Thesis advisor: Robin Fleming / Bishop Æthelwold of Winchester (d. 984) was a reformer of Anglo-Saxon monasticism, but he was also deeply concerned with the religion of ordinary English laypeople. Whether in his promulgation of the cult of saints, vast elaboration of the liturgy, or extensive rebuilding of Winchester’s churches, Æthelwold demonstrated an interest in the lay religion that has been consistently ignored by modern scholars who fixate on his monastic zeal. This concern for the laity is natural in the context of Æthelwold’s own interpretation of the English past, as his goal of an all-monastic English Church necessitated a pastoral role for his reformed monks rather than their strict seclusion from the world. Such a goal was possible because Æthelwold initiated his reform program in the mid tenth century, when corporate religious life still provided the bulk of pastoral care in Winchester and the rest of southwest England, and the organized parish system was only a dim possibility as small local churches began to appear haphazardly in the north and east of the country. Æthelwold’s reforms were therefore very different from similar ones taking place on the continent or even in the sees of his fellow English reformers, and he attempted to recreate an imagined English past very unlike the Church that would eventually result a century later. The influence of his students, however, especially Wulfstan Cantor and the prolific Ælfric of Eynsham, shows that Æthelwold’s unusual interest in lay religion had far reaching consequences for the medieval English Church. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History.

This study explores some of the implications of the distribution of estates between the landholders of Essex in 1066. Emphasis is placed on the immediate background of land ownership in Essex during the reign of Edward the Confessor, though some attention is paid to the earlier history of the shire. The principal source for the investigation is the pre-Conquest data recorded in the Essex folios of Domesday Book. In the first part the broad outlines of the structure of landholding society are considered. Particular attention is paid to those with large amounts of land, although the less extensive holdings of, freemen and sokemen are also discussed. Charters, will's and other pre-Conquest documents provide information on the earlier tenurial history of some estates, and from them and other evidence a model is proposed of the trends in land tenure in Essex between c900 and 1066. In an appendix identifiable lay landholders are listed with details of their estates, whilst in the body of the text the pre-Conquest holdings of ecclesiastical institutions are examined in detail. The second part of the study considers the evolution of the institutions 'of public administration within the shire, and where relevant the influence upon them of powerful landholders. This influence is seen most clearly in the hundreds, and an attempt is made to reconstruct the earlier history of the 1066 Essex hundreds, in particular the evolution of those in the west of the shire. The varying fortunes of the Essex burhs are considered in the light of the output from their mints. To complete the picture evidence of pre-Conquest private lordship - soke, -and commendation - is examined.

This thesis examines the physical legacy left by the unification of the Kingdom of England during the tenth century, and seeks to redress the way in which the Kingdom of Mercia is often overlooked or discounted in the traditional historical narrative. It principally examines the means by which Æthelflæd of Mercia extended political and military control over the West Midlands, both in terms of physical infrastructure and through ‘soft’ power in terms of economic control and material culture. It uses landscape archaeology, artefactual and textual evidence to compare Mercia with its ally, Wessex, and assess the different means by which Æthelflæd of Mercia and her brother Edward the Elder were able to consolidate and expand their territory, the physical infrastructure they established in order to defend it, and the ways in which these sites developed in response to the changing political, military and economic climates of the later tenth century. It will assess why some defensive sites developed into proto-urban settlements while others disappeared, and the extent to which this was a conscious or planned process. This thesis seeks to overturn the idea that burhs constructed in Mercia were insignificant or unplanned ‘emergency’ sites and instead were part of a sophisticated network of landscapes of defence, reflecting a significant level of manpower and logistical investment on the part of the Mercian state. It will furthermore seek to explore the ways in which the Mercian state supported such a network, how sites were chosen, constructed, maintained and garrisoned, and the impact these sites had both on the local population, in terms of patterns of settlement and material culture, and on the wider political scale.

This thesis examines one labourer group within developing urban society in England during the tenth and eleventh centuries in order to address both its status and whether the internal workplace organisation of this group might reflect on the complexity of an Anglo-Saxon 'state'. In reviewing the minting operation of late Anglo-Saxon England, and the men in charge of those mints, a better picture of the social history of pre-Conquest England is realised. These men, the moneyers responsible for producing the king's coinage, were likely part of the thegnly or burgess class and how they organised themselves might reflect broader trends in how those outside of the artistocracy acted in response to royal directives. In order to address this, a database combining information from multiple catalogues, coin cabinets, and online repositories was developed in Part I and is presented in Part II. The Moneyers of England Database, 973-1086 consists of 3,646 periods of moneyer activity, derived from 28,576 individual coins produced at ninety-nine geographic locations. Parts III and IV provide potential uses for the database through two different types of study. Part III argues that the mints were primarily controlled and operated by families. Pointing to the repetition of the protothemes amongst the moneyers on a large scale across nearly all the mint locations known from the 970s to 1086, I argue that the mints were dominated by a few select families that maintained authority through wars and conquests. Part IV presents two new theories on late Anglo-Saxon mint organisation. The first theory is that groups of moneyers would begin and end activity within the mints together, most often within family units, but regularly in conjunction with other minting families in the same location. The second theory is that these groups would operate in rotation. The moneyers would operate for a set period of time, then withdraw in favour of another member of their dynasty before returning to activity at a later date. I conclude that this was potentially, if not likely, in response to royal imposition on the mints restricting the number of coinages that a moneyer could be responsible for, and take profit on, consecutively. The thesis is structured with a brief introduction and literature review, inclusive of discussion on the status of the moneyers and the concept of an Anglo-Saxon 'state', followed by a methodological section that outlines the creation of the Moneyers of England Database, 973-1086, as well as limitations in the source material. This is followed by the database, two analysis sections, and the conclusion. There are two appendices. The first appendix is an insert diagram of all 425 moneyers in operation in London between 973 and 1086. The second is the coinage record from which this work is derived.

No description available.

The overarching theme of the book is differential treatment in death, which is examined at the site-specific, settlement, regional and national level. More specifically, the symbolism of conversion-period grave good deposition, the impact of the church, and aspects of identity, burial diversity and biocultural approaches to cemetery analysis are discussed.

This thesis examines the development, production and function of dress pins in Anglo- Saxon England. It proposes a dated typology for the mid-5th to the mid-llth century and notes the implications of this for discussions of contact and cultural interaction between England and other parts of Europe. Chapter 1 defines the parameters of the study, and describes the data that was assembled on Anglo-Saxon pins. An evaluation of the previous work on pins from Northern Europe (Chapter 2) is followed by an investigation in Chapter 3 of the methods and process of typological analysis. After arguing that one of the most important (and neglected) aspects of typological research is 'the process of study1 the chapter provides terminological definitions for the components of pins. Chapter 4 examines the problems, principal methods and developments in pin production and discusses how changes in method reflected changes both in fashion and metalworking techniques. Building on this, Chapter 5 defines the groups of pins that have been found on sites of the Anglo-Saxon period, including: (1) definition of the types and sub-types; (2) determination of their date ranges; (3) description of their distribution; and (4) suggestions about the origin of each type. In Chapter 6 the types are put into chronological order, to demonstrate which types existed simultaneously and how pins developed over time. The function of pins is considered in Chapter 7 and several tentative hypotheses are put forward. The final chapter draws a number of conclusions from the study including: (1) Anglo-Saxon pins display a great deal of insularity during all periods, but particularly in the 8th and 9th centuries; (2) while regionalism may have been a feature of 6th century pins, it ceases to be important by the 8th century when many finds from middle Saxon trading sites seem consistently to be the same types, suggesting that in addition to trade between England and the Continent and Scandinavia it is time to evaluate the micro-economic and information exchange networks in Anglo- Saxon England; (3) lastly it notes the problem of dissemination of artefactual analyses and the difficulties to be encountered in using typologies and it puts forward a preliminary proposal for the use of expert systems (computer programs that simulate human performance in specialist task areas) as a tool to distribute this information. An example of a knowledge base that might be used to disseminate the typology presented here, The Anglo-Saxon Pin Identification Assistant, is to be found in Appendix 2, as are several sample identification sessions.

Thesis--Münster. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 282-292) and index.

Inaug.-Diss.--Strassburg.

This master's thesis is the result of an effort to analyse Witenagemot, the Anglo-Saxon medieval assembly in terms of its constitutional functions and its relationship to the English monarch during its existence from the 7th to the 11th century. In the beginning, the work deals with etymology and the definition of the term Witenagemot, which is cited not only in historical sources but also in English historiography. Furthermore, through critical analysis of historical sources and available English literature, the work discusses Witenagemot's origins, development, organization and basic functions in dedicated chapters. In these chapters, particular emphasis is placed on the drafting of Anglo-Saxon charters conferring privileges and patronages, on the appointment of prelates and nobility, on the exercise of justice, and on the creation of Anglo-Saxon law codes as an important source of Anglo-Saxon law. The thesis also deals with the right of the assembly to elect the king and its significance for the formation of Anglo-Saxon law within the framework of the English constitutional development at the end and after the dissolution of the assembly itself in the second half of the 11th century. Attention is paid here, above all, to the way in which the right to elect the king was used to permanently alter...