Wynflaed of Shaftesbury

• Preferred Name: Wynflaed of Shaftesbury^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]}
  
• Alternate Name: of Shaftesbury
  
• Gender: F
  
• FSID: GK2P-1V6
  
• Birth: ABT 900 in Wessex with note: GEDCOM data
  
• Death: BET 950 AND 960
  
• Notes:

  === Life Sketch ===
  geni.com
  
  Wynflæd of Shaftesbury
  Birthdate: circa 900
  Death:
  Immediate Family:
  Daughter of Byrhtwynne
  Wife of Husband of Wynflæd
  Mother of Saint Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury and Eadmære
  
  Wynflæd of Shaftesbury
  Birthdate: circa 900
  Death: between 950 of 967
  Immediate Family:
  Daughter of Byrhtwynne
  Husband unknown
  Mother of Saint Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury, Æthelflæd and Eadmære
  
  Wynflaed (d. ca 950/960) was an Anglo-Saxon noblewoman, a major landowner in the areas of Hampshire, Somerset, Dorset and Wiltshire. There is some debate as to whether or not she should be assumed to be the same Wynflaed who was the mother of Aelfgifu of Shaftesbury and likely the grandmother of Kings Eadwig and Edgar the Peaceful, but many historians think this is probable.
  
  Her will lists holdings and estates including Faccombe Netherton (modern Netherton, Hampshire) and Charlton Horethorne along with estates and moveable goods such as tents, chests, cups, and clothing. Wynflaed is acknowledged as a widow vowess probably connected to Shaftesbury Abbey, with connections also to Wilton Abbey, another royal abbey.
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wynflaed
  
  In an article about Saint Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury, Catholic Online has much to say about Wynflaed:
  
  "Her [St. Elgiva] mother appears to have been an associate of Shaftesbury Abbey called Wynflaed (also Wynnflæd). The vital clue comes from a charter of King Edgar, in which he confirmed the grant of an estate at Uppidelen (Piddletrenthide, Dorset) made by his grandmother (ava) Wynflæd to Shaftesbury.[7] She may well be the nun or vowess (religiosa femina) of this name in a charter dated 942 and preserved in the abbey's chartulary. It records that she received and retrieved from King Edmund a handful of estates in Dorset, namely Cheselbourne and Winterbourne Tomson, which somehow ended up in the possession of the community.[8]
  
  Since no father or siblings are known, further speculation on Ælfgifu's background has largely depended on the identity of her mother, whose relatively uncommon name has invited further guesswork. H. P. R. Finberg suggests that she was the Wynflæd who drew up a will, supposedly sometime in the mid-10th century, after Ælfgifu's death. This lady held many estates scattered across Wessex (in Somerset, Wiltshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, and Hampshire) and was well connected with the nunneries at Wilton and Shaftesbury, both of which were royal foundations. On that basis, a number of relatives have been proposed for Ælfgifu, including a sister called Æthelflæd, a brother called Eadmær, and a grandmother called Brihtwyn.[9]
  
  There is, however, no consensus among scholars about Finberg's suggestion. Simon Keynes and Gale R. Owen object that there is no sign of royal relatives or connections in Wynflæd's will and Finberg's assumptions about Ælfgifu's family therefore stand on shaky ground.[10] Andrew Wareham is less troubled about this and suggests that different kinship strategies may account for it.[11] Much of the issue of identification also seems to hang on the number of years by which Wynflæd can plausibly have outlived her daughter. In this light, it is significant that on palaeographical grounds, David Dumville has rejected the conventional date of c. 950 for the will, which he considers “speculative and too early” (and that one Wynflæd was still alive in 967)."
  https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=3090
  
  -----------------
  The Henry Project: The Ancestors of King Henry II of England
  
  Wynflæd
  Mother of St. Ælfgifu.
  In 966, king Eadgar ("Adgar") of England confirmed a grant of land in co. Dorset to Shaftesbury Abbey which had formerly been granted by his grandmother Winfled ["... ego Adgar tocius Britannie basileus ... ava mea Winfled" Cart. Sax. 3: 449 (#1186)]. Since Eadgar's paternal grandmother is documented by other records as Eadgifu, Wynflæd must have been his maternal grandmother, and therefore mother of St. Ælfgifu, mother of Eadgar.
  
  https://fasg.org/projects/henryproject/data/wynfl000.htm

1. Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury , b. 6 JAN 922 in Kingdom of Wessex     d. 18 MAY 944 in Shaftesbury Abbey, Dorset, England

1. Title: Eadric Streona :: a critical biography/
   Author: Locy, Terry Lee, "Eadric Streona :: a critical biography/" (1998). Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014. 1729. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/1729
   Publication: Name: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2865&context=theses;
   Page: page 5
   
2. Title: St. Elgiva of Shaftesbury - Catholic Online Saints & Angels
   Author: https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=3090
   Publication: Name: https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=3090;
   Note: Queen and mother of Kings Edwy of the Saxons and Edgar, King of England, and wife of Edmund the First. She gave up public life and became a Benedictine nun at Shaftesbury. Saint Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury, also known as Saint Elgiva (died 944)[2] was the first wife of Edmund I (r. 939–946), by whom she bore two future kings, Eadwig (r. 955–959) and Edgar (r. 959–975). Like her mother Wynflaed, she had a close and special if unknown connection with the royal nunnery of Shaftesbury (Dorset), founded by King Alfred,[3] where she was buried and soon revered as a saint. According to a pre-Conquest tradition from Winchester, her feast day is 18 May. Family background Her mother appears to have been an associate of Shaftesbury Abbey called Wynflaed (also Wynnflæd). The vital clue comes from a charter of King Edgar, in which he confirmed the grant of an estate at Uppidelen (Piddletrenthide, Dorset) made by his grandmother (ava) Wynflæd to Shaftesbury.[7] She may well be the nun or vowess (religiosa femina) of this name in a charter dated 942 and preserved in the abbey's chartulary. It records that she received and retrieved from King Edmund a handful of estates in Dorset, namely Cheselbourne and Winterbourne Tomson, which somehow ended up in the possession of the community.[8] Since no father or siblings are known, further speculation on Ælfgifu's background has largely depended on the identity of her mother, whose relatively uncommon name has invited further guesswork. H. P. R. Finberg suggests that she was the Wynflæd who drew up a will, supposedly sometime in the mid-10th century, after Ælfgifu's death. This lady held many estates scattered across Wessex (in Somerset, Wiltshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, and Hampshire) and was well connected with the nunneries at Wilton and Shaftesbury, both of which were royal foundations. On that basis, a number of relatives have been proposed for Ælfgifu, including a sister called Æthelflæd, a brother called Eadmær, and a grandmother called Brihtwyn.[9] There is, however, no consensus among scholars about Finberg's suggestion. Simon Keynes and Gale R. Owen object that there is no sign of royal relatives or connections in Wynflæd's will and Finberg's assumptions about Ælfgifu's family therefore stand on shaky ground.[10] Andrew Wareham is less troubled about this and suggests that different kinship strategies may account for it.[11] Much of the issue of identification also seems to hang on the number of years by which Wynflæd can plausibly have outlived her daughter. In this light, it is significant that on palaeographical grounds, David Dumville has rejected the conventional date of c. 950 for the will, which he considers “speculative and too early” (and that one Wynflæd was still alive in 967).[12] Married life The sources do not record the date of Ælfgifu's marriage to Edmund. The eldest son Eadwig, who had barely reached majority on his accession in 955, may have been born around 940, which gives us only a very rough terminus ante quem for the betrothal. Although as the mother of two future kings, Ælfgifu proved to be an important royal bed companion, there is no strictly contemporary evidence that she was ever consecrated as queen. In a charter of doubtful authenticity dated 942-946, she attests as the king's concubine (concubina regis).[13] but later in the century Æthelweard the Chronicler styles her queen (regina). Much of Ælfgifu's claim to fame derives from her association with Shaftesbury. Her patronage of the community is suggested by a charter of King Æthelred, dated 984, according to which the abbey exchanged with King Edmund the large estate at Tisbury (Wiltshire) for Butticanlea (unidentified). Ælfgifu received it from her husband and intended to bequeath it back to the nunnery, but such had not yet come to pass (her son Eadwig demanded that Butticanlea was returned to the royal family first).[14] Ælfgifu predeceased her husband in 944.[15] In the early 12th century, William of Malmesbury wrote that she suffered from an illness during the last few years of her life, but there may have been some confusion with details of Æthelgifu's life as recorded in a forged foundation charter of the late 11th or 12th century (see below).[16] Her body was buried and enshrined at the nunnery.[17] Sainthood Ælfgifu was venerated as a saint soon after her burial at Shaftesbury. Æthelweard reports that many miracles had taken place at her tomb up to his day,[18] and these were apparently attracting some local attention. Lantfred of Winchester, who wrote in the 970's and so can be called the earliest known witness of her cult, tells of a young man from Collingbourne (possibly Collingbourne Kingston, Wiltshire), who in the hope of being cured of blindness travelled to Shaftesbury and kept vigil. What led him there was the reputation of “the venerable St Ælfgifu [...] at whose tomb many bodies of sick person receive medication through the omnipotence of God”.[19] Despite the new prominence of Edward the Martyr as a saint interred at Shaftesbury, her cult continued to flourish in later Anglo-Saxon England, as evidenced by her inclusion in a list of saints' resting places, at least 8 pre-Conquest calendars and 3 or 4 litanies from Winchester.[20] Ælfgifu is styled a saint (Sancte Ælfgife) in the D-text of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (mid-11th century) at the point where it specifies Eadwig's and Edgar's royal parentage.[21] Her cult may have been fostered and used to enhance the status of the royal lineage, more narrowly that of her descendants.[22] Lantfred attributes her healing power both to her own merits and those of her son Edgar. It may have been due to her association that in 979 the supposed body of her murdered grandson Edward the Martyr was exhumed and in a spectacular ceremony, received at the nunnery of Shaftesbury, under the supervision of ealdorman Ælfhere.[23] According to William of Malmesbury, Ælfgifu would secretly redeem those who were publicly condemned to severe judgment, she gave expensive clothes to the poor, and she also had prophetic powers as well as powers of healing.[24] Ælfgifu's fame at Shaftesbury seems to have eclipsed that of its first abbess, King Alfred's daughter Æthelgifu,[25] so much so perhaps that William of Malmesbury wrote contradictory reports on the abbey's early history. In the Gesta regum, he correctly identifies the first abbess as Alfred's daughter, following Asser, although he gives her the name of Ælfgifu (Elfgiva),[26] while in his Gesta pontificum, he credits Edmund's wife Ælfgifu with the foundation.[27] Either William encountered conflicting information, or he meant to say that Ælfgifu refounded the nunnery.[28] In any event, William would have had access to local traditions at Shaftesbury, since he probably wrote a now lost metrical Life for the community, a fragment of which he included in his Gesta pontificum: Notes ^ Elgiva May 18. Latin Saints of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Rome. ^ "St. Elgiva of Shaftesbury". catholic.org. ^ Asser, Vita Ælfredi ch. 98. ^ Lantfred, Translatio et Miracula S. Swithuni: pp. 328-9 n. 299 (Lapidge's commentary). ^ Elgiva May 18. Latin Saints of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Rome. ^ Charter S 1539 at the Electronic Sawyer ^ S 744 (AD 966). Edgar's paternal grandmother was Eadgifu of Kent. ^ S 485 (AD 942); Yorke, Nunneries and the Anglo-Saxon royal houses. pp. 82-3. See further Kelly, Charters of Shaftesbury Abbey. pp. 53-9. ^ S 1539; Finberg, The Early Charters of Wessex. p. 44. Whitelock, Anglo-Saxon wills, p. 109, identifies the testatrix with the religiosa femina of S 485 (AD 942), but she is silent about Edgar's grandmother. Brihtwyn has been tentatively identified as the wife of Alfred, bishop of Sherborne, but this has been disputed. See Whitelock, Anglo-Saxon Wills; Owen, “Wynflæd's wardrobe.” p. 197, note 2. ^ Keynes, “Alfred the Great and Shaftesbury Abbey.” pp. 43-5; Owen, “Wynflæd's wardrobe.” p. 197 note 1; Yorke, Nunneries and the Anglo-Saxon royal houses. p. 100 note 136. ^ Wareham, “Transformation of kinship.” pp. 382-3. ^ Dumville, “English square minuscule.” p. 146 note 75. The Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England also links Wynflæd with the noble matrona of that name, who appears in as late as 967 receiving royal grants of land in Hampshire. S 754 (AD 967); Wynnflæd 3, PASE. ^ S 514 (AD 942 x 946); Campbell, A., 1973 The Charters of Rochester, p. xxvi (cited in Sawyer, S514), ^ S 850 (AD 984). ^ Æthelweard, Chronicon, book IV, chapter 6, which assigns her death to the year that Amlaíb Cuarán and Ragnall were expelled from York. ^ S 357; Gesta pontificum Anglorum vol II, pp. 130-1 (Thomson's commentary); Yorke, Nunneries and the Anglo-Saxon royal houses, p. 76. ^ See Lantfred and Æthelweard below. ^ Æthelweard, Chronicon, book IV, chapter 6. ^ Lantfred, Translatio et Miracula S. Swithuni, ch. 36. ^ Thacker.,“Dynastic monasteries.” p. 259; On the resting places of English saints, ed. Liebermann, II no. 36. ^ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (D) s.a. 955. ^ Yorke, Nunneries and the Anglo-Saxon royal houses. p. 83. ^ Yorke, Nunneries and the Anglo-Saxon royal houses. p. 115. ^ Studies in the Early History of Shaftesbury Abbey. Dorset County Council, 1999 ^ Yorke, Nunneries and the Anglo-Saxon royal houses, p. 77. ^ William of Malmesbury, Gesta regum, ch. 122. ^ William of Malmesbury, Gesta pontificum, book 2, ch. 86. ^ William of Malmesbury, Gesta pontificum. Vol. II. p. 131. The latter suggestion was made by Patrick Wormald in correspondence with Thomson. ^ William of Malmesbury, Gesta pontificum. Vol. II. p. 131. ^ William of Malmesbury, Gesta pontificum, book 2, ch. 86. References Primary sources Anglo-Saxon charters S 514 (AD 942 x 946), King Edmund grants land. Archive: Canterbury. S 850 (AD 984), King Æthelred grants estates to Shaftesbury. Archive: Shaftesbury. S 744 (AD 966). Archive: Shaftesbury. S 485 (AD 942). Archive: Shaftesbury. S 1539, ed. and tr. Dorothy Whitelock, Anglo-Sax
   Page: Identifies Wynflaed (also Wynnflæd) as the mother of St. Elgiva of Shaftesbury says her husband is unknown Identifies Wynflæd'a mother as Brihtwyn Names her as the mother of up to 3 children: daughters Ælfgifu, and Æthelflæd, and a son Eadmær Wrote her will circa 950, died 967 or after
   
3. Title: Will of Wynflæd
   Publication: Name: https://esawyer.lib.cam.ac.uk/charter/1539.html;
   Note: S 1539 FirstPrevious CharterNext CharterLast s. x or xi. Will of Wynflæd concerning land at Ebbesborne, Wilts.; Charlton (probably Horethorne, Somerset); Coleshill, Berks.; Inggeneshamme (perhaps Inglesham, Wilts.); Faccombe, Hants; Adderbury, Oxon.; and at Chinnock, Somerset; the beneficiaries including Shaftesbury and Wilton. English Archive: uncertain (? Shaftesbury) MSS: 1. London, British Library, Cotton Charters viii. 38 (s. xi; BM Facs., iii. 38; Golden Age, p. 148) Printed: Hickes, Thesaurus, praefatio, pp. xxii-xxiii; K, 1290 Translated: Sawyer, Burton, pp. xv-xix Printed and Translated: Thorpe, pp. 533-9; Whitelock, Wills, no. 3 (pp. 10-15) Comments: BM Facs., iv, p. 7, 11th century; Whitelock, Wills, pp. 108-14, may be a copy; PN Oxon., ii. 391; Darlington 1955, pp. 68, 84; Aston 1958, p. 71, on tenurial implications; Finberg, ECW, no. 71, authentic; Finberg 1972, pp. 474, 498, 509-10; PN Berks., ii. 356-7, 375, 470; PN Dorset, iii. 139; Gelling, ECTV, no. 59 (pp. 41, 129), authentic; Owen 1979; Rumble 1984, pp. 50-1, on name-forms; Golden Age, pp. 148-9 (no. 151), 11th-century copy; Costen 1991, p. 44, on Chinnock estate, with map; Hooke 1991-2, p. 83, on Faccombe; Dumville 1994, p. 146 n. 75, script not mid 10th-century, suggested date c. 950 is speculative and too early; Pelteret 1995, pp. 126-9, 288; Faith 1997, p. 81; Foot 2000, II. 172-3, 225; Wareham 2001, pp. 381-3; Thompson 2006, p. 78, on script
   
4. Title: Wealthy Wynflæd’s wonderful will Posted by KATEHTHOMAS on OCTOBER 22, 2016
   Publication: Name: https://forthewynnblog.wordpress.com/2016/10/22/wealthy-wynflaeds-wonderful-will/;
   Note: A couple of months ago, I was poking through the Electronic Sawyer, an online version of the classic catalogue of Anglo-Saxon charters and wills. I was throwing in some random search terms related to my research – prayer, cross, crucifix – hoping to find references to people leaving prayerbooks to their beneficiaries, but not coming across anything particularly useful. And then I chanced upon a lengthy will, by one Wynflæd, who bequeathed land across the south of England, dated to the tenth or eleventh century but surviving in a single eleventh-century manuscript (London, British Library, Cotton Charters viii. 38), and I found myself becoming seriously intrigued. You can read the text of the will here: expand ‘Show all data’ towards the bottom of the page to show both the text and a modern English translation. (For some reason, the Anglo-Saxon letter ‘þ’ appears as ‘ˇ’.) Throughout this blogpost, I have quoted Sawyer’s edition and translation as given on the website. A few weeks afterwards, I was on a research trip to the British Library, looking at manuscripts for my future book, and decided to look at Wynflæd’s will in person. The manuscript came to me inside an enormous card frame, to which it had been delicately stuck with little tabs of tissue paper. It was a single piece of parchment, more than twice as wide as it was high (about 20.5 high x 50cm wide), just over twenty-six lines of Old English. It had obviously been folded at some point in its existence: there were three prominent lengthways creases down it, and one crossways down the middle, down which line it had at some point been ripped in two, having perhaps simply become torn under the stress of being folded for a long time. I could also make out four more, somewhat fainter, crossways creases, two either side of the central one: I tried to figure out which way the parchment had been folded: the holes in the right-hand side of the page look like a single hole that went through all the folds after being folded lengthways alone. I suppose it must have been stored in various different states over the years. As the manuscript was not then available, online, I did a little sketch of the charter, showing the fold lines (represented by dashes), and the holes and tear down the centre: There is no reason to suppose that this might be the original copy of the will, but I could see a few interesting things in the copyist’s work. About halfway down the online text, you can see the words, ‘oþþe hi mon æt him gehweorfe mid .XVI. mancussum reades reades goldes’ (‘or that he may receive sixteen mancuses of red gold’): the first ‘reades’ appears at the end of a line, and the scribe absent-mindedly copied it again at the start of the next one. As I say, it’s a wide piece of parchment – by the time he’d got back to the left-hand side again, he must have forgotten what he’d written last! One of the most interesting aspects of the surviving manuscript is the addition of interlinear text. In the online edition, these are marked using single quotation marks, e.g. ‘ ‘hyre mentelpreon’ ‘ on the fourth line of the online edition. There are quite a lot of these. Many of them are corrections, where the scribe had missed out a letter – it’s not a very high-status manuscript. But others are substantial additions to the text, which change the meaning of the will. Sometimes they add extra heirlooms to the list, sometimes important information about the people involved (more on that later); sometimes they add important clarification. Like when ‘Ælfferes dohtor þa geonran’ is mentioned – the scribe needed to add the last two words to clarify that it was Ælffere’s younger daughter who is referred to (another daughter has just been named). But who was Wynflæd? What do we actually know about her? First of all, she appears to have been married: she mentions a morgengyfu (marriage-gift, literally ‘morning gift’), which she passes on to one Eadmær (her son-in-law?), giving other lands to her daughter Æthelflæd, who apparently has a young son called Eadwold. I won’t attempt to work out who all the beneficiaries of the will are, though. There appear to be at least two Æthelflæds, for example (one of them owns a nunscrud, a nun’s habit, so she’s probably not the one with the child). Secondly, it looks like Wynflæd was pretty minted. Did I mention that her dowry comprised not of one, but of several estates of land? And that’s only a part of her property portfolio. As for personal possessions, the will makes frequent reference to fancy furnishings and shiny stuff: silver cups, gilded cups, bedclothes, bed-curtains (bedwahrift), various other hangings (wahriftu) – oh, and the horses, too! And of course it’s her best (betst) bed-curtains and her best tunic and her best veil and band that are to go – what else would it be? This is where some of those little interlinear additions come in: the scribe has had to go back and add that it is ‘hyre beteran mentel’ (her better cloak), and, in Wynflæd’s bequests to her daughter, adds to ‘hyre agrafenan beah’ the extra words 7 hyre mentelpreon (‘her engraved bracelet and her brooch’). Since, as I say, such charters don’t tend to be the originals, I wonder what led to the addition of these extra words and phrases. And at one point Sawyer’s translation gets a little odd. Wynflæd’s many clothes-chests apparently included a ‘twilibrocenan cyrtel’: I’d never come across the first word before, but Sawyer tentatively interprets the phrase to mean a ‘double badger-skin (?) gown’. Badgerskin? I suppose this translation is based on the idea that the word derives from broc, ‘badger’. However, my first guess was something to do with the past participle brocen, ‘broken’. I looked up twilibrocen in the Bosworth-Toller Old English dictionary, which suggests ‘woven of double thread and parti-coloured (?) or embroidered (?)’, citing Celtic parallels. So maybe the badgers were safe from Wynflæd after all. On a more serious note, Wynflæd also had quite a lot of slaves. Ælffere’s daughter, mentioned above, was a bequest, not a beneficiary of one. Slavery existed during the Anglo-Saxon period: although it’s not something I’ve researched into myself, I have encountered references to the use of slavery as a punishment. We can see evidence for this in Wynflæd’s will: 7 gif þær hwylc witeþeow man sy butan þyson þe hio geþeowede hio gelyf∂ to hyre bearnon þæt hi hine willon lyhtan for hyre saulle. And if there be any penally enslaved man besides these whom she has enslaved, she trusts to her children that they will release him for her soul’s sake. This term witeþeowas specifically refers to those enslaved as a punishment. The will grants freedom to numerous people: Wulfwaru, Wulfflæd, Gerburg … What I found striking, particularly upon seeing the original manuscript, was just how many of the interlinear insertions are concerned with adding to the list of those slaves who are to be freed. I’ve written before about having to read between the lines to find women, and that’s what’s happening here. I’ve marked these insertions in bold text: 7 freoge man Gerburge 7 Miscin 7 Hi…lf 7 Burhulfes dohtur æt C[in]nuc 7 Ælfsige 7 his wif 7 his yldran dohtor 7 Ceolstanes wif 7 æt Ceorlatune freoge man Pifus 7 Edwyn … 7 …ng wif 7 æt Faccancumbe frioge man Edelm 7 Man 7 Iohannan 7 Sprow 7 his wif 7 En.f…h 7 Gersande 7 Snel And Gerburg is to be freed, and Miscin and Hi…… and the daughter of Burhulf at Chinnock, and Ælfsige and his wife and elder daughter, and Ceolstan’s wife. And at Charlton Pifus and Eadwyn and …Æs wife are to be freed. And at Faccombe Eadhelm and Man and Johanna and Sprow and his wife and En…… and Gersand and Snel are to be freed. That’s four extra people who wouldn’t have been mentioned if the scribe hadn’t gone back and added their names. I bet they were glad not to be forgotten. As I said earlier, there’s no reason to believe that this was the original copy of the will, but one made perhaps some time later; so what is the significance of these insertions? They must have some implications for what actually ended up happening to Gerburg, Snel, Sprow and his wife. Why did the copyist only add them in as an apparent afterthought? Now, towards the end of the will, Wynflæd must dispense of her few remaining possessions: þenne an hio Æþelflæde on ælcum þingum þe þær unbecweden bi∂ on bocum 7 an swilcum lytlum 7 hio gelyf∂ [þ]æt hio wille hyre saulle geþencan 7 þær synt eac wahriftu sum þe hyre wyr∂e bi∂ 7 þa læstan hio mæg syllan hyre wimmannon Then she makes a gift to Æthelflæd of everything which is unbequeathed, books and such small things, and she trusts that she will be mindful of her soul. And there are also tapestries, one which is suitable for her, and the smallest she can give to her women. This Æthelflæd gets all the leftovers, the little things, just books and suchlike … books? Considering how much effort books (or perhaps other written materials: the word boc is used earlier in the will to refer to a legal document) took to create, it astonishes me that they could be numbered amongst the lytlum. What kind of books did Wynflæd own? Given that she then expresses her assurance that Æthelflæd will consider the good of her soul, I wonder if this was some kind of psalter or prayerbook for laypeople. I’d like to believe that one of these books contained prayers like the English version of the ‘Prayers ad horas‘ that I discussed in an earlier blogpost; maybe others contained poetry, or medical remedies? I stumbled across this will by accident, but I learned a lot from it. It gave me an insight into the lifestyle and possessions of a wealthy woman in the tenth century, and into her relationships with the people around her. It gives us a little glimpse into the life of a woman (who was doing pretty well for herself – I can’t imagine that her slaves left many records) who was neither a queen or a saint, nor anyone else whose life might be written about elsewhere. I
   
5. Title: Charter S 744 - Electronic Sawyer
   Publication: Name: https://esawyer.lib.cam.ac.uk/charter/744.html#;
   Note: Grant of King Edgar (Adgar) confirming lands to Shaftsbury Abbey A.D. 966. King Edgar to Shaftesbury Abbey; confirmation of 10 hides (cassati) at Uppidelen (Piddletrenthide, Dorset), originally granted by the king's grandmother, Wynflæd. Latin with English bounds Archive: Shaftesbury MSS: 1. London, British Library, Harley 61, ff. 13v-14r (s. xv in.) Printed: K, 522 and vol. iii. 465; B, 1186; Earle, p. 429, bounds only; Pierquin, Recueil, pt 2, no. 132; Kelly, Shaftesbury, no. 26 Comments: Reynolds 2002, pp. 176, 192, on burial feature in bounds; Grundy, Dorset, V, pp. 107-12, on bounds; Finberg, ECW, no. 607, authentic; PN Dorset, i. 310, on detail of bounds; Keynes 1980, p. 32 n. 53, renewal of lost landbook; Forsberg 1984, pp. 6-7, on bounds; Abrams 1996, p. 199 n. 45, on estate; Kelly, Shaftesbury, pp. 103-6, authentic; Foot 2000, II. 169, 172 Hide all data Metadata Text Cuncta seculorum patrimonia incertis nepotum heredibus derelinquuntur et omnis mundi gloria apropinquante uite mortis termino ad nichillum reducta fatescit. Iccirco terrenis caducarum possessionibus semper mansura superne patrie emolumenta adipiscentes Domino patrocinante lucrenda decernimus. Quam ob rem ego Adgar tocius Britannie basileus quandam telluris particulam .x. uidelicet cassatos loco qui celebri at Uppidelen nuncupatur uocabulo cuidam ecclesie in omni sanctorum ueneracione dicate loco qui celebri Schaftesbury uocatur onomate ad usus monialium inibi degencium, ut aua mea Winfled ante concesserat, eterna largitus sum hereditate. Uetus etenim prefati teritorii carta per incuriam quondam perdita fuerat atque ideo hanc nouam ob firmitatis munimen scribere iussi. Si quopiam uetus reperta fuerat, uel monasterio restituatur uel eius possessor furti crimine reus iudicetur. Sit autem predictum rus cum omnibus utensilibus, pratis uidelicet et pascuis, siluis, omni terrene seruitutis iugo liberum, tribus exceptis, rata uidelicet expedicione, pontis arcisue restauracione. Siquis igitur hanc nostram donacionem in aliud quam constituimus transferre uoluerit, priuatus consorcio sancte Dei ecclesie eternis baratri incendiis lugubris iugiter cum Iuda Christi proditore eiusque complicibus puniatur, si non satisfaccione emendauerit congrua quod contra nostrum deliquit decretum. Hiis metis prefatum rus hinc inde giratur. Ðis sanden þe land imaren at Uppidele. Of Pidelen streame on hlosstedes crundles suð ecge, of þane crundle on þat mere sled, of þat mere slede on ðes herepaþe, anlang herepaþes on mearhhilde mere, of mearhhilde mere on þane haþene berielese, on midde þane punfald, of þanne punfalde on Pidelenstream, of Pidelenstreme anlang burnstowe on greten linkes suth ecge, of þane gretenlinke on chellenberghe, þæt eft on Pidelen streame, and se made be Frome þat to þanne tune ibereth. Anno dominice incarnacionis .d.cccc.lxvi. scripta est hec carta, hiis testibus consencientibus quorum inferius nomina caraxantur. Ego Adgar rex Anglorum corroboraui. Ego Dunstan archiepiscopus consensi. Ego Oscytel archiepiscopus confirmaui. Ego Aþelwold episcopus consolidaui et ceteri. Metadata Old Text Rubric: + Istius presentis graphii intitulacione Deo et ecclesie sancti Adwardi Adgar rex .x. cassatos scilicet ad Uppidelen omni tempore suo intitulat dono. Cuncta seculorum patrimonia incertis nepotum heredibus derelinquuntur et omnis mundi gloria apropinquante uite mortis termino ad nichillum reducta facescit. Iccirco terrenis caducarum possessionibus semper mansura superne patrie emolumenta adipiscentes domino patrocinante lucrenda decreuiminus. Quam ob rem ego Adgar tocius Britannie basileus quandam telluris particulam .x. uidelicet cassatos loco qui celebri at Uppidelen nuncupatur uocabulo cuidam ecclesie in omni sanctorum ueneracione dicate loco qui celebri Schaftesbury uocatur onomate ad usus monialium inibi degencium ut aua mea Winfled ante concesserat eterna largitus sum hereditate. Uetus etenim prefati teritorii carta per incuriam quondam perdita fuerat atque ideo hanc nouam ob firmitatis munimen scribere iussi. Si quopiam uetus reperta fuerat, uel monasterio restituatur uel eius possessor furti crimine reus iudicetur. Sit autem predictum rus cum omnibus utensilibus, pratis uidelicet et pascuis, siluis, omni terrene seruitutis iugo liberum, tribus exceptis, rata uidelicet expedicione, pontis arcisue restauracione. Si quis igitur hanc nostram donacionem in aliud quam constituimus transferre uoluerit, priuatus consorcio sancte Dei ecclesie eternis baratri incendiis lugubris iugiter cum Iuda Christi proditore eiusque complicibus puniatur, si non satisfaccione emendauerit congrua quod contra nostram deliquid decretum. Hiis metis prefatum rus hinc inde giratur. ˘is sanden ˇe land imaren at Uppidele. Of Pidelen streame on hlosstedes crundles su∂ ecge, of ˇane crundle on ˇat mere sled, of ˇat mere slede on ∂es herepaˇe, anlang herepaˇes on mearhhilde mere, of mearhhilde mere on ˇane haˇene berielese, on midde ˇane punfald, of ˇanne punfalde on Pidelenstream, of Pidelenstreme anlang burnstowe on greten linkes suth ecge, of ˇane gretenlinke on chellenberghe, ˇæt eft on Pidelen streame, and se made be Frome ˇat to ˇanne tune ibereth. Anno dominice incarnacionis .dcccclxvi. scripta est hec carta, hiis testibus consencientibus quorum inferius nomina caraxantur. Ego Adgar rex Anglorum corroboraui. Ego Dunstan archiepiscopus consensi. Ego Oscytel archiepiscopus confirmaui. Ego Aˇelwold episcopus consolidaui et ceteri.
   Page: Identifies Wynflæd as grandmother of King Edgar (the Peaceful) and therefore also mother of Æthelflæd
   
6. Title: Wynflaed From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
   Publication: Name: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wynflaed;
   Note: Wynflaed (d. ca 950/960) was an Anglo-Saxon noblewoman, a major landowner in the areas of Hampshire, Somerset, Dorset and Wiltshire.[2] There is some debate as to whether or not she should be assumed to be the same Wynflaed who was the mother of Aelfgifu of Shaftesbury and likely the grandmother of Kings Eadwig and Edgar the Peaceful,[3] but many historians think this is probable.[4] Her will lists holdings and estates including Faccombe Netherton (modern Netherton, Hampshire) and Charlton Horethorne along with estates and moveable goods such as tents, chests, cups, and clothing. Wynflaed is acknowledged as a widow vowess probably connected to Shaftesbury Abbey,[5] with connections also to Wilton Abbey, another royal abbey. References Charter S 1539 at the Electronic Sawyer PASE: Wynnflæd 1; Charter S1539 PASE: Wynnflæd 4; Charter S744 See discussion at Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury#Family background Owen, Gale R. (December 1979). "Wynflæd's wardrobe". Anglo-Saxon England. 8: 195–222. doi:10.1017/S0263675100003082. ISSN 1474-0532. External links Wynnflæd 1, Wynnflæd 2, Wynnflæd 4, and Wynnflæd 3 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England may all relate to her. British Library blog Wealthy Wynflæd’s wonderful will