A new source for the Vita Ædwardi regis

This article argues that the account of the English diplomatic mission to Rome in 1061, which appears in the Vita Ædwardi regis, is modelled on the account in Pope Nicholas II’s letter to Archbishop Ealdred of York. Rejecting the hypothesis that the two accounts could be independent or related at one remove, it demonstrates that the Vita’s account of the mission retains the narrative framework provided by the letter. It also shows that it shifts the political emphasis and reworks the parent text in ways Folcard of St. Bertin (the author of the Vita) is known to have reworked Bede’s account of St John of Beverley. The discovery sheds light on Folcard’s sources for the Vita and on his techniques in reworking Latin narrative.