Eadnoth the Younger

For others of the same name, see Eadnoth (disambiguation).

Eadnoth
Bishop of Dorchester
Miniature of a bishop and an abbot from the 14th-century Ramsey Psalter, thought to be Oswald (left) and his kinsman Eadnoth (right)
Province	Canterbury
Diocese	Dorchester
Installed	Between 1007 and 1009
Term ended	1016
Predecessor	Ælfhelm
Successor	Æthelric
Other posts	Previously Abbot of Ramsey (c. 992—1007 x 1009)
Personal details
Parents	Æthelstan Mannessune and unknown (kinswoman of Archbishop Oswald)
Profession	Monk
Sainthood
Feast day	18 October
Patronage	Ramsey Abbey
Shrines	Ely Cathedral (medieval)
Cult suppressed	See Dissolution of the Monasteries

Eadnoth the Younger or Eadnoth I was a medieval monk and prelate, successively Abbot of Ramsey and Bishop of Dorchester. From a prominent family of priests in the Fens, he was related to Oswald, Bishop of Worcester, Archbishop of York and founder of Ramsey Abbey. Following in the footsteps of his illustrious kinsman, he initially became a monk at Worcester. He is found at Ramsey supervising construction works in the 980s, and around 992 actually became Abbot of Ramsey. As abbot, he founded two daughter houses in what is now Cambridgeshire, namely, a monastery at St Ives and a nunnery at Chatteris. At some point between 1007 and 1009, he became Bishop of Dorchester, a see that encompassed much of the eastern Danelaw. He died at the Battle of Assandun in 1016, fighting Cnut the Great.

Family

Eadnoth the Younger was the son of Æthelstan Mannessune by a kinswoman of Oswald, Bishop of Worcester and Archbishop of York.^[1] His father came from family of hereditary Fenland priests from in or around the Isle of Ely.^[1] Æthelstan had lands in Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire and Bedfordshire, with "outlying" [Hart] estates in Norfolk and Lincolnshire.^[2] Eadnoth is styled "the Younger", Iunior, to distinguish him from Eadnoth "the Elder", Senior, the follower of Oswald who served as prior of the monastery of Ramsey in the years before Eadnoth the Younger became abbot.^[3]

Eadnoth the Younger had one brother, Godric (died 1013), and at least two sisters, Ælfwaru (died 1007) and Ælfwyn, all of whom inherited estates (in addition to a fishery) from their father.^[4] Eadnoth, by contrast, became a monk at Worcester Abbey, where his mother's kinsman Oswald was bishop, and thus could not inherit anything.^[5] Eadnoth appears for the first time in the 980s when, according to the Liber Benefactorum Ecclesiae Ramesiensis, he supervised the repair of the western tower of Ramsey Abbey.^[6] Eadnoth became Abbot of Ramsey in 992,^[7] having probably already taken over Eadnoth the Elder's duties as prior from at least 991, if not earlier.^[8]

Abbot of Ramsey

The Liber Benefactorum calls Eadnoth the Younger the "first abbot of Ramsey".^[9] It says that he was elected according to the Benedictine Rule by the monks of Ramsey, after Ealdorman Æthelwine had given Germanus enough money to found a new monastery at Cholsey.^[10] Ramsey had had two communities of monks, those who had been moved by Oswald there from Westbury on Trym in the 960s, and those who had fled there in the 980s from Winchcombe because of the anti-monastic reaction in Mercia; until 992, Oswald, who died in 992, had been titular abbot of the former with Eadnoth the Elder as his prior, while the Winchcombe monks had Germanus as their abbot.^[11]

According to historian Cyril Hart, "there is no shred of doubt" that Eadnoth the Younger obtained this office through the influence of Oswald.^[12] Although such nepotism contradicted the usual spirit of the Benedictine revival in England at the time, Oswald himself had similarly advanced because of family connections.^[12] As abbot Eadnoth founded a nunnery on his family lands at Chatteris, and his younger sister Ælfwyn became its first abbess.^[13] In 1007 Chatteris nunnery received the lands of Over and Barley, following the death of their sister Ælfwaru.^[14]

Eadnoth also founded a monastery at St Ives, Cambridgeshire. Established as a daughter-house of Ramsey (like Chaterris), the monastery's entire endowment consisted of Slepe (what became St Ives) as well as part of Elsworth and Knapworth.^[15] All of these lands (including their churches) had been the property of Eadnoth's father Æthelstan.^[15] Elsworth had been left to Ramsey in the will of Eadnoth's sister Ælfwaru.^[15] On 24 April 1002, soon after founding St Ives, he translated its eponymous saintly resident—discovered by a ploughing peasant a year before— to Ramsey Abbey.^[16]

Bishop of Dorchester

At some point between 1007 and 1009, Eadnoth became Bishop of Dorchester.^[17] Dorchester was a sprawling diocese based far to the south of most of its territory in the eastern Danelaw, at Dorchester on Thames.^[18] It was roughly equivalent to the pre-Viking east Mercian diocese of Leicester, and after Eadnoth's episcopate came to include the Diocese of Lindsey too.^[19] In the Norman era the bishopric's seat returned north, and became the well-known bishopric of Lincoln.^[20]

Little is known of Eadnoth's episcopate. His first appearance as bishop is as a witness to a charter of 1009, issued by King Æthelred to a thegn named Morcar; the last notice of Eadnoth's predecessor as bishop, Ælfhelm, occurs in a similar document of 1007.^[21] Eadnoth subsequently subscribes at least another eight royal charter before his death, all between 1011 and 1013, with a possible further subscription in 1016.^[22] On 18 October 1016, Bishop Eadnoth fought and was martyred at the battle of Assandun in Essex, alongside Wulfsifge, his successor as abbot of Ramsey, and Æthelweard son of Ealdorman Æthelwine [of East Anglia].^[23] He was fighting on behalf of Edmund Ironside against Cnut, the Danish invader who was claiming the English crown.^[24]

Eadnoth's body was taken north into the Fenlands, heading back to Ramsey. According to the Liber Eliensis, the guards of the body stopped at Ely Abbey and got drunk, during which the Ely monks seized and hid the body.^[25] The plot was led by Ælfgar, formerly Bishop of Elmham.^[25] Thereafter the body remained at Ely, where Eadnoth the Martyr was venerated as a saint.^[25]

It is thought that Abbot Eadnoth is the abbot depicted alongside a bishop (his kinsman Bishop Oswald) in one of the miniatures in the 14th-century Ramsey Psalter (not to be confused with British Museum MS Harley 2904).^[26] Below Bishop Oswald is a ram, after the first element of the place-name Ramsey, and below Eadnoth a bull, in reference to the foundation legend of the abbey.^[27]

Notes

1 2 Wareham, "St Oswald's Family", pp. 49–50
↑ Hart, "Eadnoth I", p. 615
↑ Lapidge (ed.), Byrhtferth, pp. xvii–xviii, xxv–xxvi
↑ Wareham, "St Oswald's Family", pp. 49–51
↑ Wareham, "St Oswald's Family", p. 51
↑ Lapidge (ed.), Byrhtferth, pp. xxv–xxvi
↑ Lapidge, "Abbot Germanus", p. 409; Knowles, Brook and London, Heads of Religious Houses, p. 61, give 993
↑ Lapidge (ed.), Byrhtferth, p. 180, n. 144
↑ Lapidge, "Abbot Germanus", pp. 409, 413; Sandler, "Historical Miniatures", p. 607; Wareham, "St Oswald's Family", p. 51; some other modern authorities list Oswald and Germanus as his predecessors in this office, as in Knowles, Brook and London, Heads of Religious Houses, p. 61
↑ Lapidge (ed.), Byrhtferth, pp. 64–65, n. 58; see also Lapidge, "Abbot Germanus", p. 409, nn. 94–96
↑ Lapidge (ed.), Byrhtferth, pp. 64–65, n. 58
1 2 Hart, "Eadnoth", p. 621
↑ Lapidge (ed.), Byrhtferth, pp. 180–81, n. 144; Wareham, "St Oswald's Family", pp. 51–52
↑ Wareham, "St Oswald's Family", pp. 51–52
1 2 3 Hart, "Eadnoth I", pp. 617–18
↑ Lapidge (ed.), Byrhtferth, pp. 180–81, n. 144
↑ Wareham, "St Oswald's Family", p. 52, gives 1008, while Lapidge, "Abbot Germanus", p. 409; Lapidge, Byrhtferth, pp. 180–81, n. 144, and Keynes, Atlas, Table LXb (1 of 2), shows that it was no earlier than 1007 and no later than 1009
↑ Hill, Atlas, pp. 147–148
↑ Hill, Atlas, p. 148; Whitelock, "Dealings", pp. 74–75
↑ Fryde, Greenway and Porter, Handbook of British Chronology, p. 255
↑ Sawyer 917 ; Sawyer 922 ; Keynes, Atlas, Table LXb (1 of 2); Lapidge, Byrhtferth, pp. 180–81, n. 144
↑ Sawyer 923 ; Sawyer 924 ; Sawyer 926 ; Sawyer 927 ; Sawyer 929 ; Sawyer 931 ; Sawyer 935 , plus two unlisted by Sawyer; Keynes, Atlas, Table LXb (2 of 2)
↑ Lawson, Cnut, p. 117; Whitelock (ed.), English Historical Documents, p. 250
↑ Lawson, Cnut, p. 28
1 2 3 Blair, "Handlist", pp. 528–29; Fairweather (ed.), Liber Eliensis, p. 169
↑ Sandler, "Historical Miniatures", p. 607, depicted p. 609, figure 46; image lies in Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, MS M. 302, fol. 4v
↑ Sandler, "Historical Miniatures", p. 606

References

Blair, John (2002), "A Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Saints", in Thacker, Alan; Sharpe, Richard, Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early Medieval West, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 495–565, ISBN 0-19-820394-2
Fairweather, Janet, ed. (2005), Liber Eliensis: A History of the Isle of Ely from the Seventh Century to the Twelfth, compiled by a Monk of Ely in the Twelfth Century, Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, ISBN 1-84383-015-9
Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I., eds. (1986), Handbook of British Chronology, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, No. 2 (3rd ed.), London: Offices of the Royal Historical Society, ISBN 0-86193-106-8
Hart, Cyril (1992) [1964], "Eadnoth I of Ramsey and Dorchester", in Hart, Cyril, The Danelaw, London: Hambledon Press, pp. 613–23, ISBN 1-85285-044-2 , originally published in Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society: 61–67, 1964 CS1 maint: Untitled periodical (link)
Hill, David (1981), An Atlas of Anglo-Saxon England, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, ISBN 0-631-11181-6
Keynes, Simon (2002), An Atlas of Attestations in Anglo-Saxon Charters, c. 670–1066, ASNC Guides, Texts, and Studies, 5, Cambridge: Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic Studies, University of Cambridge, ISBN 0-9532697-6-0, ISSN 1475-8520
Knowles, David; Brooke, C. N. L.; London, C. M, eds. (2001), The Heads of Religious Houses : England and Wales. 1, 940—1216 (2nd ed.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-80452-3
Lapidge, Michael (1993), "Abbot Germanus, Winchcombe, Ramsey and the Cambridge Psalter", in Lapidge, Michael, Anglo-Latin Literature, 900–1066, London: The Hambledon Press, pp. 387–17, ISBN 1-85285-012-4 , originally published as Korhammer, M., ed. (1992), Words, Texts, and Manuscripts: Studies in Anglo-Saxon Culture Presented to Helmut Gneuss on the Occasion of His Sixty-Fifth Birthday, London: Boydell and Brester, pp. 99–129, ISBN 0-85991-363-5
Lapidge, Michael, ed. (2009), Byrhtferth of Ramsey: The Lives of St Oswald and St Ecgwine, Oxford Medieval Texts, Oxford: Clarendon Press, ISBN 978-0-19-955078-4
Lawson, M. K. (2004), Cnut: England's Viking King (2nd ed.), Stroud: Tempus, ISBN 0-7524-2964-7
Miller, Sean, New Regesta Regum Anglorum, Anglo-Saxons.net, retrieved 2010-01-03
Sandler, Lucy Freeman (1969), "The Historical Miniatures of the Fourteenth-Century Ramsey Psalter", The Burlington Magazine, The Burlington Magazine Publications, Ltd., 111 (799): 605–611
Wareham, Andrew (1996), "St Oswald's Family and Kin", in Brooks, Nicholas; Cubitt, Catherine, St Oswald of Worcester: Life and Influence, London: Leicester University Press, pp. 46–63, ISBN 0-7185-0003-2
Whitelock, Dorothy (1959), "The Dealings of the Kings of England with Northumbria", in Clemoes, Peter, The Anglo-Saxons: Studies in some Aspects of their History and Culture presented to Bruce Dickins, London: Bowes & Bowes, pp. 707–88
Whitelock, Dorothy, ed. (1979), English Historical Documents. [Vol.1], c.500–1042, London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, ISBN 0-19-520101-9

External links

Eadnoth 11 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England; see also Eadnoth 8

Saints of Anglo-Saxon England

British / Welsh	Alban of St Albans Aldatus of Oxford Amphibalus of St Albans Arilda of Oldbury Barloc of Norbury Brannoc of Braunton Branwalator of Milton Credan of Bodmin Congar of Congresbury Dachuna of Bodmin Decuman of Watchet Elfin of Warrington Ivo of Ramsey Judoc of Winchester Juthwara of Sherbourne Melorius of Amesbury Nectan of Hartland Neot of St Neots Patrick of Glastonbury Rumon of Tavistock Samson of Dol Sativola of Exeter Urith of Chittlehampton

East Anglian	Æthelberht of East Anglia Æthelburh of Faremoutiers Æthelflæd of Ramsey Æthelthryth of Ely Æthelwine of Lindsey Athwulf of Thorney Blitha of Martham Botwulf of Thorney Cissa of Crowland Cuthbald of Peterborough Eadmund of East Anglia Eadnoth of Ramsey Guthlac of Crowland Herefrith of Thorney Hiurmine of Blythburgh Huna of Thorney Pega of Peakirk Regenhere of Northampton Seaxburh of Ely Tancred of Thorney Torthred of Thorney Tova of Thorney Walstan of Bawburgh Wihtburh of Ely Wulfric of Holme

East Saxon	Æthelburh of Barking Hildelith of Barking Osgyth Sæbbi of London

Frisian, Frankish and Old Saxon	Balthild of Romsey Bertha of Kent Felix of Dommoc Grimbald of St Bertin Monegunda of Watton Odwulf of Evesham Wulfram of Grantham

Irish and Scottish	Aidan of Lindisfarne Boisil of Melrose Echa of Crayke Ultan the Scribe Indract of Glastonbury Maildub of Malmesbury

Kentish	Æbbe of Thanet (Domne Eafe) Æthelberht of Kent Æthelburh of Kent Æthelred of Kent Albinus of Canterbury Berhtwald of Canterbury Deusdedit of Canterbury Edburga of Minster-in-Thanet Eanswith of Folkestone Eormengyth of Thanet Mildrith of Thanet Nothhelm of Canterbury Sigeburh of Thanet

Mercian	Ælfnoth of Stowe Ælfthryth of Crowland Æthelberht of Bedford Æthelmod of Leominster Æthelred of Mercia Æthelwynn of Sodbury Aldwyn of Coln Beonna of Breedon Beorhthelm of Stafford Coenwulf of Mercia Cotta of Breedon Credan of Evesham Cyneburh of Castor Cyneburh of Gloucester Cynehelm of Winchcombe Cyneswith of Peterborough Eadburh of Bicester Eadburh of Pershore Eadburh of Southwell Eadgyth of Aylesbury Eadweard of Maugersbury Ealdgyth of Stortford Earconwald of London Egwin of Evesham Freomund of Mercia Frithuric of Breedon Frithuswith of Oxford Frithuwold of Chertsey Hæmma of Leominster Merefin Mildburh of Wenlock Mildgyth Mildrith of Thanet Milred of Worcester Oda of Canterbury Oswald of Worcester Osburh of Coventry Rumwold of Buckingham Tibba of Ryhall Werburgh of Chester Wærstan Wigstan of Repton Wulfhild of Barking

Northumbrian	Acca of Hexham Æbbe "the Elder" of Coldingham Æbbe "the Younger" of Coldingham Ælfflæd of Whitby Ælfwald of Northumbria Æthelburh of Hackness Æthelgyth of Coldingham Æthelsige of Ripon Æthelwold of Farne Æthelwold of Lindisfarne Alchhild of Middleham Alchmund of Hexham Alchmund of Derby Balthere of Tyningham Beda of Jarrow Bega of Copeland Benedict Biscop Bercthun of Beverley Billfrith of Lindisfarne Bosa of York Botwine of Ripon Ceadda of Lichfield Cedd of Lichfield Ceolfrith of Monkwearmouth Ceolwulf of Northumbria Cuthbert of Durham Dryhthelm of Melrose Eadberht of Lindisfarne Eadfrith of Leominster Eadfrith of Lindisfarne Eadwine of Northumbria Ealdberht of Ripon Eanmund Eardwulf of Northumbria Eata of Hexham Ecgberht of Ripon Eoda Eosterwine of Monkwearmouth Hilda of Whitby Hyglac Iwig of Wilton John of Beverley Osana of Howden Osthryth of Bardney Oswald of Northumbria Oswine of Northumbria Sicgred of Ripon Sigfrith of Monkwearmouth Tatberht of Ripon Wihtberht of Ripon Wilfrith of Hexham Wilfrith II Wilgils of Ripon

Roman	Anselm of Canterbury Augustine of Canterbury Firmin of North Crawley Birinus of Dorchester Blaise Florentius of Peterborough Hadrian of Canterbury Honorius of Canterbury Justus of Canterbury Laurence of Canterbury Mellitus of Canterbury Paulinus of York Theodore of Canterbury

South Saxon	Cuthflæd of Lyminster Cuthmann of Steyning Leofwynn of Bishopstone

West Saxon	Æbbe of Abingdon Ælfgar of Selwood Ælfgifu of Exeter Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury Ælfheah of Canterbury Ælfheah of Winchester Æthelflæd of Romsey Æthelgar of Canterbury Æthelnoth of Canterbury Æthelwine of Athelney Æthelwold of Winchester Aldhelm of Sherborne Benignus of Glastonbury Beocca of Chertsey Beorhthelm of Shaftesbury Beornstan of Winchester Beornwald of Bampton Centwine of Wessex Cuthburh of Wimborn Cwenburh of Wimborne Dunstan of Canterbury Eadburh of Winchester Eadgar of England Eadgyth of Polesworth Eadgyth of Wilton Eadweard the Confessor Eadweard the Martyr Eadwold of Cerne Earmund of Stoke Fleming Edor of Chertsey Evorhilda Frithestan of Winchester Hædde of Winchester Humbert of Stokenham Hwita of Whitchurch Canonicorum Mærwynn of Romsey Margaret of Dunfermline Swithhun of Winchester Wulfsige of Sherborne Wulfthryth of Wilton

Unclear origin	Rumbold of Mechelen

Catholic Church titles
New title	Abbot of Ramsey c.992–1006x1008	Succeeded by Wulfsige
Preceded by Ælfhelm	Bishop of Dorchester 1007 x 1009–1016	Succeeded by Æthelric

Bishops of Lincoln

Leicester	Cuthwine Wilfrid Headda Aldwine Torhthelm Eadbeorht Unwona Wernbeorht Hræthhun Ealdred Ceobred see removed to Dorchester

Dorchester	Harlardus Wigmund Coenwulf Wynsige Æthelwold Oscytel united see: Leofwine Alnothus Æscwig Ælfhelm Eadnoth (I) Æthelric Eadnoth (II) Ulfus Normanus Wulfwig Remigius de Fécamp

High Medieval	Remigius de Fécamp Robert Bloet Alexander Robert de Chesney Geoffrey Plantagenet Walter de Coutances Hugh of Avalon William de Blois Hugh of Wells Robert Grosseteste Henry of Lexington Richard of Gravesend Oliver Sutton

Late Medieval	John Dalderby Anthony Bek Henry Burghersh Thomas Bek John Gynwell John Bokyngham Henry Beaufort Philip Repyngdon Richard Fleming William Grey William Alnwick Marmaduke Lumley John Chadworth Thomas Rotherham John Russell

Early modern	William Smyth Thomas Wolsey William Atwater John Longland Henry Holbeach John Taylor John White Thomas Watson Nicholas Bullingham Thomas Cooper William Wickham William Chaderton William Barlow Richard Neile George Montaigne John Williams Thomas Winniffe Robert Sanderson Benjamin Lany William Fuller Thomas Barlow Thomas Tenison James Gardiner William Wake Edmund Gibson Richard Reynolds John Thomas John Green Thomas Thurlow

Late modern	George Pretyman (later Pretyman Tomline) George Pelham John Kaye John Jackson Christopher Wordsworth Edward King Edward Hicks William Swayne Nugent Hicks Aylmer Skelton Leslie Owen Maurice Harland Kenneth Riches Simon Phipps Bob Hardy John Saxbee Christopher Lowson

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