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William the Conqueror's lost writ for London rediscovered

William the Conqueror's lost writ for London rediscovered
William the Conqueror's lost writ for London rediscovered
William the Conqueror's writ for London has long been recognised as one of the key sources for the Norman Conquest of England, and has been discussed at length and printed many times. Yet the archives of the Corporation of the City of London contain another, hitherto unpublished, text of a writ of that king in favour of the citizens of London. In the later middle ages, it was set alongside its better-known companion as one of the fundamental texts of the City and its jurisdictions, but the original had disappeared by the seventeenth century. This essay sets out an edition of this text, and argues that it is a Latin translation of a lost Old English writ. It further argues that the underlying text was of 1067 or 1068, and that it shows the City of London's involvement in the process whereby English landowners were required to redeem or buy back their lands after the Norman Conquest. The document has a double significance. The process of redemption has hitherto been understood through Domesday Book and narrative sources, but this text shows how the process of redemption was carried out to an extent that has not been possible before, thus exposing one of the key phases of the Conquest. The text also shows the developing relationship between London and the Conqueror, and undermines some of the exceptionalist views on how London survived the Conquest itself.
0018-2648
449-467
Karn, Nicholas
e5a315e3-36a2-4c0d-b535-3c8bead463da
Karn, Nicholas
e5a315e3-36a2-4c0d-b535-3c8bead463da

Karn, Nicholas (2023) William the Conqueror's lost writ for London rediscovered. History, 108 (383), 449-467. (doi:10.1111/1468-229X.13373).

Record type: Article

Abstract

William the Conqueror's writ for London has long been recognised as one of the key sources for the Norman Conquest of England, and has been discussed at length and printed many times. Yet the archives of the Corporation of the City of London contain another, hitherto unpublished, text of a writ of that king in favour of the citizens of London. In the later middle ages, it was set alongside its better-known companion as one of the fundamental texts of the City and its jurisdictions, but the original had disappeared by the seventeenth century. This essay sets out an edition of this text, and argues that it is a Latin translation of a lost Old English writ. It further argues that the underlying text was of 1067 or 1068, and that it shows the City of London's involvement in the process whereby English landowners were required to redeem or buy back their lands after the Norman Conquest. The document has a double significance. The process of redemption has hitherto been understood through Domesday Book and narrative sources, but this text shows how the process of redemption was carried out to an extent that has not been possible before, thus exposing one of the key phases of the Conquest. The text also shows the developing relationship between London and the Conqueror, and undermines some of the exceptionalist views on how London survived the Conquest itself.

Text
History - 2023 - KARN - Version of Record
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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 15 June 2023
e-pub ahead of print date: 9 August 2023
Published date: December 2023
Additional Information: Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s). History published by The Historical Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 481441
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/481441
ISSN: 0018-2648
PURE UUID: 3a4dfc97-2097-4dca-9de2-63da547ba47f

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 29 Aug 2023 16:46
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 04:20

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