<A double monastery was founded at Much Wenlock by King Merewalh, c. 670. Under control of St Botulf (house founded at Icenho, Suffolk, in 654). First abbess, Liobsynde, was Frankish, from Chelles. Then Mildburg, daughter of Merewalh (king of the Magonsætan) and his wife Eormenburg; half-sister of Merchelm and Mildfrith, and sister of Mildthryth (of Minster-in-Thanet), Mildgyth, and Merefin. Hildelith informed St Boniface of the vision of the monk of Wenlock.>
<See DB Shrops. church of St Mildred.>
<S 221 extant in single-sheet form (BL Cotton Charter viii. 27); but is it from the M. Wenlock archive as such? Perhaps not: chirograph, and seems to be portion belonging to Æthelred and Æthelflæd.>
<The Vita beate ac deo dilecte uirginis Mildburge is generally attributed to Goscelin of Saint-Bertin, who was active in the second half of the eleventh century. Preserved in BL Add. 34633, fols. 206r-216v; see also Barlow, Life of Edward (1992), pp. 133-49, at 149, for other MSS. Used charters, and supplies copy of the so-called ‘Testament of St Mildburg’ (ed. Finberg, ECWM, pp. 201-4, with translation, pp. 204-6, from Add. 34633, fols. 210r-211r). Incorporates extracts from five late-seventh- and early-eighth-century charters.>
CHARTERS OF MUCH WENLOCK
Royal diploma. 221.
Others. 1798; 1799; 1800; 1801; 1802.
Select bibliography
WM, GP, pp. 305-6; Mon. Angl. i. 613-14; Not. Mon. (Shrops.), no. <00>; Mon. Angl. (rev. ed.) v. 72-82; VCH Shrops. ii. 38-47; MRH, p. 101; hrh, pp. 122-3. Davis, p. 116.
<Stenton, ASE, pp. 47, 162. Finberg, ECWM, pp. 197-216. Sims-Williams?>