Kingship, Legislation and Power in Anglo-Saxon England (Pubns Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies, 13)

The relationship between Anglo-Saxon kingship, law, and the functioning of power is explored via a number of different angles. The essays collected here focus on how Anglo-Saxon royal authority was expressed and disseminated, through laws, delegation, relationships between monarch and Church, and between monarchs at times of multiple kingships and changing power ratios. Specific topics include the importance of kings in consolidating the English "nation"; the development of witnesses as agents of the king's authority; the posthumous power of monarchs; how ceremonial occasions wereused for propaganda reinforcing heirarchic, but mutually beneficial, kingships; the implications of Ine's lawcode; and the language of legislation when English kings were ruling previously independent territories, and the delegation of local rule. The volume also includes a groundbreaking article by Simon Keynes on Anglo-Saxon charters, looking at the origins of written records, the issuing of royal diplomas and the process, circumstances, performance and function of production of records. GALE R. OWEN-CROCKER is Professor of Anglo-Saxon Culture at the University of Manchester. Contributors: Ann Williams, Alexander R. Rumble, Carole Hough, Andrew Rabin, Barbara Yorke, Ryan Lavelle, Alaric Trousdale The essays collected here focus on how Anglo-Saxon royal authority was expressed and disseminated, through laws, delegation, relationships between monarch and Church, and between monarchs at times of multiple kingships and changing power ratios. Specific topics include the importance of kings in consolidating the English "nation"; the development of witnesses as agents of the king's authority; the posthumous power of monarchs; how ceremonial occasions were used for propaganda reinforcing heirarchic, but mutually beneficial, kingships; the implications of Ine's lawcode; and the language of legislation when English kings were ruling previously independent territories, and the delegation of local rule. The volume also includes a groundbreaking article by Simon Keynes on Anglo-Saxon charters, looking at the origins of written records, the issuing of royal diplomas and the process, circumstances, performance and function of production of records. Gale R. Owen-Crocker is Professor of Anglo-Saxon Culture at the University of Manchester. Contributors: Ann Williams, Alexander R. Rumble, Carole Hough, Andrew Rabin, Barbara Yorke, Ryan Lavelle, Alaric Trousdale Frontcover 1 Contents 6 List of Illustrations 7 List of Tables 8 Contributors 9 Preface 10 Abbreviations 12 Introduction 14 PART I 28 1 Church Councils, Royal Assemblies, and Anglo-Saxon Royal Diplomas 30 Appendix I: Meeting-places of Royal Assemblies in Anglo-Saxon England (900–1066) 153 Appendix II: Anglo-Saxon Royal Diplomas on Single Sheets (925–75) 171 Appendix III: Citations of Anglo-Saxon Charters 193 PART II 196 2 Anglo-Saxon Royal Archives: Their Nature, Extent, Survival and Loss 198 3 Naming and Royal Authority in Anglo-Saxon Law 214 4 Witnessing Kingship: Royal Power and the Legal Subject in the Old English Laws 232 5 The Burial of Kings in Anglo-Saxon England 250 6 Ine 70.1 and Royal Provision in Anglo-Saxon Wessex 272 7 Being Everywhere at Once: Delegation and Royal Authority in Late Anglo-Saxon England 288 Index of persons and places 310 Backcover 320