2(52 



Ancient Iliatory of Shaftesbury. 



A copy, both in Anglo-Saxon and Latin, of Alfred's Deed, is 

 extant in tho Register of Shaftesbury Abbey in the British Museum, 

 MS., Harl. 61. In it is the following passage, " I, King Alfred, to the 

 honour of God, and the holy Virgin, and All Saints, do give and 

 grant, for the health of my soul, to the Church at Shaftesbury, 100 

 hides of land " (the deed then states where, as above) " with the 

 men and appurtenances, as they now are, and my daughter Algiva 

 with the same, she being at her own disposal and a nun in the 

 same convent. Whosoever shall alienate these things, let him be" 

 (equivalent perhaps to " he will be ") " for ever accursed of God 

 and the Virgin Mary and All Saints, Amen." The sisterhood, 

 established at Shaftesbury, were of the Benedictine Order. 



It was probably in this convent, that Edward the Elder A.D. 922 

 confined his niece Elfwina, daughter of his sister Ethelfleda and 

 the Earl of Mercia. This princess had secretly accepted the 

 addresses of the Danish king of Northumbria. Edward disguising 

 his knowledge of the event and his anger at it, proposed to pay his 

 niece a friendly visit at her Mercian castle, but seizing on her per- 

 son, conveyed her a prisoner into Wessex, 1 and confined her in a 

 nunnery. The name is not given, having been probably concealed 

 in order that the Danish chief might not know where to seek her, 

 but as Shaftesbury was a Royal foundation, and .ZElgiva her aunt 

 still Abbess, and as moreover it was a fortified Abbey, in the centre 

 of the home kingdom of Wessex, we may conclude that it would 

 be chosen as the abode of the captive princess. 



ZElgiva the first Abbess, and daughter of Alfred, was buried in 

 the Abbey Church. She probably died about 947, as iElfrith her 

 successor is mentioned in the following year. If so, she presided 

 over the establishment for the long period of fifty-nine years, which 

 is not impossible, as she could not have been more than nineteen, 

 if so much, when the Abbey was consecrated. Edmund Ironside 

 and his pious queen iElgiva, were great patrons of the Abbey, to 

 which they gave much land in Tisbury. The Queen was buried in the 

 Abbey Church A.D. 971. King Athelstan was also a liberal patron 



1 Saxon Chronicle. Henry of Huntingdon, 



T 



