opening page of alfred great s drawn circa 885 (11th-century copy)
anglo-saxon wills intended make gifts of property (including land) after writer s death, not wills in modern sense.
wills rarer writs. first dedicated study, anglo-saxon wills dorothy whitelock able identify 39 documents. number grew 55 publication of 16 among anglo-saxon charters agnes jane robertson in 1939. since 1939, contributions list few , far between; in 2011 wills , will-making in anglo-saxon england linda tollerton published up-to-date corpus, 68 examples in total. surviving documents unevenly distributed both in time , space: 9th century, example, 9 wills known, , 6 of them in canterbury. not single period known further north burton upon trent in staffordshire. furthermore, 22 wills can found in manuscripts written before 1066; originals rarer, some, of alfred great or wulfric spot, known pre-conquest copies, while still other may in fact mere extracts or ancient forgeries.
only 2 wills of kings have been preserved, of alfred , eadred, both in later copies. anglo-saxon women wills survive include wynflæd (mother of Ælfgifu of shaftesbury , grandmother of kings eadwig , edgar), king edmund s second wife Æthelflæd , sister Ælfflæd.
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