Record revealed
Charter issued by the Anglo-Saxon King Edgar
The oldest complete document at The National Archives, this charter dates back over 1,000 years and contains the only known example of the Old English language in our collection.
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Image 1 of 3
The charter issued by King Edgar.
Regnante in perpetuum Domino nostro Jhesu Christo. Omne quidem donationis decretum sub testimonio carraxaturae commendanda est; ne successura posteritatis prosapia in rapacitatis voraginem et ignorantiae nebulam demergatur. Qua de re ego Eadgar divina favente gratia totius Britanniae primatum regulis regiminis optinens, quandam ruris partem juris mei dicione subactum pro devoto famulatu libens perpetuali libertate tribuendo, condono ÆIfhere fideli meo ministro III. mansas in loco qui vulgari appellatione nuncupatur Nymed ut habeat ceu supradiximus in aeternam hereditatum cum omnibus ad se rite pertinentibus, campis, pascuis, pratis. Sit vero predictum rus ab omni mundiali censu et regali servitute expers nisi tantum expeditione, pontis, arcisve constructione.
Our Lord Jesus Christ reigneth for ever. It is advisable that every deed of gift should be made under the testimony of writing, lest the succession of posterity be swallowed in the whirlpool of rapine and the clouds of ignorance. Therefore I, Edgar, having by divine grace obtained the pre-eminence of royal rule over all Britain, being willing to endow with perpetual freedom a certain part of the country under my jurisdiction, do, in reward of his devoted service, grant unto Ælfhere, my faithful minister, three plots of ground in the place which is called in common parlance Nymed, that he may hold it, as we have above said, in perpetual inheritance, with all fields, woods, and meadows thereunto of right appertaining. Moreover, the aforesaid land is to be free of all secular tribute and royal service, excepting only going to the wars, and the building of bridges or castles.
Image 2 of 3
The Old English section of the charter.
This is thaera threora hida landgemaere aet nymed. AErest on Copelanstan of thaem stane west on herpoth on eisandune thon thanon west on herpoth on readan fiodan thonon on Secgbroces heafod thonon adune on Secgbroe oth seo lacu scyt west thanon ut on Haethfeld on seohteres heafod of tham seohtere adune on hane thanon adune andlang strearaes oth riscbroc scyt on nymed thanon east on riscbroc on scipbroc thon up on scipbroc thaeteft [?]on copelan stan.
This is the landmere of the three hydes at Nymed — First, to Copelanstan; from that stone westwards on to the high road at Eisandune; then therefrom westward to the high road at Red Flood; therefrom to Sedgbrook's head; therefrom down Sedgbrook to where the stream [lacu] strikes west; therefrom out on Heathfield to the gutter-head; from the gutter down on Hane; therefrom adown along stream to where Rushbrook strikes on Nymed; therefrom eastward on Rushbrook to Shipbrook; then up Shipbrook, and so back to Copelanstan.
Image 3 of 3
The reverse side of the charter.
Why this record matters
- Date
- 974
- Catalogue reference
- PRO 30/26/11
This document is a royal charter that dates from 974 and records a grant of land made by the Anglo-Saxon king, King Edgar, to his loyal thane (meaning a middle-ranking noble) Ælfhere. It describes in some detail the boundaries of the land, gives the date of the grant, and includes an extensive list of fascinating witnesses.
Anglo-Saxon England ran from around 410, with the apparent withdrawal of the Roman army, until the Norman Conquest of 1066. As such it spanned about 600 years, initially consisting of many tribes and kingdoms, but more or less unified by the time of King Edgar’s reign in the late 10th century. King Athelstan had been the first to call himself King of England in 924.
King Edgar is often referred to as ‘Edgar the Peaceable’, and is credited with having had a peaceful and apparently flourishing reign. It appears there were none of the Viking raids that had plagued previous rulers, and his reign coincides with a period sometimes called the ‘golden age’ of Anglo-Saxon art.
Charters like this are significant in helping us understand the practices of a millennium ago. Over 1,000 Anglo-Saxon charters survive, 200 or so in their original form. Royal charters, like this one, typically record the grant of something to someone else. They open with an invocation to God (‘Our Lord Jesus Christ reigneth forever’), they name the beneficiary (‘Ælfhere, my faithful minister’), they describe what is being granted (‘three plots of ground in the place that is called in common parlance Nymed’), they record the date (‘in the year of the incarnation of our Lord 974’), and they list the witnesses, here starting with the king himself.
This document is fascinating for a number of reasons. Firstly, Edgar states that ‘by divine grace’ he has ‘royal rule over all Britain’, adding weight to the view that the Scots (and a further five kings) pledged allegiance to him at his coronation.
Secondly, the language is interesting. Written mainly in Latin, arguably the most important part of the document – the detailed description of the land being granted and its boundaries – is presented in Old English. It says: ‘This is thaera threora hida landgemære æt Nymed. Ærest on Copelanstan of thæm stane west on herporth on eisandune…’, meaning ‘This is the landmere of three hides at Nymed. First to Copelanstan; from that stone westwards on the high road to Eisandune’. This is surely because most people would have understood the vernacular language rather than Latin, and the charter needed to make the land's new ownership clear to as many people as possible.
The boundary descriptions are also fascinating in themselves, detailing such things as ‘Copelanstan’, referring to Copplestone, which is a village that still exists in Devon with a large Anglo-Saxon stone (perhaps once a cross) at its centre.
There is also the witness list. Dunstan, for example, who was out of favour with King Edgar’s father, is back in the fold as Archbishop of Canterbury and lead witness. Further down the list we also see someone called ‘Byrhtnoð’ (Byrthnoth), who it seems is the same Byrhtnoð who was immortalised in the Anglo-Saxon poem The Battle of Maldon, where he was defeated by the Viking army in 991. As such, this document directly links to one of the few (and most significant) pieces of Anglo-Saxon literature that survives. We see Byrhtnoð as not only the hero of an epic tale, but a real man going about administrative business.
Finally, one of the most arresting statements in this charter is ‘Omne quidem donationis decretum sub testimonio carraxaturae commendanda est’, meaning ‘It is advisable that every deed of gift should be made under the testimony of writing’. Here we see an Anglo-Saxon scribe from 1,050 years ago foretelling the existence of The National Archives and outlining why it now exists: to preserve the nation’s memory and ensure that decisions of the past are enshrined forever.