Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-788cddb947-rnj55 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-10-13T01:39:38.817Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

8 - Piety, patronage and politics: towards an understanding of the Anglo-Saxon royal cults

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2010

Get access

Summary

Close to the heart of medieval Christianity stood the cult of the saints. As real presence and potent symbol, the saints occupied a central place within both church and community. Their cults, in theory founded upon divine acknowledgement, in fact created by man, fulfilled a complex series of functions, spiritual, social and political. The creators of those cults were men and women of great power: theirs was the ability to create the saints, if not in their own image at least in accordance with their own interests, and thereafter to pursue those interests through the manipulation of legend and cult. The present study has sought, by analysis of the identity, the beliefs and the actions of such creators – and of those who continued and adapted their work – to recover the history and function of a group of West Saxon and East Anglian royal cults. Focussing upon the three major problems of theoretical interpretation, historical explanation and continuity of cult, it has attempted to arrive at a new understanding of the place of the Angio-Saxon royal saint not only in pre–Conquest society but also in that of the Anglo-Norman realm.

At no point in the history of Anglo-Saxon England was it possible to expect or to assume royal sanctity. The Lives of the royal saints combine with the broader traditions of medieval political theory to demonstrate the weakness of the Chaney thesis which, portraying the saint king as the lineal descendant of the sacral king, makes sanctity an almost inevitable adjunct of birth into the ruling dynasties of Anglo-Saxon England.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Royal Saints of Anglo-Saxon England
A Study of West Saxon and East Anglian Cults
, pp. 234 - 252
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×