Kingship, Childhood And Martyrdom in Anglo-saxon England

This study compromises the first book-length study of the murdered royal saints of Anglo-Saxon England. Many Anglo-Saxon kings and princes succumbed to murder plots and a significant proportion of them were then sanctified as martyrs of the Christian church. There are seventeen well-attested cults of this type (those of Saints Aethelberht of Hereford, Aethelred and Aethelberht of Ramsey, Alfred the Aetheling, Edward the Martyr, Kenelm, Oswine, and Wigstan), while scraps of evidence point to the existence of several more. Almost all the medieval kingdoms of northern and eastern Europe produced cults of this type - all seem to have had at least one murdered king or prince who was venerated as a major saint. But the English cases are distinctive in that the hagiographical texts produced in support of the seven well-attested Anglo-Saxon cults share a similar approach to the events and phenomena they describe. These texts compromise a relatively coherent hagiographical tradition which distinguishes them from their Continental counterparts. Taking the seven well-attested cults as its core examples, this book offers a new explanation for the existence of these cults which can account for the peculiarities of the Anglo-Saxon hagiographical tradition, and in so doing makes an important new contribution to the ongoing debate about the historical significance of cults of this type.Hayward, P. A. is the author of 'Kingship, Childhood And Martyrdom in Anglo-saxon England ', published 2007 under ISBN 9782503514208 and ISBN 2503514200.