Note 11 — ALFRED AS A RELIGIOUS MAN AND AN EDUCATIONALIST

Nothing is said of her training in needlework. The skill of the Saxon ladies was great. There is contemporary evidence of this in the tapestry-work figures of the stole of Frithestan, now in the Chapter Library at Durham, worked under the direction of Alfred’s daughter-in-law Ælflæd, between 910 and 915. A Latin inscription states that Ælflæd ordered it to be made for the pious Bishop Frithestan. The most gorgeous cope seen by Anselm at the Council of Bari in 1098 had been a Canterbury vestment in Canute’s time.