Ælfsige (or Aelfsige, Ælfsin[1] or Aelfsin; died 959) was Bishop of Winchester before he became Archbishop of Canterbury in 959.

Ælfsige
Archbishop of Canterbury
Appointed958
Term ended959
PredecessorOda
SuccessorByrhthelm
Other post(s)Bishop of Winchester
Orders
Consecration951
Personal details
Bornunknown
Died959
the Italian Alps

Life

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Ælfsige became Bishop of Winchester in 951.[2] In 958, with the death of the previous Archbishop Oda, he was translated from the see of Winchester to become archbishop of Canterbury.[3] He is said by Arthur Hussey to have trampled contemptuously on Oda's grave, "with reproaches for having so long kept himself out of that dignity".[1]

Ælfsige died of cold in the Alps as he journeyed to Rome to be given his pallium by Pope John XII.[4][1] In his place King Eadwig nominated Byrhthelm. Ælfsige's will survives and shows that he was married,[5] with a son, Godwine of Worthy, who died in 1001 fighting against the Vikings.[6]

Citations

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  1. ^ a b c Arthur Hussey (1852). Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey . p. 285  – via Wikisource. [scan  ]
  2. ^ Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 223
  3. ^ Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 214
  4. ^ Ortenberg "Anglo-Saxon Church and the Papacy" English Church & the Papacy p. 49
  5. ^ Stafford Unification and Conquest p. 58
  6. ^ Yorke "Ælfsige" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

References

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  • Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology (Third revised ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56350-X.
  • Ortenberg, Veronica (1999) [1965]. "The Anglo-Saxon Church and the Papacy". In Lawrence, C. H. (ed.). The English Church and the Papacy in the Middle Ages (Reprint ed.). Stroud, UK: Sutton Publishing. pp. 29–62. ISBN 0-7509-1947-7.
  • Stafford, Pauline (1989). Unification and Conquest: A Political and Social History of England in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries. London: Edward Arnold. ISBN 0-7131-6532-4.
  • Yorke, Barbara (2004). "Ælfsige (d. 959)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/192. Retrieved 7 November 2007.(subscription or UK public library membership required)
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Christian titles
Preceded by Bishop of Winchester
951–959
Succeeded by
Preceded by Archbishop of Canterbury
958–959
Succeeded by