The New Minster Charter is an Anglo-Saxon illuminated manuscript that was likely composed by Bishop Æthelwold and presented to the New Minster in Winchester by King Edgar in the year 966 AD to commemorate the Benedictine Reform. It is now part of the British Library's collection.
Frontispiece of the New Minster Charter. Edgar is flanked by the Virgin Mary and St Peter, and he is offering the charter to Christ, who sits enthroned above, surrounded by four angels.
Edgar was King of the English from 959 until his death. He became king of all England on his brother's death. He was the younger son of King Edmund I and his first wife Ælfgifu. A detailed account of Edgar's reign is not possible, because only a few events were recorded by chroniclers and monastic writers were more interested in recording the activities of the leaders of the church.
Edgar in the early fourteenth-century Genealogical Roll of the Kings of England
Edgar in the second tier of the Royal Window in the mid-fifteenth century chapel of All Souls College, Oxford. The stained glass is original apart from Edgar's head, which was replaced with one made by Clayton and Bell in the 1870s.
Coin of Edgar, pre-reform, Bust Crowned, moneyer Levinc, East Anglia
Frontispiece of the Winchester New Minster Charter of 966, the only illuminated charter and the only manuscript written entirely in gold to survive from Anglo-Saxon England. Edgar is flanked by the Virgin Mary and St Peter, and he is offering the charter to Christ, who sits enthroned above, surrounded by four winged angels.
