Date: 14 Oct 99 18:49:41 America/Knox_IN
Subject: Herbert of Losinga
From: Christopher Crockett <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Reply-to: [log in to unmask]
JULIA BARROW wrote:
>...I suspect part of the problem with Herbert is that the period when he
was bishop - 1090-1119 - is really just before charter output began
to take off in a major way. East Anglia is... is very poorly recorded until
c.1100....
Curious state of affairs--seems *awfully* late (by French/Norman
standards).
Is it a question of when production "took off" or the accidents of
survival?
Or can you tell?
Forgive the idle question.
Best from here,
Christopher
Dear Christopher
It's a very good question. I'm not the best person to answer it
because I don't work on East Anglia. But in general it can be said
that charter evidence from the Anglo-Saxon period relating to
E.Anglia is limited (nothing like, e.g. what you have for Kent, or
for that matter for Worcestershire, particularly not if you compare
relative area and [probable] relative populations). Then in general
in England (I don't know about E Anglia on this point but I'm pretty
sure it's the same) the first 20 years after the Norman Conquest were
a wash-out for charter-writing, except royal charters (and there
aren't big numbers of those - cf. D. Bates' nice new edition). After
that charters do creep back, but again I think the really steep climb
in charter production begins c.1120. But I need to do a
number-crunching job on this.
Julia Barrow
____________________________________________________________________
Get your own FREE, personal Netscape WebMail account today at http://webmail.netscape.com.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|