Ælfsige Explained
Ælfsige (or Aelfsige, Ælfsin[1] or Aelfsin; died 959) was Bishop of Winchester before he became Archbishop of Canterbury in 959.
Life
Ælfsige became Bishop of Winchester in 951.[2] In 958, with the death of the previous Archbishop Oda, he was translated from the see of Winchester to become archbishop of Canterbury.[3] He is said by Arthur Hussey to have trampled contemptuously on Oda's grave, "with reproaches for having so long kept himself out of that dignity".[1]
Ælfsige died of cold in the Alps as he journeyed to Rome to be given his pallium by Pope John XII.[4] [1] In his place King Eadwig nominated Byrhthelm. Ælfsige's will survives and shows that he was married,[5] with a son, Godwine of Worthy, who died in 1001 fighting against the Vikings.[6]
References
- Book: Fryde, E. B. . Greenway, D. E. . Porter, S. . Roy, I. . Handbook of British Chronology. Third revised . Cambridge University Press . Cambridge, UK . 1996 . 0-521-56350-X .
- Encyclopedia: Ortenberg, Veronica . The English Church and the Papacy in the Middle Ages . The Anglo-Saxon Church and the Papacy . Lawrence, C. H.. 29–62 . Stroud, UK . Sutton Publishing. 0-7509-1947-7 . 1999 . 1965 . Reprint.
- Book: Stafford, Pauline. Pauline Stafford . Unification and Conquest: A Political and Social History of England in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries . Edward Arnold . London . 1989 . 0-7131-6532-4 .
- Encyclopedia: Yorke, Barbara . Barbara Yorke . Ælfsige (d. 959). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . 2004 . 7 November 2007. 10.1093/ref:odnb/192.
Notes and References
- Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey. Arthur Hussey. 1852. Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey/Sussex/Notes on the Churches R-Y. 285. Page:Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.djvu/347.
- Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 223
- Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 214
- Ortenberg "Anglo-Saxon Church and the Papacy" English Church & the Papacy p. 49
- Stafford Unification and Conquest p. 58
- Yorke "Ælfsige" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
