Conclusion

Summary

Two of the themes that have run throughout this book and its consideration of the ruler portraits of Anglo-Saxon England are the themes of borders and of books, and in closing I would like to turn briefly to those two subjects once again. Borders are an integral part of the Anglo-Saxon ruler portraits, primarily because in their quest to expand the borders of Wessex to encompass all of England, indeed all of Britain, the Cerdicing kings from Alfred to Edgar consistently placed themselves in a border position. This type of political border position is very much a part of the Corpus 183 portrait of Æthelstan in which the West Saxon king is shown presenting to the Northumbrian saint his offering of a book that contains texts written in and about their respective realms. It is also a feature of the Liber Vitae portrait of Ælfgifu/Emma and Cnut in which two foreign-born rulers are presented as members of the West Saxon dynasty, and of the frontispiece to the Encomium Emmae in which that same queen attempted to overcome the limitations of both gender roles and her political situation by presenting herself as co-ruler of all England. Edgar too attempted to extend his rule beyond the borders of his kingdom – as the Dee rowing episode makes clear – but it is as a mediator between church and state, heaven and earth, that we see him in his portraits. Edward the Confessor, however, was perhaps the greatest border dweller of all, standing as he does not only in a shadowy area between image and reality, but also standing at the end of the Cerdicing dynasty and the beginning of the Anglo-Norman era, his image borrowing from the portraits of his predecessors all the way back to Alfred, but also introducing new and influential changes. It was Edward's image and Edward's legacy that would be taken up and championed by the Normans. The authority of the king from Edward's reign on would be conveyed primarily by the symbols of sword and sceptre rather than by the book.

At the beginning of the book I wondered why it should be that there are so few surviving ruler portraits from Anglo-Saxon England, and why it should be that those that do survive are so markedly different from their continental and Byzantine counterparts.