ABSTRACT
In 1005 Æthelmær the Stout, son of Ealdorman Æthelweard, and (like his father) a kinsman of King Æthelred the Unready, decided to retire from public life and to live in common with the community of the monastery he had founded at Eynsham in Oxfordshire. Æthelmær had previously founded or extended his protection to a monastery at Cerne Abbas in Dorset; and, as we all know, he brought with him to Eynsham the person who had acted hitherto as mass-priest and schoolmaster at Cerne. It was a critical moment in Æthelred’s reign, for Æthelmær had served as one of the king’s closest lay associates since the early 990s, throughout an extended period (991-1005) when the English had suffered under sustained pressure of Viking attack. The foundation of Eynsham Abbey was marked by the production of what in its original form would have been one of the most imposing of all the charters issued in King Æthelred’s name, and perhaps at the same time one of the most symbolic of its age. The original charter is now lost; but it was copied in the late twelfth century as the opening item in the cartulary of Eynsham Abbey, preserved to this day in the library of Christ Church, Oxford.1
