Vita Ædwardi Regis
Encyclopedia
The Vita Ædwardi Regis qui apud Westmonasterium Requiescit ("Life of King Edward who rests at Westminster") or simply Vita Ædwardi Regis ("Life of King Edward") is a historical work completed by an anonymous author c. 1067 and commissioned by Queen Edith
, wife of King Edward the Confessor
. It survives in one manuscript, dated c. 1100, now in the British Library
. The author is unknown, but was a servant of the queen and was probably a Fleming. The most likely candidates are Goscelin
and Folcard, monk
s of St Bertin Abbey
in St Omer
.
It is a two-part text, the first dealing with England in the decades before the Norman Conquest
(1066) and the activities of the family of Godwin, Earl of Wessex
, and the second dealing with the holiness
of King Edward. It is likely that the two parts were originally distinct. The first book is a secular history, not hagiography
, although book ii is more hagiographic and was used as the basis of later saint's lives dedicated to the king, such those by Osbert of Clare
and Ailred of Rievaulx
.
(1858) and Frank Barlow
(1962, 1992). The Vita Ædwardi Regis survives in one manuscript, written in folios 38 to 57 of the British Library Harley MS 526, these twenty folios measuring c. 13 cm by 18.5 c and penned in "brownish ink". Written on the manuscript at a later date is the name of Richard Bancroft
, Archbishop of Canterbury (1604–1610), who must therefore have acquired it. Its location prior to the life of Archbishop Bancroft is unclear, but possible locations include Canterbury
itself, London Cathedral
or the church of Westminster
, as Bancroft had previously been a canon
of Westminster as well as treasurer
, prebendary
and Bishop of London
.
The Harley manuscript was probably written down at Christ Church, Canterbury around 1100, owing to the style of the hand. The two centre folios that originally lay between 40 and 41, and 54 and 55 are lost, though their content can be partially reconstructed. Its recent editor, historian Frank Barlow, thought that it was based on an earlier version of the text at Christ Church Canterbury by 1085; he also believed that other copies, now lost, existed at Westminster Abbey and Bury St Edmunds, from which derivative works were written.
of 1066, and the work as a whole must have been completed before the death of Queen Edith
and deposition of Archbishop Stigand
, 1075 and 1070 respectively.
The work was commissioned by Queen Edith, to celebrate the deeds of her family, particularly her husband Edward, her father Earl Godwine of Wessex and her brothers Earls Tostig of Northumbria and Harold of Wessex
. It is likely that the Queen had ordered the work following the model of her predecessor Emma of Normandy
, who had commissioned a similar work, namely the Encomium Emmae
. Historian J. L. Grassi argued that the author of the Vita had access to inside information, as a servant of the Queen.
There are two distinct sections to the work, book i and book ii, and the stages of composition of both were different. Book i is the core piece of historical narrative, perhaps the part commissioned by the queen. Although it ends with the death of King Edward, earlier parts of the text indicate that he was still alive; so although it was completed after the monarch's death, most of it was probably composed during his lifetime. Book i was not devoted to King Edward, who plays a relatively minor part in the narrative, but instead to Edith, her father and her brothers Harold and Tostig, and it was probably abandoned on their deaths in 1066, being resumed and edited later to take its place in the composite two-book work.
Book ii in contrast is relatively short, and is devoted to King Edward; it contains a list of miraculous or semi-miraculous events demonstrating Edward's sanctity and miracle
-inducing powers. It was certainly written before the deposition of Archbishop Stigand, but Frank Barlow suggested that it may be more firmly datable to 1067.
. Some things however are reasonably certain about the author. He was or had been in Holy Orders
, either as monk or a clerk, he had been a servant of Queen Edith, and he was not English. It is highly unlikely that he was Norman, but rather Flemish or Lotharingian. Flemish is most likely, as he mentions St Omer and Baldwin V, Count of Flanders
, intimately, the latter three times. His spelling of place-names resembles the orthography characteristic of areas speaking Continental Germanic languages.
Barlow argued that the author can perhaps be identified either with Goscelin
or Folcard (later Abbot of Thorney), both monk
s of St Bertin
in St Omer
. Both Flemings, the former arrived in England c. 1061 to join the service of Herman
, Bishop of Wiltshire, while the latter came to England at an unknown date before 1069, perhaps before 1066. In 1943, historian Richard Southern had also postulated Goscelin as likely author, and this was the identification favoured by Antonia Gransden
. The question is however still open, as the evidence for neither is conclusive.
, and is more comparable to works such as Asser
's Vita Ælfredi ("Life of Alfred
") or Einhard
's Vita Caroli ("Life of Charles
") than to a saint
's life. Frank Barlow thought its closest parallel was Vita Regis Rotberti Pii, a biographical narrative on the reign of Robert II the Pious, king of France, written sometime after 1031 by the Fleury monk Helgaud
. Book i of the Vita Ædwardi Regis, the majority of the work, was not hagiographic at all. Osbert of Clare
, who wrote the first true hagiography of King Edward, ignored book i and built his narrative around book ii. Book i is the more valuable section for modern historians. In the view of historian J. L. Grassi, it is the most valuable narrative source for the reign of Edward the Confessor, containing around 40 unique items of information. Book i is interspersed with poetry (largely absent from book ii), usually used as "transitional pieces" between different stages of the narrative.
As a source, the Vita Ædwardi Regis was drawn on by later medieval writers. William of Malmesbury
consulted it, and his Gesta Regum contains extracts, as does Osbert of Clare's Vita. Sulcard
's Prologus de Construccione Westmonasterii, written c. 1085, makes use of the work too, and it is this that enables historians to theorise that a copy of the Vita Ædwardi Regis was at the Abbey of Westminster by this date. More use of the text, if indirect, was made by the famous Cistercian Northumbria
n, Ailred of Rievaulx
. Ailred's Vita S. Eduardi Regis et Confessoris was the most widely circulated hagiography of Edward, and all later accounts of Edward's miracles and life are based on this. Book iv of Richard of Cirencester
's Speculum Historiale de Gestis Regum Angliae is a compilation based on the Vita by Ailred, and contains extracts of the Vita Ædwardi Regis, some of which—roughly 500 words regarding Edith's marriage to Edward—are unique and probably represent part of the lost sections of the original Vita Ædwardi Regis.
Edith of Wessex
Edith of Wessex married King Edward the Confessor of England on 23 January 1045. Unlike most wives of kings of England in the tenth and eleventh centuries, she was crowned queen, but the marriage produced no children...
, wife of King Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor also known as St. Edward the Confessor , son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy, was one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England and is usually regarded as the last king of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 to 1066....
. It survives in one manuscript, dated c. 1100, now in the British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
. The author is unknown, but was a servant of the queen and was probably a Fleming. The most likely candidates are Goscelin
Goscelin
Goscelin of Saint-Bertin was a Benedictine hagiographical writer, born between 1020–1035 and who died shortly after 1107...
and Folcard, monk
Monk
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
s of St Bertin Abbey
Abbey of Saint Bertin
The Abbey of St. Bertin was a Benedictine abbey in Saint-Omer, France, now in ruins and open to the public...
in St Omer
Saint-Omer
Saint-Omer , a commune and sub-prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department west-northwest of Lille on the railway to Calais. The town is named after Saint Audomar, who brought Christianity to the area....
.
It is a two-part text, the first dealing with England in the decades before the Norman Conquest
Norman conquest of England
The Norman conquest of England began on 28 September 1066 with the invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. William became known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, defeating King Harold II of England...
(1066) and the activities of the family of Godwin, Earl of Wessex
Godwin, Earl of Wessex
Godwin of Wessex , was one of the most powerful lords in England under the Danish king Cnut the Great and his successors. Cnut made him the first Earl of Wessex...
, and the second dealing with the holiness
Holiness
Holiness is the state of being holy or sacred.Holiness is being clean or pure, to be holy is to be like God.Holiness may also refer to:* Holiness movement, a specific tradition within evangelicalism...
of King Edward. It is likely that the two parts were originally distinct. The first book is a secular history, not hagiography
Hagiography
Hagiography is the study of saints.From the Greek and , it refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of saints and ecclesiastical leaders. The term hagiology, the study of hagiography, is also current in English, though less common...
, although book ii is more hagiographic and was used as the basis of later saint's lives dedicated to the king, such those by Osbert of Clare
Osbert of Clare
Osbert of Clare was a monk Westminster Abbey, elected Prior and briefly abbot. He was a prolific writer of letters, a hagiographer and a forger of charters.-Works:By 1138, he had reworked the vita Ædwardi regis of Westminster Abbey...
and Ailred of Rievaulx
Ailred of Rievaulx
Aelred , also Aelred, Ælred, Æthelred, etc., was an English writer, abbot of Rievaulx , and saint.-Life:...
.
Manuscripts
There are two modern editions, those of Henry Richards LuardHenry Richards Luard
Henry Richards Luard was a British medieval historian and antiquary.-Biography:Luard was the son of Henry Luard. He received his early education at Cheam. He graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1847, and 1849 was elected to a Fellowship. He entered holy orders, and served as vicar of...
(1858) and Frank Barlow
Frank Barlow (historian)
Frank Barlow CBE FBA FRSL was a British historian, known particularly for biographies of medieval figures.Barlow studied at St John's College, Oxford. He was Professor of History at the University of Exeter from 1953 until he retired in 1976 and became Emeritus Professor...
(1962, 1992). The Vita Ædwardi Regis survives in one manuscript, written in folios 38 to 57 of the British Library Harley MS 526, these twenty folios measuring c. 13 cm by 18.5 c and penned in "brownish ink". Written on the manuscript at a later date is the name of Richard Bancroft
Richard Bancroft
Archbishop Richard Bancroft, DD, BD, MA, BA was an English churchman, who became Archbishop of Canterbury and the "chief overseer" of the production of the authorized version of the Bible.-Life:...
, Archbishop of Canterbury (1604–1610), who must therefore have acquired it. Its location prior to the life of Archbishop Bancroft is unclear, but possible locations include Canterbury
Canterbury
Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....
itself, London Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral, London, is a Church of England cathedral and seat of the Bishop of London. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604. St Paul's sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, and is the mother...
or the church of Westminster
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
, as Bancroft had previously been a canon
Canon (priest)
A canon is a priest or minister who is a member of certain bodies of the Christian clergy subject to an ecclesiastical rule ....
of Westminster as well as treasurer
Treasurer
A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The adjective for a treasurer is normally "tresorial". The adjective "treasurial" normally means pertaining to a treasury, rather than the treasurer.-Government:...
, prebendary
Prebendary
A prebendary is a post connected to an Anglican or Catholic cathedral or collegiate church and is a type of canon. Prebendaries have a role in the administration of the cathedral...
and Bishop of London
Bishop of London
The Bishop of London is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of London in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers 458 km² of 17 boroughs of Greater London north of the River Thames and a small part of the County of Surrey...
.
The Harley manuscript was probably written down at Christ Church, Canterbury around 1100, owing to the style of the hand. The two centre folios that originally lay between 40 and 41, and 54 and 55 are lost, though their content can be partially reconstructed. Its recent editor, historian Frank Barlow, thought that it was based on an earlier version of the text at Christ Church Canterbury by 1085; he also believed that other copies, now lost, existed at Westminster Abbey and Bury St Edmunds, from which derivative works were written.
Dating
Historian Frank Barlow characterised the dating of the Vita as "relatively simple" in comparison with other texts of the era. The latest event to be referred to in the text is the Battle of HastingsBattle of Hastings
The Battle of Hastings occurred on 14 October 1066 during the Norman conquest of England, between the Norman-French army of Duke William II of Normandy and the English army under King Harold II...
of 1066, and the work as a whole must have been completed before the death of Queen Edith
Edith of Wessex
Edith of Wessex married King Edward the Confessor of England on 23 January 1045. Unlike most wives of kings of England in the tenth and eleventh centuries, she was crowned queen, but the marriage produced no children...
and deposition of Archbishop Stigand
Stigand
Stigand was an English churchman in pre-Norman Conquest England. Although his birthdate is unknown, by 1020, he was serving as a royal chaplain and advisor. He was named Bishop of Elmham in 1043, and then later Bishop of Winchester and Archbishop of Canterbury...
, 1075 and 1070 respectively.
The work was commissioned by Queen Edith, to celebrate the deeds of her family, particularly her husband Edward, her father Earl Godwine of Wessex and her brothers Earls Tostig of Northumbria and Harold of Wessex
Harold Godwinson
Harold Godwinson was the last Anglo-Saxon King of England.It could be argued that Edgar the Atheling, who was proclaimed as king by the witan but never crowned, was really the last Anglo-Saxon king...
. It is likely that the Queen had ordered the work following the model of her predecessor Emma of Normandy
Emma of Normandy
Emma , was a daughter of Richard the Fearless, Duke of Normandy, by his second wife Gunnora. She was Queen consort of England twice, by successive marriages: first as second wife to Æthelred the Unready of England ; and then second wife to Cnut the Great of Denmark...
, who had commissioned a similar work, namely the Encomium Emmae
Encomium Emmae
Encomium Emmae Reginae or Gesta Cnutonis Regis is an 11th-century Latin encomium in honour of Queen Emma of Normandy. It was written in 1041 or 1042 probably by a monk of St Omer.-Manuscripts:...
. Historian J. L. Grassi argued that the author of the Vita had access to inside information, as a servant of the Queen.
There are two distinct sections to the work, book i and book ii, and the stages of composition of both were different. Book i is the core piece of historical narrative, perhaps the part commissioned by the queen. Although it ends with the death of King Edward, earlier parts of the text indicate that he was still alive; so although it was completed after the monarch's death, most of it was probably composed during his lifetime. Book i was not devoted to King Edward, who plays a relatively minor part in the narrative, but instead to Edith, her father and her brothers Harold and Tostig, and it was probably abandoned on their deaths in 1066, being resumed and edited later to take its place in the composite two-book work.
Book ii in contrast is relatively short, and is devoted to King Edward; it contains a list of miraculous or semi-miraculous events demonstrating Edward's sanctity and miracle
Miracle
A miracle often denotes an event attributed to divine intervention. Alternatively, it may be an event attributed to a miracle worker, saint, or religious leader. A miracle is sometimes thought of as a perceptible interruption of the laws of nature. Others suggest that a god may work with the laws...
-inducing powers. It was certainly written before the deposition of Archbishop Stigand, but Frank Barlow suggested that it may be more firmly datable to 1067.
Authorship
The author of the text is anonymousAnonymous work
Anonymous works are works, such as art or literature, that have an anonymous, undisclosed, or unknown creator or author. In the United States it is legally defined as "a work on the copies or phonorecords of which no natural person is identified as author."...
. Some things however are reasonably certain about the author. He was or had been in Holy Orders
Holy Orders
The term Holy Orders is used by many Christian churches to refer to ordination or to those individuals ordained for a special role or ministry....
, either as monk or a clerk, he had been a servant of Queen Edith, and he was not English. It is highly unlikely that he was Norman, but rather Flemish or Lotharingian. Flemish is most likely, as he mentions St Omer and Baldwin V, Count of Flanders
Baldwin V, Count of Flanders
Baldwin V of Flanders was Count of Flanders from 1035 until his death.He was the son of Baldwin IV, Count of Flanders, who died in 1035.-History:...
, intimately, the latter three times. His spelling of place-names resembles the orthography characteristic of areas speaking Continental Germanic languages.
Barlow argued that the author can perhaps be identified either with Goscelin
Goscelin
Goscelin of Saint-Bertin was a Benedictine hagiographical writer, born between 1020–1035 and who died shortly after 1107...
or Folcard (later Abbot of Thorney), both monk
Monk
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
s of St Bertin
Abbey of Saint Bertin
The Abbey of St. Bertin was a Benedictine abbey in Saint-Omer, France, now in ruins and open to the public...
in St Omer
Saint-Omer
Saint-Omer , a commune and sub-prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department west-northwest of Lille on the railway to Calais. The town is named after Saint Audomar, who brought Christianity to the area....
. Both Flemings, the former arrived in England c. 1061 to join the service of Herman
Herman (bishop)
Herman was a medieval Bishop of Ramsbury and Bishop of Sherborne.-Life:Herman was a native of Flanders. As chaplain of Edward the Confessor he was named to the see of Ramsbury shortly after 22 April 1045. He visited Rome in 1050, where he attended a papal council, along with his fellow English...
, Bishop of Wiltshire, while the latter came to England at an unknown date before 1069, perhaps before 1066. In 1943, historian Richard Southern had also postulated Goscelin as likely author, and this was the identification favoured by Antonia Gransden
Antonia Gransden
Antonia Gransden, English historian and medievalist, is former Reader in Medieval History at the University of Nottingham. She is author of a number of works in medieval historiography, most notably the large two volume study Historical Writing in England....
. The question is however still open, as the evidence for neither is conclusive.
The text
The Vita Ædwardi Regis is not particularly hagiographicHagiography
Hagiography is the study of saints.From the Greek and , it refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of saints and ecclesiastical leaders. The term hagiology, the study of hagiography, is also current in English, though less common...
, and is more comparable to works such as Asser
Asser
Asser was a Welsh monk from St David's, Dyfed, who became Bishop of Sherborne in the 890s. About 885 he was asked by Alfred the Great to leave St David's and join the circle of learned men whom Alfred was recruiting for his court...
's Vita Ælfredi ("Life of Alfred
Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great was King of Wessex from 871 to 899.Alfred is noted for his defence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of southern England against the Vikings, becoming the only English monarch still to be accorded the epithet "the Great". Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to style himself...
") or Einhard
Einhard
Einhard was a Frankish scholar and courtier. Einhard was a dedicated servant of Charlemagne and his son Louis the Pious; his main work is a biography of Charlemagne, the Vita Karoli Magni, "one of the most precious literary bequests of the early Middle Ages."-Public life:Einhard was from the eastern...
's Vita Caroli ("Life of Charles
Charlemagne
Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...
") than to a saint
Saint
A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...
's life. Frank Barlow thought its closest parallel was Vita Regis Rotberti Pii, a biographical narrative on the reign of Robert II the Pious, king of France, written sometime after 1031 by the Fleury monk Helgaud
Helgaud
Helgaud or Helgaldus , French chronicler, was a monk of the Benedictine Abbey of Fleury.Little else is known about him save that he was chaplain to the French king, Robert II the Pious, whose life he wrote...
. Book i of the Vita Ædwardi Regis, the majority of the work, was not hagiographic at all. Osbert of Clare
Osbert of Clare
Osbert of Clare was a monk Westminster Abbey, elected Prior and briefly abbot. He was a prolific writer of letters, a hagiographer and a forger of charters.-Works:By 1138, he had reworked the vita Ædwardi regis of Westminster Abbey...
, who wrote the first true hagiography of King Edward, ignored book i and built his narrative around book ii. Book i is the more valuable section for modern historians. In the view of historian J. L. Grassi, it is the most valuable narrative source for the reign of Edward the Confessor, containing around 40 unique items of information. Book i is interspersed with poetry (largely absent from book ii), usually used as "transitional pieces" between different stages of the narrative.
As a source, the Vita Ædwardi Regis was drawn on by later medieval writers. William of Malmesbury
William of Malmesbury
William of Malmesbury was the foremost English historian of the 12th century. C. Warren Hollister so ranks him among the most talented generation of writers of history since Bede, "a gifted historical scholar and an omnivorous reader, impressively well versed in the literature of classical,...
consulted it, and his Gesta Regum contains extracts, as does Osbert of Clare's Vita. Sulcard
Sulcard
Sulcard was a Benedictine monk at St. Peter's, Westminster Abbey, and the author of the first history of the abbey.Little is known of Sulcard, whose unusual name may reflect either Anglo-Saxon or Norman parentage...
's Prologus de Construccione Westmonasterii, written c. 1085, makes use of the work too, and it is this that enables historians to theorise that a copy of the Vita Ædwardi Regis was at the Abbey of Westminster by this date. More use of the text, if indirect, was made by the famous Cistercian Northumbria
Northumbria
Northumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...
n, Ailred of Rievaulx
Ailred of Rievaulx
Aelred , also Aelred, Ælred, Æthelred, etc., was an English writer, abbot of Rievaulx , and saint.-Life:...
. Ailred's Vita S. Eduardi Regis et Confessoris was the most widely circulated hagiography of Edward, and all later accounts of Edward's miracles and life are based on this. Book iv of Richard of Cirencester
Richard of Cirencester
Richard of Cirencester , historical writer, was a member of the Benedictine abbey at Westminster, and his name first appears on the chamberlain's list of the monks of that foundation drawn up in the year 1355....
's Speculum Historiale de Gestis Regum Angliae is a compilation based on the Vita by Ailred, and contains extracts of the Vita Ædwardi Regis, some of which—roughly 500 words regarding Edith's marriage to Edward—are unique and probably represent part of the lost sections of the original Vita Ædwardi Regis.