Early Medieval Winchester: Communities, Authority and Power in an Urban Space, c.800-c.1200

Winchester’s identity as a royal centre became well established between the ninth and twelfth centuries, closely tied to the significance of the religious communities who lived within and without the city walls. The reach of power of Winchester was felt throughout England and into the Continent through the relationships of the bishops, the power fluctuations of the Norman period, the pursuit of arts and history writing, the reach of the city’s saints, and more. The essays contained in this volume present early medieval Winchester not as a city alone, but a city emmeshed in wider political, social, and cultural movements and, in many cases, providing examples of authority and power that are representative of early medieval England as a whole.

Table of Contents

Editors’ Preface
List of Contributors
List of Illustrations

1. Communities, Authority and Power in Winchester, c. 800–c. 1200
Katherine Weikert, Ryan Lavelle, and Simon Roffey

2. Capital Considerations: Winchester and the Birth of Urban Archaeology
Martin Biddle

3. The King’s Stone: Peace, Power and the Highway in Early Medieval Winchester
Alexander James Langlands

4. Royal Burial in Winchester: Context and Significance
Barbara Yorke

5. Constructing Early Medieval Winchester: Historical Narratives and the Compilation of British Library Cotton Otho B.XI
Sharon M. Rowley

6. Winchester, Æthelings and Clitones: The Political Significance of the City for Anglo-Saxon Royalty and Norman Nobility
David McDermott

7. The Execution of Earl Waltheof: Public Space and Royal Authority at the Edge of Eleventh-Century Winchester
Ryan Lavelle

8. Queen, the Countess and the Conflict: Winchester 1141
Katherine Weikert

9. Lantfred and Local Life at Winchester in the 960s and 970s
Mark Atherton

10. Wælcyrian in the Water Meadows: Lantfred’s Furies
Eric Lacey

11. SK27, Or A Winchester Pilgrim’s Tale
Simon Roffey

12. The Early Jewish Community in Twelfth-Century Winchester: An Interdisciplinary View
Toni Griffiths

13. Henry of Blois and an Archbishopric of Winchester: Medieval Rationale and Anglo-Saxon Sources
Alexander R. Rumble

14. Swithun in the North: A Winchester Saint in Norway
Karl Christian Alvestad