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Alphege of Wells

Bishop of Wells

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 2, 2026
Entity authorityQ4735284 ↗
Source-derived summary

Alphege (or Ælfheah) was the third Anglo-Saxon Bishop of Wells. He was consecrated in January 926, and died around 937.

At the start of the reign of King Æthelstan in 924, Alphege was a member of his household, one of his mass priests, who were probably responsible for looking after his relics. Early in Æthelstan's reign, Alphege witnessed his manumission of a slave called Ealdred, and he also attested a charter on the day of Æthelstan's coronation, 4 September 925. He was appointed Bishop of Wells in succession to Wulfhelm, who had been translated to the Archbishopric of Canterbury.

Citations

References

Foot, Sarah (2011). Æthelstan: The First King of England. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-12535-1.

Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996).

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Alphege of Wells” as bishop of Wells. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2011, 1996—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Alphege, Wells and Bishop can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as bishop of Wells. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4735284. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2011 and 1996.

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 Alphege of Wells primary sources, Alphege of Wells archive and Alphege 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.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Alphege of Wells” 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.