Amesbury

According to William of Malmesbury, Queen Ælfthryth, widow of King Edgar, founded nunneries at Amesbury and Wherwell in expiation for the murder of King Edward the Martyr; Amesbury itself was already a royal estate.  No cartulary of Amesbury is recorded.  In an Exchequer suit held in 1423, the then prioress of Amesbury produced a charter of King Æthelred, in favour of abbess Heahflæd; to judge from the account of the suit, the charter was cast in terms similar to King Æthelred’s charter for Wherwell, dated 1002 (S 904).

Charters of Amesbury

Royal diploma.  S (Add.) 1604a.

 Select bibliography

WM, GP, p. 188; Mon. Angl. i. 191-3; Mon. Angl. (rev. ed.) ii. 333-43; VCH Wilts. iii. 242-59; MRH, pp. 104-5; HRH, p. 207. 

<Hinton - see Yorke bibliog., p. 344.>

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October 2011