Table Of Contento xford textual perspectives
L iving T rough Conquest
g eneral editors
E l aine T r eharne G r eg W a lker
L iving T rough Conquest
T e Politics of Early English,
1020–1220
E L AINE T R EHARNE
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Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, ox2 6dp,
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© Elaine Treharne 2012
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First Edition published in 2012
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ISBN 978–0–19–958525–0 (hbk.)
978–0–19–958526–7 (pbk.)
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F or A, J, I, and Mum
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S ER IES EDITOR S’ PR EFACE
O xford Textual Perspectives is a new series of informative and provoca-
tive studies focused upon texts (conceived of in the broadest sense of
that term) and the technologies, cultures and communities that produce,
inform, and receive them. It provides fresh interpretations of fundamen-
tal works, images and artefacts, and of the vital and challenging issues
emerging in English literary studies. By engaging with the contexts and
materiality of the text, its production, transmission, and reception his-
tory, and by frequently testing and exploring the boundaries of the
notions of text and meaning themselves, the volumes in the series ques-
tion conventional frameworks and provide innovative interpretations of
both canonical and less well-known works. T ese books will of er new
perspectives, and challenge familiar ones, both on and through texts and
textual communities. While they focus on specif c authors, periods,
and issues, they nonetheless scan wider horizons, addressing themes
and provoking questions that have a more general application to literary
studies and cultural history as a whole. Each is designed to be as acces-
sible to the non-specialist reader as it is fresh and rewarding for the spe-
cialist, combining an informative orientation in a landscape with
detailed analysis of the territory and suggestions for further travel.
E laine Treharne and Greg Walker
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P R EFACE
T is book has been a long time coming. I have been publishing on
e leventh- and twelf h-century English for years now, but what seems so
familiar and obvious to me may yet surprise and interest readers. Much
that is exciting about this period in the literary history of English has
been under-represented in scholarly discussion, and, together with
scholars such as Aidan Conti, Orietta Da Rold, Patrick W. Conner, Mark
Faulkner, Susan Irvine, Kathryn Lowe, Stephen Pelle, Mary P. Richards,
Don Scragg, Mary Swan, and George Younge, I have sought to show how
signif cant the English vernacular materials produced in the later elev-
enth and twelf h centuries are for our understanding of the development
of textual culture in England; how important English is as a political,
intellectual, religious, and ideological tool through two conquests and
beyond. I owe these scholars a large debt, and particularly so to Mary
Swan and Orietta Da Rold, who, as Co-Directors of the AHRC-funded
project, ‘T e Production and Use of English, 1060 to 1220’, have played a
major role in the development of my thinking over the years, and with
whom I have shared long and productive conversations, and learned a
great deal.
I am immensely grateful to the libraries and librarians who have facil-
itated my work and who have made my visits a great pleasure; I should
especially like to thank Gill Cannell and Suzanne Paul at the Parker
Library, and Sandy Paul at the Wren Library. Staf at the British Library,
the librarians at the University of Leicester, and those at Florida State
University have been immeasurably helpful (thank you especially to
William Modrow, Ben Yadon, and Jane Pinzino). T anks to Brepols
Publishers for permission to include small extracts of ‘Categorization,
Periodization: T e Silence of (the) English in the Twelf h Century’ (N ew
Medieval Literatures 8 [2006], pp. 248–75) into C hapter 7 .
M y colleagues while I was at Leicester were a source of inspiration and
support: Gordon Campbell, Jo Story, Anne Marie D’Arcy, Jayne Carroll,
and other members of the English Department—thank you. A number
of friends in the profession have helped shape my ideas, including Pat
Conner, Nick Doane, Rick Emmerson, Martin Foys, Jill Frederick, Joyce
