THE POLITICS OF ROYAL BURIAL IN LATE ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND

307 Pages·2009·2.02 MB·English

THE POLITICS OF ROYAL BURIAL IN LATE ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND

A Dissertation
Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School
of Cornell University
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy

by
Nicole Jeanette Marafioti
August 2009
© 2009 Nicole Jeanette Marafioti
THE POLITICS OF ROYAL BURIAL IN LATE ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND

Nicole Jeanette Marafioti, Ph. D.
Cornell University 2009
This dissertation investigates how kings’ corpses, funerals, and tombs contributed to
the process of royal succession in tenth and eleventh-century England. There are few
explicit descriptions of dead monarchs in our extant sources, so the posthumous fates
of Anglo-Saxon rulers must be pieced together from casual textual references,
monastic records, and archaeological remains. This evidence indicates that the bodies
and memories of English kings were systematically evoked by living royalty: at a time
when regular hereditary succession was rare, new and aspiring rulers advanced their
political ambitions by forging connections with dead predecessors. My study shows
that kings’ bodies were regarded as repositories of dynastic memory and used as
political propaganda during periods of interregnum.
The opening chapters examine how prestigious burial were used to enhance the
legitimacy of reigning monarchs and proclaim dynastic continuity. First, I demonstrate
that royal mausolea were increasingly modeled on saints’ shrines, identifying kings
with Christian elites and distinguishing them in death from ordinary laymen. The
following chapter investigates how kings’ corpses became integral to the transfer of
royal power: where earlier Anglo-Saxon kings were crowned at the palace at
Kingston, tenth and eleventh-century rulers were acclaimed and anointed beside their
predecessor’s tomb. In these examples, royal corpses and tombs functioned as symbols
of royal authority, advertising the unique status of the monarchy and the legitimacy of
new rulers.
The later chapters investigate the inversion of prestigious royal burial practices
in instances of conquest and usurpation. I begin by examining kings who desecrated or
concealed their rivals’ bodies, and I contend that the infliction of recognizable
criminal punishments helped suppress the royal claims of competing dynasties. Next, I
focus on foreign conquerors who diverted attention from the bodies and tombs of
deposed native rulers in order to deemphasize the change in regime. These deviations
from normative burial indicate that royal memory and dynastic legitimacy were linked
to the treatment of rulers’ remains, and I conclude that modes of honorable and
dishonorable burial were systematically used to construct signifying narratives about
royal continuity, legitimacy, and authority.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Nicole Jeanette Marafioti received her Ph.D. in Medieval Studies from Cornell
University in 2009. She received an M.A. from Cornell in 2006, an M.A. from the
University of York in 2002, and a B.A. from Yale University in 2000.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This dissertation could not have been begun or completed without the help of so many
mentors, colleagues, and friends. My advisory committee provided invaluable
feedback and encouragement at every stage of this project and deserve especially
warm thanks: Paul R. Hyams, Oren Falk, Thomas D. Hill, and Samantha Zacher. I am
privileged to have benefitted from the vast collective wisdom of Cornell’s Medieval
Studies faculty, and I would like particularly to recognize Andrew Galloway, Carin
Ruff, Masha Raskolnikov, and Carol Kaske. I am indebted to Christopher Bailey,
whose insight and advice were indispensible, and to Cynthia Turner Camp and Ionuţ
Epurescu-Pascovici, whose careful critiques were vital as I refined my arguments.
Numerous other colleagues read and commented on early drafts of my dissertation,
and special thanks are due to Misty Urban, Leigh Harrison, Tricia Har, Sarah Harlan-
Haughey, Curtis Jirsa, Jennifer Watkins, Bob Fredona, Colleen Slater, Jay Paul Gates,
and Dan O’Gorman. I am also grateful for the advice I have received from the
participants in many conferences and colloquia, notably the Haskins Society
Conference, the Conference of the Southeastern Medieval Association, the
International Medieval Congress at Kalamazoo, the Vagantes Conference on Medieval
Studies, and Cornell’s European History Colloquium and Medieval Studies
Colloquium. In addition, I am grateful to everyone who offered me their support,
encouragement, and hospitality over the past six years. Dianne Ferriss has made it a
joy to be part of Cornell’s Medieval Studies program; and I am indebted to Sarah and
James Disley, Nathan Camp, Justin Harlan-Haughey, Jessica Metzler, Elise Marafioti,
and Michael Paul Simons for their unwavering friendship and generosity. Finally, I
would like to thank my parents, Bob and Marcia Marafioti, to whom my work is
dedicated.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Biographical Sketch iii

Acknowledgments iv

List of Abbreviations vi

Preface ix

Chapter 1. Introduction: The Politics of Royal Burial 1
in Late Anglo-Saxon England

Chapter 2. Royal Tombs and Political Performance: 23
New Minster and Westminster

Chapter 3. Funeral, Coronation, and Continuity: 70
Political Corpses and Royal Succession

Chapter 4. Royal Body as Executed Body: Physical 132
Propaganda in the Reigns of Harold Harefoot and Harthacnut

Chapter 5. Body and Memory: The Elusive Corpse 183
of King Edward the Martyr

Chapter 6. Conquered Bodies: Cnut, William, 225
and Royal Remains

Appendix I: Distribution of Late Anglo-Saxon 261
Kings’ Graves

Appendix II: West Saxon Dynasty, 865-1016 262

Appendix III: West Saxon and Danish Kings 263
of England, 978-1066

Works Cited 264

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Alfred 5, VIII Æthelred 1.1, etc. Liebermann, F. (ed.). Die Gesetze der
Angelsachsen, vol.1 [lawcodes cited by
king and Liebermann’s code and chapter
numbers].

ASC Various editors. The Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle: A Collaborative Edition [cited
by manuscript and annal year].

Assmann Assmann, Bruno (ed.). Angelsächsische
Homilien und Heiligenleben [cited by
homily, page, and line number].

Bede, HE Bede. Ecclesiastical History of the
English People. Ed. B. Colgrave and
R.A.B. Mynors [cited by book and chapter
number].

Bosworth-Toller Toller, T. Northcote (ed.). An Anglo-
Saxon Dictionary Based on the
Manuscript Collections of the Late Joseph
Bosworth [cited by page number].

Byrhtferth, Vita Oswaldi Lapidge, Michael (ed. and trans.).
Byrhtferth of Ramsey [cited by page
number].

CH I Ælfric of Eynsham. Catholic Homilies,
the First Series. Ed. Peter Clemoes [cited
by homily number and line].

CH II Ælfric of Eynsham. Catholic Homilies,
the Second Series. Ed. Malcolm Godden
[cited by homily number and line].

Chronicle of Æthelweard Campbell, A. (ed.). The Chronicle of
Æthelweard [cited by page number].

De Miraculis Sancti Eadmundi Arnold, Thomas (ed.). Memorials of St.
Edmund’s Abbey, volume I [cited by page
number].

EETS Early English Text Society

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Encomium Campbell, Alistair (ed. and trans.).
Encomium Emmae Reginae [cited by page
number].

JW John of Worcester. The Chronicle of John
of Worcester, volume II: The Annals from
450 to 1066. Ed. R.R. Darlington and P.
McGurk [cited by page number].

LS I and II Ælfric of Eynsham. Ælfric’s Lives of
Saints. Ed. Walter W. Skeat [cited by
volume, homily, and line number].

Mason 239, 248, etc. Mason, Emma. Westminster Abbey
Charters [cited by Mason’s charter
number].

MS Manuscript

Orderic Vitalis, HE Orderic Vitalis. The Ecclesiastical
History. Ed. Marjorie Chibnall [cited by
volume and page number].

PL Migne, Jacques-Paul (ed.). Patrologia
Latina [cited by volume and column
number].

S 307, 1443, etc. Sawyer, P.H. Anglo-Saxon Charters: an
Annotated List and Bibliography [cited by
Sawyer’s charter number].

Vercelli 4, 10, etc. Scragg, D.G. (ed.). The Vercelli Homilies
[cited by homily and line number].

Vita Ædwardi Barlow, Frank (ed. and trans.). The Life of
King Edward Who Rests at Westminster
[cited by page number].

Whitelock, EHD I Whitelock, Dorothy (ed.). English
Historical Documents, volume I: c.500-
1042, 2nd edition [cited by page number].

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William of Malmesbury, GP William of Malmesbury. De Gestis
Pontificvm Anglorvm, vol. I. Ed. and
trans. M. Winterbottom and R.M.
Thompson [cited by book, chapter, and
section number].

William of Malmesbury, GR William of Malmesbury. Gesta Regum
Anglorum. The History of the English
Kings, vol. I. Ed. and trans. R.A.B.
Mynors et. al. [cited by book and chapter
number].

William of Poitiers, GG William of Poitiers. The Gesta Guillelmi.
Ed. and trans. R.H.C. Davis and Marjorie
Chibnall [cited by page number].

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