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Princeps Merciorum gentis: the family, career and connections of Ælfhere, ealdorman of Mercia, 956–83

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

A. Williams
A. Williams
Affiliation:
The Polytechnic of North London
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Extract

Ælfhere, ealdorman of Mercia from 956 to 983, is not an immediately familiar figure. Yet he was one of the most powerful men in the political life of his day. The author of the Vita Oswaldi was in no doubt of his importance in the disturbances which followed the death of Edgar:

Type
Research Article
Information
Anglo-Saxon England , Volume 10 , December 1981 , pp. 143 - 172
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

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References

1 StO, pp. 443–4, trans. EHD, pp. 912–13. (For abbreviations, see below, n. 3.)

2 Hart, C., ‘Athelstan “Half King” and his Family’, ASE 2 (1973), 115–44.Google Scholar Dr Hart has commented elsewhere that ‘a full-scale investigation of Ælfhere's career is badly needed’ (ECNENM (see below, n. 3), p. 261).Google Scholar

3 The following abbreviations have been used: Chadwick, Institutions, = Chadwick, H. Munro, Studies in Anglo-Saxon Institutions (Cambridge, 1905);Google ScholarChron Abingd = Chronicon Monasterii de Abingdon, ed. Stevenson, J., Rolls Ser. (London, 1858);Google ScholarChron Evesh = Chronicon Abbatiae de Evesham, ed. Macray, W. Dunn, RS (London, 1863);Google ScholarECEE = Hart, C., The Early Charters of Eastern England (Leicester, 1966);Google ScholarECNENM = Hart, C., The Early Charters of Northern England and the North Midlands (Leicester, 1975);Google ScholarECTV = Gelling, M., The Early Charters of the Thames Valley (Leicester, 1979);Google ScholarECW = Finberg, H. P. R., The Early Charters of Wessex (Leicester, 1964);Google ScholarECWM = Finberg, H. P. R., The Early Charters of the West Midlands (Leicester, 1961);Google ScholarEHD = English Historical Documents 1, ed. Whitelock, D., 2nd ed. (London, 1979);Google Scholar Robertson, Charters = Anglo-Saxon Charters, ed. Robertson, A. J., 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 1956);Google Scholar S = Sawyer, P. H., Anglo-Saxon Charters: an Annotated List and Bibliography, R. Hist. Soc. Guides and Handbooks (London, 1968);Google ScholarStO = ‘The Anonymous Life of St Oswald’ The Historians of the Church of York and its Archbishops, ed. Raine, J., RS (London, 1879–1894), 1, 377–47);Google ScholarVCH = The Victoria History of the Counties of England; Whitelock, Wills = Anglo-Saxon Wills, ed. Whitelock, D. (Cambridge, 1930).Google Scholar I am most grateful to Dr Simon Keynes for reading and commenting upon this article and for saving me from numerous errors; those which remain are mine.

4 Ælfhere is called propinquus by Eadred (S 555) and described as ex parentela regis in the witness-list to a charter of Eadwig (S 582). His brother Ælfheah is called kinsman by Eadred (S 564), Eadwig (S 585–6) and Edgar (S 702) and Edgar also addresses their brother Ælfwine as propinquus (S 802).

5 Chadwick, , Institutions, pp. 182 and 187–8.Google Scholar The identification of Ealhhelm as Ælfhere's father rests on the appearance of his name in the poem on the Battle of Maldon (The Battle of Maldon, ed. Gordon, E. V. (London, 1937; repr. Manchester, 1976), p. 83).Google Scholar

6 For the divisions of Mercia at this time, see Chadwick, , Institutions, pp. 196–7.Google Scholar

7 Chron Evesh, p. 77.

8 Knowles, D., The Monastic Order in England (Cambridge, 1963), p. 34;CrossRefGoogle ScholarRobinson, J. Armitage, The Times of St Dunstan (Oxford, 1923), p. 40.Google Scholar

9 S 404.

10 Robinson, , Times of St Dunstan, pp. 36–40.Google Scholar It is likely that Oswulf received the actual conventual buildings.

11 S 550. Bourton-on-the-Water and Maugersbury are listed among the possessions of Evesham in the statement attributed to St Ecgwine, dated 714 (S 1250) and Æthelred II restored one mansa at Maugersbury to the abbey (S 935).

12 See below, pp. 154 and 155.

13 ECNENM, pp. 371–2. But see also below, p. 154.

14 See below, pp. 168–70.

15 ECNENM, p. 328.

16 Chadwick, , Institutions, p. 196.Google Scholar

17 Hart, , ‘Athelstan “Half King”’, p. 126, n. 6;Google ScholarECNENM, pp. 299–300.

18 ECNENM, pp. 287–8.

19 The Chronicle of Æthelweard, ed. Campbell, A. (London, 1962), p. 54.Google Scholar

20 The name of Ealhhelm's wife is unknown. Bridgeman suggested that she was Ælfwyn, daughter of Ealdorman Æthelred and Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians (Bridgeman, C. G. O., ‘Wulfric Spot's Will’, Collections for a History of Staffordshire, William Salt Archaeol. Soc. (1916), pp. 53–4).Google Scholar It would be nice to believe it, but there is nothing to suggest such a relationship and the arguments which Bridgeman adduced in favour of the theory have been superseded. Ealhhelm may have had some connection with Æthelflæd, if he is identical with the thegn to whom she gave land in Derbyshire, probably in 914 (Charters of Burton Abbey, ed. Sawyer, P. H., Anglo-Saxon Charters 2 (London, 1979), 1–2).Google Scholar His name is not common.

21 His daughter married Ælfric (probably Ælfric cild), father of the Ælfwine killed at Maldon in 991. Gordon suggested that she was Æthelflæ Ealhhelm's daughter, who received a bequest from Wynflæd about 950 (Gordon, , Battle of Maldon, p. 83;Google ScholarWhitelock, , Wills, p. 14).Google Scholar For a possible fifth son, called Ælfweard, see below, pp. 169–70.

22 Ælfheah is usually described as ealdorman of Hampshire, but his authority probably extended over Berkshire, Wiltshire and Dorset as well (ECNENM, p. 257; Chadwick, , Institutions, pp. 195–6).Google Scholar

23 S 462. Ælfheah left a life-interest in this estate to his wife. For another grant to Ælfheah and Ælfswith jointly, see S 747.

24 S 564. It is possible that Ælfheah is also to be identified with the recipient of ten manentes at Farnborough, Berkshire, given by Athelstan in 937 (S 411). Both Compton Beauchamp and Farnborough were given to Abingdon by Ælfheah, and in the former case the donor is certainly the ealdorman (Chron Abingd 1, 78–9 and 157–8).

25 S 582.

26 Robertson, , Charters, pp. 338–9.Google Scholar

27 S 585–6,639 and 662. The endorsement of the last charter describes Ælfswith as Eadwig's kinswoman.

28 Robertson, , Charters, pp. 338–9.Google Scholar Dr Hart identified his predecessor in the ealdordom as Æthelsige, who signs from 951 to 958 (‘Athelstan “Half King”’, pp. 120 and 128).

29 S 597 and 1292. Professor Whitelock argued that Ælfheah became ealdorman in 956 and must be distinguished from Ælfheah the seneschal (discifer, cyninges discðegn) who signs S 597 (956) and S 1292 (956×957) (Whitelock, , Wills, pp. 121–2).Google Scholar It is true that the signature Ælfheah dux appears on charters dated before 959, but in all cases his title is clearly an error (Robertson, , Charters, pp. 338–9).Google Scholar One version of Eadwig's charter concerning Buckland (S 639) addresses Ælfheah as dux, but it is too corrupt for reliance to be placed upon it. Eadwig's grant of land on the Nadder to Ælfheah minister (S 586) is dated 956, but it must belong to 959, and Ælfheah witnesses S 658 and 660 (both dated 959) as dux.

30 Whitelock, , Wills, pp. 16–17.Google Scholar For the position ofprotector (mund) of the testator's will, see Sheehan, M., The Will in Medieval England(Toronto, 1963), pp. 43–4.Google Scholar People of Ælfsige's rank normally appointed the king as protector, which makes the bishop's choice of Ælfheah more significant.

31 Robinson, , Times of St Dunslan, p. 113.Google Scholar

32 Willelmi Malmesbiriensis Monachi De Gestis Pontificum Anglorum, ed. Hamilton, N.E.S.A., RS (London, 1870), pp. 25–6 and 165.Google Scholar

33 Memorials of St Dunstan, ed. Stubbs, William, RS (London, 1874), pp. xciv–xcv.Google Scholar There is some doubt about the year of Oda's death (John, E., Orbis Britanniae and Other Studies (Leicester, 1966), p. 192).Google Scholar

34 Anglo-Saxon Chronicles 1001 A: Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel, ed. Plummer, Charles (Oxford, 1892–1899) 1, 132.Google Scholar The engagement took place during the harrying of Hampshire in that year and the name immediately preceding that of Godwine in the list of slain is that of Wulfhere, bisceopes ðegn, which suggests that Godwine still had connections with the Old Minster.

35 Whitelock, , Wills, pp. 22–5.Google Scholar

36 Campbell, , Chronicle of Æthelweard, p. 59.Google Scholar

37 Ordgar became ealdorman of the Western Shires soon after his daughter's marriage to Edgar (ECNENM, p. 272). His son Ordwul f founded Tavistock Abbey (Finberg, H. P. R., Lucerna (London, 1964), pp. 189–95).Google Scholar

38 Whitelock, , Wills, p. 123.Google Scholar

39 The hidages of Suðtune, Littleworth and Charlton are given in the will itself. Batcombe must be the estate of twenty mansae given by Edmund in 940 (S 462), Wrought on the estate of thirty mansae given by Eadwig in 956 (S 585) and Crondall the estate left to Ælfheah by Ælfsige of Winchester with reversion to the Old Minster; its hidage was forty-five cassati when Edgar restored it to the abbey (S 820). Faringdon, Berkshire, must have included the twenty hides at Kingston which Ælfhere later sold to Osgar of Abingdon, since he had received the estate from Ælfheah, and the only estates bequeathed to Ælfhere under his brother's will were Faringdon, Aldbourne and the reversion of Batcombe (S 1216). Other charters in favour of Ælfheah, who may or may not be identical with the ealdorman, are S 440, 475, 1736 and 1746. Charters in favour of Ælfswith, which again may or may not relate to the ealdorman's wife, are S 593, 1720 and 1748.

40 For the charters assigning these four estates to Malmesbury, see S 305 and 322 (Wroughton, Charlton and Purton), S 149 (Purton only), S 356 (Chelworth only) and S 1038 (all four).

41 VCH Dorset 111, 47.

42 S 1292.

43 S 619 and 811.

44 Chron Abingd 1, 103–5 and 476–7; S 491. S 665 is a forgery, based on S 491, attributing the grant to Eadwig (ECTV, p. 51).

45 S 620–2 and 654. The estates concerned lay at Padworth, Welford and Longworth in Berkshire and Pyrford in Surrey. For other possible references to Eadric, see ECNENM, p. 318.

46 S 1276.

47 ECNENM, pp. 371–2; Sawyer, , Charters of Burton, p. xlviii.Google Scholar If Ælfwine was connected (? by marriage) with an important Mercian family, his adherence to Edgar after 957 is explained.

48 S 472, 504 and 1743.

49 S 802.

50 ECWM, p. 149.

51 Wulfric, described as a thegn of King Edmund, left Grittleton and Nettlecombe (also called Nettleton) to the abbey after the death of his wife. Ælfwine his successor fulfilled the bequest when he became a monk of that house, apparently in Edgar's reign. Wulfric also left Horton to the abbey with his body; this bequest also was fulfilled by his successor in hereditate Ælfwine (William, of Malmesbury, De Antiquitatt Glastoniensis Ecclesiae, Adami de Domerham Historia de Rebus Gestis Glastoniensis, ed. Thomas, Hearne (Oxford, 1727) 1, 72–3, 76, 85 and 101).Google Scholar

52 S 559 and 594, relating to three hides at Barkham and fifteen hides at Milton, both in Berkshire.

53 For the attestations of Ælfwine and other estates which may have belonged to him, see ECNENM, pp. 277–8. Edgar's charter granting Highclere is S 680.

54 He signs charters of Eadwig in this year as dux.

55 S 555. The estate consisted of twenty mansiunculae at Buckland Denham, Somerset. Ælfhere's identity can be established by the fact that the king addresses him as propinquus.

56 S 582. Ælfhere's name also appears among the ministri in the witness-list to S 567, an alleged charter of Eadred dated 955.

57 See above, pp. 146–7.

58 S 587–8 and 1747. The grant of Westbury was confirmed by Edgar (S 1760) and Ælfnere later gave the estate to Glastonbury ‘for my own soul and King Edgar's’ (De Antiquitate, Adam de Domerbam, ed. Heame 1, 85).Google Scholar

59 See below, pp. 168–70.

60 Cox, D. C., ‘The Vale Estates of the Church of Evesham, c. 700–1086’, Vale of Evesham Hist. Soc. Research Papers 5 (1975), 26–33.Google Scholar One of the outliers was Ombersley, but, for the question of whether Ælfhere held this estate, see below, p. 169. I am very grateful to Mr Cox for drawing my attention to this paper and for his helpful comments on the history of the Evesham estates.

61 S 1759 and 834.

62 S 1216.

63 StO, p. 444; Gordon, , Battle of Maldon, p. 82.Google Scholar

64 St Dunstant, ed. Stubbs, p. 35, trans. EHD, p. 901.Google Scholar

65 Campbell, , Chronicle of Ætbelweard, p. 55.Google Scholar

66 Hart, , ‘Athelstan “Half King”’, p. 127, n. 1.Google Scholar

67 StO, p. 443.

68 S 1299, 1300–2 (962), 1297 and 1303–6 (963). Examples could be multiplied.

69 S 680 (959), 683, 685 and 687 (960). Other examples could be given.

70 For Æthelmund's last appearance, see ECNENM, pp. 287–8.

71 Ibid. p. 300, and see below, p. 165.

72 Hart, , ‘Athelstan “Half King”’, p. 134;Google ScholarECNENM, pp. 285–6.

73 ECNENM, p. 267; Robertson, , Charters, p. 366;Google Scholar S 828–9.

74 Charters of Rochester, ed. Campbell, A., Anglo-Saxon Charters 1 (London, 1973), 53–4.Google Scholar

75 Liber Monasterii de Hyda, ed. Edwards, Edward, RS (London, 1866), p. 206.Google Scholar

76 For Oswaldslow, see John, , Orbis Britanniae, pp. 178–9;Google ScholarJohn, Eric, Land Tenure in Early England (Leicester, 1964), pp. 89–90.Google Scholar For ship-sokes generally, see Harmer, F. E., Anglo-Saxon Writs (Manchester, 1952), pp. 266–7.Google Scholar

77 This is clear from the lndiculum of Oswaldslow (Hemingi Chartularium Ecclesiae Wigorniensis, ed. Hearne, Thomas (Oxford, 1723) 1, 294:Google Scholartrans. Brown, R. Allen, Origins of English Feudalism (London, 1973), pp. 133–4:Google Scholar ‘whether to fulfill the service due to him [Oswald] or that due to the king they [the Worcester tenants] shall always with all humility and submissiveness be subject to the authority and will of that archductor who presides over the bishopric’).

78 See below, pp. 169–70.

79 Cox, , ‘Vale Estates of Evesham’, pp. 36–40.Google Scholar

80 Ibid. p. 39; John, Eric, ‘War and Society in the Tenth Century: the Maldon Campaign’, TRHS 5th ser. 27 (1977), 180–1.Google Scholar The entry for the manor of Pershore in Domesday mentions ‘the land of Turchil, King Edward's steersman’ (VCH Worcestershire 1, 300).Google Scholar

81 Chadwick, , Institutions, p. 178, n. 1Google Scholar, where the parallel with Cnut's arrangements is pointed out.

82 Æthelwine succeeded his brother Æthelwold, who died in 962. For Oslac, see Whitelock, D., ‘The Dealings of the English Kings with Northumbria in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries’, The Anglo-Saxons: Studies in some Aspects of their History and Culture presented to Bruce Dickins, ed. Peter, Clemoes (London, 1959), pp. 77–9.Google Scholar

83 Fisher listed the various references to the terms princeps, regnum etc. used in connection with the East Anglian ealdordom and its holders (Fisher, D. J. V., ‘The Anti-Monastic Reaction in the Reign of Edward the Martyr’, Cambridge Hist. Jnl 10 (1952), 265;Google Scholar see also Hart, , ‘Athelstan “Half King”’, p. 138).Google Scholar For Ælfhere see the remarks of Plummer (Two Chronicles 11, 164): ‘(his) position stands out strongly in the charters and he seems to have retained something of that semi-royal position which Æthelred enjoyed’.

84 Æthelflæd was the daughter of Ordmær, possibly the same who exchanged Hatfield, Hertfordshire, with Athelstan, ‘Half King’ for land in Devon (Liber Eliensis, ed. Blake, E. O., Camden, 3rd ser. 92 (London, 1962), 79, n. 6;Google ScholarHart, , ‘Athelstan “Half King”’, pp. 129–30.Google Scholar

85 StO, p. 444.

86 Fisher, , ‘The Anti-Monastic Reaction’, p. 269.Google Scholar

87 It is also possible that Æthelwold, the son of the ‘Half King’, had hoped to receive the ealdordom of central Wessex, which Eadwig bestowed upon Ælfheah. It had at one time been held by Eadric the brother of the ‘Half King’ (Hart, , ‘Athelstan “Half King”’, pp. 116, 118, 120 and 126–8).Google Scholar

88 Ibid. p. 126, n. 6.

89 Ibid. p. 121; Chadwick, Institutions, pp. 198–9.

90 Robertson, , Charters, pp. 76–7;Google ScholarECEE, pp. 169 and 178–9. He was the father of Ælfwine, killed at Maldon, to whom Ælfheah bequeathed an estate at Froxfield, Hampshire (Whitelock, , Wills, p. 22).Google Scholar In The Battle of Maldon Ælfwine boasts of his descent from the kin of Ealhhelm, but he also claims kinship with Byrhtnoth, ealdorman of Essex (Gordon, , Battle of Maldon, p. 56).Google Scholar

91 One of the supporters of Æthelwold in his rebellion against his cousin Edward the Elder was Byrhtsige, son of the ætheling Berhtnoth, who may have been a scion of the Mercian royal house (ASC 904 A, 905 CD (=903): Two Chronicles, ed. Plummer 1, 92–5).Google Scholar

92 ASC 912 ACD (= 912): Two Chronicles, ed. Plummer 1, 96–7;Google ScholarChadwick, , Institutions, pp. 206–7;Google ScholarRobertson, , Charters, pp. 247 and 494.Google Scholar

93 Hart, (‘Athelstan “Half King”’, p. 116)Google Scholar suggests that Ætheifrith, father of Athelstan ‘Half King’, held south-eastern Mercia under Ealdorman Æthelred and that Buckinghamshire was included in his scir.

94 Stenton, F. M., Anglo-Saxon England, 3rd ed. (London, 1971), p. 337.Google Scholar Professor Sawyer has suggested that the shiring of the West Midlands took place under Æthelred and Æthelflæd, when the borough of Worcester was constructed (Sawyer, P. H., From Roman Britain to Norman England (London, 1978), p. 197).Google Scholar But, in view of the connection of the burh of Worcester with the bishop and the fact that the diocese coincided roughly with the provincia of the Hwicce, it seems unlikely that the provincia was divided as a result of the construction of the burh. Moreover the burh of Warwick was not built until 914 (ASC 917 A, 915 CD(= 914): Two Chronicles, ed. Plummer, 1, 98–9)Google Scholar and it is highly unlikely that the shire of Warwick predates the burh. For a discussion of the shiring of the West Midlands in general, see Cox, D. C., VCH Shropshire III, 3–4.Google Scholar

95 Chadwick, , Institutions, p. 225.Google Scholar

96 It has been suggested that Uhtred, who signs 930×934, held the north-western provinces of Mercia (ECNENM, p. 362). See also the following note.

97 Hart, , ‘Athelstan ”Half King”’, p. 121.Google Scholar The three divisions of Mercia may be ancient. Æthelred, Lord of Mercia, probably held the territory of the Hwicce himself, to judge from his connection with the burh of Worcester (S 223), and it is possible that Æthelfrith and his eldest son Ælfstan in succession held the south-eastern provinces (see above, p. 160).

98 Robertson, , Charters, p. 90.Google Scholar

99 S 677 and 723; Stenton, , Anglo-Saxon England, p. 337.Google Scholar

100 Anglo-Saxon England, p. 506.

101 Chadwick, , Institutions, p. 198;Google ScholarStenton, , Anglo-Saxon England, p. 505.Google Scholar

102 The fact that this seems to be the last appearance of Offa's code may be significant; however, it is possible that it may survive after all (Wormald, P., ‘Lex Scripta and Verbum Regis: Legislation and Germanic Kingship from Euric to Cnut’, Early Germanic Kingship, ed. Sawyer, P. H. and Wood, I. N. (Leeds, 1977), p. 112, n. 40).Google Scholar

103 Fisher, D. J. V., The Anglo-Saxon Age (London, 1973), p. 272;Google Scholar cf. Stenton, , Anglo-Saxon England, p. 366:Google Scholar ‘there is no trace of any particularist feeling behind this revolution’.

104 Lund, Niels, ‘King Edgar and the Danelaw’, MScand 9 (1976), 182.Google Scholar

105 Nelson, J., ‘Inauguration Rituals’, Early Germanic Kingship, ed. Sawyer, and Hill, , p. 69.Google Scholar

106 S 587.

107 Liber Eliensis, ed. Blake, , pp. 79–80.Google Scholar

108 Æthelwine claimed that the land at Hatfield had been given to his father in exchange for the family patrimony in Devon but that it had been taken from him by Edgar per violentiam and given to Ely.

109 The identification is suggested by Blake, (Liber Eliensis, p. 80, n. 5).Google Scholar Hart identified the Æthelwine who heard the case as the great ealdorman (ECEH, p. 234), but, since he was one of the parties, this seems unlikely. The whole point of hearing the case in Gloucestershire seems to have been to remove the decision from too close proximity to the very powerful defendant. It is perhaps significant that in the same period, between the death of Edgar and the accession of Æthelred II, Æthelwold entertained Ælfric cild at Ely, in the company of the ætheling and his mother Queen Ælfthryth (Liber Eliensis, ed. Blake, p. 86).Google Scholar

110 S 883. Leofsige, ealdorman of Essex, appealed unsuccessfully against the actions of Æthelwig, the king's reeve in Buckinghamshire, and Wynsige, the reeve of Oxford. For Æthelred's grant of Olney, Buckinghamshire, to Ælfhere, see below, p. 170.

111 Chadwick, (Institutions, pp. 198–210)Google Scholar discusses the enlargement of the Danelaw from the Five Boroughs and the kingdom of York to the fifteen counties of the eleventh century, dating the extension to the time of Cnut.

112 Liber Eliensis, ed. Blake, pp. 84–6;Google ScholarStO, p. 446. Ælfric cild was in dispute with Æthelwold over the endowment of Thorney (ECEE, pp. 169 and 178–9).

113 Fisher, , ‘The Anti-Monastic Reaction’, p. 267.Google Scholar

114 S 1216.

115 De Antiquitate, Adam de Domerham, ed. Hearne 1, 85 and 100;Google Scholar S 1737, 1747 and 1759–60; Whitelock, , Wills, p. 125;Google ScholarJohn of Glastonbury Cronica, ed. Carley, James P., BAR Brit. Ser. 47 (1978), 1, 22–3;Google ScholarWatkin, A., ‘The Great Chartulary of Glastonbury’, Somerset Record Soc. 64 (1956), 610.Google Scholar Ælfheah also gave land at Cranmore, Somerset (De Antiquitate, Adam de Domerham, ed. Hearne 1, 86).Google Scholar

116 S 783.

117 John of Glastonbury Cronica, ed. Carley 1, 36.Google Scholar

118 No leases are extant for 975–6. Those issued in 977 (S 1330–6) and 978 (S 1337–9) all acknowledge the consent both of the king and Ælfhere. It is perhaps significant that the two leases issued by Oswald in the early 970s (S 1328 dated 973 and 1329 dated 974) do not acknowledge Ælfhere's permission.

119 Knowles, , Monastic Order, pp. 51–2.Google Scholar

120 StO, pp. 443–5; Chronicon Abbatiae Rameseiensis, ed. Macray, W. Dunn, RS (London, 1886), pp. 71–3.Google Scholar

121 John, , Orbis Britanniae, pp. 200–3.Google Scholar

122 Foldbriht witnesses as abbot in 970. He is named as Pershore's first abbot in S 786, the alleged confirmation charter, dated 972. The Vita Oswaldi mentions his death and his confession to Abbot Germanus (StO, pp. 439–40). Whether this took place before or after Germanus's expulsion from Winchcombe is not entirely clear; John, (Orbis Britanniae, p. 203, n. 1)Google Scholar dates it before his expulsion, Hart, (ECNENM, p. 256)Google Scholar afterwards (when St Ælfheah was at Bath, after the suppression of Deerhurst).

123 Robertson, , Charters, p. 456;Google ScholarECNENM, p. 350.

124 Freeman, E. A., The History of the Norman Conquest of England (Cambridge, 1867–1879) 11, 339 and 565.Google Scholar

125 H. M., and Taylor, Joan, Anglo-Saxon Architecture (Cambridge, 1965–1978) 1, 209.Google Scholar

126 Knowles, , Monastic Order, p. 52.Google Scholar

127 ASC 975 E: Two Chronicles, ed. Plummer 1, 121–2.Google Scholar

128 ECNENM, p. 290.

129 Ibid. pp. 335–6; Sawyer, , Charters of Burton, p. 36.Google Scholar

130 Cox, , ‘Vale Estates of Evesham’, p. 32.Google Scholar

131 StO, p. 449.

132 ASC 980 DE ( = 979): Two Chronicles, ed. Plummer 1, 123;Google ScholarStO, p. 450.

133 Fisher, , ‘The Anti-Monastic Reaction’, p. 269.Google Scholar Far from implicating Ælfhere in the murder the Passio of Edward represents him as indignant at the king's miserable burial and zealous in the move to translate the body (Fell, Christine, Edward King and Martyr (Leeds, 1971), pp. 8–9).Google Scholar

134 S 834.

135 ASC 983 CDE: Two Chronicles, ed. Plummer 1, 124–5.Google Scholar For Ælfhere's burial at Glastonbury, see John of Glastonbury Cronica, ed. Carley 1, 36.Google Scholar His brother Ælfheah was buried there also (Whitelock, , Wills, p. 121).Google Scholar

136 ASC 985 CDE: Two Chronicles, ed. Plummer 1, 124–5;Google Scholar S 896 and 937. The charge, as recorded in S 937, recalls the accusation of the Chronicle against Eadric Streona in 1016: ‘he betrayed his royal lord and all the nation of the English’ (ASC 1016 CDE: Two Chronicles, ed. Plummer 1, 152).Google Scholar Leofwine, who begins to witness as dux in 994, may have been ealdorman of Mercia, but more probably he held only the province of the Hwicce. This was certainly his position after Eadric Streona became ealdorman of the whole of Mercia in 1007 (ASC 1007 CDE: Two Chronicles, ed. Plummer 1, 138;Google ScholarECNENM, p. 344; Stafford, Pauline, ‘The Reign of Æthelred II, a Study in the Limitations on Royal Policy and Action’, Ethelred the Unready: Papers from the Millenary Conference, ed. Hill, David, BAR Brit. Ser. 59 (1978), 29, n. 69).Google Scholar

137 A widow called Eadflæd held land at Wormleighton, where Ælfhere had possessed an estate. This manor and two others belonging to the same woman were seized by Ælfric cild but subsequently forfeited to the king, who gave them to Abingdon (S 896 and 937). It is possible that she was Ælfhere's widow.

138 Florence of Worcester describes Ælfric cild as Ælfhere's son (Florentii Wigornensis Monachi Chronicon ex Chronicis, ed. Thorpe, B. (London, 1848–1849) 1, 147 and 148)Google Scholar. This is probably an inference from the fact that Ælfric succeeded him as ealdorman of Mercia. An Abingdon source gives Ælfhere two sons, Eadric major domus regiae and Eadwine, abbot of Abingdon (Chron Abingd 1, 357), but comparison with Florence shows that this Eadric is to be identified either with Ælfric cild or with Ælfric ealdorman of Hampshire (FW Chron, ed. Thorpe 1, 147, n. 5;Google ScholarKeynes, Simon, The Diplomas of King Æthelred ‘the Unready’ 978–1016 (Cambridge, 1980), p. 177, n. 91).CrossRefGoogle Scholar The suggestion that Odda of Deerhurst was the son of Ælfhere has already been discussed (see above, p. 168). Dr Hart calls Godwine a son of Ælfhere rather than Ælfheah (ECNENM, p. 336; cf. Robertson, , Charters, p. 458).Google Scholar It is true that only Ælfweard is definitely said to be the son of both Ælfheah and Ælfswith his wife, but this need not mean he was not Ælfheah's son (Whitelock, , Wills, pp. 22 and 24).Google Scholar

139 ASC 1016: Two Chronicles, ed. Plummer 11, 198.Google Scholar

140 ASC 993 DEF: Two Chronicles, ed. Plummer 1, 126–7;Google ScholarECEE, p. 244.

141 Godwine seems to have held land in Oxfordshire, since he is probably the kinsman of Æthelmær, son of Æthelweard the Chronicler, mentioned in the foundation charter of Eynsham, 1005 (S 911; Whitelock, , Wills, p. 124).Google Scholar Godwine gave Æthelmær ten hides at Yarnton, Oxfordshire, in return for five hides at Chesterton in the same county and five hides at Studley, Warwickshire. A charter of Æthelred II, dated 1002, grants an estate at Little Haseley, Oxfordshire, to his fidelis minister Godwine (S 902).

142 Hart, , ‘Athelstan “Half King”’, pp. 137–8.Google Scholar