The New Minster ''Liber Vitae'' is a confraternity book produced in

Winchester Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...

, in southern England, in 1031. It records the names of visitors to the

New Minster, Winchester The New Minster in Winchester was a royal Benedictine abbey founded in in Winchester in the England, English county of Hampshire. Alfred the Great had intended to build the monastery, but only got around to buying the land. His son, Edward the ...

and contains other information too, as well as a contemporary image of King

Cnut the Great Cnut ( ; ; – 12 November 1035), also known as Canute and with the epithet the Great, was King of England from 1016, King of Denmark from 1018, and King of Norway from 1028 until his death in 1035. The three kingdoms united under Cnut's rul ...

and his first wife

Ælfgifu of Northampton Ælfgifu of Northampton (; 990 – after 1036) was the first wife of Cnut the Great, King of List of English monarchs, England and List of Danish monarchs, Denmark, and mother of Harold Harefoot, King of England. She was regent of Norway f ...

. The original manuscript is now kept in the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

in London, as Stowe MS 944. It and the Durham ''Liber Vitae'' are the only surviving Anglo-Saxon confraternity books. On folio 29, a later writer has added the names of King Edward the Confessor, Queen Edith and the aetheling Edgar. In a recent article, Tom Licence has argued this list shows that Edgar was considered as King Edward's legitimate heir before Edward's death in 1066.

References

Editions

* *{{cite book, editor-first=Simon, editor-last=Keynes , title= The Liber vitae of the New Minster and Hyde Abbey, Winchester, publisher= Rosenkilde & Bagger , location = Copenhagen, year=1996, isbn=9788742305232 (facsimile)

References

Editions

Further reading