By Ellie Jones, Cathedral Archivist
There are approximately 1,000 charters which survive from Anglo Saxon England. Sixteen of them are in the Exeter Cathedral Archives. Thirteen of those were issued in the name of rulers from the House of Wessex, who became the first Kings of all England (the other three came from the Danish king, Cnut the Great).
The best known of Exeter Cathedral’s Saxon royal charters is the “Foundation Charter”, which records the creation of the Diocese of Exeter, and established a cathedral here for the first time. That document dates from 1050 – but the oldest surviving original charter in the collection dates from 960. It was issued by King Edgar and granted land at Tywarnhayle (in Perranzabuloe) and Bosowsa (in Ladock), Cornwall to his faithful minister Earnulf.
Edgar, sometimes known as Edgar the Peaceable, was King of the kingdom of Mercia from 957, and King of the English from 959 until his death, aged about 31, in 975. Although he had been the king since 959, it appears he was not crowned until some years later, when Dunstan, the Archbishop of Canterbury, consecrated Edgar and his wife, Ælfryth, as king and queen at Bath Abbey on 11 May 973. This is considered the first English coronation.
The period of Edgar’s rule is generally regarded as a time of relative peace, prosperity, and progress; a time when laws and literacy flourished. It is almost certainly during his reign that one of the Cathedral’s greatest treasures – The Exeter Book of Anglo Saxon poetry – was written.
In total, the Cathedral holds four charters issued in the name of Edgar. Also, from the royal House of Wessex, there are two charters issued by Edgar’s eldest son, Edward the Martyr, who succeeded him in 975, and one in the name of his younger son, Aethelred II. Aethelred II (commonly known as “the Unready”) was just 12 years old when he succeeded his murdered elder half-brother Edward to the throne in 978. Rounding out this royal family tree, the Cathedral also has three charters which claim to have been issued by Edgar’s uncle, King Athelstan (although they are, in fact, 11th century forgeries), and three genuine charters granted by his grandson, Edward the Confessor – including the Foundation Charter.