Eahlstan

Eahlstan
Bishop of Sherborne
Appointed	824
Term ended	867
Predecessor	Wigberht
Successor	Heahmund
Orders
Consecration	between 816 and 825
Personal details
Died	867
Denomination	Christian

Eahlstan (or Alfstan or Ealhstan) was a medieval Bishop of Sherborne.

Eahlstan was consecrated between 816 and 825. He died in 867.^[1] According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, he died in 867 after holding office for fifty years. However, a forged charter (S 283) of 824 appears to copy a genuine witness list of the mid-820s, and this describes Eahlstan as "electus in episcopatum Scireburnensis æcclesiæ", implying that he was not appointed until 824. This would be consistent with the absence of a bishop of Sherborne from records of the Council of Clofesho of 824.^[2]

In the ninth century, the region "west of Selwood" formed a separate political entity within the kingdom of Wessex. According to Richard Abels in his biography of Alfred the Great, the region

gained much of whatever political coherence it possessed from its ecclesiastical organization. The huge diocese of Sherborne in the ninth century stretched over Dorset, Somerset, Devonshire and Cornwall. In Alfred's youth, Bishop Ealhstan was undoubtedly the most politically powerful force in the south-west and one of the most influential magnates in all Wessex.^[3]

In 825, after the defeat of the Mercians at the Battle of Ellandun, he was sent by King Egbert of Wessex with Egbert's son, the future King Æthelwulf, and an army to take control of Kent. According to Alfred the Great's contemporary biographer Asser, when King Æthelwulf returned from pilgrimage to Rome in 855, his son Æthelbald, together with Ealhstan and Eanwulf, ealdorman of Somerset, conspired to keep the king from recovering his crown.^[4]

According to William of Malmesbury Eahlstan "subjected Malmesbury Abbey to his own purposes", even though the abbey was in the neighbouring diocese of Winchester. He was probably the dominant figure in the West Saxon church in Æthelbald's reign and in the years until his death.^[5]

Citations

↑ Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 222
↑ Keynes "West Saxon Charters" p. 1111 note 2
↑ Abels Alfred the Great pp. 30-31
↑ Kirby Earliest English Kings pp. 155, 166
↑ Kelly Charters of Malmesbury Abbey pp. 13-14, 102

References

Abels, Richard (1998). Alfred the Great: War, Kingship and Culture in Anglo-Saxon England. Harlow, UK: Longman. ISBN 0-582-04047-7.
Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology (Third revised ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56350-X.
Kelly, Susan (2005). Charters of Malmesbury Abbey. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-726317-4.
Keynes, Simon (November 1994). "The West Saxon Charters of King Æthelwulf and his sons". English Historical Review. 109. ISSN 0013-8266.
Kirby, D. P. (2000). The Earliest English Kings. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-24211-8.

External links

Ealhstan 3 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England

Christian titles
Preceded by Wigberht	Bishop of Sherborne c. 820–867	Succeeded by Heahmund

Bishops of Salisbury

see at Sherborne	see erected from Winchester St Aldhelm Forthhere Herewald Æthelmod Denefrith Wigberht Eahlstan St Heahmund Æthelheah Wulfsige Asser Æthelweard Wærstan Æthelbald Sigehelm Alfred Wulfsige II Ælfwold I Æthelsige I Wulfsige III Æthelric Æthelsige II Brithwine I Ælfmær Brihtwine II St Ælfwold II Herman see united with Ramsbury and removed to Old Sarum

see at Old Sarum	united from Sherborne & Ramsbury Herman St Osmund Roger Henry de Sully Philip de Harcourt Josceline de Bohon Hubert Walter Herbert Poore Richard Poore see removed to New Sarum

Medieval	Richard Poore Robert de Bingham William de York Giles of Bridport Walter de la Wyle Robert Wickhampton Walter Scammel Henry Brandeston Lawrence de Awkeburne William de la Corner Nicholas Longespee Simon of Ghent Roger Martival Robert Wyvil Ralph Ergham John Waltham Richard Mitford Nicholas Bubwith Robert Hallam John Chandler Robert Neville William Ayscough Richard Beauchamp Lionel Woodville Thomas Langton John Blyth Henry Deane

Early modern	Edmund Audley Lorenzo Campeggio Nicholas Shaxton John Capon Gasparo Contarini William Petow Francis Mallet John Jewel Edmund Gheast John Piers John Coldwell Henry Cotton Robert Abbot Martin Fotherby Robert Tounson John Davenant Brian Duppa Humphrey Henchman John Earle Alexander Hyde Seth Ward Gilbert Burnet William Talbot Richard Willis Benjamin Hoadly Thomas Sherlock John Gilbert John Thomas (I) Robert Hay Drummond John Thomas (II) John Hume Shute Barrington John Douglas

Late modern	John Fisher Thomas Burgess Edward Denison Walter Hamilton George Moberly John Wordsworth Frederick Ridgeway St Clair Donaldson Neville Lovett Geoffrey Lunt William Anderson Joseph Fison George Reindorp John Baker David Stancliffe Nick Holtam

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