Nunneries and the Anglo-Saxon Royal Houses

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Bloomsbury Academic, Jun 16, 2003 - Religion - 229 pages
By the late Anglo-Saxon period almost all newly founded nunneries were founded by royal patronage. This detailed study, which traces the histories of royal nunneries in the 7th and 8th centuries, examines how they differed from other types of religious communities in terms of their organisation, status, special secular and ecclesiastical features and the authority and power which the abbess and other women held. Barbara Yorke reveals how the royal nunneries were not only subject to the changing fortunes of the Church and state, but also to the successes and failures of the royal houses that patronised them. This particular group of nunneries is also compared and contrasted with the variety of other arrangements available to religious women, both within and outside of convents and male religious establishments, and with gender and societal norms.

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About the author (2003)

Barbara Yorke is Professor of Early Medieval History at King Alfred's College, Winchester. She has worked widely on topics relating to Anglo-Saxon England, but has a particular interest in the history of royal houses and the kingdom of Wessex. Previous books include Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England (1990) and Wessex in the Early Middle Ages (1995). She is currently working on the topic of conversion and the early medieval royal courts.

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