| Anglo-saxon Charters |
Article Index for Anglo-saxon |
Website Links For Charters |
Information AboutAnglo-saxon Charters |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT ANGLO-SAXON CHARTERS | |
| anglo-saxon documents | |
| charters | |
| anglo-saxon law | |
| anglo-saxon society | |
|
Charters provide fundamental source material for understanding Anglo-Saxon England, complementing the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and literary sources. SURVIVAL AND AUTHENTICITY Anglo-Saxon charters tend to survive because they were a proof of ownership of land. Over 1000 charters are extant today, mostly consisting of those that were held in religious houses such as Monasteries . These houses preserved charters to record their right to the land. Anglo-Saxon charters were sometimes used in Legal Disputes , and the recording of their contents in the process is another reason for survival of text where the original documents have been lost. Overall, some 200 charters exist in the original form, the remainder as post-Conquest copies, made by the compilers of cartularies (collections of title-deeds) or by early modern Antiquaries . As charters are records of Land ownership, they were Forged on a fairly frequent basis. As a result, the first step in studying charters is establishing their authenticity. The primary motivation for forging charters has been to establish Rights to the land. HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE Charters are often used by historians as sources for the History Of Anglo-Saxon England . It is frequently kings who give land in charters. By seeing what land is given it is possible to see the extent of a king's control, and how he was exercising power in that region. For instance, King Aethelwulf Of Wessex granted land in Devon by charter in 846 , perhaps dividing the spoils from this recently conquered territory among his men. Charters give lists of persons attesting the document, and so it is possible to see who was present at the king's court. For instance, we can see that several Welsh kings, including Hywel Dda , were attending Athelstan of Wessex's court in the early Tenth Century . "Burderns" that were due by land owners to the King , such as providing Soldiers , resources and man-power, were sometimes relieved in charters. This gives us the chance to examine Social Structures in Anglo-Saxon times. A joint committee of the British Academy and Royal Historical Society was set up in 1966 to oversee a definitive edition of the entire corpus of Anglo-Saxon charters, eventuially in approximately 30 volumes. Professor Simon Keynes general editor, is secretary to the committe in charge. Eleven volumes had appeared by 2005. FURTHER READING
|
|
|