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Ælfwine (died 1047) was
Bishop of Winchester
The Bishop of Winchester is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Winchester in the Church of England. The bishop's seat (''cathedra'') is at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire. The Bishop of Winchester has always held ''ex officio'' (except dur ...
from 1032 until his death. He was one of King
Cnut
Cnut (; ang, Cnut cyning; non, Knútr inn rÃki ; or , no, Knut den mektige, sv, Knut den Store. died 12 November 1035), also known as Cnut the Great and Canute, was King of England from 1016, King of Denmark from 1018, and King of Norwa ...
's priests prior to his appointment as bishop, and became a powerful and influential figure at Cnut's court.
Biography
From 1033 he was a frequent charter witness, usually third after the two archbishops,
[Smith "Preferment of Royal Clerks" ''Haskins Society Journal'' p. 164] and
Goscelin
Goscelin of Saint-Bertin (or Goscelin of Canterbury, born c. 1040, died in or after 1106) was a Benedictine hagiographical writer. He was a Fleming or Brabantian by birth and became a monk of St Bertin's at Saint-Omer before travelling to Englan ...
stated that he helped to persuade Cnut to allow the relics of
St. Mildryth to be translated to
St Augustine's Abbey,
Canterbury
Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour.
...
. He was also a supporter of the nuns of Winchester, especially Ælfgiva, the daughter of Earl Æthelwold who was called the 'abbess of Cologne'.
[
Ælfwine must have maintained his position in the early 1040s as one of King ]Harthacnut
Harthacnut ( da, Hardeknud; "Tough-knot"; – 8 June 1042), traditionally Hardicanute, sometimes referred to as Canute III, was King of Denmark from 1035 to 1042 and King of the English from 1040 to 1042.
Harthacnut was the son of King ...
's charters grants him a hide of land. According to an account in the twelfth-century Quadripartitus
The title ''Quadripartitus'' refers to an extensive legal collection compiled during the reign of Henry I, king of England (1100–1135).Wormald, ''Making of English law'', p. 236 The work consists of Anglo-Saxon legal materials in Latin transl ...
which the historian John Maddicott
John Robert Lewendon Maddicott, (born 22 July 1943) is an English historian who has published works on the political and social history of England in the 13th and 14th centuries, and has also written a number of leading articles on the Anglo-Sa ...
found convincing, he was responsible together with Earl Godwin of Wessex, for inviting the future king Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor ; la, Eduardus Confessor , ; ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was one of the last Anglo-Saxon English kings. Usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex, he ruled from 1042 to 1066.
Edward was the son of Æth ...
to return to England in 1041, and in 1042 he witnessed a charter of Harthacnut's together with Edward, Godwin, and Edward and Harthacnut's mother, Emma. As a secular bishop in a monastic cathedral he was unpopular, and this was probably a factor in a famous legend that he was Emma's lover. She was said to have disproved the charge by walking barefoot unharmed over burning ploughshares
''Ploughshares'' is an American literary journal established in 1971 by DeWitt Henry and Peter O'Malley in The Plough and Stars, an Irish pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since 1989, ''Ploughshares'' has been based at Emerson College in Bos ...
in the nave of Winchester Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity,Historic England. "Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity (1095509)". ''National Heritage List for England''. Retrieved 8 September 2014. Saint Peter, Saint Paul and Saint Swithun, commonly known as Winches ...
.[Mason "Ælfwine" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'']
After Edward's accession as king in 1042 Ælfwine's career reached a new peak. Edward was crowned in Ælfwine's own church of Winchester, and he witnessed Edward's first surviving charter in third position, after Emma and the Archbishop of Canterbury. From then until his death he witnessed twenty charters out of twenty-two, more than any other prelate. In 1044 Edward granted him the valuable manor of Witney
Witney is a market town on the River Windrush in West Oxfordshire in the county of Oxfordshire, England. It is west of Oxford. The place-name "Witney" is derived from the Old English for "Witta's island". The earliest known record of it is as ...
, rated at thirty hides, a grant "to his familiar bishop", "a reward for his faithful service which he has faithfully shown obedience to me." No other churchman approached Ælfwine's standing in the early years of Edward's reign.[Maddicott "Edward the Confessor's Return to England" ''English Historical Review'' pp. 658-659] He died on 29 August 1047.[Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 223]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Aelfwine
Bishops of Winchester
1047 deaths
Year of birth unknown
11th-century English Roman Catholic bishops