Eadnoth | |
|---|---|
| Bishop of Dorchester | |
 Miniature of a bishop and an abbot from the 14th-centuryRamsey Psalter, thought to beOswald (left) and his kinsman Eadnoth (right) | |
| Province | Canterbury |
| Diocese | Dorchester |
| Installed | Between 1007 and 1009 |
| Term ended | 1016 |
| Predecessor | Ælfhelm |
| Successor | Æthelric |
| Other post | PreviouslyAbbot of Ramsey (c. 992—1007 x 1009) |
| Personal details | |
| Parents | Æthelstan Mannessune and unknown (kinswoman of Archbishop Oswald) |
| Profession | Monk |
| Sainthood | |
| Feast day | 18 October |
| Patronage | Ramsey Abbey |
| Shrines | Ely Cathedral (medieval) |
| Cult suppressed | SeeDissolution of the Monasteries |
Eadnoth the Younger orEadnoth I was a medievalmonk andprelate, successivelyAbbot of Ramsey andBishop of Dorchester. From a prominent family of priests inthe Fens, he was related toOswald,Bishop of Worcester,Archbishop of York and founder ofRamsey Abbey. Following in the footsteps of his illustrious kinsman, he initially became a monk atWorcester. He is found at Ramsey supervising construction works in the 980s, and around 992 actually became Abbot of Ramsey. As abbot, he founded two daughter houses in what is nowCambridgeshire, namely, a monastery atSt Ives and a nunnery atChatteris. At some point between 1007 and 1009, he became Bishop of Dorchester, asee that encompassed much of the easternDanelaw. He died at theBattle of Assandun in 1016, fightingCnut the Great.
Eadnoth the Younger was the son ofÆthelstan Mannessune by a kinswoman of Oswald, Bishop of Worcester and Archbishop of York.[1] His father came from family of hereditary Fenland priests from in or around theIsle of Ely.[1] Æthelstan had lands inCambridgeshire,Huntingdonshire andBedfordshire, with "outlying" [Hart] estates inNorfolk andLincolnshire.[2] Eadnoth is styled "the Younger",Iunior, to distinguish him from Eadnoth "the Elder",Senior, the follower of Oswald who served asprior of themonastery of Ramsey in the years before Eadnoth the Younger became abbot.[3]
Eadnoth the Younger had one brother, Godric (died 1013), and at least two sisters,Ælfwaru (died 1007) and Ælfwyn, all of whom inherited estates (in addition to afishery) from their father.[4] Eadnoth, by contrast, became a monk atWorcester Abbey, where his mother's kinsman Oswald was bishop, and thus could not inherit anything.[5] Eadnoth appears for the first time in the 980s when, according to theLiber Benefactorum Ecclesiae Ramesiensis, he supervised the repair of the western tower of Ramsey Abbey.[6] Eadnoth became Abbot of Ramsey in 992,[7] having probably already taken over Eadnoth the Elder's duties as prior from at least 991, if not earlier.[8]
TheLiber Benefactorum calls Eadnoth the Younger the "first abbot of Ramsey".[9] It says that he was elected according to theBenedictine Rule by the monks of Ramsey, afterEaldorman Æthelwine had given Germanus enough money to found a new monastery atCholsey.[10] Ramsey had had two communities of monks, those who had been moved by Oswald there fromWestbury on Trym in the 960s, and those who had fled there in the 980s fromWinchcombe because of the anti-monastic reaction in Mercia; until 992, Oswald, who died in 992, had been titular abbot of the former with Eadnoth the Elder as his prior, while the Winchcombe monks had Germanus as their abbot.[11]
According to historianCyril Hart, "there is no shred of doubt" that Eadnoth the Younger obtained this office through the influence of Oswald.[12] Although suchnepotism contradicted the usual spirit of the Benedictine revival in England at the time, Oswald himself had similarly advanced because of family connections.[12] As abbot Eadnoth founded a nunnery on his family lands at Chatteris, and his younger sister Ælfwyn became its firstabbess.[13] In 1007, the Chatteris nunnery received the lands ofOver andBarley, following the death of their sister Ælfwaru.[14]
Eadnoth also founded a monastery at St Ives, Cambridgeshire. Established as a daughter-house of Ramsey (like Chaterris), the monastery's entire endowment consisted ofSlepe (what became St Ives) as well as part ofElsworth and Knapworth.[15] All of these lands (including their churches) had been the property of Eadnoth's father Æthelstan.[15] Elsworth had been left to Ramsey in the will of Eadnoth's sister Ælfwaru.[15] On 24 April 1002, soon after founding St Ives, he translated itseponymous saintly resident—discovered by a ploughing peasant a year before—to Ramsey Abbey.[16]
At some point between 1007 and 1009, Eadnoth becameBishop of Dorchester.[17]Dorchester was a sprawling diocese based far to the south of most of its territory in the eastern Danelaw, atDorchester on Thames.[18] It was roughly equivalent to the pre-Viking east Merciandiocese of Leicester, and after Eadnoth's episcopate came to include theDiocese of Lindsey too.[19] In the Norman era the bishopric's seat returned north and became the well-knownbishopric of Lincoln.[20]
Little is known of Eadnoth's episcopate. His first appearance as bishop is as a witness to a charter of 1009, issued byKing Æthelred to a thegn named Morcar; the last notice of Eadnoth's predecessor as bishop, Ælfhelm, occurs in a similar document of 1007.[21] Eadnoth subsequently subscribes at least another eight royal charters before his death, all between 1011 and 1013, with a possible further subscription in 1016.[22] On 18 October 1016, Bishop Eadnoth fought and wasmartyred at theBattle of Assandun inEssex, alongside Wulfsifge, his successor as abbot of Ramsey, and Æthelweard son ofEaldorman Æthelwine [of East Anglia].[23] He was fighting on behalf ofEdmund Ironside againstCnut, the Danish invader who was claiming the English crown.[24]
Eadnoth's body was taken north into the Fenlands, heading back to Ramsey. According to theLiber Eliensis, the guards of the body stopped atEly Abbey and got drunk, during which the Ely monks seized and hid the body.[25] The plot was led byÆlfgar, formerlyBishop of Elmham.[25] Thereafter the body remained at Ely, where Eadnoth the Martyr was venerated as a saint.[25]
It is thought that Abbot Eadnoth is the abbot depicted alongside a bishop (his kinsman Bishop Oswald) in one of theminiatures in the 14th-century Ramsey Psalter (not to be confused withBritish Museum MS Harley 2904).[26] Below Bishop Oswald is a ram, after the first element of the place-name Ramsey, and below Eadnoth a bull, in reference to the foundation legend of the abbey.[27]
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)| Christian titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| New title | Abbot of Ramsey c. 992–1006x1008 | Succeeded by Wulfsige |
| Preceded by | Bishop of Dorchester 1007 x 1009–1016 | Succeeded by |