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Ælfwold II (bishop of Crediton)

monk

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 4, 2026
Entity authorityQ8077330 ↗
Source-derived summary

Ælfwold (or Ælfweald or Aelfwold) was a medieval Bishop of Crediton.

Life

Ælfwold was a Benedictine monk at Glastonbury Abbey before he was elected to Crediton between 986 and 987. He was succeeded by Ælfwold III in 1008. He died between sometime before a time frame between 1011 and 1015.

Will

Ælfwold's will is still extant, and the hand drawing up the will matches the hand that drew up a charter of 997 from King Æthelred II to Ælfwold.

In his will, Ælfwold freed all the slaves that had worked on his estates, suggesting the existence of slavery in Anglo-Saxon England, was tempered by the need to free such slaves on death.

Citations

References

Chaplais, Pierre (1985). Mayr-Harting, Henry; Moore, R. I. (eds.). The Royal Anglo-Saxon 'Chancery' of the Tenth Century Revisited. Studies in Medieval History Presented to R. H. C. Davis.

Editorial summary

“Ælfwold II (bishop of Crediton)” enters the record as monk. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Ælfwold, bishop and Crediton can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1008, 1011, 1015, 1985—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Ælfwold, bishop and Crediton.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Ælfwold II (bishop of Crediton)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Ælfwold, bishop and Crediton provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8077330. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1008, 1011, 1015 and 1985.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  2. Expand the search: follow Ælfwold II (bishop of Crediton) primary sources, Ælfwold II (bishop of Crediton) archive and Ælfwold research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Ælfwold II (bishop of Crediton)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.