Royal Authority in Anglo-Saxon England

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Since its establishment in 1985 the Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies has regularly hosted international, interdisciplinary conferences, especially an annual Easter Conference. The 2006 MANCASS Easter conference titled ‘Royal Kingship and Power in Anglo-Saxon England’ focused on historical contributions analysing sources of knowledge about royal power; and others which pinpointed loss of power or insecure pretensions to the crown. There were also offerings which teased material relevant to the conference theme out of artefactual and literary sources. This volume includes one long essay by Gareth Williams, surveying Anglo-Saxon coins in relation to kingly authority. There are six shorter essays, two on text, and one on parchment production as an indicator of monastic economy and royal patronage. Others focus on royal retirement into a monastery as renunciation of power by aging or vunerable monarchs, failure to lead troops against an invader, and creation of a heroic image to mask weakness in the case of Edmund Ironside.