the anglo-saxon charter can take many forms: can lease (often presented chirograph), will, agreement, writ or, commonly, grant of land. our picture skewed towards regard land, particularly in earlier period (though must admitted emergence of wills , chirorographs owed later development). land charters can further subdivided royal charters, or diplomas, , private charters (donations figures other king).
over thousand anglo-saxon charters extant today, result of being maintained in archives of religious houses. these preserved charters record right land. oldest extant original charter, in canterbury cathedral archive, issued in 679 king hlothhere of kent granting land reculver abbey. surviving charters later copies, include interpolations.
anglo-saxon charters used in legal disputes, , recording of contents of charter within legal document has ensured survival of text when original charter has been lost. overall, 2 hundred charters exist in original form, whilst others post-conquest copies, made compilers of cartularies (collections of title-deeds) or modern antiquaries. earliest cartularies containing copies of anglo-saxon charters come worcester, early-11th-century liber wigorniensis , hemming s cartulary of century later; later example, wilton cartulary, compiled in mid-13th century @ wilton abbey, still includes significant amount of anglo-saxon material.
the importance of charters in legal disputes on land evidence of land tenure, gave rise numerous charter forgeries, same monastic houses in archives preserved. primary motivation forging charters provide evidence of rights land. forging focussed on providing written evidence holdings recorded belonging religious house in domesday book. important when studying charters establish authenticity. study of charters determine authenticity gave rise diplomatics – science of ancient documents.
anglo-saxon charters catalogued in peter sawyer s annotated list , , referred sawyer number (e.g. s407).
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