14: The Medieval Diocese of Sodor: Evidence from Furness Abbey

by Prof. Fiona Edmonds

Synopsis

This talk derives from recent research by Professor Fiona Edmonds and Dr Sarah Thomas. The talk focuses on a document produced by the monks of Furness Abbey, a Savigniac and subsequently Cistercian abbey in the historic county of Lancashire (modern administrative county of Cumbria). The document is a dossier of texts pertaining to the right of the Furness community to elect the bishops of the Isles (Sodor) during the medieval period. It includes copies of important early charters issued by kings of Man and the Isles. While those charter texts have long been known to scholars, the dossier has never been considered as a whole. In this paper, Professor Edmonds seeks to identify the historical context in which the monks of Furness compiled evidence for the connection between their abbey and the bishops of the Isles.

Image caption: Furness Abbey, by Francis Bijl. Source: Wikimedia Commons CC BY 2.0

About the speaker

Fiona Edmonds is Professor in Regional History and Director of the Regional Heritage Centre at Lancaster University. She is an historian of medieval Britain and Ireland, with interests ranging from the sixth century to the thirteenth. Her monograph Gaelic Influence in the Northumbrian Kingdom: The Golden Age and the Viking Age was published by Boydell and Brewer in 2019. The book won the Frank Watson book prize 2021, and it was also shortlisted in Scotland’s National Book Awards.

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