fragments '; yet with the care recently bestowed on the MSS. in the British Museum
it has been rendered accessible, each leaf having been carefully mounted so that the
central portion is generally tolerably legible.



93 THE EARLY HISTORY OF OXFORD.

was father of S. Frideswide, who gave to her the place which she had
desired, and caused the nun's habit to be given to her.

' He constructed a church, and near it various buildings most
suitable to religion, as appears in the Life of the holy Virgin.
Also it appears, there, that the same Virgin peaceably obtained the
place which was then called Thornebirie, but now Benseia ; for in
concealment there a fountain sprung forth in answer to her prayers,
and she cured one who was vexed of a devil, and another whose hand
had clave to an axe.

* Some time after the glorious death of S. Frideswide, the nuns having
been taken away. Secular Canons were introduced.

'Afterwards, in the year of grace 1004, King Ethelred ordered all
the Danes of either sex then inhabiting England to be killed, and
all those who had fled thither were burnt at Oxford, together with the
Church, the Books and Ornaments, as appears from the Charter of
King Ethelred, which follows in this wise.

* In the Year of our Lord 1004, in the 2nd indiction and in the 25th
year of my reign, according to the disposal of God's providence, I
Ethelred, ruling over the whole of Albion, have with liberty of charters
by royal authority and for the love of the Almighty, established a
certain monastery situated in the city which is called Oxoneford,
where the body of S. Frideswide reposes, and have recovered the
lands which belonged to this same monastery {arcisterioY of Christ
by the restoration of this new book of charters ; and for all those who
shall look upon this page, &c.^ '

It is not convenient to print the rest of the charter in this place,
because the reason assigned is the attack, on S. Brice's day in 1002, by
the townspeople upon S. Frideswide's church, in which the unfortunate
Danes had taken refuge from the slaughter which King ^Ethelred had
commanded; and so its discussion belongs to a later date. But by this
attack, which involved setting fire to their place of refuge, if we are to
believe the charter, the books belonging to the church were all burnt,
and therefore we must suppose what was afterwards written was
ascertained from tradition.

^ Arcisterium. Ducange suggests that the word is a misspelling of Asceieriiim,
derived from the Greek daKrjTTjpiov. Whenever it is used it simply means a
monastery.

2 Cotton MS. Vitellius, E. xv. (not F. 16, as originally given by Dugdale,
vol. i. p. 174 (1682) and reprinted in the edition of T817 and 1846, vol. ii. p. 143) ;
printed in Dugdale as above. Though carefully restored and every leaf put as far
as possible in its position, it is difficult to say exactly to what part each leaf
belonged. The charter and the introduction to it occupy the recto of folio 5 of
the MS. as it is now paginated, and on the back has been transcribed a charter,
apparently of the 5th of Henry III (i.e. 1269). The transcription of the sum-
mary and charter of S. Frideswide is quite as late, if not later. Also found in the
S. Frideswide's Cartulary, preserved in Christ Church ; folio 7, but actually the
first folio of the Cartulary itself. See Appendix A, § 29.



FO UNDA TION OF S. FRIDESWIDE 'S NUNNER V. 93

We must suppose then that this charter, or an early copy of it, was in
their leger book and was thence copied at a later date by some monk
at Oseney, But we have an independent and earlier testimony to the
fact that some such charter existed in some shape in the treasury of
the church, namely William of Malmesbury. In his History of the
Kings of England, which he completed about the year 11 20, when he
is giving an account of the Danes being driven for safety into the
tower of the church, he adds, ' I have read this in writing, which is
preserved in the archives of the church, as a proof of the fact \' It
will be seen, when we have to consider the circumstances of this
massacre, that William of IMalmesbury is evidently referring to this
charter, though he has, in one respect, interpreted it erroneously.

But in addition to the charter there is the introduction, in which we
obtain an outline of the story of an establishment, first of a nunnery,
then of a monastery. It cannot be denied that the paragraph, taken as
a whole, is similar to such general statements in respect to original
foundation as often appear at the beginning of Cartularies ; and the
Oseney chronicler may have seen it in that of S. Frideswide, together
with the charter, exactly as he has written it. And this view would be
somewhat confirmed by the fact that the same general introduction,
beginning ^Notaiidum est quod Didanus', appears in the existing
Cartulary, preserved at Christ Church ^. At the same time, in the earlier
copy preserved in Corpus Christi College, the introducdon is absent,
and the charter is there given as if it stood alone ^.

It will be observed, in the extract preceding the charter, that there
is a distinct reference to the ' Life of the holy virgin.' The most
important point therefore, is to ascertain as far as possible the earliest
form in which that life was written ; for it is the nature of all such
biographies to expand under the religious fervour of successive tran-
scribers : the element of historical truth thereby often becomes lost,
and we gain instead details which, though they are intended to evoke
our piety, may result only in leading us astray as to the facts.

1 William of ISIalmesbury, De gestis Regum Angliae, Lib. II. § 1 1 7, Engl. Hist.
Society's Ed. London 1S40, vol. i. p. 279. See later on, Chapter VIII.

2 S. Frideswide's Cartulary Ch. Ch. folio 7. Though really the first folio of
the Cartulary itself, the paragraph follows the rubric, ' Here begins the Register of
Charters and Muniments of S. Frideswide.' The paragraph beginning 'After-
wards in the year of grace,' appears as a rubric to the Charter beginning ' In the
year of our Lord 1004.' The whole is repeated three times in other parts of the
Cartulary, namely in an Inspeximus of Edward I (fol. 25), of Edward III (fol. 36),
and of Richard II (fol. 45). There are slight variations in all, but not affecting
the sense. See Appendix A, § 29.

'' S. Frideswide's Cartulary, preserved in Corpus Christi College, Oxford, fol. 271.



94



THE EARLY HISTORY OF OXFORD.



William of Malmesbury, in his History of the Kings, as already
mentioned, refers to the Charter which he had seen, but in his Lives
of the Bishops, written about five years later (i.e. about 1125), he gives
an account of the foundation of S. Frideswide, which he obtained either
from documentary evidence, or, as in this case is very possible, from
hearsay. It runs as follows : —

* There was anciently in the City of Oxford a Convent of Nuns, in
which the most holy virgin Frideswide reposes.

' She, the daughter of a king, despised marriage with a king, con-
secrating her virginity to the Lord Christ. But he, when he had set
his mind on marrying the virgin, and found all his entreaties and
blandishments of no avail, determined to make use of forcible means.

'When Frideswide discovered this she determined upon taking
flight into the wood. But neither could her hiding-place be kept
secret from her lover, nor was there want of courage to hinder his
following the fugitive. The virgin therefore, having heard of the
renewed passion of the young man, found her way, by the help of God,
through obscure paths, in the dead of night, into Oxford. When in the
morning her anxious lover hastened thither, the maiden, now despairing
of safety by flight, and also by reason of her weariness being unable
to proceed further, invoked the aid of God for herself, and punish-
ment upon her persecutor. And now, as he with his companions
approached the gates of the city, he suddenly became blind, struck
by the hand of heaven. And when he had admitted the fault of his
obstinacy, and Frideswide was besought by his messengers, he received
back again his sight as suddenly as he had lost it. Hence there has
arisen a dread amongst all the kings of England which has caused them
to beware of entering and abiding in that city since it is said to be
fraught with destruction, every one of the kings declining to test the
truth for himself by incurring the danger.

' In that place, therefore, this maiden, having gained the triumph of
her virginity, established a convent, and when her days were over and
her Spouse called her, she there died. In the time of King Ethelred,
however, when the Danes, being condemned to death, had taken
refuge in this monastery, etc.^ . . . '

He here summarises what he had already written in his History of
the Kings, and brings the narrative down to the appointment of Prior
Guimond, which took place probably about 1 120 ; but whether before
or after his visit to Oxford, to which he refers in his former book, is
not certain.

Besides this summary written by William of Malmesbury, which

^ William of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontificum, Lib. IV. §178; Rolls Series, ed.
Hamilton. London, 8vo, 1870, p. 315. It is generally accepted that he completed
his Historia Regiun about 11 20, and his Gesia Pontifiaim about 1125.



FO UN DA TION OF S. FRIDES J VIDE 'S iXUXNER V. 95

must be dated not later than 1125, we have two rather complete
Ii\es of S. Frideswide, apparently of about the same date as regards
the handwriting, but both rather later than the above date. The one
is preserved in the Cottonian Collection in the Britisli IMuscum^, the
other amongst the Laudian MSS. in the Bodleian Library ^

Without entering too much into the details respecting the life of
S, Frideswide, which these manuscripts afford, there are some points
which bear upon the general question of the amount of credit to be
assigned to the story of the foundation of S. Frideswide's Nunnery, in
its main outline, to which some reference may well here be made.

And first of all it is to be remarked, that William of IMalmes-
bury gives no names ; secondly, that he omits many important
parts of the story which the other biographers and those who follow
them give in detail ; and thirdly, that in some particulars he tells the
story very differently^.

As has already been said, it was not till 1122, or thereabouts, that
Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, who was then Chancellor, appointed
Guimond, the king's chaplain, to the charge of the monastery. He at
once introduced regular canons, and the monastery took a new
start — it may almost be said was refounded : and it was probably at
this time or soon after, that the lives, as we possess them, were
compiled.

The writer of the Cottonian MS. introduces ' Rex quidavi Oxne-
fordia cut notne^i erat Didanus,' as being the father of S. Frideswide.
The Laudian MS. has ' subregulus quidam nomine Didanus! There
could not have been a king of IMercia of the name of Dida, but there
is nothing improbable in there being an under-king* of some such

1 Cottonian MSS. Nero E. i, a collection of Lives of the Saints, most of which
are written in handwriting as early as the eleventh century ; but at folio 362 another
and later hand is commenced.

^ Bodleian MS. Laud. Misc. 114 is also a collection of Lives of the Saints, written
in a twelfth-century hand throughout, and would appear to have been compiled, if
not written, about King Stephen's reign.

^ When William of Malmesbury visited Glastonbury, it is obvious he collected
what he could from hearsay when he made his historj-, as the word 'ut fertur' shows.
We have no original MS. of that historj', as we have here in the case of the account of
S. Frideswide, in the De Gcsia Poiiti/uu/n, and the earliest copy is much interpolated.
But a consideration of what seems to be original matter shows that he was a careful
historiographer, rejecting what he thought improbable, but at the same time accept-
ing much which was only the talk of the several places about which he wrote at
the time he visited them. It is quite possible that he wrote a good deal of bis account
of S. Frideswide from hearsay.

* The example of an under-king in Wessex a few jears previously has already
been noted.



96 THE EARLY HISTORY OF OXFORD.

name, though so far as has been observed no charter is extant with
such a signature. Still the name is similar to many contemporary
names, like Oba, Lulla, &c., and Dida, in the Latin form, would be
Didanus. Again, the Cottonian IMS. has ''Kic accepit uxorem nomine
Se/ridam,' while the Laudian MS., more fully expanding what was
originally written, has, ' Hie niitu divino uxorem moribtis suis con-
griiavi Safrida?n nomine accepit^ but neither of the names would
appear to have existed in the story as told to William of Malmesbury.
The Cottonian MS. has the circumstance that at five years old they
handed her over *■ cuidain matronae Algiva nomine, ad erudiendam
litter as.' The Laudian has ' literarufn sludiis erudienda traditur sub
matronem cujiisdam ad modum religiosae disciplinae cui novien Algiva.'
The Cottonian tells us briefly such were her powers, ' ut infra sex
menses totum sciret psalterium.' The Laudian asks who would not be
astonished, ' quinquenam virgunculam in quinque fere mensihus Psalmos
Daviticos, qui centum quinquaginta sunt, didicisse memoriaeque com-
viendasse?' The difference between the five or six months is of no
great importance, but it seems to show that the original had not
defined the exact time. The few lines about her virtue and piety and
of the austerity of her living, described in the Cottonian, appear much
expanded in the Laudian MS.

The mother dies ; the father, according to the Cottonian MS., builds
a church, and has it consecrated in honour of the Holy Trinity, of the
Immaculate Virgin Mary, and of All Saints ; and S. Frideswide begs
her father to give her the church. After a time she beseeches him to
let her adopt the nun's habit, and ever to praise and bless God in His
holy temple. The king is overjoyed {valde gavisics) and sends for a
holy man, ' Osgarufu iiomine Lincolniensium Poiitificem ' ; he orders him
to consecrate his daughter to God, and twelve virgins of noble race are
consecrated with her. The Laudian MS. tells the story somewhat
differently; but it has the passage so far, that the king is ' inestimaSiiiter
gavisus,' and makes him send for a bishop from the neighbouring
diocese. Although the writer expands all the descriptive details more
than his rival biographer, he has not ventured upon either the name of
a diocese or the name of a bishop. Nothing however could be more
unfortunate than the guess which the first, and to all appearances
more accurate biographer, has made, for Lincoln was not the seat of
a diocese till Remigius moved his see from Dorchester thither about
A.D. 1090. Had he chosen almost any other diocese we should not
have suspected his interpolation, but he only knew Oxford was in the
Lincoln diocese at the time he was writing, and not being at all versed



FOUNDA TION OF S. FRIDESWIDF' S NUNNERY. 97

in ecclesiastical history he invented the name Osgar, which it is hardly
necessary to say occurs in no list of bishops whatever. Though
unfortunate for him as regards exposure of his inventive powers, it
shows to us that his addition to the story cannot be earlier than the
twelfth century, or the diocese of Dorchester would not have been
forgotten in Oxford ; it is most likely of the same age as the copy
which we possess, and of which the handwriting may be assigned
to somewhere about the year 1 1 30.

But to proceed with the story. Both her parents being dead, and
the virgin installed in her nunnery, the two writers relate substantially
in the same manner her encounter with the Devil, who appears before
her with a crowd of demons (the same words ' demonum constipaius
catcrva,' occurring in each), and the answer which S. Frideswide makes
to him when he promises her all she wishes if she will worship him,
is so far the same as to appear to be the expansion of a common
original which gave some of the details.

Then we come to the great point of her legend. The Cottonian
MS. has a certain ^ Rex Leicesirensium vir nefandissimiis et Deo odiosus
successil in regmim post obitum Didani regis, Algar nomine.' The
Laudian MS. has also the name Algar, ' Regem namque Algarum,'
but the writer has not ventured to give him a definite kingdom. Now,
since we have seen how the author of the Cottonian has used his skill
in finding the name of a diocese which did not exist till 1092, the
suggestion forces itself on our mind that he may have obtained the
name Algar from the Domesday Survey of 1087, for in it, under
Oxford, we find that the town was held by ' Comes Algar ' in the
time of Edward the Confessor \ Whether or not it was in the
original life from which both biographers copied must be an open
question ; it is quite as likely that the name having been once sug-
gested, both the first and second writers inserted it in their lives from

' It will be noticed also that the title given is Rex Leiccstrcnsiujii. Earl Algar,
it must be remembered, was the son of the famous Leofric. Henry of Huntingdon,
under the year 1057, writes: 'Lefricus quoque consul nobilissimus defunctus est . . .
Algarus vero ejus filius suscepit consulatum Cestriae.' The title Rex is given prob-
ably for the sake of historical consistency and according to the knowledge which the
writer possessed. The only other examples, except two Bishops, of nobles bearing
the name of Algar (written usually .^Elfgar) are Algar, a kinsman of King Edgar,
who died A.D. 962, and was buried at Wilton, and Algar, son of Earl Alfric, whom
King Ethelred ordered to be blinded in 993. Possibly this last fact may have further
recommended the name, if not have given rise to that special element in the tradition.
For the above see Anglo-Saxon Chronicle under the respective years. The state-
ment however that the Rex Leicestrensiwn succeeds to the kingdom of the Rex
Oxnefordiae, is sufficient to show that the names can have no historical basis.



98 THE EARLY HISTORY OF OXFORD.

hearsay, but the first only ventured upon the geographical detail of
his being King of Leicester before he succeeded to Oxford.

Both the chroniclers tell this part of the story differently from what
William of Malmesbury has recorded. Of course it is just possible that
he had heard the same story as the others and remembered it so
imperfectly as to write it differently. Still, it is only a possibility, and
the variations must be noted and be taken for what they are worth in
the general chain of evidence. The Cottonian and Laudian MSS.
have first the story of the despatch of ambassadors to Frideswide.
They were to use arguments and persuasions, and if these did not
succeed, then threats and actual force. The conversations are duly
given, and in the second MS. at considerable length. When they
came to use force they w^ere struck blind ; all the people were
astonished ; they begged of the virgin, and she prayed to God that they
should receive their sight, and they did so. They then went and told
the king. It will be observed, however, that in William of Malmesbury's
version it is the king who is here struck blind, and the messengers
who implore the virgin to restore the king's sight. Further, all thiS;
which is narrated from Malmesbury and the two twelfth-century
biographers, is wanting in the ' Notandum quod Didanus ' of the
Chartulary. Such important variations rob the legend of much of
its value.

Then, to follow the story ; if we take the extract as it stands in
the copy in the Cartularies, we have an account of S. Frideswide
immediately obtaining a place at Thornbury, afterwards called Binsey ;
William of ]\Ialmesbury merely says ' a wood' : but if we take it as told
by the two biographers, after the messengers had returned, and the
king was furious at what he heard, Frideswide was warned in a dream
by an angel to flee and is directed to go to the Thames, and take
with her as many of the nuns as she pleases, and then she finds, as was
told her, a boat with a young man sitting in it, who requests them to
get in. Then both MSS. agree that in the space of one hour they
arrived at a vill which is called Bentona\ The close similarity in
this respect seems to show that the name was in some earlier version
than that of the two biographers. The view that there was this earlier
version perhaps receives support from the Cottonian MS. which, after
narrating how the youth suddenly disappeared when S. Frideswide and
her companions quitted the boat at Benton, and how for fear of the
wicked king they entered into a certain wood, has a blank space left,
as if the scribe could not read the name of the wood, and left it to be
^ Cottonian MS. Boiionia. Laudian MS. Baiiona.



FO UNDA TION OF S. F RIDES WIDE 'S NUNNER V. 9 9

filled in afterwards, as the sentence ends, non lotige a siipra-dicta
villa^. In the Cottonian MS. their path leads them ' ad manstunailam
qiiam quondam fecerunt subuici ciistodientes greges porcorum' covered
all over with ivy. In the Laudian * Tandem mapale conspiciiint ad
porcorum tutamen construclum,' but so overgrown with ivy that no one
could see the entrance. Both agree in the hut being covered with
ivy, but in nothing else, for in one case it was the dwelling of herds-
men, in the other of the pigs. Meanwhile the king came with his
followers to Oxford, and when he began to enter he became blind.
The Laudian, in process of expansion, has ' Ciunque appropinquant
portae quae ad aqicilonarem duett,' the former not venturing to name
which gate it was. In both the king is made to remain blind for the
rest of his life, a very different story from that of William of Malmes-
bury. Both chronicles also refer to the tradition that from that time no
king ventured to enter Oxford, which it will be observed William of
Malmesbury inserts in his account. The insertion by the latter seems
rather to show his faith in the legend, than to be based upon his
recollection of historical fact 2.

Then we have in the Cottonian MS. an account of three miracles,
all happening while sojourning in the wood at ' Benton.' The first is
the cure of a blind girl, seven years of age, ' i7i supradicta villa Bcn-
tonia' through the virtue of the water, which she was to obtain,
wherein S. Frideswide had washed her hands. The next was that of
a young man, by name Alward, who lived in the vill which is called
Sevecordia, who while cutting wood with an axe on Sunday, '• parvi
pendens diem Resurrectionis Dominicae' found his hand fixed to the
handle, so that he could not let it go. The third relates to some

' In another MS., but of the fourteenth century, viz. MS. Lansdowne 436, which
follows this for a great part verbatim, the words run 'Ingressae siuit nemus de
Beneseya,' but whether the transcriber had before him an older copy, and read what
the Cottonian writer could not read, or whether, finding in the copy of the latter the
place vacant, had filled in of his own device the word ' de Beneseya,' there is no
evidence to show.

^ A very long dissertation is given upon this point by the writer of the articles on
S. Frideswide in the Acta Sanctorum, vol. viii. p. 538, but the argument is mainly
taken up in showing that Henry II. did not enter into the town at the time of the
translation of S. Frideswide's bones in 1189. This may be so, but as his palace
of Beaumont was just outside the wall, it would be extraordinary if on no occasion
he had passed within the gates of the town. But the Bollandist writer does not
touch facts which William of Malmesbury must have known when he wrote his
account, namely, King Eadward the Elder in 912, in taking possession of Oxford,
must surely have entered it. King ^thelred, according to his own showing, in 1015
was present at a Gemot in Oxford. Henry of Huntingdon makes King Edmund to
be murdered at Oxford in 1016, and in 1039 several chroniclers make King Harold
die at Oxford.

H 2



lOO THE EARLY HISTORY OF OXFORD.

fishermen, one of whom was seized with a violent fit and had to be
bound. His name was Leowin, but we are not told where he lived.
Then, after these miracles, S. Frideswide proposed to her companions
to go back to Oxford, where she was honourably received 'a civibus ei
ab om?ii clero.' As she entered she was met by the leper, who begged
her to kiss him, which, after making the sign of the cross, she did, and
he was cured of his leprosy.

In this narradve, it will be observed, we have no mention whatever