Dunstan: Saint and Statesman

by Douglas Dales

St Dunstan of Canterbury (909-88) was the central figure in the development of English church and society after the death of King Alfred. Douglas Dales traces Dunstan's life beginning with his education at the great monastery of Glastonbury of which he became abbot. He was a central figure at the court of the kings of Wessex but was banished, partly because of his hostility to the king's mistresses, and went to exile in Flanders. After his return he was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury. During the twenty-eight years of his primacy he carried out one of the major developments of the century, the reformation of the monasteries. The millennium of Dunstan's death provides an opportunity to examine him not merely as a prelate and royal advisor, but to see other aspects of his his skills as a craftsman caused him to be adopted as the patron saint of goldsmiths; some of his work as calligrapher and artist survives to this day; the coronation service which he drew up still lies at the heart of this service for English monarchs today; he was famed for his musical skills; above all, the sanctity of his name and the fame of his miracles kept Dunstan's memory alive. Douglas Dales' re-examination of the life and times of Dunstan sets his achievements against the social and religious background of the day, at a time when new forces were emerging that would shape the future of England and the English Church for centuries to come.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations
Foreword by the Archbishop of Canterbury
Preface
Tenth-Century Regnal and Archiepiscopal Lists

Part One
AD 909-59
Chapter1 The Legacy of Alfred the Great
Chapter2 Oritur puer strenuus
Chapter3 At the court of Athelstan
Chapter4 Abbot of Glastonbury
Chapter5 Exile and return

Part Two
AD 960-88
Chapter6 Archbishop of Canterbury
Chapter7 The monasteries
Chapter8 The statesman
Chapter9 Two kings

Part Three
The AD 989-1023
Chapter10 The successors
Chapter11 The flowering of the tenth century
Chapter12 St Dunstan

Notes
Bibliography
Index

230 pages, Paperback

First published January 28, 1988

Reviews

[Jason · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book because of my unhealthy addiction to reading biographies of Anglo-Saxon kings. (This will likely soon translate into an unhealthy addiction to reading biographies of Anglo-Norman kings.) The time that Dunstan lived and worked overlaps with three English monarchs for whom there is very little information, and so I thought reading about Dunstan, who worked closely with all of them, would fill in some of the gaps. It seems as though Dunstan, the instigator of the Monastic revival in 10th century England, was even more important in history than any of the kings he worked with. He opened monasteries all over England, and altered the way the ones already standing were run. He argued for a strict Monasticism of prayer and abstinence and withdrawal from secular life, and he changed the direction of English Catholicism all the way to Henry VIII's abolition of the monasteries five centuries later. Dunstan was hugely influential. So, this biography seemed like a good idea.

And, for an Anglo-Saxon scholar, it likely is. I'm honestly sure that it's great. There's lots of stuff here on the Church and its doings during Dunstan's life, and the people he worked with, and the people who followed him afterwards. But it's all from a distance. We can't grasp any of it, because the evidence is so scant. And a lot of it is just dry elucidation of names of monasteries and who donated what gifts to whom, and who supported which faction, and what certain churches were decorated with, and what those decorations tell us about how serious these guys were about what type of Christianity. Bede's Ecclesiastical History this ain't. Ultimately, like with Kings Edgar and Ethelred and whatnot, there is very little personal information on the man Dunstan himself. As a result, this is not a comprehensive biography, full of actions and choices and moral dilemmas. More than half the book describes things other than Dunstan, and much of it is of archeological rather than narrative interest.

I am certain that the author did a good job for his chosen audience. That audience just wasn't me. I was looking for a narrative like one might find reading the biography of, say, King Alfred (the one Anglo-Saxon king for whom there is enough information to create a thrilling biographical narrative). Instead, I got what most of the biographies of Anglo-Saxon kings have unfortunately given me, which is to say whatever they could, given the scarcity of evidence. This would certainly be of interest to readers studying the history of Christianity in England, for Dunstan is a central mover in that history. It would also be of interest to those who specialize in the study of Anglo-Saxon religious and political society. It is of less interest, though, for those who like historical biographies, amateurs like me looking for a great story about a central historical figure. For that, I would suggest, first of all, reading up on King Alfred. Then, read Bede's Ecclesiastical History. Now, THAT is a rollicking adventure tale about the spread of Anglo-Saxon Christianity.