The well-attested and much debated problems of working with the various manuscripts of the so-called Anglo-Saxon Chronicle are well known. Alice Sheppard's important book offers a fresh approach to this well-mined field of Chronicle studies by reading these manuscripts with a view to understanding the construction of identity in them. There are two main strands to her argument. First that the narratives of conquest, invasion and settlement should be read as a question of the king's performance of his lordship obligations; and second to demonstrate that these same narratives created a discourse of collective identity for a people known as the Angelcynn.
Sheppard begins by suggesting that Anglo-Saxon identity was created by the figure of the king and the ways in which he performed his lordship obligations. She seeks to pursue this argument by concentrating on the reigns of Alfred, Aethelred, Cnut and William the Conqueror, each of whose reigns is dominated by a story of conquest and invasion. In chapter one the author discusses the complex problems inherent in defining national identity in the Middle Ages. For Sheppard, identity is best understood as a textual community: she sees the identities of Alfred et al as "textual representations envisioned by and circulated within contemporary monastic communities" (11). This is underlined by her approach to defining Angelcynn. Whilst recognising the malleability of this term she concentrates on the importance of cynn as a textual term denoting a kinship bond, specifically a family created by the king's lordship relations. The last section of this chapter places these ideas within a wider continental historical context by thinking about the fortunes of individual kings and kingdoms in relation to the genre of salvation history, where sin is commonly understood to lead to divine punishment. Here the author argues that instead of relying on salvation history to justify conquest, the annalists saw invasion as problems of government and culture that effective lordship could resolve.
Chapters two to six focus on the reigns of Sheppard's chosen kings taking care to locate the presentation of each within its particular historical and cultural context. This is a particular strength of the book with Sheppard making use of a variety of related materials, including law codes, that help contextualise the Chronicles within their contemporary setting. Chapter two suggests that the Alfred annalist created a political family defined by those who accepted the king's lordship. Lordship was therefore seen to function both as a code of behaviour and as a collective identity for Alfred's people. It was an approach that was extended by drawing comparisons with Asser's presentation of Alfred in his Vita Alfredi. By concentrating on the role of education and specifically the idea of king as teacher, Asser was able to demonstrate how Alfred managed to sustain the loyalty of those who had accepted his lordship. "Personal instruction from the king reinforced the bond of lordship by emphasising the personal element of the political and social tie between king and man and in doing so confirms the ideological centrality of lordship in Alfred's kingdom" (68). In this way education was not only morally beneficial but it had the crucial cultural function of creating a unified political and social group.
The next two chapters view the reigns of Aethelred and Cnut in terms of lordship performance. By doing so, the author argues that Aethelred's unfortunate reign can be read as one of continuity and not rupture since it acts as a preface to the coming of the next kingdom under the auspices of Cnut. And here Sheppard makes the good point that we should remember the Chronicle is not a full record of Aethelred's reign but that his portrayal is carefully selected and selectively presented (74). The presentation of Aethelred's reign is then related to hagiographical and homiletic works demonstrating Aethelred's accountability as well as the problem of defining appropriate royal authoritative behaviour. With this in mind Sheppard concentrates on the portrayal of fighting and negotiating as two themes that characterised Aethelred's reign and uses them to demonstrate how Anglo-Saxon identity could be re-located to other prominent figures during a time of poor rulership, including in this instance Archbishop Aelfheah and the regional leader Ulfcytel. Rather than focusing on the crisis of conquest and invasion the annals thus narrate the reign of Aethelred as a failure in Anglo-Saxon lordship. In contrast, the theme of loyal lordship is emphasised in relation to Cnut with Sheppard showing how the bond of mutual loyalty between a king and his people allowed Cnut to take legitimate and authoritative control of the kingdom. By successfully building on this promise of loyal lordship Cnut was able to define a new Anglo-Danish kingdom and found a new Anglo- Danish people.
Sheppard's last substantial chapter focuses on the reign of William the Conqueror. Here she argues that Angelcynn did not survive 1066 but that defeat at the Battle of Hastings was not the only reason for its demise. Rather the entries for 1065-1080 recount the end of Anglo-Saxon lordship culture and the consequent loss of Anglo-Saxon identity associated with that culture. In particular, the stories of Queen Margaret of Scotland and Earl Waltheof are important in that they were used by the annalist to question and memorialise the lordship culture of the Angelcynn. The annalist frames the Anglo-Saxon sins as a problem of lordship highlighting the disunity under Harold, Edward and especially William the Conqueror's failure to win the loyalty of his people. Essentially Sheppard posits that William the Conqueror and the Anglo-Saxons were not speaking the same cultural language and that the lordship discourse so long associated with the Angelcynn was irrelevant to William the Conqueror's idea of rulership. In sum rather than relying solely on lordship relations, land became a critical feature of post-conquest royal identity as evidenced by the Conqueror's decision to order the Domesday Book.
Overall Sheppard's book provides many interesting insights regarding the construction of Angelcynn in terms of various kings' performance of their lordship obligations. Throughout the author clearly argues for the manuscripts of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle to be read as legitimate historiographical materials and she has a perceptive knowledge of the wider historical intellectual milieu of the age. Yet it is noticeable that the book does not consistently address the questions of author and audience. Chapters six and seven are strongest in this sense, since it is here that Sheppard ably demonstrates how a discourse of identity could be adapted to address the particular local needs of monastic houses intent on preserving their past rights within the complicated situations produced by the 1066 conquest. But elsewhere these issues seem elusive; page 10 for instance refers to "the projected aristocratic audience of the text" but does not expand on this either here or in the following chapters. Moreover, by suggesting that the Chronicles are representative of a new and lasting vernacular historiographical tradition, the question of authorship and audience is fundamental to the texts' purpose and function within its contemporary setting.
It was also disappointing that, in a book that stresses the importance of family relationships, loyalty and succession, Sheppard did not make more of female roles within these narratives. The interesting points made concerning Margaret's story could have been usefully expanded (136). As for other significant "conquest women" Sheppard makes only terse comments in relation to Emma, as wife first of Aethelred and then of Cnut (20, 87, 97, 118), and the briefest of references to William the Conqueror's Matilda (136). It would have been useful to relate these stories to current historical debates that show women (especially royal women) involved in the narratives of conquest and the negotiation of situations that such circumstances produced. Finally, Sheppard's approach to the issue of identity did not always do justice to all the possibilities and complexities associated with it in this period, especially in relation to the consequences and effects of 1066. Her statement that "historians of the Norman Conquest...tend to see the writing of the Conquest as an articulation of nascent English nationalistic sentiment" (120) fails to convincingly capture the nuanced arguments and complexities of ideas of identity post 1066. Further Sheppard's awareness of the ethnic diversity of England (130) was a good point that deserved to be expanded. The important questions of what the annalists exactly meant by the term "Angles" and whether this changed over time deserved further thought and consideration within each of the reigns. These latter points are testimony to the continuing importance of debates concerning ideas of national identity in England, both before and after the Norman conquest of 1066. Sheppard's well-written book not only makes a significant and valuable contribution to these debates but it is thought provoking in its interpretation of these complex texts.