Intellectual Networks and Royal Legitimacy: Religious Intellectuals and English Kings Between Conversion and the Rise of Wessex

Author

Benjamin E. Brockway, University of Southern MississippiFollow

Date of Award

8-2025

Degree Type

Masters Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

School

Humanities

Committee Chair

Courtney Luckhardt

Committee Chair School

Humanities

Committee Member 2

Leah Pope Parker

Committee Member 2 School

Humanities

Committee Member 3

Katya Maslakowski

Committee Member 3 School

Humanities

Abstract

The early Middles Ages were a politically unstable period in Western Europe. No single king had a secure claim to the legitimacy of their rule, with usurption and military conquest making claims to legitimacy difficult to defend. England between the Augustinian mission (ca. 597) and the rule of Alfred the Great (ending in 899) was no exception. For the kings of this period, mere wealth and military strength had limited effect on this issue. Tying themselves to the religious intellectual networks that developed in the aftermath of conversion to create moral and intellectual apologetics for their rule took its place. These networks of intellectuals, whom Peter Brown refers to as sapientes, were almost entirely of monastic backgrounds. These scholars utilized the religious framework of their educations to write texts and shape practice to create narratives of legitimacy for their patrons. This practice would be refined during the rise of the Carolingians where Charlemagne deliberately created networks of sapientes rather than recruit individuals to tap into preexisting networks. This then enabled him to recruit talent from a much broader set of territory (including England itself), bringing together the best and brightest minds to bolster his legitimacy. For the sapientes themselves, they gained preferred appointments as abbots and bishops, bolstering their religious authority in order that they might better bolster their kings’ religious authority. This symbiotic relationship between royal and ecclesiastic authority enabled the kings of this period to create narratives of legitimacy by borrowing it from heaven.

Copyright

Benjamin E. Brockway, 2025

Recommended Citation

Brockway, Benjamin E., "Intellectual Networks and Royal Legitimacy: Religious Intellectuals and English Kings Between Conversion and the Rise of Wessex" (2025). Master's Theses. 1124.
https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/1124