Charters and Charter Scholarship in Britain and Ireland

This is a very interesting collection of papers deriving from a Colloquium at The Queen's University of Belfast in 2003. Most of the articles are concerned with the period from the late eleventh to the mid-thirteenth centuries, the exceptions being Charles Insley on Athelstan and the English in Cornwall, and Máire Herbert on property records in pre-Anglo-Norman Ireland. With the primary exception of David Bates's introductory essay, the writers generally look at fairly specific issues over restricted time periods and for limited geographical areas. While some of the comparative thinking must be done by the reader, the volume is held together by certain key themes and questions. Most notable among these is the impact of the Normans or Anglo-Normans, especially the degree in which changes in documentary form in Britain and Ireland during this period should be seen in terms of diffusion of Anglo-Norman practice. Dauvit Broun emphasises the role of the king of Scotland in the adoption of the writ, known in Scotland as the brieve, but alongside the crucial influence of the Church and in particular of Durham, with which the Scottish kings had close links. Máire Herbert concludes that ‘the adoption of the European Latin charter to record grants by Irish kings to monastic houses of reform observances did not immediately transform the processes of property documentation. Instead the new Latin model was integrated into a complex tapestry of recording practices, reflective of the complexity of the Irish ecclesiastical world even as it sought to reform itself and to adapt more fully to the organizational structures of Roman Christendom’. A similar mixture of native with imported is found by Huw Pryce in his study of the charters of Welsh rulers. At the same time, attention is also paid to the changing practices of the kings of England, notably in Richard Sharpe's important consideration of ‘address and delivery’ in Anglo-Norman royal charters, and Nicholas Vincent's analysis of regional variation in the charters of Henry II, which further enlarges the appetite for publication of the Angevin acta under the editorship of himself, Judith Everard and Sir James Holt. These two essays are the more stimulating for disagreeing with one another over certain points, and the collection might have been further enhanced by some more explicit opening up of issues. For example, a general consideration of medieval terminology for different types of documents, and the changing degree to which there were set genres of documentation, might have enriched discussions of modern definition, for example of the term ‘writ-charter’ which is not used in the same way by all historians or indeed by all contributors to this volume. Further general or comparative essays might have been suggested by the collection's title. For example, Bates in particular touches upon the impact of texts in electronic form; a fuller consideration of the influence of the electronic availability of Anglo-Saxon charters would be of considerable interest. Other issues, perhaps less obvious, might also be revealing, for example a comparative consideration of poor quality charters, be it in terms of script or formulation. Nevertheless, this is a stimulating volume, with papers of wide relevance and of lasting importance.