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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