Cambridge studies in medieval life and thought THE ROYAL SAINTS OF ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND Cambridge studies in medieval life and thought Fourth series General Editor: J. C. HOLT Professor of Medieval History and Master of Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge Advisory Editors: C. N. L. BROOKE Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge D. E. LUSCOMBE Professor of Medieval History, University of Sheffield The series Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought was inaugurated by G. G. Coulton in 1920. Professor J. C. Holt now acts as General Editor of a Fourth Series, with Professor C. N. L. Brooke and Professor D. E. Luscombe as Advisory Editors. The series aims to bring together outstanding work by medieval scholars over a wide range of human endeavour extending from political economy to the history of ideas. Titles in the series 1 The Beaumont Twins: The Careers of Waleran Count of Meulan and Robert Earl of Leicester D. B. CROUCH 2 The Thought of Gregory the Great G. R. EVANS 3 The Government of England under Henry I JUDITH A. GREEN 4 Charity and Community in Medieval Cambridge MIRI RUBIN 5 Autonomy and Community: The Royal Manor of Havering, 1200-1500 MARJORIE KENISTON MCINTOSH 6 The Political Thought of Baldus de Ubaldis JOSEPH CANNING 7 Land and Power in Late Medieval Ferrara: The Rule of the Este, 13 50-1450 TREVOR DEAN 8 William of Tyre: Historian of the Latin East PETER W. EDBURY and JOHN GORDON ROWE 9 The Royal Saints of Anglo-Saxon England: A Study of West Saxon and East Anglian Cults SUSAN J. RIDYARD 10 John of Wales: A Study of the Works and Ideas of a Thirteenth-Century Friar JENNY SWANSON THE ROYAL SAINTS OF ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND A study of West Saxon and East Anglian cults SUSAN J. RIDYARD Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge The right of the University of Cambridge to print and sell all manner of books was granted by Henry VIII in 1534. The University has printed and published continuously since 1584. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE NEW YORK NEW ROCHELLE MELBOURNE SYDNEY CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao Paulo, Delhi Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521307727 © Cambridge University Press 1988 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1988 This digitally printed version 2008 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Ridyard, Susan J. (Susan Janet), 1957— The royal saints of Anglo-Saxon England: a study of West Saxon and East Anglian cults / Susan J. Ridyard. p. cm. - (Cambridge studies in medieval life and thought: 4th ser., 9) Bibliography. Includes index. ISBN 0-521-30772-4 1. Christian saints - Cult - England - History. 2. Anglo-Saxons - Kings and rulers. 3. Great Britain - Kings and rulers. 4. England - Church history — Anglo-Saxon period, 449—1066. 5. Anglo-Saxons — Princes and princesses. 6. Great Britain - Princes and princesses. I. Title. II. Series. BR754.A1R53 1988 274.2'03—dc 19 88-3659 CIP ISBN 978-0-521-30772-7 hardback ISBN 978-0-521-08810-7 paperback CONTENTS Acknowledgements Page vii List of abbreviations ix 1 The royal saints of Anglo-Saxon England: some problems of interpretation i 2 The sources 8 3 Royal birth and the foundations of sanctity: theoretical interpretations 74 4 The cult of St Edburga at Winchester and Pershore 96 5 The children of Edgar 140 6 The royal cults of Ely 176 7 The cult of St Edmund 211 8 Piety, patronage and politics: towards an understanding of the Anglo-Saxon royal cults 234 Appendix 1: The Life of St Edburga of Winchester by Osbert of Clare, prior of Westminster 253 Appendix 2: Two items concerning St Edburga of Winchester from Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 451 309 Bibliography 311 Index 327 For my mother VI ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I should like to express my gratitude to the many individuals and institutions without whose support this book could not have been written. My first and greatest debt is to Professor Christopher Brooke, who has guided this project with unfailing patience, unflagging interest and stimulating advice drawn from his own wide-ranging and sensitive knowledge of the legenda sanctorum. For access to and permission to cite manuscripts in their posses- sion I am grateful to the Librarian of Trinity College, Cambridge, to the Master and Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, to the Keeper of Manuscripts and Printed Books at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, to the Keeper of Western Manuscripts at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and to the British Library, Department of Manuscripts. The University Library in Cambridge and the Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, California, have each in their turn provided for me a pleasant and stimulating academic home. For invaluable comments and advice I should like to thank my doctoral examiners, Dr Marjorie Chibnall and Dr Henry Mayr- Harting, and the general editor of Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought, Professor J. C. Holt, together with his colleague (with Christopher Brooke), Professor David Luscombe. I am grateful to Michael Lapidge for advice on the cults of the Winchester saints, to Martin Brett for palaeographical advice, to Diana Greenway for information on the work of Henry of Hun- tingdon, to Mark Blackburn for numismatic advice and to Stanley West and Glenys Putnam for introducing me to the fascinating and difficult world where history and archaeology meet. With Antonia Gransden and Cynthia Hahn I have enjoyed lively and interesting discussions of the cult of St Edmund: each has been generous in vii Acknowledgements permitting me to cite her as yet unpublished contribution to the 1986 Conference of the Charles Homer Haskins Society. Meryl Foster, Michael Franklin, Simon Keynes and Katharin Mack have likewise been generous with support and advice. To Eleanor Searle, my colleague and mentor at the California Institute of Technology in 1986—7, I owe a special debt: I have benefited greatly from her friendship and her knowledge. It is never easy finally to part with a book with which one has lived for years: I was helped to do so by the warm support and astute criticism of Professor Searle, Professor Warren Hollister and Mrs Phyllis Hetzel. For help in the prepara- tion and checking of the typescript I am grateful to Catherine Heising, Joy Hansen and Flora Lewis. For both their patience and their expertise I am deeply indebted to William Davies and his colleagues at Cambridge University Press. Some material from chapters six and seven of this book has been published in Anglo-Norman Studies (1987): it is here reproduced by kind permission of Boydell and Brewer. Finally, I offer my special gratitude to my colleagues, the Presi- dent and Fellows of Lucy Cavendish College: without their sup- port and their friendship the story of the Anglo-Saxon royal saints would have remained untold. My mother has lived long with this book: it is dedicated to her in love and in gratitude. vni ABBREVIATIONS AASS Acta sanctorum Bollandiana (Brussels and elsewhere, 1643— ) AB Analecta Bollandiana ASC The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, tr. D. Whitelock, D. C. Douglas and S. I. Tucker (London, 1961); also Two of the Saxon Chronicles parallel, ed. C. Plummer, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1892-9) ASE Anglo-Saxon England B Cartularium Saxonicum, ed. W. de Gray Birch, 3 vols. and index (London, 1885—99) BHL Bibliotheca hagiographica latina antiquae et mediae aetatis, 2 vols. and supplement (Brussels, 1891—1901; supplement, 1911) BL British Library BSS Bibliotheca sanctorum, 12 vols. and index (Rome, 1961-70) CCC Corpus Christi College, Cambridge CS Councils and synods, with other documents relating to the English church, I, A.D. 871—1204, ed. D. Whitelock, M. Brett and C. N. L. Brooke, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1981) DB Domesday book, seu liber censualis IVillelmi primi regis Anglie, ed. A. Farley, 2 vols., Record Commission (1783) EETS Early English Text Society EHR English Historical Review GP William of Malmesbury, De gestis pontificum Anglorum, ed. N. E. S. A. Hamilton, RS 52 (London, 1870) GR William of Malmesbury, De gestis regum ix