If we’re going to start thinking seriously about nicknames as a historical source, monarchs are a good place to start. For one, we have far more information about their lives than the average pre-Conquest individual - by constructing a more indepth biography around them, we can begin to explore the events in their lives that might have led to their nicknames, and the ‘meanings’ of them. But also, in the popular imagination of the pre-Conquest period, it is the nicknames of monarch which are most readily repeated: Alfred is remembered as ‘the Great’, Edward as ‘the Confessor’, and William as ‘The Conqueror’ (or, less charitably, ‘the Bastard’).
Æthelred 'the Unready'
Æthelred 'the Unready'
Æthelred 'the Unready'
If we’re going to start thinking seriously about nicknames as a historical source, monarchs are a good place to start. For one, we have far more information about their lives than the average pre-Conquest individual - by constructing a more indepth biography around them, we can begin to explore the events in their lives that might have led to their nicknames, and the ‘meanings’ of them. But also, in the popular imagination of the pre-Conquest period, it is the nicknames of monarch which are most readily repeated: Alfred is remembered as ‘the Great’, Edward as ‘the Confessor’, and William as ‘The Conqueror’ (or, less charitably, ‘the Bastard’).