Bradanleghe (West Bradley) at the price of 400 shillings. This is the earliest charter in which we hear of a price paid for a gift to Glastonbury.[1] This detail may be the sign of a genuine document; and the charter, had it come down to us, would have been of historical interest as an illustration of the Mercian overlordship in these parts.[2]
After Tunbert William of Malmesbury gives us Abbot Tica, A.D. 754, from a charter by which K. Sigebert for 50 golden solidi granted him xxii hides in Poholt: for a like sum the king also gave him vi hides in the western part of the same. In the Liber Terrarum the 63rd entry was: 'Sigebeorth de Poolt dat. G.'; but we have no further trace of this charter. These are fresh acquisitions on the Poldon range; for we have already had notices of gifts in that district from Ina (xx hides) and Æthelheard (lx hides). K. Sigebeorht, the successor of Cuthred, is said to have reigned in 756 and part of the following year. The signature of 'Tyccæan abbatis' occurs in an original charter of 757, dealing apparently with land in Wessex.[3]
At an earlier point in the De Antiquitate (p. 29) we have had Tica mentioned as a Northumbrian abbot, driven out by the Danes, who took refuge in the west and became abbot of Glastonbury.[4] He was said to have brought with him relics of St Aidan and the bodies of Ceolfrid, Benedict Biscop and other abbots of Wearmouth, as well as those of the Venerable Bede and the saintly Hilda of Whitby. Tica was buried in the right-hand corner of the Great Church, near the entrance to the Old Church.
Offa came to the Mercian throne in 757 and reigned till 796. The subject kings of Wessex were Cynewulf, 757-86, and Beorhtric, 786-802. Then under K. Cenwulf the Mercian supremacy quickly began to fall. Wessex under K. Egbert, 802-39, recovered and presently dominated the whole of England.
Next to Tica we have Abbot Guba, to whom in 760 K. Cynewulf gave v hides at Wootton, and also Huneresburg on the east bank of the Parrett: but these charters are lost.[5]
- ↑ The Baltonsborough charter mentions 'pretium muneris', but its evidence is too uncertain to be regarded.
- ↑ Tumbert does not appear in the tenth-century list of abbots, where however at a much later point we find the name of Hunbeorht. A forged Winchester charter (B. C. S. 102) gives 'Tunbeort abbot in an attestation which includes both Ina and Cuthred; the names having been carelessly taken over from genuine charters.
- ↑ B. C. S. 181. K. Æthelbald and K. Cynewulf attest together. The charter is discussed by Mr. Stenton in E. H. R. xxxiii. 443.
- ↑ See above, p. 19.
- ↑ De Antiq., p. 63. In the Liber Terrarum we have ' Cynewifus de. V. hidis. G.'
