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Æthelweard (also spelled Ethelward), Anglo-Saxon historian, was the great-great-grandson of Æthelred of Wessex (who was the brother of Alfred the Great), and was ealdorman or earl of the western provinces (i.e. probably of the whole of Wessex).
He first signs as dux or ealdorman in 973, and continues to sign until 998, about which time his death must have taken place. In the year 991 he was associated with archbishop Sigeric in the conclusion of a peace with the victorious Danes from Maldon, and in 994 he was sent with Bishop Ælfheah of Winchester to make peace with Olaf at Andover.
Æthelweard was the author of a Latin Chronicle extending to the year 975. Up to the year 892 he is largely dependent on the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, with a few details of his own; later he is largely independent of it. Æthelweard gave himself the bombastic title "Patricius Consul Quaestor Ethelwerdus," and unfortunately this title is only too characteristic of the man. His narrative is highly rhetorical, and as he at the same time attempts more than Tacitean brevity his narrative is often very obscure. Æthelweard was the friend and patron of Ælfric of Eynsham, who in the preface to his Old English Lives of saints, addressed Æthelweard and his son Æthelmær.
New scientific research found the reason for Æthelweard's obscure Latin. He wrote his work on request of his relative Mathilde, abbess of Essen monastery and granddaughter of emperor Otto I and Eadgyth of Wessex, to help her in the duty of keeping the remembrance of the dead relatives. Mathilde was not able to understand Æthelweard's preferred old English, therefore he had to write in Latin. Most likely Mathilde rewarded him with a copy of Vegetius' work De Re Militari which was written in Essen and survived in England. The later medieval historian William of Malmesbury says of him
- "... a noble and illustrious character, who attempted to arrange these chronicles in Latin, and whose intention I could applaud, if his language did not disgust me it would be better to be silent..."
Æthelweard was the brother of Ælfgifu, the wronged consort of King Edwy the Fair, who was their foster-brother. He and Ælfric of Hampshire - who later turned traitor - were said to have suggested the idea of danegeld. He was father of ealdorman Æthelmær Se Greatta and grandfather of Æthelnoth, who became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1020, and was later regarded as a saint.1. Æthelmær has been identified with the man of this name whom chronicler John of Worcester made father of Wulfnoth Cild and brother of the notorious Eadric Streona (although the Worcester chronicler gives their father a different name), leading to a genealogical reconstruction that makes Æthelweard the father of Eadric, and the great-grandfather of Godwin, Earl of Wessex, the father of king Harold Godwinson, a reconstruction that is still in dispute. Eadric's involvement with the attempt to rescue Alfheah from the Danes in 1012 by raising a large ransom may suggest his involvement in Æthelweard's earlier mission at Andover.
Æthelweard had access to a now lost version of the Anglo Saxon Chronicle and was an example of a secular writer in a time where this was largely the preserve of monks. He was also at the centre of contemporary politics and his idiosyncratic Latin style is inspirational to schoolboys everywhere.
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See also
Primary sources
- Æthelweard, Chronicon, ed. and tr. Alistair Campbell, The Chronicle of Æthelweard. London, 1961.
- Barker, E.E. (ed.). "The Cottonian fragments of Æthelweard's Chronicle." Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research 24 (1951): 46-62.
- Ælfric of Eynsham, preface to Lives of Saints, ed. and tr. W.W. Skeat, Ælfric’s Lives of Saints. 2 vols: vol. 1. Oxford, 1881-1900. 2-7.
- Ælfric of Eynsham, preface to his Old English homilies, ed. and tr. Benjamin Thorpe, The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church. The First Part, Containing the Sermones Catholici, or Homilies of Ælfric. 2 vols: vol 1. London, 1844-6.
- William of Malmesbury, Gesta regum Anglorum, ed. and tr. R.A.B. Mynors, R. M. Thomson and M. Winterbottom, William of Malmesbury. Gesta Regum Anglorum. The History of the English Kings. OMT. 2 vols. Oxford, 1998.
- John of Worcester, Chronicon ex chronicis, ed. Benjamin Thorpe, Florentii Wigorniensis monachi chronicon ex chronicis. 2 vols. London, 1848-9.
Literature
- Campbell, James. "England, c. 991." In The Battle of Maldon: Fiction and Fact, ed. Janet Cooper. London and Rio Grande, 1993. 1-17.
- Houts, Elisabeth van. "Women and the Writing of History in the Early Middle Ages: The Case of Abbess Mathilda of Essen and Æthelweard." Early Medieval Europe 1 (1992): 53-68.
- Howlett, D.R. "The Verse of Æthelweard's Chronicle." Bulletin Du Cange 58 (2000): 219-24.
- Jezierski, Wojtek. "Æthelweardus redivivus." Early Medieval Europe 13.2 (2005): 159-78.
- Lutz, Angelika. "Æthelweard’s Chronicon and Old English poetry." Anglo-Saxon England 29 (2000): 177-214.
- Meaney, Audrey L. "St. Neots, Æthelweard and the Compilation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: a Survey." Studies in Earlier Old English Prose, ed. Paul E. Szarmach. Albany, 1986. 193-243.
- Stenton, Frank Merry. "Æthelweard's Account of the Last Years of King Alfred's Reign." In Preparatory to Anglo-Saxon England, being the Collected Papers of Frank Merry Stenton, ed. D.M. Stenton. Oxford, 1970. 8-13. Published previously in English Historical Review 24: 79-84.
- Whitbread, L. "Æthelweard and the Anglo-Saxon chronicle." English Historical Review 74 (1959): 577-89.
- Winterbottom, Michael. "The Style of Æthelweard." Medium Aevum 36 (1967): 109–18.
References
- ^ Mason, Emma "Æthelnoth (d. 1038)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Oxford University Press, 2004 Online Edition accessed November 7, 2007
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