This book focuses on the period from the seventh to eleventh centuries
that witnessed the rise and fall of Mercia, the great Midland kingdom,
and, later, the formation of England. Specifically, it explores the
relationship between the bishops of Lichfield and the multiple
communities of their diocese. Andrew Sargent tackles the challenge posed
by the evidential 'hole' at the heart of Mercia by synthesising
different kinds of evidence--archaeological, textual, topographical, and
toponymical--to reconstruct the landscapes inhabited by these
communities, which intersected at cathedrals, minsters, and other less
formal meeting-places. Most such communities were engaged in the
construction of hierarchies, and Sargent assigns spiritual lordship a
dominant role in this. Tracing the interconnections of these
communities, he focuses on the development of the Church of Lichfield,
an extensive episcopal community situated within a dynamic mesh of
institutions and groups within and beyond the diocese, from the royal
court to the smallest township. The regional elite combined spiritual
and secular forms of lordship to advance and entrench their mutual
interests, and the entanglement of royal and episcopal governance is one
of the key focuses of Andrew Sargent's outstanding new research. How the
bishops shaped and promoted spiritual discourse to establish their own
authority within society is key. This is traced through meagre textual
sources which hint at the bishops' involvement in the wider flow of
ecclesiastical politics in Britain, and through the archaeological and
landscape evidence for churches and minsters held not only by bishops,
but also by kings and aristocrats within the diocese.
