Public rites and public wrongs: ritual aspects of diplomas in tenth- and eleventh-century England
Levi Roach
This paper investigates the symbolic nature of tenth- and eleventh-century Anglo-Saxon diplomas, arguing that they are important witnesses to public rituals conveyance. Against this background we can more fully appreciate significance Æthelred II's diplomas 990s restoring lands religious houses which had suffered at his hands. It is argued these documents an ‘penitential programme’ involving multiple admissions wrongdoing.
Early Medieval Europe