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Dish-bearers And Butlers In Anglo-Saxon England
Dish-bearers (often called seneschals by historians) and butlers (or cup-bearers) were thegns who acted as personal attendants of kings in Anglo-Saxon England. Royal feasts played an important role in consolidating community and hierarchy among the elite, and dish-bearers and butlers served the food and drinks at these meals. Thegns were members of the aristocracy, leading landowners who occupied the third lay (non-religious) rank in English society after the king and ealdormen. Dish-bearers and butlers probably also carried out diverse military and administrative duties as required by the king. Some went on to have illustrious careers as ealdormen, but most never rose higher than thegn. Etymology The chief attendants at Anglo-Saxon royal feasts were dish-bearers and butlers or cup-bearers. Dish-bearer in Medieval Latin (ML) is or , and in Old English (OE) , also and (dish-thegn). The French medievalist Alban Gautier states: "Both and literally mean , but in the first case ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abingdon-on-Thames
Abingdon-on-Thames ( ), commonly known as Abingdon, is a historic market town and civil parish on the River Thames in the Vale of the White Horse district of Oxfordshire, England. The Historic counties of England, historic county town of Berkshire, the area was occupied from the early to middle British Iron Age, Iron Age and the remains of a late Iron Age and Roman people, Roman oppidum, defensive enclosure lies below the town centre. Abingdon Abbey was founded around 676, giving its name to the emerging town. In the 13th and 14th centuries, Abingdon was an agricultural centre with an extensive trade in wool, alongside weaving and the manufacture of clothing. Charters for the holding of markets and fairs were granted by various monarchs, from Edward I of England, Edward I to George II of Great Britain, George II. The town survived the Dissolution of the Monasteries, dissolution of the abbey in 1538, and by the 18th and 19th centuries, with the building of Abingdon Lock in 1790 a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward The Confessor
Edward the Confessor ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was King of England from 1042 until his death in 1066. He was the last reigning monarch of the House of Wessex. Edward was the son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy. He succeeded Cnut the Great's son – and his own half-brother – Harthacnut. He restored the rule of the House of Wessex after the period of Danish rule since Cnut conquered England in 1016. When Edward died in 1066, he was succeeded by his wife's brother Harold Godwinson, who was defeated and killed in the same year at the Battle of Hastings by the Normans under William the Conqueror. Edward's young great-nephew Edgar Ætheling of the House of Wessex was proclaimed king after the Battle of Hastings, but was never crowned and was peacefully deposed after about eight weeks. Historians disagree about Edward's fairly long 24-year reign. His nickname reflects the traditional image of him as unworldly and pious. Confessor of the Faith, Confess ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edith Of Wessex
Edith of Wessex (; 1025 – 18 December 1075) was Queen of England through her marriage to Edward the Confessor from 1045 until Edward's death in 1066. Unlike most English queens in the 10th and 11th centuries, she was crowned. The principal source on her life is a work she herself commissioned, the '' Vita Ædwardi Regis'' or the ''Life of King Edward who rests at Westminster'', which is inevitably biased. Early life Edith was the daughter of Godwin, the most powerful earl in England. Her mother Gytha was sister of Ulf, a Danish earl who was Cnut the Great's brother-in-law. She was probably born in or before 1027. Edith was originally named Gytha, but renamed Ealdgyth (or Edith) when she married King Edward the Confessor.Harold Godwinson Her brothers were Sweyn (c. 1020 – 1052), Harold (later King Harold II) (c. 1022 – 1066), Tostig (c. 1026 – 1066), Gyrth (c. 1030 – 1066), Leofwine (c. 1035 – 1066), and Wulfnoth (c. 1040 – 1094). Edith was the firstborn o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anglo-Saxon Charters
Anglo-Saxon charters are documents from the early medieval period in England which typically made a grant of land or recorded a privilege. The earliest surviving charters were drawn up in the 670s: the oldest surviving charters granted land to the Church, but from the eighth century, surviving charters were increasingly used to grant land to lay people. The term ''charter'' covers a range of written legal documentation, including diplomas, writs and wills. A diploma was a royal charter that granted rights over land or other privileges by the king, whereas a writ was an instruction (or prohibition) by the king which may have contained evidence of rights or privileges. Diplomas were usually written on parchment in Latin, but often contained sections in the vernacular, describing the bounds of estates, which often correspond closely to modern parish boundaries. The writ was authenticated by a seal and gradually replaced the diploma as evidence of land tenure during the late An ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Simon Keynes
Simon Douglas Keynes ( ; born 23 September 1952) is a British historian who is Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon emeritus in the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic at the University of Cambridge, and a fellow of Trinity College.Keynes, Simon ''The Writers Directory 2008''. Ed. Michelle Kazensky. 23rd ed. Vol. 1. Detroit: St. James Press, 2007. 1066. ''Gale Virtual Reference Library''. Accessed 29 November 2010. Biography Keynes is the fourth and youngest son of Richard Darwin Keynes and his wife Anne Adrian, and thus a member of the Keynes family (and, ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ealdorman
Ealdorman ( , ) ''Collins English Dictionary''. was an office in the Government in Anglo-Saxon England, government of Anglo-Saxon England. During the 11th century, it evolved into the title of earl. Early use The Old English word ''ealdorman'' was applied to high-ranking men. It was equated with several Latin titles, including , , , and . The title could be applied to kings of weaker territories who had submitted to a greater power. For example, a Anglo-Saxon charters, charter of King Offa of Mercia described Ealdred of Hwicce as "''Ecgberht, King of Wessex#Subregulus, subregulus''... ''et dux'' ()." In Wessex, the king appointed ealdormen to lead individual shires. Under Alfred the Great (), there were nine or ten ealdormen. Each West Saxon shire had one, and Kent had two (one for East Kent and o ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edmund Ironside
Edmund Ironside (30 November 1016; , , ; sometimes also known as Edmund II) was King of the English from 23 April to 30 November 1016. He was the son of King Æthelred the Unready and his first wife, Ælfgifu of York. Edmund's reign was marred by a war he had inherited from his father; his epithet "Ironside" was given to him "because of his valour" in resisting the Danish invasion led by Cnut. In the summer of 1013 Sweyn Forkbeard launched a full-scale invasion of England, driving out Aethelred by the end of the year. Edmund and his elder brother Aethelstan did not follow their father in exile. Sweyn died unexpectedly in February of 1014, and Æthelred was able to quickly reclaim the throne, driving out Sweyn's son Cnut, whom the Danes elected king. Aethelstan had died by June of 1014, making Edmund heir apparent. After regaining the throne, the royal family set about strengthening its hold on the country with the assistance of Eadric Streona (Edmund's brother-in-law). Pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hide (unit)
The hide was an English unit of land measurement originally intended to represent the amount of land sufficient to support a household. The Anglo-Saxon hide commonly appeared as of arable land, but it probably represented a much smaller holding before 1066. It was a measure of value and tax assessment, including obligations for food-rent ('), maintenance and repair of bridges and fortifications, manpower for the army ('), and (eventually) the ' land tax. The hide's method of calculation is now obscure: different properties with the same hidage could vary greatly in extent even in the same county. Following the Norman Conquest of England, the hidage assessments were recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, and there was a tendency for land producing £1 of income per year to be assessed at 1 hide. The Norman kings continued to use the unit for their tax assessments until the end of the 12th century. The hide was divided into four yardlands or virgates. It was hence nominally ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Æthelstan Ætheling
̠thelstan ̠theling (; early or mid 980s Р25 June 1014) was the eldest son of King ̠thelred the Unready by his first wife ̠lfgifu of York, ̠lfgifu, and was the heir apparent to the kingdom until his death. He is first mentioned as a witness to a charter of his father in 993. He probably spent part of his childhood at ̠thelingadene, Dean in west Sussex, and his paternal grandmother ̠lfthryth, wife of Edgar, ̠lfthryth may have played an important part in his upbringing. Almost nothing is known of his life, although he seems to have formed a friendship with Sigeferth (died 1015), Sigeforth and Morcar (thegn), Morcar, two of the leading thegns of the Five Boroughs of the Danelaw, Five Boroughs of the East Midlands. In December 1013 the Danish king Sweyn Forkbeard, Sweyn conquered England and King ̠thelred was forced into exile in Normandy, but he returned following Sweyn's death in February 1014. It is not known what became of ̠thelstan and his surviving full brothers, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Æthelred The Unready
Æthelred II (,Different spellings of this king's name most commonly found in modern texts are "Ethelred" and "Æthelred" (or "Aethelred"), the latter being closer to the original Old English form . Compare the modern dialect word . ; ; 966 – 23 April 1016), known as Æthelred the Unready, was List of English monarchs, King of the English from 978 to 1013 and again from 1014 until his death in 1016. His epithet comes from the Old English word meaning "poorly advised"; it is a pun on his name, which means "well advised". Æthelred was the son of Edgar, King of England, King Edgar and Ælfthryth (wife of Edgar), Queen Ælfthryth. He came to the throne at about the age of 12, following the assassination of his elder half-brother, King Edward the Martyr. The chief characteristic of Æthelred's reign was conflict with the Danes (tribe), Danes. After several decades of relative peace, Danish raids on English territory began again in earnest in the 980s, becoming markedly more se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ætheling
Ætheling (; also spelt aetheling, atheling or etheling) was an Old English term (''æþeling'') used in Anglo-Saxon England to designate princes of the royal dynasty who were eligible for the kingship. The term is an Old English and Old Saxon compound of ''aethele'', ''æþele'' or ''(a)ethel'', meaning "noble family", and ''-ing'', which means "belonging to". It was usually rendered in Latin as ''filius regis'' (king's son) or the Anglo-Latin neologism ''clito''. Ætheling can be found in the Suffolk toponymy, toponym of Athelington. Meaning and use in Anglo-Saxon England During the earliest years of the Anglo-Saxon rule in England, the word ''ætheling'' was probably used to denote any person of noble birth. Its use was soon restricted to members of a royal family. The prefix ''æþel-'' formed part of the name of several List of Anglo-Saxon monarchs and kingdoms, Anglo-Saxon kings, for instance Æthelberht of Kent, Æthelwulf of Wessex and Æthelred of Wessex, and was u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
