The Encomium Emmae reginae is a narrative history centered on the praise of Queen Emma, widow of both Æthelred and Cnut. After the death of Cnut, Emma commissioned the Encomium while she ruled England jointly with her sons Edward and Harthacnut.¹ The frontispiece of the earliest extant manuscript portrays Emma enthroned in state with her two sons standing at her side (London, British Library Additional MS 33241, f.1v, henceforward BL Additional 33241; see Figure 1). This manuscript appears to have been produced either in 1041 or 1042, before the death of Harthacnut in 1042 when Edward became king, banishing Emma to Winchester and seizing her property.² The Encomium text diverges from other contemporary sources, placing Emma and her two sons by different fathers as the natural heirs to a Danish dynasty and celebrating Emma's role as a bringer of peace.³ The Encomium Emmae reginae frontispiece validates the text's version of events [End Page 459]

[End Page 460] by projecting Emma's authority, separating her out from her sons as ruler in her own right. Using the iconography of Evangelist author portraits and book donation portraits, the image presents Emma, and the Encomium itself, as authoritative carriers of truth. The grammar of authority in the Encomium frontispiece activates specific iconographical reference points from the manuscript tradition centered on the abbey of St.-Bertin to convey Emma's power and support the Encomium's narrative of events, placing BL Additional 33241 within the artistic exchange between Flanders and England throughout the early Middle Ages.

Extensive scholarship on the Encomium Emmae reginae text has demonstrated its careful construction of a usable history for Emma, showing how it edits historical events to place Emma in the best light.⁴ As Emily Butler puts it, "the project of this text is precisely to shift perceptions of events of recent, familiar history."⁵ Pauline Stafford shows how the text uses the titles queen, mother, and lady to negotiate Emma's position, ending with a depiction of Emma ruling jointly and lovingly with her sons Edward and Harthacnut. She notes that this image "does not simply describe reality, it was designed to conjure it."⁶ Elizabeth Tyler situates the Encomium's production within the Anglo-Danish court of Harthacnut, showing how the use of Latin and complex allusions to Virgil function to create a foundation legend for the Danish dynasty.⁷ The Encomium text was commissioned by Emma and designed to intervene directly in contemporary politics.

I argue here that the frontispiece of the Encomium makes a truth claim for the Encomium text's contested narrative of recent events by using a [End Page 461] specific grammar of authority taken from a tradition of manuscript production between Flanders and England. The iconography used in the frontispiece conveys Emma's authority by depicting her as an Evangelist figure, as well as an imperial ruler. In particular, the use of imagery taken from Evangelist portraits and donor portraits suggests the illuminator had links to St.-Bertin and the frontispiece should be interpreted through this connection.⁸

There is extensive evidence for a close relationship between England and Flanders in the early Middle Ages, often expressed through artistic collaboration and exchange in manuscript production. By the time the Encomium was produced in the mid-eleventh century, the English-Flemish relationship was a longstanding one, already evident in the early ninth century with an English abbot at St.-Bertin and Grimbald of St.-Bertin invited to England by King Alfred in 886 or 887.⁹ Flemish monasteries depended on English patronage in the tenth century, there was an ongoing exchange of people between England and Flanders (both scholars and mercenaries), and the Continent was an important source for Latin learning throughout the period.¹⁰ This relationship between England and Flanders continues into the later Middle Ages, with recent scholarship demonstrating...