Cartularium saxonicum: a collection of charters relating to Anglo-Saxon History

659 Pages·2016·26.83 MB·English

by  Walter de Gray Birch.

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A
COLLECTION OF CHARTERS
RELATING TO
ANGLO-SAXON HISTORY.
BY
WALTER DE GRAY BIRCH, F.S.A.,
OF THE DEPARTMENT OF MSS. BRITISH MUSEUM, HONORARY SECRETARY OF THE BRITISH ARCHÆOLOGICAL
ASSOCIATION, MEMBER OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE PALÆOGBAPHICAL SOCIETY, HON. COER. MEMB.
OF ROYAL ACADEMY OF TURIN, AUTHOR OF THE “ HISTORY, ART, AND PALÆ O GRAPH Y OF
THE UTRECHT PSALTER”, THE “ FASTI MONASTICI ÆYI SAXONICl”, ETC., ETC.
YOL. II.
A.D. 840—947.
APPENDIX A.D. 601-947.
LONDON ?
WHITING & COMPANY, SARDINIA STREET, W.C.
1887.
JOHNSON REPRINT CORPORATION Johnson Reprint Company Limited
111 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10003 Berkeley Square House, London, W. 1
Cartularium Japonicum*
VOL. II.
First reprinting, 1964, Johnson Reprint Corporation
Printed in the United States of America
preface to tlje ^cconö Volume.
The completion of the second volume of the Cartularium Saxoni-
CUM, which has been somewhat delayed on account of the increasing
number of documents for each year in the total of upwards of a
century, is the result of nearly two years’ incessant labour at the
collection and collation of texts, carried on at every moment of
leisure during that period. I have been fortunate in obtaining
the continued help of fellow-workers, and of those whose official
custody of important documents has laid me under the necessity
of applying to them for assistance in procuring faithful copies of
charters committed to their care. Had it not been so, I should
have been prevented in many cases from giving so accurate a text
as I should have desired, but a kind consideration has always been
extended to me in this respect, and I am, therefore, enabled to
embody in this second volume many texts which may strictly be
said to be now correctly printed for the first time.
Since the publication of the first volume of the Cartularium
Saxonicum only one new work has been added to the materials
referred to in the Preface to that volume. It forms the Third
Part of the Facsimiles of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, issued
by the Ordnance Survey Commission in the year 1884. This,
which is the work of Colonel E. H. Stotherd, C.E., and Mr. W.
Basevi Sanders, contains photo-zincographic plates, with the
printed texts and translations, of the forty-five documents then
belonging to the Earl of Ashburnham, whose father, the late Earl,
acquired them with the other “Stow^ Manuscripts”; these are
now in the British Museum. The Part also contains plates, texts,
VI PREFACE TO THE SECOND VOLUME.
and translations of two charters in the possession of the Marquess
of Anglesey ; one being a charter of King Eadwi, in a.d. 956 ; the
other the will of Wulfric, a great benefactor to the Abbey of
Burton-on-Trent, in a.d. 1004. With this exception, nothing new
has transpired to advance the study of Anglo-Saxon diplomatics.
It is my pleasing duty to acknowledge my very grateful thanks
to those whose names are mentioned in the Preface to my first
volume, and who have with equal kindness extended their con­
sideration to me during the preparation of the second. I take
the opportunity of adding to those the names of Sir William Hardy,
K.C.B., formerly Deputy Keeper of the Bolls, who graciously has
allowed me to freely consult the collections of his brother, the
late Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy, which cover the Anglo-Saxon
period ; Mr. Alfred Bogers, of Cambridge University Library ; and
Bev. W. K. Hampshire, M.A., Librarian to the Dean and Chapter
of Exeter,
This second volume contains 432 numbers—about the same
quantity as the first volume held—numbered from 428 to 858,
comprehending all the documents which a liberal interpretation
of the idea of a charter would embrace, relating to the Anglo-
Saxon history of England for a period of a hundred and nine
years, from a.d. 838 to 947.
The Appendix contains several remarkable charters, hitherto
unpublished, which were not found, indeed, until a comparatively
recent period, and then accidentally. Those of an early date
throw new light on the history of the ancient English Church
in Kent. Being anxious that these texts should be available to
the students of this branch of Anglo-Saxon history, I was
unwilling to postpone their publication to the end of this work.
In binding the second volume, this Appendix may be retained,
if it is desired, to be placed hereafter at the end of the work,
and the pagination has been adapted to this end. The treaty
between Alfred and Guthrum, although in some respects it
partakes of, the character of an ancient code of law, and has
therefore been included by Thorpe among his valuable collection
PREFACE TO THE SECOND VOLUME. VII
of Ancient Laws and Institutes, yet differs in some important
points from the usual form of Anglo-Saxon laws ; and, in so far as
it concerns the partition of land in England, and points to the
origin of two distinctly different systems of Anglo-Saxon local
jurisdiction, rightly claims a place in this Cartularium.
The eight hundred and fifty-nine charters, and various forms of
charters, comprised in the two volumes of the Cartularium Sax-
onicum, now published, correspond with about five hundred and
eighty-six charters published by Kemble, in his Codex Diploma­
tics : viz., Nos. 1-417, 982-1154, 1156-1159, 1173, 1336; with
which are incorporated two hundred and sixty-eight documents,
partly because of the more extended field of my work, and partly
on account of the large proportion of texts which the forty years
that have elapsed since Kemble prepared his work, have disclosed
to students of the history of the period under illustration.
Many remarkable details may be gathered from the most cur­
sory examination of these texts. But I must crave the indulgent
patience of my readers to be allowed to postpone my compre­
hensive summary of these details until the whole of the texts are
printed. Apart from the extensive reconstruction of the regal,
nobiliary, episcopal, and monastic fasti, which no one can deny is
imperatively necessary, if the existing lists of kings, princes,
bishops, and heads of religious houses are to be brought into
harmony with the testimony of these ancient fragments, there
are numerous other historical aspects which are illumined by the
texts. Such, for example, is the charter of Elstrudis, or Ælfthryth,
King Alfred’s youngest daughter, granting the three Kentish
towns of Lewisham, Greenwich, and Woolwich to the Abbey of
St. Peter1 at Ghent in a.d. 918 ; a charter unknown to the Eev. Mr.
Larking, the editor of the Domesday of Kent, who has accepted with­
out verification a loose and inaccurate notice of the grant by previous
historians of that county. The life of King Æthelstan—a monarch
only second to King Alfred himself in respect of the two principal
characteristics of their lives, piety and military prowess—might be
,1 No. 661 (633 b).
VIII PREFACE TO THE SECOND VOLUME.
rewritten by the help of the contemporary charters, and the annals
of his reign contained in the writings of later chroniclers.
Among the many historical points which the collection of
charters in this volume illustrates, one especially calls for a
passing notice. The site of the battle of Brunnanburh,— subject
of one of the finest Anglo-Saxon poems in the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle, — which took place, according to that authority, in
A.D. 937, has recently given rise to considerable controversy.1
Those who took part in the somewhat disappointing and unsatis­
factory criticism displayed on that occasion, failed to suggest that
the term “ Brunnan burh” is, with little doubt, a poetical allitera­
tive synonym (to suit the line “ ymbe Brunnanburh”, or “ embe
Brunnanburh” of the four oldest MSS.) for “Bruninga feld”,
which is supplied by No. 727, “ Acta est haec præfata donatio .
anno ab incarnatione domini nostri Jhesu Christi . dccccxxxviii .
in quo anno bellum factum est in loco qui bruninga feld dicitur
ubi Anglis victoria data est de caelo.” But I should not refuse to
admit that the term Bruninga feld may represent a more compre­
hensive district than Brunnan burh, of which this latter may have
been the chief stronghold. At any rate, it is for us to seek
Bruninga feld and not Brunnan burh, in the parochial map of
England. Now, the parish of Broomfield in Somersetshire
appears, in many ways, to satisfy the condition of the description
of the site in the poem. It is five miles to the north of Taunton
under the Quantock Hills, near the mouth of the River Parret,
and commands fine views over the county, the river, the Bristol
Channel, and even the hills of South Wales are visible from it.
The Parret would be an attractive creek for the Dublin vikings
crossing the Irish Channel. The Parret’s mouth was not un­
familiar to the Danes, for in a.d. 845 the men of Somerset and
of Dorset, under good leadership, had fought the invaders and
gained the victory over them on that spot.
The Synod of a.d. 9052 (a new text); the rebuilding3 of the
wrecked city of London, after the destructive wave of Danish
1 Athenœwm, July-December 1885. 2 No. 614. 8 See Nos. 561, 577, 578.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND VOLUME. IX
incursion had overwhelmed the future metropolis of the kingdom ;
the extent of territory dominated by certain tribes ; the notices of
eclipses, and employment of several other methods of calculating
dates ; the gradual deformation of pure Latin into a later language
which admitted many deviations from the recognised rules of syntax
and grammar, and allowed false analogies1 to supersede correct
declensions and conjugations ; the equally gradual alterations
which crept over the pure Saxon language as it yielded to the
inevitable results of change, due to its being spoken by a race no
longer purely indigenous ; the so-called middle-English forms of
several charters2 ; testamentary, reversionary, and other peculiar
dispositions of landed and personal property; the use of monograms,3
and the curiosities of poetry4 and of palaeography,5 of numisma­
tics,6 and manners and customs,7 are a few of the most salient points
out of many varieties of literary archaeology with which this collec­
tion of texts abounds. Philology may study dialect8 and derivations ;
diplomatists the curious custom of re-writing charters.9
1 As for example: cannis for canibus,, vol. ii, No. 843 ; posterum for posterorum,
No. 846 ; juris for juribus, No. 842 ; angelice for anglice, No. 834 ; satellibus for
satdlitibus, frequently ; glaciarum for glacierum, No. 813 ; terminibus, frequently ;
usis for usibus; and many other such varieties; arbitris, for arbitri (gen.), Nos.
793, 831 ; caducis, for caduci (gen.), No. 833 ; pecunio, for pecunia, No. 429 ; asset-
larum, for agellorum, from misreading of the s-like form of the Anglo-Saxon g,
No. 438, etc.; paxchalis, paxali, and pasxalis, for paschalis, etc. ; ap for ab, efdomada,
opsoluto, cummuniter, committibus, augeaft, salmos, relegio, oc, ic, etc., No. 469 ; i'S
for id, No. 519.
2 As for example in Nos. 526, 530, 531, 546, 554, 597, 598, 604, 644, 645, 647,
650, 653, 692, 715, 732, 805, 826, and others.
3 See No. 524.
4 See Nos. 587, 632, 644, 645, 647, 655, 667, 686, 710, 751, 815, 859. 771 is
probably a poem, and there are others highly alliterative in parts of their text.
5 See Nos. 65, 455, 516, 558. 6 See Nos. 95, 837.
7 See Nos. 591, 843. 8 Nos. 732, 756, 803.
9 “ Scripsimus novam cartulam quia antiquam non habebamus”, No. 759 ; “ scrip­
simus novam cartulam quia antiquum librum non habebemus”, Nos. 786, 801, Of.
Nos. 787, 789.
l·
ERRATA.
P. 5, 1. penult, for regante, rtead Regnante.
P. 16, 1. 1, dele of after Archbishop.
P. 41, last line, dele perhaps and circa or, and add cf. Birch, Memorials of St.
Guthlac, p. 55,1. 9.
P. 46,1. 25, for xxvii, read xxxvii.
P. 59,1. 15, for 122, read 104.
P. 73,1. 16, for Devon, read Somerset.
P. 78, 1. 3, for Hinton Ampner, co. Hants, read Wanborough and Hinton, co. Wilts.
P. 95, 1. 3, for Sandwich, co. Kent, read London.
P. 165/1. 24, for 544, read 545.
P. 170,1. 3 from bottom, after Creech, add (?).
P. 175, 1. 5, 6, for sine, read sive.
P. 180, 1. 16, for ccxiv, read cccxiv.
P. 190,1. 1, for 555, read 556.
P. 251, 1. 4 from bottom, for Wyke, read Wake.
P. 332, for Nero A xi, read Nero A ii.
P. 408, 1. 25, for Wilts, read Hants.
P. 498, 1. 4, after vocabulis, add nomen.
METRICAL OR QUASI-METRICAL PIECES.
Nos. 587. 632. 644. 645. 647. 655. 667. 686. 710. 750. 751. 771, 815. 859.
Cable of Contents.
NINTH CENTURY—continued.
No. Pag a
428. Grant by Berhtuulf, King of the Mercians, to Heaberht, Bishop
of Worcester, of land at Crohlea, or Crowle, co. Worcester.
Before a.d. 840. . . . . . 1
429. Grant for three lives by Cu'Suulf, Bishop of Hereford, with consent
of Berhtpulf, King of the Mercians, to Ælfstan the Duke, of
land at Bishop’s Frome, on the R. Fronie, co. Hereford, with
reversion to the monastery of Bromyard. About a.d. 840 . 3
430. Witenagemot at Tomewordig. Restoration by Berhtwulf, King
of the Mercians, of lands at Stolton, Uuassanburna; etc., or Stoul-
ton, Washborne, etc., co. Worcester, to Bishop Heaberht and the
Church of Worcester. Easter Day, 28th March, a.d. 840 . 4
431. Grant by Athelwolph, King of the W. Saxons, to Duda the thegn,
of land in Ashdown, co. Berks, a.d. 840 . . . 5
432. Grant by Berhtwulf, King of the Mercians, to Heaberht, Bishop
of Worcester, of land at Huuiccewudu. Christmas Day, a.d. 841 6
433. Grant by Berhtuulf, King of the Mercians, to Heaberht, Bishop,
and the monks of Worcester, of land at Myttun, or Mitton,
co. Worcester. Christmas Day, a.d. 841 . . . 7
434. Privileges granted by Berhtuulf, King of the Mercians, to Ean-
mund, Abbot, and the monastery of Bredon, co. Worcester.
Christmas Day, a.d. 841 . . . . . 8
435. Another form of Ko. 434 . . . .1 0
436. Grant by Beorhtwulf, King of the Mercians, to Heaberht, Bishop
of Worcester, of land at Dæglesford, or Daylesford, co. Worcester.
a.d. 841 . . . . . 11
437. Grant by Ædeluulf, King of the West Saxons, to Beornmod,
Bishop of Rochester, of land at Holanbeorges tuun, or Hoborough,
near Snodland,co. Kent. a.d. 841 . . . .1 2
438. Grant by Athelwulf, King of the W. Saxons, to Prince Eanulf, of
land at Ditcheat and Lottisham, co. Somerset, a.d. 842 . 13
439. Grant by Adeluulf, King of the South Saxons, to the Prefect
Ceolmund, of land near Rochester, a.d. 842 . . 15
440. Profession of Ceolred, Bishop of Leicester, to Archbishop
Ceolnoth. a.d. 839 X 844 . . · .1 6
VOL. II. l b