Athelney Abbey in the register of Bishop Ralph of Shrewsbury

Athelney Abbey in the register of Bishop Ralph of Shrewsbury

Niall C.E.J. O’Brien

Ralph of Shrewsbury was Bishop of Bath and Wells from 1329 until his death on 14^th August 1363. The register of Bishop Ralph was published in two volumes in 1895 and 1896 by the Somerset Record Society under the editorship of Thomas Scott Holmes. On page xlv the editor says the “only mention of the abbot (of Athelney in the register is) as a member of a commission in reference to the priory of Stokecourcy”.[1]

In any other day of the week that would be fine, job done, story told, close the book and head out into the fresh air. But it is a cold wet and windy March day outside and search for Athelney needs further investigation. The index gives five separate references to Athelney abbey in the register of Bishop Ralph and these form the basis of this article. 

Athelney among the diocesan clergy

In September 1332 Bishop Ralph wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury about the August 1332 mandate of Stephen, Bishop of London, who requested clergy from the diocese to attend a provincial council at St. Paul’s in London in September. Bishop Ralph cited the abbots of Glastonbury, Muchelney, Keynesham and Athelney among all the clergy and cathedral chapters of Bath and Wells to attend.[2]

Athelney and Stokecourcy Priory

In August 1334 the Archbishop’s court of Canterbury wrote to Abbot of Athelney and the dean of Taunton concerning the prior of Stokecourcy. Brother Godfrey was challenged by others for the position of prior of Stokecourcy and he sent an appeal to the Archbishop’s court at Canterbury. Brother Godfrey was appointed prior in April 1328. Meanwhile Bishop Ralph of Bath and Wells was prepared to judge the case. But the court instructed the abbot and the dean to inhibit the Bishop and his commissioners from judging the case pending the appeal.[3]

Brother Godfrey was appointed prior in April 1328. In October 1332 he got a licence from Bishop Ralph to absent himself from the priory in order to travel to St. Mary abbey at L’Onlay in Normandy, the head house of Stokecourcy. In 1333 he got another licence to stay absence. In the meantime Bishop Ralph was investigating the affairs of the priory and on the advice of a number of people judged that the priory was subject to general mismanagement. It is not known what happened at the Canterbury court and if Godfrey was allowed to continue as prior. The next prior of Stokecourcy, Thomas le Prevost resigned in 1350 but it is unknown when he took over from Godfrey.[4]

Presentation to Long Sutton vicarage

On 17^th January 1341 at Walton, Bishop Ralph instituted a poor clerk to the vicarage of Long Sutton. Unfortunately the name of the poor clerk was not recorded.[5] Athelney abbey is not mentioned in this entry or in the register index but the vicarage and rectory of Long Sutton was the property of the abbey.[6] As Professor Mike Aston of Time Team fame would say “The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence”. The manor of Sutton was granted to Athelney Abbey by a charter of King Alfred.[7] The parish and church at Sutton was formed and built after King Alfred’s time. The Sutton name is Saxon for ‘southern settlement’, that is, south of Somerton. The adjective ‘long’ comes from abandoned earthworks on the south and east as the settlement moved further to the north and north-east by the 14^th century.[8]

This presentation to Long Sutton was during the time of Abbot Robert de Ile (1325-1341). On 2^nd August 1341 Brothers John de Stour and John Fort brought news to the king of the death of Abbot Robert and asked for a licence to elect a new abbot. On 20^th August the king wrote to Bishop Ralph to give his approval to the election of Richard de Gotehurst, a monk of Athelney, as abbot following the royal assent. On 4^th September 1341 the escheator of Somerset was instructed to deliver the temporalities to Abbot Richard.[9]

The monument on the Isle of Athelney, site of the Abbey

Presentation to Lyng vicarage

In December 1348 the abbot (Richard de Gotehurst) and convent of Athelney presented Thomas le Touke of Buddeclegh, a poor clerk, to the vicarage of the parish church of Lyng. On the instruction of Bishop Ralph by Apostolic authority, Stephen Tripp, canon of Wells, instituted Thomas le Touke to the vicarage.[10] The manor of Lyng was granted to Athelney in 937 by King Athelstan.[11] Buddeclegh is modern Butleigh near Glastonbury.

This entry for Thomas le Touke was found by way of Athelney abbey and Lyng vicarage as Thomas le Touke does not appear under his own name in the register index. Thus we cannot tell anything further about Thomas le Touke. There is an entry in the great chartulary of Glastonbury abbey that refers to a person called Thomas de Tuk who in 1325 exchanged the rectory of Stocklinch Ottersay for the vicarage of Moorlinch but he was possible a different person.[12]

The two presentations above were both of poor clerks. Elsewhere Athelney Abbey was associated with other poor clerks. In 1363 John Passeward, a poor priest, sought papal permission to receive a benefice in the gift of Athelney Abbey.[13]

Athelney always had a reputation of been a poor abbey. When Time Team conducted an archaeological excavation on the abbey site a good few floor tiles were discovered. These tiles were seconds, rejects from the tile factory because there were over-fired. Athelney was buying seconds on the cheap because they couldn’t afford proper tiles.[14] Having said this, just before the dissolution Athelney Abbey was valued at £209. In some other diocese this value would be respectable but this is Bath and Wells where Keynesham (OSA) was £419, Muchelney Abbey (OSB) was £447, Bath Priory (OSB) was £617 and the big one, Glastonbury (OSB) was worth £3,311 – poor Athelney![15] Yet the local people still respected Athelney as Thomas Muttlebury, a serf of the abbey, gave his son John Muttlebury to the abbey to receive education in the 19^th year of Edward 1 or Edward III.[16]

Thomas le Touke became vicar of Lyng at a difficult time for the church and the people as the Black Death was spreading up from Weymouth and South Dorset. In January 1348/9 Bishop Ralph wrote to the clergy of the diocese that they should tell the laity, who are overcome with the sickness, to make their confession to one another and even to a woman if they can’t get to a priest.[17]

New abbot at Athelney

The Black Death hit Athelney Abbey twice in one year. On 23^rd September 1349 Athelney Abbey received a royal licence to elect a new abbot in place of Richard de Gotehurst who had died. The sub-prior and convent elected John de Stour, prior of the Abbey, but he died on his way to the king to obtain the royal assent. In October 1349 the Abbey asked for a new royal licence to elect an abbot. On 22^nd October 1349 King Edward asked Bishop Ralph to give his approval to the election of Robert de Hacche, a monk of Athelney, as abbot following the royal assent. By 5^th November Bishop Ralph had given his approval and the escheator of Somerset was instructed to deliver the temporalities to the new abbot.[18]

Another presentation to Long Sutton vicarage

Before the end of March 1362 the abbot and convent of Athelney presented Sir Walter de Cory, priest, to the vicarage of the prebend church of Long Sutton. The parish was formed into a prebendal church at Wells Cathedral during the time of Bishop Savaric (1191-1205) in return for Athelney enjoying all the parish fruits save an allowance for a vicar. The wage for the vicar was 4 marks and the abbot was not bound to live at Wells.[19]

On 30^th March 1362 at Wyveliscomb, Bishop Ralph instituted Sir Walter de Cory to the vicarage. On the same day or later Sir Walter de Cory said he would apply all portions due from the vicarage to the care of same. This pledge was witnessed by Sir Robert Hacche, Abbot of Athelney (he was abbot since 1349), Master Walter de Burcomb and William Derby, both canons of Wells, along with Nicholas de Brideport and R.W. Tybrighton.[20] Sir Walter de Cory is not mentioned elsewhere in the register of Ralph of Shrewsbury, Bishop of Bath and Wells.

Wells Cathedral 

Outside the register of Bishop Ralph

Outside the register of Ralph de Shrewsbury there are a few references to Athelney during his episcopal. The election of a new abbot in 1341 and again in 1349 needed the approval of Bishop Ralph as noted above. Elsewhere, in 1347 Athelney gave 10 marks as a loan towards the war fund on King Edward III as he prepared to invade France.[21]

Conclusion

Hidden away in the Somerset levels Athelney Abbey kept to itself. The abbey had little interaction with the Bishop and the diocesan chapter. It appears the Bishop Ralph held no visitation of the abbey and the only frequent interaction was in the institution of vicars to parishes held by the abbey. The register did show the association of Athelney with that of a poor abbey and further research may expand on this assertion. In that regard later registers of the Bishops of Bath and Wells may tell us more of the history of Athelney Abbey – a job for another day.

The Isle of Athelney before the Abbey

For an account of the Isle of Athelney before the abbey of King Alfred see = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2016/03/st-athelwin-wessex-and-athelney-before.html

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[1] Thomas Scott Holmes (ed.), The register of Ralph of Shrewsbury, Bishop of Bath and Wells, 1329-1363 (Somerset Record Society, Vol. 9, 1895), p. xlv

[2] Thomas Scott Holmes (ed.), The register of Ralph of Shrewsbury, Bishop of Bath and Wells, 1329-1363, p. 105

[3] Thomas Scott Holmes (ed.), The register of Ralph of Shrewsbury, Bishop of Bath and Wells, 1329-1363, pp. 174, 183, 794, no. 734

[4] Thomas Scott Holmes (ed.), The register of Ralph of Shrewsbury, Bishop of Bath and Wells, 1329-1363, vol. 9, pp. lii, liii, vol. 10, p. 794, no. 734

[5] Thomas Scott Holmes (ed.), The register of Ralph of Shrewsbury, Bishop of Bath and Wells, 1329-1363 (Somerset Record Society, Vol. 10, 1896), p. 441

[6] Colin J. Brett (ed.), Crown Revenues from Somerset and Dorset, 1605 (Somerset Record Society, Vol. 96, 2012), p. 147, note 324

[7] Rev. E.H. Bates (ed.), Two cartularies of the Benedictine Abbeys of Muchelney and Athelney in the County of Somerset (Somerset Record Society, XIV, 1899), pp. 126, 127

[8] Robin Bush, Somerset Villages in colour (Dovecote Press, Wimborne, 1995), p. 71

[9] Calendar of Patent Rolls, Edward III, 1340-1343, pp. 253, 278, 282

[10] Thomas Scott Holmes (ed.), The register of Ralph of Shrewsbury, Bishop of Bath and Wells, 1329-1363, p. 559; Rev. E.H. Bates (ed.), Two cartularies of the Benedictine Abbeys of Muchelney and Athelney, p. 117

[11] Rev. E.H. Bates (ed.), Two cartularies of the Benedictine Abbeys of Muchelney and Athelney, pp. 155, 156

[12] Dom Aelred Watkin (ed.), The Great Chartulary of Glastonbury (3 vols. Somerset Record Society, Vol. LIX, 1947), Vol. 1, p. 35

[13] W.H. Bliss (ed.), Calendar of entries in the Papal Registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland: petitions to the Pope, vol. 1, A.D. 1342-1419 (Stationery Office, London, 1896), p. 431

[14] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urtO2Jh1n5I accessed on 28 March 2016

[15] Colin J. Brett (ed.), Crown revenues from Somerset and Dorset, 1605 (Somerset Record Society, Vol. 96, 2012), pp. 276, 278

[16] Rev. E.H. Bates (ed.), Two cartularies of the Benedictine Abbeys of Muchelney and Athelney, p. 195

[17] Thomas Scott Holmes (ed.), The register of Ralph of Shrewsbury, Bishop of Bath and Wells, 1329-1363, pp. 555, 571, 807, 808, nos. 2043, 2130

[18] Calendar of Patent Rolls, Edward III 1348-1350, pp. 376, 395, 410, 419

[19] J.A. Bennett (ed.), Report on the manuscripts of Wells Cathedral (Historical Manuscripts Commission, London, 1885), pp. 29, 34

[20] Thomas Scott Holmes (ed.), The register of Ralph of Shrewsbury, Bishop of Bath and Wells, 1329-1363, p. 759; Rev. E.H. Bates (ed.), Two cartularies of the Benedictine Abbeys of Muchelney and Athelney, p. 117

[21] Calendar of Patent Rolls, Edward III 1345-1348, p. 340

St. Athelwin, Wessex and Athelney before Alfred’s Abbey

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 14^th 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 18^th 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.

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[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

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YEmMqjdn0o accessed on 20 March 2016

[4] Albany Major, Early Wars of Wessex, p. 47

[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urtO2Jh1n5I&t=1547s accessed on 20 March 2016

[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

[25] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urtO2Jh1n5I&t=1547s accessed on 20 March 2016

[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

[38] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86thelwine_of_Athelney accessed on 20 March 2016