Summary. A 7th century reference to a location called ‘Tomtun’ has intrigued historians on its location. If ‘Tom’ means free from and ‘Tun’ means a royal retreat, it could refer to an independent royal enclosure for King Æthelred. This suggests possibilities where the Mercian king might have resided.
The Peterborough (Early Medieval)
Chronicle[1]
contained a charter in which Æthelred of Mercia attested at some time, 675 x 692[2],
in his cubiculum or chambers at a location called Tōmtun a grant giving
land to abbot Headda at Breedon on the Hill.
Ita peractis rex ipse
Aedilredus in cubiculo proprii vici qui nominatur Tomtun.
King Æthelred on the west front of the cathedral. He is holding scrolls which set out the organisation of a diocese. |
The second part of the name, tun,
has been etymologically linked with the river Tame (a cognate of Tom is Tam) and
therefore means a royal location by the river Tame, such as at Tamworth.[3] So
far there is no evidence for a royal settlement at this time at Tamworth.
Another suggestion has been Catholme since it stood where the river Tame joined
the river Trent and there was a considerable settlement.[4] Alternatively,
Tun is Old English for an enclosed area of land and after consideration
of many interpretations it could be a village, estate or farmstead. Campbell
also concluded it could be a royal vill, a settlement with adjacent lands.[5] The
reference with King Æthelred
supports this royal interpretation.
Tōm or Tóm also means
empty or figuratively vacant or ‘free from’[6]. It
is difficult to envisage a royal residence (tun) being empty or free
from some attribute, however one interpretation stands out. Wulfhere spent his
kingship trying to free Mercia from the overlordship of Northumbria and avoid
any tribute that was necessary. This need to make Mercia a growing kingdom in
its own right would also have been paramount to Æthelred. So does Tōmtun mean an independent royal
enclosure not bound to another kingdom or tribe.
Where would a free king’s hall be located.
Archaeology shows the early
minsters of the 7th to 9th-century in Southumbria were magnate farms, that is,
high status settlements including royal estates[7] There
are a few examples of the king living within a monastic complex and more have
been suspected. Blair noted Yeavering royal residence was handed over to be
converted to a minster. King Æthelwalh of Sussex gave Wilfrid land and his own
vill to be an episcopal seat, probably Selsey.[8]
Lyminge could have been both a royal centre and nunnery. Eynsham, Repton and
Thame might have had both a minster and a king’s centre.[9]
Bamburgh had a church within its royal palace complex[10]
and this must have been noted by Wulfhere and Æthelred. This arrangement might
indicate Æthelred’s hall was
within the ecclesiastical settlement of Lichfield (Licetfelda). In 704,
Æthelred abdicated and became a monk at Bardney, Lindsey,
a monastery which he had founded with his wife.
[1]
Archived in the Bodleian Library as MS. Laud Misc. 636. To Hædda, abbot of
Breedon; grant of land at Cedenan Ac. It has a national reference of S1804.
[2]
S. Zaluckyj, Mercia. The Anglo-Saxon kingdom of central England. (2001),
218, suggested the year 691. Like many charters the authenticity of the charter
has been questioned.
[3]
A. Sargent, Lichfield and the lands of St Chad: creating community in Early
Medieval Mercia. (Hatfield: 2020), 200.
[4]
J. Blair, Building Anglo-Saxon England (Princeton and Oxford: 2018), 196
n59.
[5]
J. Campbell, ‘Bede's words for places’, in Essays in Anglo-Saxon History. (London:
1986), 114–5.
[6]
J. Bosworth, A compendious Anglo-Saxon and English dictionary (London: 1838).
[7]
M. Carver, M. Formative Britain. An archaeology of Britain, fifth to
eleventh century AD. (London and New York: 2019), 654.
[8]
B. Colgrave, The Life of Bishop Wilfrid by Eddius Stephanus. Text,
translation and notes (Cambridge: 1927), chapter 42, 85.
[9]
J. Blair. The church in Anglo-Saxon society (Oxford: 2005), 186–7, 277.
[10]
S. Foot, Monastic life in Anglo-Saxon England c600--900 (Cambridge: 2006),
77.