ABSTRACT
M onastic reform has rightly been given precedence because it is there in the monasteries that the dynamic for the age can be discerned in ecclesi astical and cultural affairs. In the generation that ran from the reforms at Glastonbury in the 940s to the accession o f K ing Ethelred in 978 political advance was m ade that led to a creation o f a true m onarchy o f England under King Edgar and at the same time ecclesiastical life was revitalised, principally through the impetus provided by the sheer size and success of the monastic revival. T he fruits of the activity becam e apparent in the succeeding generation. Political turm oil ending in Danish C onquest has obscured understandably the extraordinary achievements o f administrators and scholars during the reign o f K ing Ethelred (978-1016). The AngloSaxon Chronicle, in itself a fine vernacular composition, tells a sorry story of mismanagement, treachery, waste and final disaster. N ot even the bravery o f Ethelred’s son and immediate short-lived successor, Edm und Ironside, can tem per the sense o f ineffectiveness and decline. Yet the substructure is surprisingly strong. In law-giving and in the means of implementing law through public courts in shires, wapentakes and hundreds, England was without equal in W estern Europe. T he tax system and the coinage was sophisticated. T he revived monastic order provided the m anpow er and to some extent the ethos in consolidating these achievements.