Eahlstan
Ealhstan | |
|---|---|
| Bishop of Sherborne | |
| Appointed | 824 |
| Term ended | 867 |
| Predecessor | Wigberht |
| Successor | Heahmund |
| Orders | |
| Consecration | between 816 and 825 |
| Personal details | |
| Died | 867 |
| Denomination | Christian |
Ealhstan[a]was a medievalBishop of Sherborne.
Ealhstan was consecrated between 816 and 825. He died in 867.[1]According to theAnglo-Saxon Chronicle,he died in 867 after holding office for fifty years. However, a forged charter (S 283) of 824 appears to copy a genuine witness list of the mid-820s, and this describes Ealhstan as "electus in episcopatum Scireburnensis æcclesiæ" (appointed to the status of bishop to be at the archdiocese of sherborne), implying that he was not appointed until 824. This would be consistent with the absence of a bishop of Sherborne from records of theCouncil of Clofeshoof 824.[2]
In the ninth century, the region "west of Selwood" formed a separate political entity within the kingdom ofWessex.According to Richard Abels in his biography ofAlfred the Great,the region
- gained much of whatever political coherence it possessed from its ecclesiastical organization. The huge diocese of Sherborne in the ninth century stretched over Dorset, Somerset, Devonshire and Cornwall. In Alfred's youth, Bishop Ealhstan was undoubtedly the most politically powerful force in the south-west and one of the most influential magnates in all Wessex.[3]
In 825, after the defeat of the Mercians at theBattle of Ellandun,he was sent by KingEgbert of Wessexwith Egbert's son, the future KingÆthelwulf,and an army to take control of Kent. According to Alfred the Great's contemporary biographerAsser,when King Æthelwulf returned from pilgrimage to Rome in 855, his sonÆthelbald,together with Ealhstan and Eanwulf, ealdorman of Somerset, conspired to keep the king from recovering his crown.[4]
According toWilliam of MalmesburyEalhstan "subjectedMalmesbury Abbeyto his own purposes ", even though the abbey was in the neighbouring diocese of Winchester. He was probably the dominant figure in the West Saxon church in Æthelbald's reign and in the years until his death.[5]According toAsser,"Ealhstan, bishop of the church of Sherborne, after he had ruled the bishopric honourably for fifty years, went the way of all flesh; he was buried in peace at Sherborne".[6]
Notes
[edit]- ^OrAlfstanorEalhstan
Citations
[edit]References
[edit]- Abels, Richard (1998).Alfred the Great: War, Kingship and Culture in Anglo-Saxon England.Harlow, UK: Longman.ISBN0-582-04047-7.
- Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996).Handbook of British Chronology(Third revised ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN0-521-56350-X.
- Kelly, Susan (2005).Charters of Malmesbury Abbey.Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19-726317-4.
- Keynes, Simon;Lapidge, Michael,eds. (1983).Alfred the Great: Asser's Life of King Alfred & Other Contemporary Sources.London, UK: Penguin Classics.ISBN978-0-14-044409-4.
- Keynes, Simon (November 1994). "The West Saxon Charters of King Æthelwulf and his sons".English Historical Review.109.ISSN0013-8266.
- Kirby, D. P. (2000).The Earliest English Kings.New York: Routledge.ISBN0-415-24211-8.
External links
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