Leofric (bishop) - Early Life

Early Life

Little is known about Leofric, as his cathedral town was not a centre of historical writing, and he took little part in events outside his diocese. Little notice was taken of his life and activities; only a few charters originated in his household and there is only one listing of gifts to his diocese. No official acts from his episcopate have survived, and there is just a brief death notice in the Leofric Missal, although no notice of his death occurs in the contemporary Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. He occurs as a witness to royal charters.

Leofric was probably born in Cornwall, and his parents were English. Because canon law required that a bishop be 30 years old when consecrated, it is likely that Leofric was born before 1016. The medieval chronicler Florence of Worcester referred to him as a Brytonicus, which presumably meant that he was a native of Cornwall. He had a brother, Ordmaer, who acted as his steward and administered the family estates. Leofric was educated in Lotharingia, and may have been brought up abroad. Leofric may have gone into exile either in 1013 when Sweyn Forkbeard, the king of Denmark invaded England or in 1016, when Sweyn's son Cnut became king of England. His education possibly took place at the church of St Stephen's in Toul, where the future Pope Leo IX was a canon from 1017 to 1024 and bishop after 1027.