A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



of Lichfield. It is at least certain that when the latter see was elevated into 

 an archbishopric by Offa (787) Nottinghamshire must have lain within its 

 obedience, and there is no reason to doubt that by this time the county as a 

 whole had become part of the Mercian kingdom, which coincided in the 

 narrower sense with the diocese in question. It is reasonable to suppose that 

 this arrangement persisted until the end of the independent kingdom of 

 Mercia ; but with the coming of the Danes a thick obscurity settles upon 

 the ecclesiastical organization of the eastern midlands which is not lifted in 

 the case of Nottinghamshire until we reach the age of Dunstan and Edgar, 

 nearly a century later ; and when this happens we find the county 

 disconnected from Lichfield and forming to all appearances an integral part of 

 the great diocese of York. 



Before the middle of the loth century there is no evidence whatever 

 that any Archbishop of York had exercised authority, either as diocesan or 

 metropolitan, within the limits of Nottinghamshire. It is rarely safe to apply 

 an argument from silence to any part of the Anglo-Saxon period ; but we 

 possess information in some detail about the early ecclesiastical organization 

 of Northumbria, and it is very strange that nothing in the recorded history 

 of Wilfred, John of Beverley, or of their successors the first Archbishops of 

 York, serves to connect Nottinghamshire with their sphere of government. 

 On the other hand, as soon as we have passed the year 950 we begin to 

 receive what seems to be conclusive evidence in this matter. The great 

 collegiate church of Southwell suddenly appears in being, and as subject to 

 the patronage of the northern archbishop. 2 Earlier than the date of any 

 unquestioned reference to Southwell, King Edgar in 958 had granted to Oskytel, 

 Archbishop of York, a large estate in the north of the county which subse- 

 quently developed into the soke of Sutton and Scrooby. The distribution of 

 the lands which in 1086 were held by episcopal lords in Nottinghamshire 

 clinches the argument 3 the Bishop of Lichfield held nothing, the Bishop of 

 Lincoln possessed a wide estate which, however, had been granted to him 

 subsequently to 1066 ; the lands of the Archbishop of York fill a folio of 

 Domesday Book ; and clearly, as a whole, represent ancient possessions of 

 the see. 



In view of these facts, a strong presumption is raised that the addition of 

 Nottinghamshire to the diocese of York was accomplished somewhere about 

 the middle of the loth century. The constant anarchy of Northumbria 

 under its Scandinavian rulers had so wasted the archbishop's patrimony that 

 the statesmen of the south recognized the necessity of supplying him with an 

 endowment which should not be subject to the disorders which distracted his 

 unruly province. Such an endowment was furnished for a time by the see of 

 Worcester, which Archbishops Oswald, Ealdwulf, Wulfstan II, and Ealdred 

 held in commendam together with their metropolitan see ; but there is a strong 

 probability that the addition of Nottinghamshire to their diocese represents 

 an earlier attempt to supply the same need. It was a matter of the gravest 

 importance to prevent the Archbishop of York from making common cause 

 with the ' Danish ' lords of Northumbria ; and this could most readily be 

 accomplished by giving to him a substantial interest in the more purely 

 English parts of the country. We cannot in this place enter into questions 



' Cart. Sax. 1049. J V.C.H. Notts, i, 255, 257. 



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