St.
Athelwin, Wessex and Athelney before Alfred’s Abbey
Niall
C.E.J. O’Brien
In the winter of 878
the Kingdom of Wessex, and Anglo-Saxon England, was reduced to a small island
in the Somerset levels known as the Isle of Athelney. Here King Alfred of
Wessex tried to work out the future as the Danes held most of the rest of
England. On the seventh week after Easter 878 King Alfred went forth from
Athelney and met the Danish army of King Guthrum at Ethandun and won a great
victory. Thereafter England was divided in two between Danish north-east and
Saxon south-west. Two centuries before Alfred’s time Athelney was famous as the
home of St. Athelwin the hermit, otherwise known as St. Athelwin the Confessor.
The
Isle of Athelney
The Isle of Athelney,
according to the Abbey records, contained about ten acres of arable land and
twenty acres of meadow along with part of moor situated on the south side.[1] The
Isle is a low lying hill, in two parts, on the north side of the River Tone and
is the only point of elevation on that side of the river of any consequence.[2] But
that elevation, according to Professor Mike Aston, is only about thirty feet
above the water level.[3] Before
the drainage of the Somerset levels, the Isle was surrounded by lakes such as
Horlake, Eastlake, Saltmoor and Southlake. Asser, the biographer of King
Alfred, described Athelney in Alfred’s time as “a spot so surrounded in all
directions by waters that save for one bridge there was no access to it except
by boat”.[4]
Athelney
in the Iron Age
The first documentary
history of Athelney comes in the seventh century. Archaeology is the only
opener on the pre-seventh century history of the island. The Time Team
archaeology programme dug at Athelney and discovered an Iron Age fort on the east
side of the Isle opposite the causeway from East Lyng. East Lyng is to the west
of Athelney. The bank around this Iron Age fort was visible in the time of King
Alfred and was reused by him. Iron Age pottery was also discovered on the Isle.[5]
Athelney around Alfred's time
The Iron Age fort was gone out of use by the seventh century otherwise St. Athelwin who not have enjoyed a hermits life on Athelney with all those Iron Age people singing songs, baking cakes and making noise.
The
Kingdom of Dyvnaint
At the end of the Roman
Empire in Britain the country broke up into a great number of different
kingdoms. The area of modern Somerset formed part of the Kingdom of Dyvnaint
and this included the Isle of Athelney.
The
growth of the Kingdom of Wessex
After the Saxon
invasion, or colonisation, in the fifth century the British were pushed
westwards into Wales and the south-west of England. Much of modern-day England
was divided into a number of Saxon kingdoms. Eventually three great kingdoms
emerged; Northumbria in the north-east, Mercia in the Midlands and Wessex in
the south.
Wessex, kingdom of the
West Saxons, was originally centred on the counties of Berkshire and Hampshire
but over time it expanded eastwards to Kent and westwards to Cornwall. In 568
the Kingdom of Wessex acquired Surrey after defeating King Aethelberht of Kent.
In 571 King Cuthwulf crossed the River Thames and after defeated the
British-Welsh army took the Vale of Aylesbury. In 574 the Kingdom of Wessex
reached the River Severn on the eastern edge of modern Somerset.[6]
King Cyneglis (also
spelt as Kynegilsus) of Wessex came to the throne about 611 and early in his
reign extended the kingdom frontier by defeating the British at Beandun, said
to be Bindon in east Devon. In 626 a failed assassination attempt by Cyneglis’s
son Cwichelm on the Northumbrian king resulted in a vengeful attack on Wessex
in which five royal princes were killed. Wessex expansion was curtailed further
by attacks by Mercia. After the battle of Cirencester in 628 Wessex lost much
of its territory gained in the lower Severn valley. In 635 King Cyneglis was
converted to Christianity by St. Birinus “the Roman” on the recommendation of
the powerful Northumberland King Oswald.[7]
St. Athelwin
the Confessor
King Cyneglis had a
number of children like Cwichelm mentioned above and another son, Kenwealth who
succeeded his father as King of Wessex. St. Athelwin of Athelney was another
son of King Cyneglis of Wessex.[8] The
name of Athelwin translates as “noble friend”.
In the early days of
Christianity, particularly in places like Ireland, you often get a son or
daughter of a royal family becoming a Christian preacher, bishop, abbot or in
the case of St. Athelwin, a hermit in an isolate place. It is not known when
St. Athelwin took up the religious life but the succession of his brother to
the Wessex throne may have been the impious for Athelwin to go into Somerset
and Athelney.
When his son, Kenwealth,
also spelt as Coenwalch, succeeded to the throne of Wessex in 643 the kingdom reverted
to the old religion from Christianity. For this, but more so because King
Kenwealth repudiated his wife, who was the sister of the Mercian king, in 645
King Penda of Mercia drove Kenwealth from the throne.[9] It
may be possible that about the same time that the king’s brother, Athelwin,
left Wessex and settled on the Isle of Athelney as a hermit. If Wessex was
Christian no more it would be no place for a Christian like Athelwin and thus
King Alfred was not the first of the royal House of Wessex who sought refuge in
the Isle of Athelney.
The Athelney which
Athelwin saw was described by Roger of Wendover as “girded in with fen on every
side, and not to be come at, save by boat. Thereon is all dense alder brake,
full of stags and goats and such creatures, and in the midst one bit of open
ground, scare two acres.[10]
In this isolated place Athelwin found peace and had time for prayer. Over time
the hermit became well respected among the people of the Somerset levels and
became known as St. Athelwin the Confessor. The term confessor is usually means
a saintly person with unworldly ambitions who didn’t suffer a martyr’s death. Dr. Sam Newton said that a confessor was a saintly priest or monk. King Edward the Confessor would be a more famous person to hold the title.
In the early centuries
of Christianity many religious people went off to isolated places to be away
from the world and closer to God. In the Middle East the hermits went out into
the desert. Ireland and Britain had no desert but as two island nations
surrounded by water there were plenty of off shore islands where hermits could
go. Islands such as Iona, Lindisfarne, Skellig Michael come to mind as
examples. Athelney was also an island, cut off from the world, and so place
apart like the offshore islands.
Wessex
become Christian again
Meanwhile King
Kenwealth spent about three years in East Anglia before his restoration as an
under king to Penda of Mercia. While in exile King Kenwealth re-embraced
Christianity and in 646 was baptised. King Kenwealth became a zealous champion
of the new religion and upon his restoration founded an abbey at Winchester and
established a bishopric, the first in the kingdom.[11]
But it was war and the
restoration of Wessex power and ambitions of expansion which truly governed the
heart of King Kenwealth. Early in the 650s Wessex made war on the British
kingdom of Dyvnaint and in 652 won an important victory at Bradford-on-Avon.
This success pushed the boundary of the two kingdoms westward to the Mendip
Hills.[12] By
658 King Kenwealth had pushed the boundaries of Wessex as far west as South
Petherton on the River Parret in Somerset.[13] This
followed the Wessex victory in the battle of Poenna. Athelney was still in
British held Somerset – a foreign country – or was it Wessex that was the
foreign country.
The
fall and rise of Wessex expansion
But the expansion of
Wessex was not left happen without the watchful eye of its northern neighbour.
In 661 King Wulfhere of Mercia defeated Wessex in Shropshire and severely
punished Wessex taking Surrey, Sussex and the Isle of Wight from the latter
kingdom. After a rest the westward expansion of Wessex continued and by 670
King Kenwealth had brought the area around Glastonbury within Wessex.[14]
King Kenwealth died in
672 and was succeeded by his queen, Seaxburh. She held the throne for a year
when Aescwine became king. He died in 676 after a poor reign which included
another defeat by Mercia. Kentwine, brother of Kenwealth then became king and
in 682 renewed the war against the British of Somerset. The latter were driven
west “to the sea” and the Wessex kingdom took in the land around Watchet.[15]
For a time, it is said,
King Kentwine advanced the Kingdom of Wessex as far as Taunton but he did not
hold that place for long. Instead King Kenwealth held the west bank of the
River Parret and the north side of the River Tone up to the Quantock Hills and
west as far as West Monkton.[16] If
this be true it was the first time that the Isle of Athelney came within the
Kingdom of Wessex.
King Kenwealth was
succeeded by King Ceodwalla in 686 who in his short reign recovered the Isle of
Wight and twice ravaged Kent. It is said that Ceodwalla grew tired of wars and
bloodshed and went on a pilgrimage to Rome. There he was baptised and died
shortly after.[17]
He was buried in St. Peter’s with a noble Latin epitaph.[18] In
689 he was succeeded by King Ine who continued to consolidate Wessex power
south of the Thames. In 710 the war was resumed between Wessex and Dyvnaint. It
seems that King Gerent of Dyvnaint was determined to recover the territory
around Glastonbury and the great abbey of that place. King Ine had to procure
levies from Sussex to hold back the Britons and with the larger force pushed
the boundary of Wessex to Taunton where a fort was built. King Ine permitted
the British living in Wessex controlled Somerset to enjoy the same laws as
their Wessex neighbours. At this point the power of Dyvnaint was kept in check
and open warfare between the two kingdoms did not resume until about 755.[19]
The Isle of Athelney
was now most certainly within the Kingdom of Wessex and formed part of the vast
royal domain of the Wessex kings in Somerset. In fact the only significant land
not part of the royal domain was the property held by Glastonbury Abbey. If St.
Athelwin had founded a religious community on the Isle it did not have any
major impact beyond perhaps contributing to the name of Athelney. Robin Bush,
of Time Team fame and former deputy county archivist for Somerset, said that
Athelney was known in King Alfred’s day as Athelinsey or the Isle of the
Athelings or Island of the Princes/Nobles.[20]
May be St. Athelwin had gathered around him some princes of the royal House of
Wessex.
An image of Athelney in Alfred's time
But the community
didn’t survive for long. When King Alfred came to Athelney in 878 only a
swine-herd or cow-herd, called Denewolf and his family appeared to be living
there.[21]
Yet the memory of St. Athelwin continued to form part of veneration by the
local people. The lost Athelney cartulary said that King Alfred lodged in an
old cottage that once belonged to St. Athelwin the hermit.[22] King
Alfred stayed in Athelney in the winter of 877-8 and for seven weeks after
Easter in 878 when he went forth and defeated the Danes and divided England
between Wessex and the Danes. For more see http://thefreelancehistorywriter.com/2013/10/26/alfred-the-great-anglo-saxon-king-of-wessex/
Athelney
Abbey
After King Alfred
recovered Wessex, he sent Denewolf the cow-herd to the University and advanced
him to become Bishop of Winchester.[23] In
about 888 King Alfred founded a Benedictine abbey on the Isle of Athelney in
thanks for his own deliverance and that of Wessex. A person called John the Old
Saxon was appointed first abbot.[24] Another
source says John of Aeldex was first abbot and that for want of religious
people in Wessex, monks were hired in France to come to Athelney. These French
monks didn’t enjoy their stay in Somerset and conspired to kill Abbot John
before the church altar but their plan was discovered and the abbey continued
to operate. For more see http://thefreelancehistorywriter.com/2013/02/06/memorial-to-athelney-island-home-of-alfred-the-great/
The first church was a
square building with circular apes on each side and this was seen in 1125 by
William of Malmesbury. In later times the abbey was rebuilt with a large church
and a cloister on the south side. There was extensive rebuilding in the
fourteenth century. After the dissolution of the monasteries the site of
Athelney Abbey was left fall into ruin. In about 1674, workmen of John Hocker
came and took down all the buildings and dug up the foundations.[25]
Today nothing is to be seen of the abbey above ground and robber trenches mean
little is left underground.
Monument on site of Athelney Abbey
Athelney
Abbey dedication – St. Peter
It appears that for the
first two hundred years of Athelney Abbey that the abbey was dedicated to St.
Peter with no mention of the ancient local saint of the Island, St. Athelwin. A
later charter of King Alfred described Athelney as “the church of St. Saviour
of Athelney”.[26]
In 937 King Athelstane granted the manor of Lenge (Lyng) to the church of S.
Peter of Athelney. In this charter King Athelstane refers to the founding of
the abbey by his grandfather, King Alfred.[27]
In 1007 King Athelred
gave Athelney Abbey a small piece of ground in Hamme and described the Abbey
dedication as “the monastery of the most holy and chief of the Apostles which
is called Athelney”.[28] In
about 1020-1025 King Cnut gave to Abbot Athelwin and Athelney the manor of
Sevenhampton. In this charter Athelney was described as dedicated to God and to
St. Peter, prince of the Apostles.[29]
Athelwin
begins to appear
On some rare occasions
between about 888 and the 1130s St. Athelwin appears as a patron saint of
Athelney Abbey. In the reign of King Athelstane (about 937), Maenchi the count,
son of Pretignor, gave the land of Lanlovern to St. Heldenus (Athelwin)
forever. This charter was made in the land of the Saxons on the island of
Adelne (Athelney) on the feast of All Saints before the altar of SS Peter and
Paul in the presence of Seigna the abbot.[30] Sometime
before 1242 a monk of Athelney produced a grant giving the abbey fuel rights in
Stanmore in a court case. The document described Athelney as founded by King
Alfred and dedicated to St. Saviour, the Apostles Peter and Paul and to the
holy Athelwin the confessor.[31]
Change
of dedication
The twelfth century saw
a change in the dedication of Athelney Abbey. When William of Malmesbury
visited Athelney about 1125, he observed that the small, poor community of
monks living there sang well the praises of their patron saint, St. Athelwin,
who they said was a brother of King Coenwalch of Wessex.[32]
From about the 1130s
St. Athelwin appears alongside St. Peter as the patron saints of the abbey. The
charter of John de Erleigh, made between 1136 and 1165, in which he granted
land at Cantock to the abbey, was made on the feast of St. Athelwin in the
abbey church. The grant of the land was made in perpetuity to “God and St.
Peter and the blessed Athelwin and to the monks of the church of Athelney”.[33]
The appearance of St.
Athelwin among the patron saints of Athelney in the 1130s may have something to
do with the civil war of that time. The Norman King Henry I left only a
daughter called Matilda as his heir and swore the barons to accept her as their
Queen. But shortly after the old king died, his nephew, Stephen of Blois seized
the throne of England and became king. Civil War erupted between the two
claimants which sent the country into a period of anarchy. As neither Stephen
nor Matilda were English, the monks of Athelney Abbey may have wished to assert
their English and Wessex heritage by including St. Athelwin the Confessor among
their patrons. Between c.1135 and c.1159 a person called Simon was abbot of
Athelney.
In charters from the
1140s onwards St. Athelwin appears more often than heretofore. A charter of
Roger de Mandeville, made between 1147 and 1166, granted the island of Andresia
to the church of St. Peter and St. Athelwin of Athelney.[34]
In about 1186 Matilda de Chandos gave a man servant to the church of St.
Athelwin of Athelney.[35]
Towards the end of the twelfth century the full dedication of Athelney Abbey
appears in the charters. In about 1174-1191 Alexander de Piroa gave to God and
the monastery of St. Saviour, St. Peter and St. Athelwin of Athelney, his serf,
Thomas de Bosco and some land.[36]
Athelwin
remembered
As noted, Athelwin
gained recognition over time as one of the patron saints of Athelney. He was
noted in the abbey records and was remembered in the abbey prayers. Most
churches and abbeys kept a record book, a calendar, in which they recorded the
feast day throughout the year. The calendar of Athelney does not survive but
that for the neighbouring abbey of Muchelney does survive. In it the feast of
St. Athelwin of Athelney was remembered on 14th September. The main
feast celebrated on that date was the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and the
declining feast of the martyrs Cornelius and Cyprian. It seems that Athelney
Abbey considered that its ancient patron saint was being overshadowed by the
feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and so more their feast day to 18th
September. The Muchelney calendar later noted this change of date.[37]
Conclusion
William of Malmesbury
said that St. Athelwin had a chronic disease but whether this was the cause of
his death or made take up the hermit life is unclear.[38] It
may be noted somewhere in what year Athelwin died but I have not found that
source yet – a job for another day.
====================
End of post
=====================
[1]
Rev. E.H. Bates (ed.), Two cartularies of
the Benedictine Abbeys of Muchelney and Athelney in the County of Somerset (Somerset
Record Society, Vol. XIV, 1899), p. 191
[2]
Albany Major, Early Wars of Wessex
(Blandford Press, Pole, Dorset, 1978), p. 45
[4]
Albany Major, Early Wars of Wessex,
p. 47
[6]
Albany Major, Early Wars of Wessex,
p. 33
[7] Audrey
MacDonald, ‘Cyneglis’, in John Cannon (ed.), The Oxford companion to British History (Oxford University Press,
1997), p. 271
[8] B.
Schofield (ed.), Muchelney Memoranda
(Somerset Record Society, Vol. XLII, 1927), p. 157
[9] Audrey
MacDonald, ‘Cenwalh’, in John Cannon (ed.), The
Oxford companion to British History, p. 183
[10]
Albany Major, Early Wars of Wessex,
p. 49
[11]
Albany Major, Early Wars of Wessex,
p. 36
[12]
Albany Major, Early Wars of Wessex,
p. 54
[13]
B. Schofield (ed.), Muchelney Memoranda,
p. 157
[14]
Albany Major, Early Wars of Wessex,
p. 58
[15]
Albany Major, Early Wars of Wessex,
p. 64
[16]
Albany Major, Early Wars of Wessex,
pp. 64, 70
[17]
David Hume, History of England
(London, 1871), p. 30
[18] James
Campbell, ‘Caedwalla’, in John Cannon (ed.), The Oxford companion to British History, p. 151
[19]
Albany Major, Early Wars of Wessex, pp.
77, 78
[20] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urtO2Jh1n5I&t=1547s
accessed on 20 March 2016; Rev. E.H. Bates (ed.), The particular description of the County of Somerset by Thomas Gerard
of Trent (Somerset Record Society, Vol. XV, 1900), p. 216
[21]
Rev. E.H. Bates (ed.), The particular
description of the County of Somerset by Thomas Gerard of Trent, p. 216
[22]
B. Schofield (ed.), Muchelney Memoranda,
p. 157
[23]
Rev. E.H. Bates (ed.), The particular
description of the County of Somerset by Thomas Gerard of Trent, p. 217
[24]
Rev. E.H. Bates (ed.), Two cartularies of
Muchelney and Athelney in the County of Somerset, pp. 115, 116
[26]
Rev. E.H. Bates (ed.), Two cartularies of
Muchelney and Athelney in the County of Somerset, pp. 126-8
[27]
Rev. E.H. Bates (ed.), Two cartularies of
Muchelney and Athelney in the County of Somerset, pp. 155, 156
[28]
Rev. E.H. Bates (ed.), Two cartularies of
Muchelney and Athelney in the County of Somerset, pp. 146, 147
[29]
Rev. E.H. Bates (ed.), Two cartularies of
Muchelney and Athelney in the County of Somerset, pp. 141, 142
[30] Rev.
E.H. Bates (ed.), Two cartularies of
Muchelney and Athelney in the County of Somerset, p. 156
[31]
Rev. E.H. Bates (ed.), Two cartularies of
Muchelney and Athelney in the County of Somerset, pp. 190, 191
[32]
B. Schofield (ed.), Muchelney Memoranda,
pp. 156, 157
[33]
Rev. E.H. Bates (ed.), Two cartularies of
Muchelney and Athelney in the County of Somerset, p. 172
[34]
Rev. E.H. Bates (ed.), Two cartularies of
Muchelney and Athelney in the County of Somerset, p. 166
[35]
Rev. E.H. Bates (ed.), Two cartularies of
Muchelney and Athelney in the County of Somerset, p. 150
[36]
Rev. E.H. Bates (ed.), Two cartularies of
Muchelney and Athelney in the County of Somerset, pp. 135, 136
[37]
B. Schofield (ed.), Muchelney Memoranda,
p. 156
Excellent Niall! Wish I could have seen it in the time of Alfred.
ReplyDeleteThanks Susan. The two Time Team programmes about Athelney on Youtube show illustrations of how it may have looked in Alfred's day.
Delete