Writing, Kingship and Power in Anglo-Saxon England

Description

The workings of royal and ecclesiastical authority in Anglo-Saxon England can only be understood on the basis of direct engagement with original texts and material artefacts. This book, written by leading experts, brings together new research that represents the best of the current scholarship on the nexus between authority and written sources from Anglo-Saxon England. Ranging from the seventh to the eleventh century, the chapters in this volume offer fresh approaches to a wide range of linguistic, historical, legal, diplomatic and palaeographical evidence. Central themes include the formation of power in early Anglo-Saxon kingdoms during the age of Bede (d. 735) and Offa of Mercia (757-96), authority and its articulation in the century from Edgar (959-75) to 1066, and the significance of books and texts in expressing power across the period. Writing, Kingship and Power in Anglo-Saxon England represents a critical resource for students and scholars alike with an interest in early medieval history from political, institutional and cultural perspectives.

Rory Naismith is a lecturer in Medieval History at King's College, London. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and author of Money and Power in Anglo-Saxon England: The Southern English Kingdoms 757-865 (Cambridge, 2012) and Medieval European Coinage (Cambridge, 2017). David A. Woodman is a Fellow of Robinson College, Cambridge, where he is Director of Studies in History and Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

'This collection, with its wide range of incisive offerings, stands as a fitting tribute to a scholar who has, across the last four decades, contributed in profound and myriad ways to the field of Anglo-Saxon studies and our understanding of early England.' Chelsea Shields-Mas, Speculum