Poder, política e escrita da história na Crônica Anglo-Saxônica: uma análise dos reinos anglo-saxões dos séculos VII e VIII

Abstract

The following research purposes to produce a study about the political structures, relations of power and writing of history of the anglo-saxon kingdoms in the 7th and 8th centuries. To understand those structures, we’ll start from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, main source that this work will contemplate. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle it is a set of manuscripts that starts to be written in the 9th century by the command of Alfred, the Great (849 – 899), until then king of Wessex, being written until the year of 1154. These manuscripts reports the history of british isles, since the born of Christ until the period that leaves its written. This work deal with points related to the historiography of the anglo-saxons, taking the AngloSaxon Chronicle as a foundation and also the political history, once the question of ‘kingdom’ is present in out research problems. As to the temporal clipping, we’ll analyze the 7th and 8th centuries, starting from the beggining of 7th century when the anglo-saxon kingdoms are politically fragmented and finishing in 793, when the vikings invade the anglo-saxon kingdoms, causing a political rupture. As research problems it will be launch to the source multiple questions that involves the carachterization of the concept of anglo-saxon kingdomm, the exchange of political informations between the kingdoms, the analysis of the hierarchy of the kingdom and its structures, the relations of power and the political influence of the crown to the kingdom. Besides, we’ll also appropriate of questions that involves the historiography of the document, trying to analyze how constitutes a writing of history in the shape of chronicle, how the power and the politics behaves in this type of writing and which perspective of writing the kingdom of Wessex has over the other kingdoms. The method of analysis it will be done in the following mode: the first chapter will be turned to the analysis of the source, the second one it will be analyze the kingdoms with more mentions and the third with the kingdoms with less mentions. So, apply these problematics in a political history is also care to relations of power in what this work purposes: the kingdom. In this way, study this period is to perceive how the mutation that the power has between differents anglo-saxon kingdoms. Analyze these conceptions of kingdom for the anglo-saxons, especially in a source that starts to be written in the 9th century is also analyze historiographically our object. Therefore, we’ll purpose to contemplate research problems that involves as well the political history as far the historiography, verifying the relations between writing and power presents in our space of investigation, the anglo-saxon kingdoms.