Key Figures in Medieval Europe. An Encyclopedia

ÆTHELWOLD OF WINCHESTER

(ca. 904/09–984)
Infl uential monastic teacher and administrator, and a
principal initiator of the English Benedictine revival of
the second half of the 10th century. Born at Winchester
perhaps between 904 and 909, Æthelwold passed
several years, probably the late 920ls and much of the
930s, at the court of King Æthelstan (924–39), enjoy-
ing the royal favor that was to characterize his career.
Sometime between 934 and 939, in company with
Dunstan, he was ordained priest by Ælfheah, bishop
of Winchester. Æthelwold subsequently studied with
Dunstan at Glastonbury Abbey, where he became a
monk and was later appointed decanus (a position of
authority over other monks). Desiring to experience
reformed continental Benedictine practice at fi rst hand,
Æthelwold was prevented from traveling overseas by
King Eadred (946–55), who instead appointed him
(ca. 954) abbot of the derelict monastery of Abingdon,
which Æthelwold restored energetically: he personally
participated in the building work, sustaining serious
bodily injury in the process. From Abingdon he sent
the monk Osgar to observe Benedictinism as practiced
at Fleury, and he summoned to Abingdon monks from
Corbie who provided instruction in liturgical chant.
Attention to continental models continued to mark
Æthelwold’s later career.
In 963 Æthelwold became bishop of Winchester, an
offi ce he held until his death and in which he made a
profound impact upon contemporary religious life. More
severe than his fellow reformers Dunstan and Oswald,
he swiftly (in 964) expelled the secular clergy resident
at his cathedral and at New Minster, Winchester, and
replaced them with monks. Subsequently he founded
or refounded monasteries at several locations, notably
Peterborough (966), Ely (970), and Thorney (972). He
worked in close harmony with King Edgar (957–75),
whose tutor he had been and whose royal palace stood
close to Æthelwold’s cathedral. At the request of Edgar
and his queen, Ælfthryth, Æthelwold translated the Rule
of St. Benedict into OE. He was chiefl y responsible for
compiling the Latin document known as the Regularis
concordia, aimed at standardizing religious observance
in the English monasteries and prompted by a council
convened by King Edgar at Winchester sometime
between ca. 970 and ca. 973. Æthelwold is justifi ably
believed to have been the author of a vernacular ac-
count of the monastic revival known as “King Edgar’s
Establishment of Monasteries,” which he probably
intended to serve as the preface to his translation of the
Benedictine Rule.
Æthelwold’s work at Winchester included the re-
building of the cathedral, which was equipped with a
large organ remarkable for its time. He was responsible
for reform of the liturgy and may have composed offi ces

and prayers that survive in service books of his own time

and later. Under Æthelwold Winchester became a major

center of manuscript production, its most sumptuous ac-

complishment being the Benedictional made for Æthel-

wold himself by the scribe Godenan. A deeply learned

man, Æthelwold presided over a monastic school at Win-

chester whose most distinguished students included his

biographers, the prolifi c writers Wulfstan of Winchester

and Ælfric. His students’ work ensured the continuation

of Æthelwold’s infl uence beyond his death on 1 August

984. He was buried in the crypt of Winchester Cathedral
     and translated to the choir in 996.

See also Ælfric; Dunstan of Canterbury

Further Reading

Primary Sources

Winterbottom, Michael, ed. Three Lives of English Saints. Toron-

to: Pontifi cal Institute, 1972 [includes the lives of Æthelwold

by Wulfstan and Ælfric]

Wulfstan of Winchester. The Life of St Æthelwold. Ed. Michael

Lapidge and Michael Winterbottom. Oxford: Clarendon,

1991.

Secondary Sources

Gneuss, Helmut. “The Origin of Standard Old English and

Æthelwold’s School at Winchester.” ASE 1 (1972): 63–83

Gretsch, Mechthild. “Æthelwold’s Translation of the Regula

Sancti Benedicti and Its Latin Exemplar.” ASE 3 (1974):

125–51

Lapidge, Michael. “Three Latin Poems from Æthelwold’s School

at Winchester.” ASE 1 (1972): 85–137

Lapidge, Michael. “The Hermeneutic Style in Tenth-Century

Anglo-Latin Literature.” ASE 4 (1975): 67–111, esp. 85–90

Whitelock, Dorothy. “The Authorship of the Account of King

Edgar’s Establishment of Monasteries.” In Philological Es-

says: Studies in Old and Middle English Literature in Honour

of Herbert Dean Merits, ed. James L. Rosier. The Hague:

Mouton, 1970, pp. 125–36

Yorke, Barbara, ed. Bishop Æthelwold: His Career and Infl uence.

Woodbridge: Boydell, 1988.

Timothy Graham

AFONSO III, KING OF PORTUGAL

(1210–1279)

The second son of Afonso II and Uracca of Castile,

Afonso III was born in Coimbra on 5 May 1210. The

fi fth king of Portugal, he succeeded his brother Sancho

II and reigned from early in 1248 to his death on 16

February 1279.

Before becoming king, Afonso lived fi rst in Denmark

and then in France, where in 1238 or 1239 he married

the wealthy widow Matilda, heiress of the Count of

Boulogne. Afonso was infl uential at the court of his

maternal aunt, Queen Blanche, widow of Louis VIII

and mother of Louis IX. While in France he became

AFONSO III, KING OF PORTUGAL