Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- 1 The royal saints of Anglo-Saxon England: some problems of interpretation
- 2 The sources
- 3 Royal birth and the foundations of sanctity: theoretical interpretations
- 4 The cult of St Edburga at Winchester and Pershore
- 5 The children of Edgar
- 6 The royal cults of Ely
- 7 The cult of St Edmund
- 8 Piety, patronage and politics: towards an understanding of the Anglo-Saxon royal cults
- Appendix 1 The Life of St Edburga of Winchester by Osbert of Clare, prior of Westminster
- Appendix 2 Two items concerning St Edburga of Winchester from Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 451
- Bibliography
- Index
3 - Royal birth and the foundations of sanctity: theoretical interpretations
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 May 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- 1 The royal saints of Anglo-Saxon England: some problems of interpretation
- 2 The sources
- 3 Royal birth and the foundations of sanctity: theoretical interpretations
- 4 The cult of St Edburga at Winchester and Pershore
- 5 The children of Edgar
- 6 The royal cults of Ely
- 7 The cult of St Edmund
- 8 Piety, patronage and politics: towards an understanding of the Anglo-Saxon royal cults
- Appendix 1 The Life of St Edburga of Winchester by Osbert of Clare, prior of Westminster
- Appendix 2 Two items concerning St Edburga of Winchester from Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 451
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
J. M. Wallace-Hadrill, in his masterly study of early Germanic kingship, concluded a brief examination of the Merovingian royal cults with the statement that ‘Frankish respect for the Merovingians never reached the point where it was possible to expect or assume royal sanctity.’ A random glance at Bede's Historia ecclesiastica might suggest that, in contrast, such a point was reached, and reached at a relatively early date, in Anglo-Saxon England. Indeed, William Chaney has noted of the Anglo-Saxon period that ‘the sacral nature of kingship, pagan and Christian, would lead the folk to expect God to honour the stirps regia. The recognised form of this in the new religion was sainthood.’ For Chaney the Christian saint king was the lineal descendant of the sacral ruler of the age of the migrations: sanctity simply was carried in the blood or went with the job of the Anglo-Saxon kings and, by extension, of their consorts and their offspring. It is the purpose of this chapter, first, to demonstrate that the reality was nothing like so simple and, second, to review the statements made about the relationship between royal birth and sanctity by the hagiographers of the royal saints.
ASCRIBED OR ACHIEVED? SANCTITY AND THE ROYAL STATE IN THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES
Kingship, as every medieval churchman knew and as every medieval ruler was informed, was instituted by divine concession: it was exercised Dei gratia.
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- Information
- The Royal Saints of Anglo-Saxon EnglandA Study of West Saxon and East Anglian Cults, pp. 74 - 95Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1989