This book brings together new research that represents current scholarship on the nexus between authority and written sources from Anglo-Saxon England.

1. Introduction Rory Naismith and David A. Woodman; 2. Simon Keynes: the man and the scholar Oliver Padel; Part I. The Formation of Power: The Early Anglo-Saxon Kingdom: 3. Bede's Kings Sarah Foot; 4. Hagiography and charters in early Northumbria David A. Woodman; 5. Origins of the kingdom of the English David N. Dumville; 6. Losing the plot? 'Filthy assertions' and 'unheard-of deceit' in Codex Carolinus 92 Jinty Nelson; Part II. Authority and its Articulation in Late Anglo-Saxon England: 7. Fathers and daughters: the case of Æthelred II Pauline Stafford; 8. The historian and Anglo-Saxon coinage: the case of late Anglo-Saxon England Rory Naismith; 9. Charters and exemption from geld in Anglo-Saxon England David Pratt; 10. On living in the time of tribulation: Archbishop Wulfstan's Sermo Lupi ad Anglos and its eschatological context Catherine Cubitt; 11. A tale of two charters: diploma production and political performance in Æthelredian England Levi Roach; Part III. Books, Texts and Power: 12. Making manifest God's judgement: interpreting ordeals in late Anglo-Saxon England Helen Foxhall Forbes; 13. An eleventh-century prayerbook for women? The origins and history of the Galba Prayerbook Julia Crick; 14. Writing Latin and Old English in tenth-century England: patterns, formula and language choice in the leases of Oswald of Worcester Francesca Tinti.