Three plough-lands at Malling to Rochester Cathedral, Kent 942-946

The authenticity of this charter of King Edmund (or Eadmund) is uncertain. A. Campbell, in his Charters of Rochester, explains its difficulties:

The date clause has been omitted, and the style rex Anglorum necnon et Merciorum [‘king of the English and also/indeed of the Mercians’] can be due only to scribal addition of necnon et Merciorum, because Angli would naturally include Mercii. […] The language and formulae of the charter recall the Rochester charters of the period before 900, and Eadmund’s favourite formulae are not introduced.’ (Campbell, p. xxvi)

Campbell's argument, that the formulation of the charter seems old-fashioned and is lacking in Edmundian characteristics, is well made. If the Textus Roffensis copy does derive from an authentic original, then we would have to agree with Campbell that ‘it is not well preserved’ (Campbell, p. xxvi); it has possibly been corrupted during its transmission, or it may be a copy of a fraudulent charter.

Campbell’s querying of the monarch’s style ‘king of the English and also the Mercians’ needs closer analysis, however, and may be an unnecessary criticism of the charter in view of the history of Edmund’s reign.

Edmund I reigned from 939 to 946. He was ‘king of the English’ on succeeding his half-brother, King Æthelstan, as king of all England.¹ However, by the end of his first year, he lost Northumbria and part of Mercia. He reconquered Mercia in 942 and Northumbria in 944 (Lapidge et al, p. 159). We should, I suggest, interpret necnon, in relation to the Mercians, as the emphatic ‘and indeed’; and thus we might understand that Eadmund, via his scribe, is emphasising the recent reconquering of Mercia: I am in fact the king of the Mercians, we might be hearing him say.

The boundary clause, with its appended list of seven swine pastures, is written in Old English, as is typical of charters of the period. The gifted three ‘ploughs’, or ‘ploughlands’, best understood as not simply a measurement of land but a unit of land used to calculate taxation, relate to an area around the modern-day market town of West Malling, south-west of Rochester. Some of the place-names of the boundary clause can be identified; several of the swine-pastures, however, cannot be pinpointed with accuracy. Unidentified place-names appear in italics in the translation; and some of the more obscure ones have also not been transliterated into modern English.

Transcription

143r (select folio number to open facsimile)

+ IN nomine dei summi, De meallingas.
et saluatoris nostri iesu christi, ipso quoque in perpe-
tuo regnante disponenteque suauiter omnia. Quapropter ego eadmundus rex anglorum necnon
et merciorum, meo amabili episcopo nomine burhric,
concedo aliquantulum mei telluris, ubi dicitur
meallingas, trium uidelicet aratrum pro reme-
dio animę meę in sempiternam hereditatem,
ad augmentum monasterii eius quę est dedica-
ta in honore sancti andreę apostoli germanus petri,
et socius in passione, cum omnibus rebus ad eam per-
tinentibus cum campis, siluis, pratis, pascuis,
necne et aucupiis, et hoc quoque cum consilio
optimatum et principum meorum quorum nomina
infra scripta reperiuntur. Vnde adiuro in no-
mine domini dei nostri iesu christi qui est omnium iustus
iudex, ut terra hęc sit libera ab omni regali ser-
uitio in perpetuum. Si quis uero minuere uel frau-
dare presumpserit hanc donationem, sit separatus
a consortio sanctorum, ita ut uiuens benedictione
dei sit priuatus, et sit damnatus in inferno in-
feriori, nisi satisfactione ante eius obitum
emendauerit quod inique gessit, manente tamen

143v

hac cartula nichilominus in sua firmitate. Qui
uero tunc augere uoluerit dona nostra, augeat
illi dominus cęlestia dona, et ęternam uitam tribuat. Ðis syndon ða landgemæro ðæs bufan cwede-
nan landes. Ærest on suð healfe oð cincges
firhðe, of cincges fyrhðe on offahames ge-
mære, ðanan on here-stræt, andlang stræte
ofer lylleburnan oð east meallinga gemære,
⁊ swa riht suð be eastan ðam cwyllan² oð þa
wyde stræte, suð andlang stræte on geriht
oð cincges fyrhðe. Ðænne syndon þis ða den-
bæro, east lindrhecg,³ ⁊ otanhyrst, >xxx porci<⁴ ⁊ fræcincg-
-hyrst, ⁊ sceorfestede, xxx porci. ⁊ wihtherincg-
faladsto, gafol, ⁊ holanspic, >xxx borda<⁵ ⁊ pætlanhrycg.
+ Ego eadmundus rex anglorum signo crucis con-
firmaui. + Ego eadred frater regis roboraui. + Ego
eadgife mater regis adfui. + Ego oda archiepiscopus
subscripsi. + Ego ælfeh episcopus consensi. + Ego
ðeodred episcopus. + Ego wulfstan archiepiscopus.
+ Cenwald episcopus. + Ego ælfred episcopus. + Ego ælfric
episcopus. + Ego æthelgar episcopus. + Ego ælfgifu con-
cubina regis affui. >+ Wulfgar dux. + Æðelstan dux.<⁶ + Eadmund dux. + scula
dux. + Sigferð minister. + Wulfric minister. + Ealdred
minister. + Ælfstan minister. + Ordeah minister. + Eadwerd

144r

minister. + Wulfric minister. + Odda minister. + Ælla minister. + Ælf-
gar minister. + Osferð dux. + Wihtgar minister. + Wulf-
sige minister. + Birhtwald minister.

Translation

Concerning Malling:

In the name of the supreme God, and of our saviour Jesus Christ, he who also in perpetuity is reigning and ordaining all things sweetly .

Therefore, I, Edmund, king of the English and also the Mercians, to my beloved bishop named Burhric,⁷ grant a portion of my land, which is called Malling, that is to say three ploughs,⁸ for the deliverance of my soul into an everlasting inheritance, for the enlarging of his monastery which is dedicated in honour of Saint Andrew the Apostle, the brother of Peter, and companion in [Christ’s] Passion, with all things pertaining to it, fields, woods, meadows, pastures and also fowling,⁹ and this also with the counsel of my nobles and leaders whose names are found written below. Wherefore I swear in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the just judge of all, that this land may be free from all royal servitude in perpetuity. Moreover, if anyone presumes5 to diminish or defraud this gift, let him be separated from the company of the saints, so that he may be deprived of the blessing of God while alive, and be damned in hell below, unless through penance before his death he has made amends¹⁰ for what he has done unjustly, abiding yet, nonetheless, by this charter in its validity. Whoever, in truth, then wishes¹¹ to increase our gifts, may the Lord increase his heavenly gifts and grant him eternal life.

These are the boundaries of the above-mentioned lands. First, on the south side as far as King’s Wood,¹² from King’s Wood to the Offham boundary, then onto High Street,¹³ along this street over the Leybourne¹⁴ as far as the East Malling boundary; and so due south, with the well/spring to the east,¹⁵ as far as the wide street, south along this street right on as far as King’s Wood. Then, these are the swine-pastures:¹⁶ East Lindridge and Otanhurst,¹⁷ 30 pigs;¹⁸ and Fræcincghyrst¹⁹ and Sceorfestede,²⁰ 30 pigs; and Wihtherincgfaladsto, gavel,²¹ and Holanspic, a herd of 30,²² and Petteridge.²³

I, Edmund, King of the English, with the sign of the cross made confirmation.

+ I, Eadred,²⁴ brother of the King, made ratification.

+ I, Eadgifu,²⁵ mother of the king, was present.

+ I, Archbishop Oda,²⁶ signed to confirm.

I, Bishop Ælfheah,²⁷ agreed.

I, Bishop Đeodred.²⁸

+ I, Archbishop Wulfstan.²⁹

+ I, Bishop Cenwald.³⁰

+ I, Bishop Ælfred.³¹

+ I, Bishop Ælfric.³²

+ I, Bishop Æthelgar.³³

+ I, Ælfgifu,³⁴ [queen] consort of the King.

+ Wulfgar, duke.

+ Æthelstan, duke.

+ Eadmund, duke.

+ Scula, duke.

+ Sigferð, minister.

+ Wulfric, minister.

+ Ealdred, minister.

+ Ælfstan, minister.

+ Ordeah, minister.

+ Eadwerd, minister.

+ Wulfric, minister.

+ Odda, minister.

+Ælla, minister.

+ Ælfgar, minister.

+ Osferð, duke.

+ Wihtgar, minister.

+ Wulfsige, minister.

+ Birhtwald, minister.

Cited works

Campbell, A., Charters of Rochester (Oxford University Press, 1973).

Corèdon, Christopher with Ann Williams, A Dictionary of Medieval Terms and Phrases (D. S. Brewer, 2004).

Glover, Judith, The Place Names of Kent (B. T. Batsford Ltd, 1976).

Lapidge, Michael, John Blair, Simon Keynes and Donald Scragg (eds.), The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England (Blackwell Publishing, 1999).

Sinclair Williams, C. L., 'The cwylla of King Edmund's West Malling Charter', Archaeologia Cantiana 89 (1974), pp. 135–39, available here

Whitehead, Annie, Women of Power in Anglo-Saxon England (Pen & Sword History, 2020).

Footnotes

1 Æthelstan reigned as ‘king of the Anglo-Saxons’ from 924/5 to 927, and as ‘king of the English’ from 927 to his death in 939; see ‘Athelstan’ in Lapidge, p. 16.

2 For a discussion of the boundary and particularly its reference to cwylla, see Sinclair Williams.

3 There is a scribal alteration of the spelling: from ‘lindrhycg’ to ‘lindrhecg’.

4 The scribe, probably the main scribe, has written ‘xxx p’ above ‘⁊ otanhyrst’.

5 The scribe, probably the main scribe, has written ‘xxx borda’ above ‘holanspic’.

6 The scribe provides an insertion mark after ‘affui.’ and a corresponding mark in the bottom margin followed by ‘+ Wulfgar dux. + Æðelstan dux.’.

7 Burhric (or, Burgric), bishop of Rochester, c. 933/934-c.946-964.

8 Or, ‘ploughlands’.

9 Fowling, that is, land for and the right to hunt game birds. Implicit with the mention of the other types of land is the granting of rights associated with the lands, for example, the rights to gather fuel for wood and take timber, and the right to pasture animals.

10 Or ‘will have presumed’, translating ‘presumpserit’ in the next line.

11 Or, ‘will have made amends’.

12 Or, ‘will have wished’.

13 Or ‘the king’s wood’. This is not the Kingswood east of Maidstone, which is too far away from Malling.

14 Or, ‘the highway’; Sinclair Williams prefers ‘Army street’: see Sinclair Williams, p. 136, and n. 7.

15 Leybourne, here, seems to refer to the name of the stream that runs between West Malling and the village of Leybourne; see Sinclair Williams, and Glover, p. 117.

16 Sinclair Williams (p. 138) identifies the cwylla of the charter with a pond just east of the boundary between West Malling and East Malling.

17 On the swine pastures in Rochester’s charters, including those named in this particular charter, see Campbell, pp. xvii-xix.

18 The ‘-hyrst’ element of the name means ‘wood’. The archaic English hurst, deriving from the Old English, means a wooded rise or hillock.

19 ‘30 pigs’, meaning the swine-pasture is sufficient for 30 pigs. The same number of pigs is stipulated for some of the other swine-pastures, below.

20 This may correspond to the modern place-name Frenchhurst; see Glover, pp. 75-6.

21 The ‘-stede’ element of the name has the sense of an occupied place; stede survives in the modern English word ‘farmstead’.

22 Old English gafol (‘gavel’), broadly meaning ‘rent’, may here be short for gafol-land and as such refer to the Kentish form of land tenure known as gavelkind, for which rent was paid rather than service due; see ‘Gavelkind’ in Corèdon. See also Campbell, p. 34, n.1; Campbell implies an amount for the rent may have been inserted at some point in the charter’s transmission history.

23 I’ve tentatively translated ‘xxx borda’ as ’a herd of 30 (pigs)’. The meaning of ‘borda’ is unclear; it is likely an error of transmission; Campbell suggests it is an error for hiorda, a Kentish variant of heord meaning ‘herd’. The intended meaning of sufficient pasture for a herd of 30 pigs seems most likely.

24 Literally, ‘Pætla’s ridge’; see Glover, p. 147. A different hand has written ‘pechelinge recg’ above.

25 The future King Eadred, king of the English from 946 to 955.

26 Eadgifu’s landed power and role in royal politics is notable; her story is opened up in Whitehead, esp. pp. 76-83.

27 Archbishop of Canterbury, 942-58.

28 Bishop of Winchester, 934-51.

29 Bishop of London, c.915-c.960.

30 Archbishop of York, 931-56.

31 Aka as Coenwald, bishop of Worcester, 929-57.

32 Or Alfred; most probably bishop of Selsey, appointed between 940 and 943 and died between 953 and 956.

33 Most probably bishop of Hereford, appointed either 934 or between 937 and 940 and died either between 949 and 958 or in 971.

34 Bishop of Crediton, 934-53.

35 The first wife of Edmund, died 944.

Election of Avice as the first Abbess of Malling, b.1180

Transcription

198r (select folio number to open facsimile)

De subiectione et fidelitate abbatissę de Mellingis. _Die illa qua Gundulfus Rofensis
episcopus abbatiam de Mellingis dedit
sanctimoniali Avitię, eadem sanctimoni-
alis eidem episcopo, eiusque successoribus, et sanctę Ro-
fensi ęcclesię, iurauit fidelitatem, et subie-
ctionem, et quia nec per se, nec per aliam perso-
nam, praedictam subiectionem dissoluere tempta-
ret. Hoc autem facto sacramento, praedicta
Auitia episcopo firma et stabili conuentione
promisit, quia sine eius consilio et licentia,
in abbatia sibi data, priorem nec poneret nec
deponeret, nec ullam sanctimonialem reciperet
nec terram inde daret uel auferret. Huius
rei testes fuerunt isti audientes et ui-
dentes: Radulfus abbas belli, Orduuinus
prior, Paulinus secretarius, Alueredus, An-
dreas medicus, Arnulfus capellanus episcopi, Johannes, Goisfridus, Albericus, Odo, Berin-
garius, Willelmus subprior, Hunfridus, Ernegri-
nus, Hugo nepos episcopi, Willelmus iuuenis, Radulfus clericus, Ansfridus clericus, Godar-
dus clericus, Rodbertus camerarius, Hugo came-
rarius, Ansfridus dapifer, Hunfridus porta-

198v

rius, et alii plures.

Translation

See Translation Notes

Concerning the subjection and fidelity of the abbess of Malling

On the day when Gundulf, bishop of Rochester, gave the abbey of Malling to the nun Avice, the very same nun swore fidelity and subjection to the very same bishop, his successors, and the holy church of Rochester, because she would not be persuaded, either by him or by another person, to dissolve the aforesaid subjection. Moreover, with this oath made, the aforementioned Avice promised to the bishop, by firm and stable covenant, that without his counsel and authority having been given to her in the abbey, she might neither appoint nor depose a prioress, nor accept any nun, nor grant or obtain any land thenceforth.

These were the witnesses, hearing and considering the matter: Ralf the excellent abbot; Ordwin the prior; Paul the secretary; Alfred; Andrew the doctor; Arnulf the bishop’s chaplain; John; Geoffrey; Albert; Odo; Bérenger; William the sub-prior; Humfrey; Arngren;² Hugo³ the bishop’s nephew; William the young; Ralf the priest; Ansfrid the priest; Goddard the priest; Robert the chamberlain; Hugo⁴ the chamberlain; Ansfrid Dapifer;⁵ Humfrey the porter; and many others.

Footnotes

1 Malling Abbey was founded towards the end of the eleventh century, likely after 1090. A charter confirming the foundational grant of land was made during the reign of William II (Rufus), r. 1087–1100, and was witnessed by Ranulf Flambard, bishop of Durham, r. 1099–1128. The completion of the foundation and appointment of Avice cannot be ascertained with absolute confidence, though we can say she was appointed before bishop Gundulf’s death on 7 March 1108. William Dugdale suggests she was appointed when Gundulf was dying: Monasticon Anglicanum: A History of the Abbies and other Monasteries, etc. in England and Wales, vol. 3 (London, 1846), p. 381, n. g. The main scribe copied this document into Textus Roffensis around 1123. More information on the Benedictine abbey of Malling, including a list of the abbesses, is online here [accessed 12 December, 2017], though note the mistake regarding the founding of the abbey ‘towards the end of the twelfth century’, when clearly the ‘eleventh century’ was intended.

2 Tentative Anglicised spelling of Ernegrinus.

3 Or, Hugh.

4 Or, Hugh.

5 Or, the steward.