Christian queenship and inauguration rites in early medieval England

This thesis is a study of the ideology of queenship and its conception as a Christian role in early medieval English inauguration rites. Its primary source materials are the two earliest surviving liturgical rites for the making of English queens: 1) the 856 Judith Ordo, and 2) the rite for a queen found in eight tenth- and eleventh-century English pontificals.

This thesis foregrounds queenship as an analytical lens through which to study these rites. The Judith Ordo belongs to a specific context, and thus an in-depth analysis of its specific context, contents and authorship is possible. By contrast, the queen’s rite that circulates in early English pontificals is general and circulated widely. Previous scholarship has understood this queen’s rite as part of the king’s rite with which it usually travels in manuscripts, terming these two rites ‘The Second English Ordo’. This Ordo has been analysed only to the extent that it can indicate for which king it was produced. This thesis instead focuses on the independent textual history of this queen’s rite, opening up possibilities that have hitherto not been considered, such as a wider date range and prospective place of origin. It argues that the queen’s rites in the Second English Ordo and the Frankish Erdmann Ordo are witnesses to the same text.

This thesis does not look for single turning points, instead presenting a range of contexts for developments in the inaugurations of queens through the ninth to the eleventh century, with some consideration of their possible antecedents. Though previous discussions of this material have prioritised Wessex and Francia, this thesis also makes a case for Mercian influence. It demonstrates what focusing on queenship and the independent textual history of the rites of queens can contribute to wider considerations of liturgical, ideological and political developments in this period.