Æthelric I

Æthelric
Bishop of Selsey
Appointed	before 1032
Term ended	1038
Predecessor	Ælfmær
Successor	Grimketel
Personal details
Died	1038
Denomination	Catholic

Æthelric I (died 1038) was an Anglo-Saxon Bishop of Selsey.

Life

Perhaps previously a monk at Christ Church Canterbury, Æthelric was probably Bishop of Selsey by 1032, when he witnessed a charter of King Cnut.^[1][2] Nothing else is known of his origins.^[3]

But is it curious that Æthelric's predecessor supposedly attested a charter of Cnut dated 1033.^[4] The probable explanation is that Ælfmær witnessed the conveyance itself which took place in 1032 but the charter recording the transaction was not prepared until 1033.^[5]

According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, version D, Æthelric died in 1038: "In this year died Archbishop Æthelnoth the Good, also Æthelric, Bishop of Sussex, who desired of God that He would not allow him to outlive his dear father Æthelnoth".

The Handbook of British Chronology gives the dates of his bishopric as 1032 through November or December 1038.^[6] The historian Frank Barlow felt that Æthelric was the ultimate source for information Eadmer gathered about Dunstan.^[7] Barlow also felt that Æthelric was a member of Dunstan's reforming group.^[8]

Citations

1. Kelly Charters of Selsey p. xcii
2. Anglo-Saxons.net Charters S964 accessed on 25 August 2007
3. Lawson Cnut p. 137
4. Anglo-Saxons.net Charters S969 accessed on 25 August 2007
5. O'Donovan Charters of Sherborne pp. 72-73
6. Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 221
7. Barlow English Church 1000-1066 p. 74
8. Barlow English Church 1000-1066 p. 222

References

• Barlow, Frank (1979). The English Church 1000-1066: A History of the Later Anglo-Saxon Church (Second ed.). New York: Longman. ISBN 0-582-49049-9.
• Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology (Third revised ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56350-X.
• Kelly, S. E. (1998). Charters of Selsey. Anglo-Saxon Charters VI. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-726175-2.
• Lawson, M. K. (2000). Cnut: England's Viking King. Stroud, UK: Tempus Publishing, Limited. ISBN 0-7524-2964-7.
• O'Donovan, M. A. (1988). Charters of Sherborne. Anglo-Saxon Charters III. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-726051-9.

External links

• Æthelric 50 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England