Ælfwold II (bishop of Crediton) explained
Ælfwold (or Ælfweald or Aelfwold) was a medieval Bishop of Crediton.
Life
Ælfwold was a Benedictine monk at Glastonbury Abbey[1] before he was elected to Crediton between 986 and 987. He was succeeded by Ælfwold III in 1008.[2] He died between sometime before a time frame between 1011 and 1015.[3]
Will
Ælfwold's will is still extant, and the hand drawing up the will matches the hand that drew up a charter of 997 from King Æthelred II to Ælfwold.[4]
In his will, Ælfwold freed all the slaves that had worked on his estates, suggesting the existence of slavery in Anglo-Saxon England, was tempered by the need to free such slaves on death.[5]
References
- Chaplais, Pierre . Pierre Chaplais . The Royal Anglo-Saxon 'Chancery' of the Tenth Century Revisited . 41–51 . Studies in Medieval History Presented to R. H. C. Davis . Mayr-Harting, Henry. Henry Mayr-Harting . Moore, R. I. . Hambledon Press . London . 1985 . 0-907628-68-0 .
- Book: Fryde, E. B. . Greenway, D. E. . Porter, S. . Roy, I. . Handbook of British Chronology. Third Edition, revised . Cambridge University Press . Cambridge . 1996 . 0-521-56350-X .
- Book: Knowles, David . The Monastic Order in England: A History of its Development from the Times of St. Dunstan to the Fourth Lateran Council, 940-1216. David Knowles (scholar) . Cambridge University Press . Cambridge, UK . 1976 . Second Edition, reprint . 0-521-05479-6 .
Notes and References
- Knowles Monastic Order p. 65 footnote 65
- Web site: Exeter . Crockford's Clerical Directory.
- Frye Handbook of British Chronology p. 215
- Chaplais "Royal Anglo-Saxon 'Chancery'" Studies in Medieval History p. 45
- Robert Lacey and Danny Danziger: The Year 1000: What Life Was Like at the Turn of the First Millennium, Chptr 2 February, Little, Brown, 2000
