A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



and 6 ' mansiones ' at ' Heanhamstede,' probably 

 Park, represented the whole of the south-west 

 section of what is now the county, comprising 

 most of the later hundred of Cashio, and 

 forming, roughly, a triangle with Sandridge as 

 the apex and the county boundary from Rick- 

 mansworth to Barnet as the base, later repre- 

 senting some twelve ancient parishes containing 

 over 60,000 acres. There was further included 

 in Offa's grant a great area of Middlesex 

 forest expressed as 10 ' mansiones ' in Stanmore 

 which is said to have extended to London.* 



In 795 Offa added a great district around 

 Winslow, in Buckinghamshire, probably com- 

 prising the greater part, if not all, of the old 

 hundred of Mursley. The lands are described 

 as 12 ' manentes ' at Winslow and 3 ' manentes ' 

 at Salden (Scelfdune) or ' Baldinigotum,' and 

 10 ' manentes ' at ' Scuccanhlau ' • or ' Fenn- 

 tunn ' with the wood called Horwood,!* to 

 which were added 5 ' manentes ' at ' Lygeton.' " 

 Egfrith, son of Offa, in 796 also granted 5 

 ' manentes ' at ' Pinnelesfeld ' " and 10 ' manen- 

 tes ' at ' Thyrfelde.' ^ These lands formed the 

 original endowment of the abbey. They were 

 probably very sparsely populated, each of the 

 ' manentes ' or ' mansiones ' possibly repre- 

 sented the land of a household, and later 

 equated with a hide.^* 



Before dealing with the history of the monas- 

 tery during the Anglo-Saxon period it may be 

 well to state that the main sources of informa- 

 tion are the various works of Matthew Paris, 

 whose material for this period is evidently 

 scanty. It is clear that the lists of the abbots 

 set out in the ' Vitae Abbatum ' " and ' Gesta 

 Abbatum ' ^^ are unreHable. Only two abbots' 

 names are given for a period covering a Uttle 

 over a hundred years beginning early in the 9th 

 century, and there is a confusion regarding the 

 abbots in the loth century. Matthew Paris 

 viewed the conduct of the 9th and early 10th- 

 century abbots from a 13th-century standard. 

 He could not appreciate the life in a Saxon 



8 Gesta Abbatum Man. S. Alban't (Rolls Ser.), i, 50. 



' This has been identified with Shecklow in Bucks. 



1° This is identified by Luard {Chron. Maj. [Rolls 

 Ser.], vi, 5) as Harwood, part of Brill Forest, but it 

 is clearly Horwood near Winslow, where St. Albans 

 held lands. 



11 Possibly Luton, co. Beds. 



^^ Pinnelesfeld has been identified with the manor 

 of Pinchfeld in Rickmansworth. 



1^ Thyrfelde has been identified with Therfield in 

 Herts, and Weston TurvUle in Bucks., but there is 

 no evidence that St. Albans held lands at either of 

 these places. 



1^ See will of King ./Ethelwulf, where reference is 

 made to ' decern hidis vel mansionibus ' [vel manen- 

 tibus] (Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. i, 386 and note). 



" Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Wat's ed. 1 640). 



1^ Printed in the Rolls Series. 



monastery in the 9th century. If, as he asserts, 

 the abbey was founded for the Benedictine 

 rule, that rule was soon afterwards very laxly 

 kept or abandoned before its revival in the 

 loth century, for it is obvious from what he tells 

 us that the abbots, hke other Saxon abbots, 

 lived in the abbey with their famihes, and theii 

 manner of Hving savoured more of the secular 

 than monastic Ufe. The abbey was always 

 distinctly an aristocratic house. All the Saxon 

 abbots were drawn from the nobihty, many of 

 them being kinsmen of the reigning monarchs. 

 The monks came from the same class, and 

 Abbot Leofric would not receive any as monks 

 unless they were well born.^' Like many other 

 Saxon abbeys, St. Albans was a double monas- 

 tery and comprised both men and women.^' 



Willigod the priest, a faithful minister of 

 Offa, was appointed the first abbot. He was 

 to teach the monastic Ufe, and after his death 

 the brethren with the counsel of the bishop 

 should elect one of themselves as his successor, 

 but if it should happen that no one worthy 

 should be found, the bishop, with the consent 

 of the brethren, was to appoint a successor. It 

 was determined at this time ** that Offa should 

 himself visit Rome to treat with the pope for 

 the canonization of Alban and to procure 

 special Uberties for the monastery then to be 

 built. Offa went to Rome, and Pope Adrian I 

 granted all that he asked, and adopted, it is 

 said, the monastery as a daughter of the Roman 

 Church, making it subject only to the apostolic 

 see without interference of any archbishop or 

 bishop,^ which claim to exemption overriding 

 the provisions of Offa's first charter is pro- 

 bably a later Invention.'^ Offa at the same 

 time granted Peter's Pence from his lands in 

 England, excepting to St. Albans Monastery 

 the Peter's Pence collected in its lands."^ 



On his return to England Offa granted 

 further lands to St. Albans in 795. In the 

 meantime Wilhgod had brought together 

 monks specially selected for their holiness,^ 

 and a church was built by Offa and appa- 

 rently finished in that year, for Offa then 



" Gesta Abbot, i, 3 1 . 



"Ibid. II. 



" Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. i, 358. 



2«Ibid. 359. 



21 See marginal note by Matt. Paris in ibid, vi, 2. 

 This claim was probably invented when the monas- 

 tery desired exemptions from episcopal authority in 

 the 1 2th century. See the appointment of Abbot 

 Wulsin and episcopal control under Abbot Richard. 



22 In ibid, i, 361, Matt. Paris states that St. Albans 

 was to have Peter's Pence collected from all Hertford- 

 shire, obviously an anachronism. In Gesta Abbatum 

 i, 5, it is stated that the abbey was to have Peter's 

 Pence from their lands. 



^ Gesta Abbat. i, 4 ; Chron. Maj. i, 360 ; ^ita 

 Offae SecunJi, 30. 



368 



