¹ On King Edward's decision, see the Vita Ædwardi regis, ed. and trans. Frank Barlow, London 1962, 44–6. On Henry, King, see Charter Rolls 1226–57, 306Google Scholar; Harvey, Barbara, Westminster Abbey audits Estates in the Middle Ages, Oxford 1977, 28–9Google Scholar; Wander, Steven H., ‘The Westminster Abbey sanctuary pavement’, Traditio xxxiv (1978), 137–56, esp. p. 153.Google Scholar

² Many of the major forgeries arc discussed by Chaplais, Pierre, ‘The original charters of Herbert and Gervase, abbots of Westminster (1121–1157)’, in A Medieval Miscellany for Doris Mary Stenton, ed. Barnes, Patricia M. and Slade, C. F. (Pipe Roll Society, NS xxxvi, 1962), 89–99.Google Scholar See also Scholz, B. W., ‘Two forged charters from the Abbey of Westminster and their relationship with St-Denis’, EHR lxxvi (1961), 466–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Surviving charters for Westminster issued in the name of King Edward, or of those of his predecessors, are listed in chronological sequence, with comments on their authenticity, by Sawyer, P. H., Anglo-Saxon Charters: an annotated list and bibliography, London 1968.Google Scholar The charters of William 1 are being re-edited by Dr David Bates, and I concur with his views regarding the authenticity, or otherwise, of those documents issued for Westminster by both William I and William II. The Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum I: 1066–1100, ed. H. W. C. Davis with R. J. Whitewell, Oxford 1913, omits several charters issued for Westminster by William I, and its comments on others are erroneous. Editorial comment on the authenticity of Henry t's charters for Westminster in the Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum II: 1100–1131, ed. C. Johnson and H. A. Cronne, Oxford 1956, cannot invariably be sustained. Full texts of all King Stephen's charters for Westminster are printed in the Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum III: 1135–1154, ed. H. A. Cronne and R. H. G. Davis, Oxford 1968, where nos 928–9,939–41 are designated as forgeries. The editors appear undecided about no. 937, but this can also be shown to be a forgery on textual grounds.

³ Vita Ædwardi, 44–6. On Queen Edith's funeral, see The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, trans. and ed. Dorothy Whitelock, with D. C. Douglas and Susie I. Tucker, London 1961, D, E, 158. King Edward's rebuilding of Westminster was paralleled by Queen Edith's rebuilding of the nunnery of Wilton, where her namesake, the royal St Edith, was buried, Vita Ædwardi, 46–7. The queen retained an association with this house in her widowhood, ibid. 100, and perhaps intended that its church should be her mausoleum. By according her a ceremonious funeral at Westminster, King William ensured that Wilton would not become the focus of yet another tomb-cult of a member of the former royal house.

⁴ ASC, E, 186; Harvey, , Westminster Abbey, 373 and n. 6.Google Scholar

⁵ The Cartulary of Holy Trinity Aldgale, ed. Hodgett, G. A. J. (London Record Soc. vii, 1970. nos 13. 997.Google Scholar

⁶ Green, Judith A., The Government of England under Henry I, Cambridge 1986, 10–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁷ Harvey, , op. cit. 25.Google Scholar

⁸ In some instances, choice was influenced by political considerations, Mason, Emma, ‘Pro statu et incolumnitate regni mei: royal monastic patronage 1066–1154’, Studies in Church History xviii (1982), 99–117CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hallam, Elizabeth M., ‘Royal burial and the cult of kingship in France and England, 1066–1330’, JMH viii (1982), 359–80Google Scholar; Mason, Emma, ‘St Wulfstan's staff: a legend and its uses’, Medium Ævum liii (1984), 157, 170–1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁹ Spiegel, Gabrielle M., ‘The cult of St Denis and Capetian kingship’, JAW i (1975), 43–69.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Parallel considerations to those which prompted Harold II and William I in their choice of coronation church influenced German rulers. Aachen Cathedral, where Charlemagne was buried, Einhard and Notker the Stammerer, Two Lives of Charlemagne, trans. Thorpe, L., Harmondsworth 1969, 84–5Google Scholar, was the coronation church of rulers descended from a series of dynasties, Hill, Boyd D. Jr, Medieval Monarchy in Action, London 1972, 25, 61, 85, 101Google Scholar; Otto of Freising, The Deeds of Frederick Barbarossa, trans, and intro. Mierow, C. C., New York 1953, new edn 1966, 53, 116–17.Google Scholar

¹¹ Hallam, , ‘Royal burial’, 363–4, 367.Google Scholar

¹² On Reading, see Reading Abbey Cartularies i, ed. Kemp, B. R. (Camden Society, 4th ser. xxxi, 1986), 13–19 and nos 1–2.Google Scholar On Faversham, see Dugdale, W., Monasticon Anglicanum, 6 vols, rev. Caley, H. et al., London 1817–30, iv. 573 no. 3.Google Scholar See also Hallam, , op. cit. 369.Google Scholar

¹³ Vila Ædwardi, pp. xiv-xli; Barlow, Frank, Edward the Confessor, London 1970, 256–85Google Scholar, where ancillary evidence on the development of the cult is also considered. Sec also Scholz, B. W., ‘The canonization of Edward the Confessor’, Speculum xxvi (1961), 38–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar He suggests that the ‘book of miracles’ presented to Pope Alexander III with the second petition for canonisation was actually the Vita as revised by Osbert de Clare, ibid. 49–50; cf. Barlow, , op. cit. 278.Google Scholar

¹⁴ See, however, Baker, Derek, ‘“A nursery of saints”: St Margaret of Scotland reconsidered’, in Medieval Women, ed. Baker, D., Oxford 1978, 122–5.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Vila Ædwardi, 124–8.

¹⁶ Armitage Robinson, J., Gilbert Crispin, Abbot of Westminster, Cambridge 1911, 13–18.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Ridyard, Susan J., ‘Condigna Veneratio: post-Conquest attitudes to the saints of the Anglo-Saxons’, Anglo-Norman Studies IX. Proceedings of the Battle Conference 1986, ed. Allen Brown, R., Woodbridge 1987, 179–206.Google Scholar

¹⁸ In c. 1077, the Norman abbot of Evesham, Walter de Cérisy, produced in support of his claim to certain lands the relics of the English Ecgwine, St, Piacila Anglo Normannica, ed. Bigelow, M. M., London 1879, 18.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Robinson, Armitage, Gilbert Crispin, 37Google Scholar; Monasticon i. 310 no. 64. Only seven writs and charters survive in the name of Abbot Gilbert.

²⁰ Robinson, Armitage, op. cit. 37Google Scholar; Monasticon i. 310 no. 62.

²¹ Chaplais, , ‘Original charters’, 100–1Google Scholar; Monasticon i. 307 no. 50; ibid. iii. 426 no. 2. Ten charters survive in Abbot Herbert's name.

²² Ibid. i. 310 no. 61. WAD (Muniment Book 11), fo. 7gv.

²³ WAD, fo. 79V; Monasticon i. 310 no. 63.

²⁴ Ibid. iii. 427 nos 4 and 5. The texts of twenty-four writs and charters survive in the name of Abbot Gervase.

²⁵ WAD, fo. 377v.

²⁶ Barlow, , Edward the Confessor, 272–6.Google Scholar

²⁷ Monasticon i. 308 no. 54.

²⁸ Barlow, , op. cit. 278–80.Google Scholar

²⁹ WAM 2280. Abbot Laurence's surviving charters total twelve.

³⁰ WAM 2270.

³¹ WAM 1767. Walter's surviving charters total twenty.

³² Richardson, H. G., ‘William of Ely, the king's treasurer (? 1195–1215)’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 4th ser. xv (1932), 80–1 no. 2.Google Scholar William Postard's surviving charters total twenty.

³³ Ibid. 79–80 no. 1; Rotuli chartarum in Turn Londoniensi osservati 1199–1216, ed. Duffus Hardy, T., London 1837, 49a, m.10.Google Scholar

³⁴ WAD fos 572r-3r. Abbot Ralph's surviving charters total twelve.

³⁵ For an analysis of these, see Mason, Emma, ‘The donors of Westminster Abbey charters: c 1066–1240’, Medieval Prosopography viii/2 (1987), 1–17.Google Scholar

³⁶ WAD, fo. 474V.

³⁷ WAD, fo. 136r.

³⁸ Miss Barbara Harvey's recent work on the monastic diet at Westminster confirms both the generous quantity of the pittances enjoyed on feast days and also the remarkable extent to which dishes were highly seasoned.

³⁹ BL, MS Cotton Charter x. 1.

⁴⁰ WAM 13844, 13845.

⁴¹ Mason, Emma, ‘The Mauduits and their chamberlainship of the Exchequer’, BIHR xlix (1976), 23.Google Scholar

⁴² Pipe Roll 34 Henry II, 17.

⁴³ WAD, fos 48sv–6r.

⁴⁴ Brooke, C. N. L. and Keir, Gillian, London: the shaping of a city, London 1975, 40–1.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Richardson, , ‘William of Ely’, 89–90 no. 8.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Ibid. 58.

⁴⁷ WAD, fos 570V-1r.

⁴⁸ WAM 16737.

⁴⁹ Scholz, B. W., ‘Sulcard of Westminster: “Prologus de construccione West-monasterii”’, Traditio xx (1964), 83–5.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Rosser, A. G., Medieval Westminster: the vill and the urban community 1200–1540, unpubl. PhD diss., London University 1984, 86–92.Google Scholar

⁵¹ English Episcopal Acta IV: Lincoln 1186–1206, ed. Smith, David M., Oxford 1986, appendix I, no. 19.Google Scholar

⁵² WAD, fo. 393r.

⁵³ Neve, John Le, Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300: I St Paul's, London, compiled by Greenway, Diana E., London 1968, 2.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ On the planning of the translation, see Barlow, , Edward the Confessor, 282.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Morey, A. and Brooke, C. N. L., Gilbert Foliot and his Letters, Cambridge 1965, 98.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Papsturkunden in England, 3 vols, ed. Holtzmann, W.. Berlin-Göttingen, 1930/1–52, i. nos 17Google Scholar, 113, 144, 262, 302.

⁵⁷ WAD, fo. 388.

⁵⁸ WAD, fo. 390v.

⁵⁹ WAD, fo. 390r.

⁶⁰ WAD, fo. 390r.

⁶¹ WAD, fo. 390.

⁶² Papsturkundm i. no. 25; The Acts of Malcolm IV King of Scots 1153–1165, ed. G. W. S. Barrow, Edinburgh i960, appendix, no. 319.

⁶³ Papsturkunden i. nos 21, 47, 69; WAD, fo. 2.

⁶⁴ Barlow, , Edward the Confessor, 323–4 no. 14Google Scholar; Flete, John, The History of Westminster Abbey, ed. Armitage Robinson, J., Cambridge 1909, 193.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Pope Alexander III's confirmation of the abbey's possessions, 6 Oct. 1163, Papsturkunden i. no. 101, is the only subsequent bull issued before the end of Innocent III's pontificate which even lists earlier named kings as benefactors.

⁶⁶ Flete, op. cit. 34, 71; WAD, fo. 2; Papsturkunden i. nos 47,69, 101; Harvey, , Westminster Abbey, 27–8.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ These figures derive from my own recent work on the abbey's charters and coincide with the findings of Dr David Bates. See also above n. 2.

⁶⁸ E.g. BL, MS Cotton Faustina A iii, fo. 60; see also Robinson, Armitage, Gilbert Crispin, 140.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ These figures are again derived from my own work and coincide with those reached by Dr Bates. See also above n. 2.

⁷⁰ Flete, , Westminster Abbey, 87Google Scholar; Papsturkunden i. nos 47, 69, 101.

⁷¹ These figures are derived from my own work. The spurious texts are those which are calendared in the Regesta II as nos 489, 668 (which is, in fact, a conflation of two texts), 1177. 1240, 1883. See also above n. 2.

⁷² Robinson, Armitage, Gilbert Crispin, 141 no. 18Google Scholar; Round, J. H., The King's Sergeants, London 1911, 322.Google Scholar

⁷³ Biddle, Martin, ‘Seasonal festivals and residence: Winchester, Westminster and Gloucester in the tenth to twelfth centuries’, in Anglo-Norman Studies VIII: Proceedings of the Battle Conference 1985, ed. Allen Brown, R., Woodbridge 1986, 51–72.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ Robinson, Armitage, op. cit. 144 no. 24Google Scholar; Bishop, T. A. M., Scriptores regis, Oxford 1961, no. 531, plate x (a).Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Robinson, Armitage, op. cit. 163–4Google Scholar; Madox, T., Formulare Anglicanum, London 1702, lxv.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ Ibid. ccccxcvi.

⁷⁷ Reading Abbey Cartularies i. 13–19 and nos 1–2. Before Henry's body was taken to Reading, his entrails were buried in the priory church of Notre-Dame-du-Prć, outside Rouen. William of Malmesbury, reporting this, added that Henry's mother had founded the church and that he himself had been a benefactor, Historia Novella, trans, and intro. Potter, K. R., London 1955, 14.Google Scholar The parish church had been founded by Henry's parents, but the monastic cell, which was a dependency of Bee, was regarded by the monks of Bee as being of Henry's foundation. Orderic Vitalis, writing in Saint Evroul, reported that Notre-Dame-du-Pré had been begun by Henry's mother, and completed by him, The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis vi, ed. and trans. Chibnall, Marjorie, Oxford 1978, 450.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Robinson, Armitage, Gilbert Crispin, 155 no. 38.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Ibid. 156 no. 39.

⁸⁰ The Acts Malcolm IV, no. 6.

⁸¹ Eadmer, , Historia Novorum, ed. Rule, M. (Rolls Scries, 1884), 294–7.Google Scholar

⁸² Papslurkunden i. no. 12. See Brett, M., The English Church under Henry I, Oxford 1975, 41Google Scholar, n. 4; Councils and Synods, with other documents relating to the English Church, I: 871–1204, ed. Whitelock, D., Brett, M. and Brooke, C. N. L., Oxford 1981, ii. 724Google Scholar; Papsturkunden i. 234–5.

⁸³ Ibid. i. no. 13. See Brett, op. cit. 41 n. 4; Councils and Synods I ii. 724; Papsturkunden i 237.

⁸⁴ WAD, fo. 389v. The possibility remains that this text is a further fabrication, based on the earlier ones. On John of Crema's legatine visit and his convening of a council at Westminster, see Councils and Synods I ii. 731–41; Chronicle of John of Worcester, ed. Weaver, J. R. H. (Anecdota Oxoniensia, 1908), 20–2.Google Scholar

⁸⁵ Barlow, , Edward the Confessor, 270 and n. 1, 272Google Scholar; Green, , Government of England, 11 and n. 53.Google Scholar Queen Matilda had been actively engaged in religious patronage and good works in London, Brooke, and Keir, , London 800–1216, 315–23Google Scholar, hence, perhaps, a degree of spontaneous popular enthusiasm for her cult.

⁸⁶ Daniel, Walter, The Life of Ailred of Rievaulx, trans, and intro. Powieke, F. M., Oxford 1950, repr. 1978, pp. xlii, xlvi and n. 2Google Scholar; Baker, , ‘A nursery of saints’, 125Google Scholar; Squire, A., ‘Aelred and King David’, Collectanea Sacri Ordinis Cisterciensium Reformatorum xxii (1960), 356–77.Google Scholar

⁸⁷ papsturkunden i. no. 25; Acts of Malcolm IV, appendix no. 319.

⁸⁸ Ibid. no. 13.

⁸⁹ Ibid. no. 12; cf. no. 14.

⁹⁰ Ibid. no. 36.

⁹¹ Ibid. no. 154.

⁹² The Acts of William I, King of Scots 1163–1314, ed. Barrow, G. W. S. with Scott, W. W., Edinburgh 1971, no. 52.Google Scholar King David is not named individually.

⁹³ Knowles, D., Brooke, C. N. L. and London, Vera C. M., The Heads of Religious Houses: England and Wales 340–1216, Cambridge 1972, 77.Google Scholar

⁹⁴ Regesta III, no. 930.

⁹⁵ Barlow, , Edward the Confessor, 275.Google Scholar

⁹⁶ Ibid.

⁹⁷ Regesta III, no. 936.

⁹⁸ Ibid. 932.

⁹⁹ Ibid. no. 938.

¹⁰⁰ Monasticon iv. 573 no. 3. A confirmation issued for Faversham by Henry II, at the request of Stephen's surviving son William, earl of Warennc, refers to the church ‘ubi requiescant cognati mei, vicelicet Rex Stephanus, et Matilda regina, uxor eius, et Eustacius filius eorum’. Henry's charter was issued for his own soul, and those of all his kindred and antecessores, kings of England, ibid. iv. 573 no. 2.

¹⁰¹ New Palaeographical Society: Facsimiles, 1st ser. ii (1904), plate 98 (a).

¹⁰² Curia regis Rolls i. 464–5. Gervase's reputation was perhaps damaged by this territorial loss. He was subsequently depicted at Westminster as an unworthy abbot, Flete, , Westminster Abbey, 88–91Google Scholar, but recent writers have demonstrated the falsity of most of the allegations against him, Richardson, H. G. and Sayles, G. O., The Governance of Medieval England, Edinburgh 1963, 413–21Google Scholar; Harvey, Barbara, ‘Abbot Gervase de Blois and the fee-farms of Westminster Abbey’, BIHR xl (1967), 127–41.Google Scholar Evidence of his concern for the abbey is reflected in his surviving charters, considerably more numerous than those of any other abbot in the period down to 1214.

¹⁰³ WAD, fo. 58r.

¹⁰⁴ Barlow, , Edward the Confessor, 279–80.Google Scholar Henry's letter supporting the canonisation describes Edward as his kinsman but does not mention Westminster, ibid. 310. See also Scholz, , ‘The canonization’, 49–57.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁵ Barlow, , op. cit. 278–80.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁶ Scholz, , op. cit. 50.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁷ Ibid. 55–60.

¹⁰⁸ WAM xlvi; WAD, fo. 59. Richard's charter of liberties for the abbey (WAM xlv), like those ascribed to Henry I, Stephen and Henry II, is almost certainly spurious.

¹⁰⁹ WAD, fo. 59r.

¹¹⁰ WAM xlvii.

¹¹¹ Rotuli chartarum in Turri Londoniensi asservati 119–1216, ed. Duffus Hardy, T., London 1837, 139b.Google Scholar

¹¹² Pipe Roll 6 John, 112; Rotuli litterarum clausarum in Turri Londiniensi asservati (1204–27), 2 vols, ed. Duffus Hardy, T., London 1833–1844, i. 15a, 32bGoogle Scholar; Rotuli de oblatis et finibus in Turri Londiniensi asservati, ed. Duffus Hardy, T., London 1835, 222.Google Scholar

¹¹³ Restoration of the goods of Westminster which had been unjustly dispersed cost Abbot Herbert a fine of 1,000 marks, The Great Roll of the Pipe for the thirty-first year of the reign of Henry I (Michaelmas 1130), ed. Hunter, J., London 1833, 150.Google Scholar

¹¹⁴ Rotuli chartarum, 165 b.

¹¹⁵ William I bequeathed to St-Étienne his crown and regalia, which were bought back by William II in 1096–7, Regesta I, no. 397. Caen lay at a focal point in William i's regnum, Mason, ‘Pro statu’, 104.Google Scholar

¹¹⁶ Barlow, Frank, William Rufus, London 1983, 114–15, 428.Google Scholar Gloucester was one of the churches where Christmas crown-wearings were sometimes held in the reigns of William I and II, Biddle, , ‘Seasonal festivals’, 64–5.Google Scholar On the benefactions of William II and his barons, see Bates, David, ‘The building of a great church: the abbey of St Peter's, Gloucester, and its early Norman benefactors’, Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society cii (1984), 129–32.Google Scholar On the scale of building operations in this reign, see Wilson, Christopher, ‘Abbot Serlo's church at Gloucester (1089–1100): its place in Romanesque architecture’, in Medieval Art and Architecture at Gloucester and Tewkesbury, (The British Archaeological Association Conference Transactions for the year 1981, 1985), 52–83.Google Scholar

¹⁷ On the burials of Cnut and Harthacnut in the Old Minster, Winchester, see ASC, 102, 106. Winchester was the usual venue for Easter crown-wearings when William I and II were in England, Biddle, op. cit. 64–5. In conversation with the present writer, Professor Biddle suggested that William ii had a particular regard for Winchester, as evidenced by his donations, including his grant to Bishop Walkelin of the right to hold an annual three-day fair; cf. Regesta I, no. 377, Regesta II, no. 377a.

¹¹⁸ Hallam, Elizabeth M., ‘Henry ii, Richard 1 and the order of Grandmont’, JMH i (1975), 165–8.Google Scholar The tombs of Henry ii, Richard i, Henry's wife Eleanor and John's second wife Isabel can still be seen at Fontevraud. Those of John's sister Johanna and her son Raymond vii, count of Toulouse, were destroyed during the French Revolution.

¹¹⁹ Mason, , ‘St Wulfstan's staff’, 157.Google Scholar John was attended in his last illness by the abbot of the Premonstratensian house of Croxton (Leics.), Roger of Wendover, Flores Historiarum ii, ed. Hewlett, H. G. (Rolls Series, 1887), 196Google Scholar, and this abbey obtained his intestina, Annals, Barnwell, in Memoriale Fratris Walttri de Coventria, 2 vols, ed. Stubbs, W. (Rolls Series, 1872–1873), ii. 232.Google Scholar In 1257, Croxton claimed to have John's heart, Charter Rolls i. 463; although Fontevraud also claimed to have his heart-burial, together with those of his son Henry in and other members of the English royal house. The crypt which housed these heart-burials was filled in during the French Revolution.

¹²⁰ Harvey, , Westminster Abbey, 27.Google Scholar

¹²¹ Flete, , Westminster Abbey, 89.Google Scholar See also Harvey, , ‘Abbot Gervase de Blois’, 131, 138.Google Scholar The manor of Chelsea was alienated to Damette by Gervase himself, but the extent of his father's prompting is unknown.

¹¹² WAD, fos 378v-09r; PRO E. 164/20, fo. xiii; sec also Monasticon iv. 364 no. 7, 365 no. 8, 366 no. 15.

¹²³ Curia Regis Rolls vi. 93.

¹²⁴ E.g. Froger, formerly royal almoner, WAD, fo. 476r; cf. Eyton, R. W., Court Household and Itinerary of King Henry II, London 1878, 336Google Scholar; Ralph de Beaumont, royal physician, WAD, fo. 378. Cf. Lally, J. E., ‘Secular patronage at the court of King Henry II’, BIHR xlix (1976), 173.Google Scholar

¹²⁵ Lukewarmness towards Edward's foundation perhaps originated in his vacillating dispositions for the succession to the throne. On these, see Williams, Ann, ‘Some notes and considerations on problems connected with the English royal succession, 860–1066’, Proceedings of the Battle Conference on Anglo-Norman Studies, I: 1978, ed. Allen Brown, R., Ipswich 1979, 164–6.Google Scholar An alternative interpretation of Edward's intentions, which depicts them as more constant, is that of John, Eric, ‘Edward the Confessor and the Norman succession’, EHR xciv (1979), 241–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹²⁶ Pipe Roll 2 Henry II, 33; Rotuli de oblatis et finibus, 325.

¹²⁷ Barlow, Frank, ‘The king's evil’, EHR xcv (1980), 3–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar, repr. in idem, The Norman Conquest and Beyond, London 1983, 23–47. See also Mason, , ‘St Wulfstan's staff’, 171.Google Scholar