Reconsidering the Empress Matilda's act for Andwell

An act of the empress Matilda, preserved among the archives of Winchester College, records a small grant of land at Eastrop (Hampshire) to the Tironensian priory of Andwell. Recent historians have dated it to the years before the death of the empress's father, Henry I, in 1135. When considered in the light of Archbishop Theobald of Canterbury's confirmation to Andwell, it is clear that the benefaction was made during the period when the empress nearly secured London and the English crown in 1141. Palaeographical examination suggests that the text preserved at Winchester is a copy, perhaps made after the loss of Normandy in 1204

Archbishop · Political science · Theobald · Classics · Historical Studies of British Isles · History · Law · Medieval Literature and History