Anglo-Saxon Charters by Agnes Jane Robertson in 1939.[11] Since 1939, contributions to the list were few and far between; in her 2011 Wills and Will-making in Anglo-Saxon England Linda Tollerton published the most up-to-date corpus, with 68 examples in total. The surviving documents are very unevenly distributed both in time and space: from the 9th century, for example, only 9 wills are known, and 6 of them are in Canterbury. Not a single will from any period is known from further North than Burton upon Trent in Staffordshire. Furthermore, only 22 wills can be found in manuscripts written before 1066; originals are even rarer, as some, like those of Alfred the Great or Wulfric Spot, are known to be pre-Conquest copies, while still other may in fact be mere extracts or ancient forgeries.[12]
Only two wills of kings have been preserved, those of
Boundary descriptions
A typical royal diploma had a clause describing the boundaries of the territory that is the subject of the charter. There are also boundary descriptions in a number of leases and two wills. In the earliest examples, these boundary descriptions are short, in Latin and with few boundary points. In time, the descriptions became longer, more detailed and written in Old English. By the end of the 9th century, all boundary clauses were written in Old English.[18] Many charters, particularly those that have survived in later copies, do not have boundary clauses. In some instances, space has been left for a boundary clause that was never copied. A few boundary descriptions survive that do not appear to be related to any surviving charter.
The content of these boundary descriptions varied, but in many instances these descriptions revealed the Anglo-Saxons' ideas about their landscape.[19]
Historical significance
Charters have provided fundamental source material for understanding Anglo-Saxon England that complements the
Charters give lists of persons that attested the document and so it is possible to see who was present at the king's court.
Burdens that were due by landowners to the
Published charters
A joint committee of the British Academy and the Royal Historical Society was set up in 1966 to oversee a definitive edition of the entire corpus of Anglo-Saxon charters. The edition is to be published in approximately thirty volumes. The late Professor Nicholas Brooks was chairman of the committee in charge; he has been replaced by Professor Simon Keynes.[23][24] The following volumes have been published.:[25]
- ISBN 978-0-19-725936-8.
- ISBN 978-0-19-725940-5.
- O'Donovan, Mary A., ed. (1988). Charters of Sherborne. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-726051-7.
- ISBN 978-0-19-726143-9.
- Kelly, Susan E., ed. (1996). Charters of Shaftesbury Abbey. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-726151-4.
- Kelly, Susan E., ed. (1998). Charters of Selsey. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-726175-0.
- Kelly, Susan E., ed. (2000). Charters of Abingdon Abbey, Part 1. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-726217-7.
- Kelly, Susan E., ed. (2001). Charters of Abingdon Abbey, Part 2. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-726221-4.
- Miller, Sean, ed. (2001). Charters of the New Minster, Winchester. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-726223-8.
- Kelly, Susan E., ed. (2004). Charters of St Paul's, London. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-726299-3.
- Kelly, Susan E., ed. (2005). Charters of Malmesbury Abbey. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-726317-4.
- ISBN 978-0-19-726396-9.
- Kelly, Susan E., ed. (2007). Charters of Bath and Wells. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-726397-6.
- Kelly, Susan E., ed. (2009). Charters of Peterborough Abbey. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-726438-6.
- Kelly, Susan E., ed. (2012). Charters of Glastonbury Abbey. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-726507-9.
- Woodman, David A., ed. (2012). Charters of Northern Houses. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-726529-1.
- Brooks, N. P.; Kelly, Susan E., eds. (2013). Charters of Christchurch, Canterbury, Part 1. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-726535-2.
- Brooks, N. P.; Kelly, Susan E., eds. (2013). Charters of Christchurch, Canterbury, Part 2. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-726536-9.
- Kelly, Susan E., ed. (2015). Charters of Chertsey Abbey. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-726556-7.
- Kelly, Susan E., ed. (2021). Charters of Barking Abbey and Waltham Holy Cross. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-726688-5.
Supplementary volume
- ISBN 978-0-19-726078-4.
See also
- The Stowe manuscripts, which contain a series of Anglo-Saxon charters
References
Citations
- ^ Sawyer, P. H.(1968). Anglo-Saxon Charters: an Annotated List and Bibliography. London: Royal Historical Society.
- ^ "S 8". The Electronic Sawyer: Online catalogue of Anglo-Saxon charters. Archived from the original on 18 May 2015. Retrieved 25 June 2016.
- ^ Hooke, Della; Sawyer, P. H. (1990). Worcestershire Anglo-Saxon charter bounds. Boydell.
- ^ "Cartularies". Kemble: The Anglo-Saxon Charters Website. Archived from the original on 2 July 2016. Retrieved 23 June 2016.
- ^ Stephenson's 1898 lectures on "The Anglo-Saxon Chancery"
- ISBN 978-1-84383-399-4.
- ^ F. W. Maitland, Domesday Book and Beyond (1897).
- ^ Frank Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England (OUP, reissued 2001)
- ^ Harmer, Florence (1989). Anglo-Saxon Writs (compilation). Paul Watkins.
- ^ a b Whitelock, Dorothy (1930). Anglo-Saxon Wills. Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Agnes Jane Robertson (1939). Anglo-Saxon Charters. Cambridge University Press. google books preview of the 2009 reissue
- ^ "S 1507". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-06-25.
- ^ S 1515
- ^ "S 1539". Archived from the original on 2019-03-22. Retrieved 2016-06-25.
- ^ "S 1494". Archived from the original on 2016-08-12. Retrieved 2016-06-25.
- ^ S 1486
- ^ Reed, Michael (1984). "Anglo-Saxon Charter Boundaries". Discovering Past Landscapes. Croom Helm. p. 277.
- ^ The Language of Landscape: Reading the Anglo-Saxon Countryside
- ^ For example Keynes, S. D. (1980). The diplomas of King Æthelred the Unready 978–1016: A study in their use as historical evidence. Cambridge.
- ^ Sources for Medieval History Archived February 6, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ For example charter S1186a Archived July 23, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Anglo Saxon Charters Homepage". Archived from the original on 2005-06-01.
- ^ "British Academy Anglo-Saxon Charters". Archived from the original on April 26, 2014.
- ^ "Anglo-Saxon Charters". British Academy. Retrieved 4 December 2020.
Secondary sources
- Maitland, F. W. (1897). Domesday Book and Beyond. Cambridge University Press. Reprinted: 1996.
- Sawyer, P. H.(1968). Anglo-Saxon Charters: an Annotated List and Bibliography. London: Royal Historical Society.
- Stenton, Frank(1943, 2001). Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Further reading
- Brooks, Nicholas (1974). "Anglo-Saxon Charters: the Work of the Last Twenty Years." Anglo-Saxon England 3.
- Corner, Geo. R. (1858). . Surrey Archaeological Collections. 1. London: Surrey Archaeological Society: 77–96.
- Kelly, Susan E. (1990). "Anglo-Saxon Lay Society and the Written Word." In The Uses of Literacy in Early Mediaeval Europe, ed. R. McKitterick. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Keynes, Simon (forthcoming). Anglo-Saxon Charters. Archives and Single Sheets. Anglo-Saxon Charters Supplementary Series 2. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Keynes, Simon (1999). "Charters and Writs." In The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford: Blackwell.
- Thompson, S. D. (2006). Anglo-Saxon Royal Diplomas. A Palaeography. Publications of the Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies 6. Woodbridge.
- Keynes, Simon (secretary). Anglo-Saxon Charters series (British Academy)
- British Academy Review, 1998
- Joint Committee on Anglo-Saxon Charters website
External links
- Electronic Sawyer Archived 2011-02-23 at the Wayback Machine The revised catalogue of Anglo-Saxon Charters, based on and extending Sawyer's 1968 printed catalogue
- Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England