Bury St. Edmunds and the Norman Conquest ed. by Tom Licence (review)

Bury St. Edmunds and the Norman Conquest is an edited collection of twelve papers presented at a conference at the abbey of Bury St. Edmuds in 2012. As with all such volumes, it varies in tone, focus, and quality. It is, however, remarkably consistent in some respects. Most of the authors rely heavily on close analysis of manuscript sources (particularly on Herman the Deacon’s Miracula). Perhaps as a result of this pervasive source material, the volume presents a uniformly rosy picture of Abbot Baldwin, who presided over the abbey from 1065 until his death in 1097.

The brief introduction presents this volume as a case study of change in the wake of the Norman Conquest—a goal which is only partially achieved since most of the articles present the changes that took place at the end of the eleventh century as the result of the work of Abbot Baldwin rather than as a consequence of the invasion. The book would have been strengthened considerably had the editor furnished a brief the history of the abbey, which is assumed to be common knowledge in most of the articles.

The first chapter, contributed by David Bates, examines the connection between Bury St. Edmunds and St. Denis and demonstrates that Bury had a stronger link to the continent than most other English abbeys. The special relationship that existed between Bury and St. Denis justifies the inclusion of the second article, in which Thomas Waldman discusses the charters (both forged and real) for the French monastery—this chapter is the only one in the book that is not primarily concerned with Bury St. Edmunds.

Sarah Foot goes on to assess the charters, writs, and wills in the possession of Bury St. Edmunds. She demonstrates that these documents were decisive in helping the monks win their dispute with the bishop of East Anglia, who sought to establish the abbey as the center of his diocese, in the wake of the Conquest. Foot also investigates the reciprocal relationship between local nobles and the abbey and suggests that some of the documents (particularly royal charters) were likely forged by the monks in order to help them in their quarrel with the bishop.

In one of the strongest papers in this volume Elisabeth van Houts investigates why Bury St. Edmunds had an unusually large number of religious women attached to it. She examines the push factors that might have compelled women to become vowesses including loss of land, lack of eligible men, and a dearth of alternative options in the form of nunneries. She proceeds to give a couple of case studies and determines that Bury St. Edmunds had a pull factor which distinguished it from other monasteries: its abbot. Abbot Baldwin, she surmises, probably welcomed women at the abbey her observation that the number of vowesses residing at Bury St. Edmunds declined dramatically under Abbot Baldwin’s successor supports her view.

In his contribution, Eric Fernie draws upon medieval texts and the physical remains of the abbey to expand upon our knowledge of the architectural history of the church at Bury. The bulk of the paper is devoted to developing a timeline for the construction of the church. Fernie postulates that the hostile relationship between the abbey and the diocese inspired changes to the design of the church as the abbot sought to outdo the cathedral being built in Norwich. He also presents evidence that the town at Bury was laid out after the Norman conquest.

In the first of two articles Tom Licence presents new evidence suggesting that Herman the deacon was actually the author of two works formerly credited to Sigebert of Gembloux. If correct, this analysis confirms the connection that Herman had to the monastic communities at Metz and at St. Denis and suggests that he might have played a critical role in introducing popular historical ideas and methodologies from the continent into England.

Licence’s second chapter discusses the history of the cult of St. Edmund. He believes...