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 medieval Bishop of Sherborne.
Ealhstan was consecrated between 816 and 825. He died in 867.[1] According to the Anglo-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 the Council of Clofesho of 824.[2]
In the ninth century, the region "west of Selwood" formed a separate political entity within the kingdom of Wessex. According to Richard Abels in his biography of Alfred 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 the Battle of Ellandun, he was sent by King Egbert of Wessex with Egbert's son, the future King Æthelwulf, and an army to take control of Kent. According to Alfred the Great's contemporary biographer Asser, when King Æthelwulf returned from pilgrimage to Rome in 855, his son Æthelbald, together with Ealhstan and Eanwulf, ealdorman of Somerset, conspired to keep the king from recovering his crown.[4]
According to William of Malmesbury Ealhstan "subjected Malmesbury Abbey to 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 to Asser, "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
- ^ Or Alfstan or Ealhstan
Citations
References
- Abels, Richard (1998). Alfred the Great: War, Kingship and Culture in Anglo-Saxon England. Harlow, UK: Longman. ISBN 0-582-04047-7.
- Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology (Third revised ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56350-X.
- Kelly, Susan (2005). Charters of Malmesbury Abbey. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-726317-4.
- Keynes, Simon; Lapidge, Michael, eds. (1983). Alfred the Great: Asser's Life of King Alfred & Other Contemporary Sources. London, UK: Penguin Classics. ISBN 978-0-14-044409-4.
- Keynes, Simon (November 1994). "The West Saxon Charters of King Æthelwulf and his sons". English Historical Review. 109. ISSN 0013-8266.
- Kirby, D. P. (2000). The Earliest English Kings. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-24211-8.
External links
- Ealhstan 3 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England
Christian titles | ||
---|---|---|
Preceded by Wigberht | Bishop of Sherborne c. 820–867 | Succeeded by Heahmund |
- v
- t
- e
- see erected from Winchester
- St Aldhelm
- Forthhere
- Herewald
- Æthelmod
- Denefrith
- Wigberht
- Eahlstan
- St Heahmund
- Æthelheah
- Wulfsige
- Asser
- Æthelweard
- Wærstan
- Æthelbald
- Sigehelm
- Alfred
- Wulfsige II
- Ælfwold I
- Æthelsige I
- Wulfsige III
- Æthelric
- Æthelsige II
- Brithwine I
- Ælfmær
- Brithwine II
- St Ælfwold II
- Herman
- see united with Ramsbury and removed to Old Sarum
- united from Sherborne & Ramsbury
- Herman
- Saint Osmund
- Roger
- Henry of Sully
- Philip de Harcourt
- Josceline de Bohon
- Hubert Walter
- Herbert Poore
- Richard Poore
- see removed to New Sarum
- Richard Poore
- Robert de Bingham
- William de York
- Giles of Bridport
- Walter de la Wyle
- Robert Wickhampton
- Walter Scammel
- Henry Brandeston
- Lawrence de Awkeburne
- William de la Corner
- Nicholas Longespee
- Simon of Ghent
- Roger Martival
- Robert Wyvil
- Ralph Ergham
- John Waltham
- Richard Mitford
- Nicholas Bubwith
- Robert Hallam
- John Chandler
- Robert Neville
- William Ayscough
- Richard Beauchamp
- Lionel Woodville
- Thomas Langton
- John Blyth
- Henry Deane
- Edmund Audley
- Lorenzo Campeggio
- Nicholas Shaxton
- John Capon
- Gasparo Contarini
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- Francis Mallet
- John Jewel
- Edmund Gheast
- John Piers
- John Coldwell
- Henry Cotton
- Robert Abbot
- Martin Fotherby
- Robert Tounson
- John Davenant
- Brian Duppa
- Episcopacy abolished (Commonwealth)
- Brian Duppa
- Humphrey Henchman
- John Earle
- Alexander Hyde
- Seth Ward
- Gilbert Burnet
- William Talbot
- Richard Willis
- Benjamin Hoadly
- Thomas Sherlock
- John Gilbert
- John Thomas (I)
- Robert Hay Drummond
- John Thomas (II)
- John Hume
- Shute Barrington
- John Douglas
- John Fisher
- Thomas Burgess
- Edward Denison
- Walter Kerr Hamilton
- George Moberly
- John Wordsworth
- Frederick Ridgeway
- St Clair Donaldson
- Neville Lovett
- Geoffrey Lunt
- William Anderson
- Joe Fison
- George Reindorp
- John Baker
- David Stancliffe
- Nick Holtam
- Stephen Lake