Summary. A 7th century reference to a location named Tomtun has intrigued historians to its whereabouts. If ‘Tom’ means free from, it could refer to an independent royal enclosure. This opens up several possibilities where the Mercian king might have resided.
Tōmtun, a Royal vill possibly near Lichfield.
Ita peractis rex ipse
Aedilredus in cubiculo proprii vici qui nominatur Tomtun.
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| 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 a royal location by the river Tame such as at Tamworth.[3] So far there is no evidence for a 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 known considerable settlement.[4] Tun is Old English for an enclosed area of land and after consideration of many interpretations, village, estate, farmstead, it was concluded to be a royal vill (settlement and adjacent lands).[5]
Tōm means empty or
figuratively ‘free from’[6]. If
this is the true meaning of the first part of the name it is difficult to
understand a royal residence being empty or free from some attribute, but 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 kingdom in its own right would have been paramount to Æthelred. Therefore, does Tōmtun
mean an independent royal enclosure. 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] If
so, where was it located? There are a
few examples of the king living within a monastic complex and many 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.
It is also possible the royal
estate was separated from a monastic complex and that offers a wide choice of
locations. In 704, Æthelred abdicated and became a monk at Bardney,
Lindsey, a monastery which he had founded with his wife. Thus it is possible he
lived mostly at a separate vill and in 704 joined the monastic complex at
Bardney. Two speculative suggestions would be near Repton or at Tutbury.
[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.
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