Wynflæd or Ƿynflæd (died c. 950 or 960) was an Anglo-Saxon noblewoman and a major landowner in the areas of Hampshire, Somerset, Dorset and Wiltshire.[2] Wynflæd is likely a widow vowess primarily connected to royal foundation at Shaftesbury Abbey,[3] with further connections to royal nunnery at Wilton Abbey. There is ongoing debate if she was the mother of Aelfgifu of Shaftesbury and thus the grandmother of Kings Eadwig and Edgar the Peaceful.[4]

Will of Wynflæd, circa AD 950 (11th-century copy, British Library Cotton Charters viii. 38)[1]

Wynflæd's Will

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Wynflæd's will has provided scholars with ample materials to better understand tenth-century England and Wessex in particular, including social conditions, material goods, familial strategies, religious women and legal processes.[5] Her will lists holdings and estates including Faccombe Netherton (modern Netherton, Hampshire) and Charlton Horethorne along with further manors and lands, and moveable goods such as tents, chests, cups, and clothing.

In 2018–19, Wynflæd's will was displayed in the British Library exhibition Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War[6] and included in the exhibition catalogue edited by Claire Breay and Joanna Story.[7]

References

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  1. ^ Charter S 1539 at the Electronic Sawyer
  2. ^ PASE: Wynnflæd 1; Charter S1539
  3. ^ Owen, Gale R. (December 1979). "Wynflæd's wardrobe". Anglo-Saxon England. 8: 195–222. doi:10.1017/S0263675100003082. ISSN 1474-0532.,Foot, Sarah (2000). ""Widows and Vowesses"". Veiled Women, Volume 1: The Disappearance of Nuns from Anglo-Saxon England. London: Routledge.
  4. ^ PASE: Wynnflæd 4; Charter S744, Yorke, Barbara, A. E. (2008). ""The Women in Edgar's Life"". In Scragg, Donald G. (ed.). Edgar, King of the English 959-975: New Interpretations. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell & Brewer.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ Owen, Gale R. (December 1979). "Wynflæd's wardrobe". Anglo-Saxon England. 8: 195–222. doi:10.1017/S0263675100003082. ISSN 1474-0532.,Tollerton, Linda (2011). Wills and Will-Making in Anglo-Saxon England. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 9781903153376.,Crick, Julia (October 1999). "Women, Posthumous Benefaction, and Family Strategy in Pre-Conquest England". Journal of British Studies. 38 (4): 399–422. doi:10.1086/386201.,Weikert, Katherine (2018). "Of Pots and Pins: The Households of Late Anglo-Saxon Faccombe Netherton". In Jervis, Ben (ed.). The Middle Ages Revisited: Studies in the Archaeology and History of Medieval Southern England Presented to Professor David A. Hinton. Oxford: Archaeopress. ISBN 9781789690354.
  6. ^ "Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: a once-in-a-generation exhibition". British Library Medieval Manuscripts Blog. 18 October 2018. Retrieved 23 December 2023.
  7. ^ "Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms (Paperback)". British Library Shop. Retrieved 23 December 2023.
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