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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 September 2008
A commonplace among English historians today is the importance of English ties with Aquitaine during the later Middle Ages. For some three centuries, historical events came to link the destinies of these two countries and peoples who otherwise differed strikingly in economy, language and culture in general, with lasting consequences for both. It has long been taken for granted by both English and French historians that this association came about abruptly in the 1150s as a result of the ascent to the English throne of Henry of Anjou who, through his marriage to Eleanor, heiress of the duchy of Aquitaine, became the sovereign of that enormous territorial principality. Till the present no one has suspected that any significant ties existed between the Anglo-Saxons and Aquitanians prior to that time. To be sure, the Anglo-Saxons had been in contact with the late Carolingian kings in the tenth century and with the Normans in the eleventh, but those were purely northern French phenomena. So too were the important Anglo-Saxon relations with the monks of Fleury-sur-Loire in the later tenth and early eleventh centuries, but these were not known to have had any repercussions in Aquitaine far to the south.
1 For instance, Levison, W. does not mention Aquitaine at all in his England and the Continent in the Eighth Century (Oxford, 1946)Google Scholar. Stenton, F.M. makes a single reference to the contact, central to the argument of this paper, between Duke William the Great of Aquitaine and King Cnut of England in the 1020s; see his Anglo-Saxon England, 3rd ed. (Oxford, 1971), p. 407Google Scholar.
2 See the essays of Wormald, P., John, E. and Lawson, M. K., in Anglo-Saxons, ed. Campbell, J. (Oxford, 1982), pp. 101–31Google Scholar, 132–57, 160–9, 171–91 and 192–213.
3 Beech, G., ‘The Participation of Aquitanians in the Conquest of England 1066–1100’, Anglo-Norman Studies IX, ed. Brown, R.A. (Woodbridge, 1987), pp. 1–24.Google Scholar
4 ‘Solebant illis temporibus multi peregrini de Aquitannia, de Hibernia, ac de aliis terris plurimis huc venire, quos omnes iste [prior Alfric of Evesham] suspiciens necessaria præbebat.’ Chronicon Abbatiæ de Evesham, ed. Macray, W.D., RS (London, 1863), p. 91.Google Scholar
5 Darlington, R.R., ‘Æthelwig, Abbot of Evesham’, EHR 48 (1933), 1–22 and 177–98, at 10CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Dr Howard Clarke of University College, Dublin, informs me that this is the only reference to Aquitaine in the Evesham archives.
6 Knowles, D., The Monastic Order in England: a History of its Development from the Times of St Dunstan to the Fourth Lateran Council 940–1216, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 1963), pp. 74–8, 159–61, and 481–2CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lapidge, M., ‘Dominic of Evesham, “Vita S. Ecgwini episcopi et confessoris”’, AB 96 (1978), 65–104.Google Scholar
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9 The various French liturgical manuscripts analyzed by the abbé V. Leroquais contain no references to the cult of St Ecgwine in France.
10 ‘Immo Hispaniae regem Adefonsum, regemque Navarrae Santium, necnon et regem Danamarchorum et Anglorum nomine Canotum, ita sibi summo favore devinxerat, ut singulis annis legationes eorum exciperet pretiosis cum muneribus ipseque pretiosiora eis remitteret munera.’ Adémar of Chabannes, Chronique, ed. Chavanon, J. (Paris, 1897), p. 163.Google Scholar
11 ‘Apud ipsam quoque Anglorum gentem cui Gregorius institutiones ecclesiasticas primus plantavit, probavit Martialem esse ab antiquitate scriptum in numero aliorum apostolorum. Nam et nuper illius gentis rex codicem litteris aureis scriptum Aquitaniae Duci cum aliis muneribus direxit qui in serie beati Petri et aliorum apostolorum Martialem continet scriptum.’ Sermon of Adémar of Chabannes, PL 141, col. 122.
12 ‘Hoc idem in aliis illius gentis vetustissimis voluminibus ipsis oculis probavimus’. Ibid.
13 Callaghan, D., ‘The Sermons of Adémar of Chabannes and the Cult of Saint-Martial of Limoges’, RB 86 (1976), 251–95.Google Scholar
14 ‘Ecce duo sacerdotes ex fratribus nostris coram adsunt, quos olim hac ipsa de causa in Britanniam misi, ut Anglorum a Gregorio, ut reor, praefixam legem annosam diligentius perscrutarentur, et omni submoto mendacio ad nos referrent. Qui cum ad Anglos pervenissent, tam in martyrologiis eorum, quam in litaniis Martialem ab antiquitate reperiebant apostolum scriptum. Ad quoddam autem magnum devenientes monasterium in quo primus Anglorum episcopus requiescit corpore Augustinus (compererunt enim ibi non haberi librum de actibus beati Martialis) per litanias tamen atque martyrologia in eodem loco invenerunt eumdem patronum nomine apostolico decoratum…’ Mansi, J.D., Sacrorum Conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio (Venice, 1767) XIX, 515Google Scholar. The passage is too long to quote in its entirety here.
15 Ibid. col. 521.
16 Callahan, , ‘Sermons of Adémar’. F. Wormald, ‘English Saints in the Litany in Arundel Ms. 60’, AB 64 (1946), 72–86, at 85.Google Scholar
17 Ibid.
18 Larson, L. M., Canute the Great 995 (circa)–1035 and the Rise of Danish Imperialism during the Viking Age (New York, 1912), pp. 264–7Google Scholar. See also Christiansen, E., ‘Canute and his World’, History Today 36 (11, 1986), 34–9.Google Scholar
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26 The fact that it was the Poitevin countess Agness, daughter of William the Great, who took over the completion and then dedication of the church in 1049, suggests that reconstruction began before she became a political power in Aquitaine after the death of her father in 1030. This would mean that it began prior to 1030, that is, at a time when Emma was queen of England. See Richard, Histoire des Comtes I, 221 and 225.
27 de Lasteyrie, C.-F., L'abbaye de Saint-Martial de Limoges (Paris, 1901), p. 294.Google Scholar
28 Ibid. pp. 75 and 351.
29 See above, pp. 84–5.
30 Chronicon Evesham, ed. Macray, , pp. 74–5 and 83.Google Scholar
31 English Kalendars before A.D. 1100, ed. Wormald, F., HBS 72 (London, 1934).Google Scholar
32 Glastonbury: Leofric Missal (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Bodley 579), ptd Wormald, no. 4. Ely: Missal of Robert of Jumièges, not in Wormald but edited by H. A. Wilson, HBS 11 (London, 1896). Evesham: Oxford, Bodleian Library, Hatton 113, ptd Wormald no. 16. Worcester: Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 391, ptd Wormald no. 17.
33 Das altenglische Martyrologium, ed. Kotzor, G., Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Phil.-Hist. Klasse, Abhandlungen, Neue Folge, 88.1–2 (Munich, 1981)Google Scholar. Aigrain's article on the cult of St Radegund in England is based largely on Brittain, F., St. Radegond, Patroness of Jesus College Cambridge (Cambridge, 1925)Google Scholar, and deals with the later medieval period: Aigrain, R., ‘Un ancien poème anglais sur la vie de Sainte-Radegonde et le culte de Sainte-Radegonde en Angleterre’, Eludes mérovingiennes. Actes des journées de Poitiers, 1–3 Mai 1952 (Paris, 1953), pp. 2–9Google Scholar. Since Bede's Martyrologium is incomplete for St Radegund's feastday, 13 August, it is uncertain whether she is included or not. Quentin, H., Les martyrologes historiques du moyen age. Etude sur la formation du Martyrologe romain (Paris, 1908), p. 46.Google Scholar
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36 See above, n. 4.
37 See above, p. 89.
38 Thomas, C., A Provisional List of Imported Pottery in Post-Roman Western Britain and Ireland, Inst. of Cornish Stud. (Redruth, 1981), pp. 1–31Google Scholar, at 20. Piggott, S., ‘Les relations entre l'ouest de la France et les îles Britanniques dans la préhistoire’, Annales du Midi 65 (1953), 5–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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40 Of these five only the Arundel Psalter, London, British Library, Arundel 60, has been published. Wormald, F., ‘The English Saints’, p. 82Google Scholar. I am grateful to Michael Lapidge for informing me of the other four, all unpublished, but catalogued in his article, ‘Litanies of the Saints in Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts’, Scriptorium 40 (1986), 264–77CrossRefGoogle Scholar. In his list these litanies have the following numbers: Exeter (no. 22), s. ximed, BL, Cotton Vitellius A. vii, fols 1–112; Winchcombc (no. 28), s. x2, Orleans, Bibl. Mun. 127 (105); ?Winchester, ?Ramsey (no. 24), s. xex, BL, Harley 2904; unknown English location (no. 5), s. ix2, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 272.
41 BL, Add. 11880, s. ix, fols. 71–85; Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, McLean 100, s. xi, fols. 86–8, a fragment of French origin; and BL, Harley 649, s. xii, fols. 99ff. Based on Levison, W., Conspectus Codicum Hagiographicorum, MGH, SS rer. Merov. 7 (Hannover and Leipzig, 1920) nos. 305 (p. 606), 133 (p. 573) and 295 (p. 603)Google Scholar. Helmut Gneuss does not include either of the first two in ‘A Preliminary List of Manuscripts written or owned in England up to 1100’, ASE 9 (1981), 1–60.Google Scholar
42 Thirteen of the twenty calendars prior to 1100 edited by Wormald show commemoration of St Hilary's feastday; see English Kalendars before 1100, ed. Wormald, pp. 2, 16, 100, 128, 142, 156, 170, 184, 198, 212, 226, 240 and 254.
43 See above, p. 87, n. 24.
44 The Old English Martyrology commemorates St Hilary's feast day; see Das altenglische Martyrologium, ed. Kotzor II, 15.
45 Oxford, Fell n. 4, s. xi, fols. 47–51 (Gneuss, ‘A Preliminary List’, no. 625); BL, Cotton Nero A.i, vol. 1, s. xii, fol. 85; BL, Cotton Tiberius D. iv, s. xii; Lincoln, Cathedral Library, B. 1. 9, s. xii; BL, Arundel 36, s. xiii, fols 49–50; BL, Harley 2800, s. xiii, fols. 39–42; London, Lambeth Palace, 94, s. xiii/xiv, fols. 77–81. See Levison, Conspectus, nos. 440 (p. 632); 286 (p. 601), 284 (p. 601), 276 (p. 598), 290 (p. 602–3), 296 (p. 603) and 317 (p. 609).
46 See above, p. 85, n. 13.
47 Once again I am grateful to Michael Lapidge for telling me of the inclusion of St Martial in these mainly unpublished litanies. The following references are taken from his article ‘Litanies of the Saints’, pp. 264–77. Manuscripts listing St Martial as an apostle: St Augustine's Canterbury, s. x/xi, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 411 (Lapidge, no. 7); Bury St Edmunds, s. xi1, Vatican City, Bibl. Ap. Vat., Reg. lat. 12 (no. 45); Worcester, s. ximed, Oxford, Bodleian Library, Laud Misc. 482 (S.C. 1054) (no. 34); Winchcombe, s. xi med, Cambridge, Univ. Library. Ff. 1. 23 (the Cambridge Psalter) (no. 1); St Augustine's Canterbury, s. xi1, Rouen, Bibl. Mun. 274 (Y.6) (the ‘Missal of Robert of Jumièges’) (no. 40); unknown English location, ximed, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, lat. 8824 (no. 36). Manuscripts listing St Martial as confessor: Christ Church Canterbury, s. xi1, London, BL, Arundel 155 (no. 13); Sherborne or Salisbury, s. xi2, BL, Cotton Tiberius C. i., fols. 43–203 (no. 19); ?St Augustine's Canterbury, s. xiex, Rouen, Bibl. Mun. 231 (A.44) (no. 39); ?Winchester ?Ramsey, s. xex, BL, Harley 2904 (no. 24).
48 St Martial is included in seven of the eighteen calendars edited by Wormald for the period after 1100: see English Benedictine Calendars after 1100, ed. Wormald, F., HBS 77 (London, 1939)Google Scholar, nos. 3, 4, 7, 11, 14 and 18.
49 The Life of St Martial of Limoges by Aurelianus from a Manuscript in the British Museum, ed. de G. Birch, W. (London, 1877), p. 6.Google Scholar
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54 I am grateful to Michael Lapidge for telling me of the tomb of Edith at La Chaise-Dieu.
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56 Dictionnaire des Eglises de France, Belgique, Luxembourg, Suisse, II, Centre et Sud-Est (Paris, 1964) II B 32.Google Scholar
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59 This is a preliminary conclusion based on a perusal of the printed materials available to me now, and is the first step in a full examination of the question. E. A. Freeman gives references to original sources on Ealdgyth, queen of King Harold, in his The History of the Norman Conquest of England: its Causes and its Effects II, 2nd ed. (London, 1870), 416 and 658–61Google Scholar; III (London, 1869), 261, n. 1, 511 and 525; IV (London, 1871), 143, 317, 588 and 754–7.
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