Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 52.djvu/257

  [Anglo-Saxon Chron. an. 754; Mon. Hist. Brit. p. 641; Hen. Hunt. p. 123, Sym. Dunelm. Hist. Regum, an. 577, ap. Opp. ii. 40, Rog. Hov. i. 21 (these three Rolls Ser.); Dict. Chr. Biogr. art. ‘Sigebert’ (7), by Bishop Stubbs.]

 SIGERED or SIGERÆD (fl. 762), king of Kent, appears as granting a charter, marked spurious by Kemble, to Eardwulf, bishop of Rochester, and as making another grant to the same bishop, which is dated 762, and in which he is described as ‘king of half the province of Kent.’ A charter of Egbert, king of Kent, dated 778, is attested by a Sigered. At that period the kingdom of Kent, in which the Mercian kings and the archbishops of Canterbury were more or less predominant, had no political importance, and seems to have been constantly divided; for the number of kings noticed is large. Bishop Stubbs thinks that the kings of the East-Saxons reigning under Mercian overlordship may have claimed some portion of the kingdom [see under ].

[Kemble's Codex Dipl. Nos. 110, 111, 114, 132; Dict. Chr. Biogr. arts. ‘Kent, Kings of,’ and ‘Sigeræd’ (1) and (2), by Bishop Stubbs.]

 SIGERED or SIGERÆD (fl. 799), king of the East-Saxons, was son and successor of Sigeric or Siric, who left his kingdom and went on a pilgrimage to Rome, probably in 799. He was present with Cenulf of Mercia at the dedication of the church of Winchcombe Abbey in Gloucestershire in 811, and may no doubt be identified with the ‘Sigered rex’ who attested a charter of Cenulf in the same year. Other later charters of Cenulf are attested by a Sigered as ‘dux’ or ealdorman. The kings of the East-Saxons had long been under the overlordship of Mercia, and in 824, at which date Sigered may have been alive—for his name comes last in the ancient genealogy of the East-Saxon kings—the kingdom submitted to Egbert (d. 839) [q. v.], king of the West-Saxons. William of Malmesbury, however, says that the last king of the East-Saxons was named Swithred, and that he was driven from his kingdom by Egbert; but he may perhaps here be making a confusion with Swithhead, whose reign comes between those of Selred and Sigeric, the father of Sigered. The St. Albans compiler, under 828, elaborates this notice of Malmesbury's. Yet it may be that a second Swithhead was momentarily set up as king after Sigered.

[Kemble's Codex Dipl. Nos. 197, 198, 209, 210, 216; Anglo-Saxon Chron. an. 798; Mon. Hist. Brit. pp. 629, 637; Will. Malm. Gesta Regum, i. c. 98; Rog. Wend. sub an. 828; Dict. Chr. Biogr. art. ‘Sigeræd’ (2), by Bishop Stubbs.]

 SIGERIC or SIRIC (d. 994), archbishop of Canterbury, was brought up as a monk at Glastonbury, was elected abbot of St. Augustine's, Canterbury, in 980, and received the benediction from Archbishop Dunstan [see ]. He was made bishop of Ramsbury in 985 through the influence of Dunstan, who consecrated him. Being elected to Canterbury, either at the end of 989 or the beginning of 990, he went to Rome for his pall. An account of his doings there records the churches that he visited and his dining with John XV, and notes the seventy-eight stages of his homeward journey from Rome to the place of his embarkation for England at or near Calais (MS. Cotton. Tib. B. v. 22 b, printed by ). In conjunction with the ealdormen Ethelwerd [q. v.] and Ælfric (fl. 950?–1016?) [q. v.], he advised Ethelred or Æthelred II the Unready [q. v.] to purchase peace of the Northmen in 991. He is said to have turned out the secular clerks from Christ Church, Canterbury, and to have put monks in their place. The same is said of Ælfric (d. 1005) [q. v.], his successor. It points to a revival of monastic discipline at Christ Church, and probably to the expulsion about this time of some clerks who had had a share in the services and revenues of the monastery, though they were not monks. He died in old age on 28 Oct. 994, and was buried in the crypt of Christ Church. He seems to have been learned; for Abbot Ælfric, called Grammaticus (fl. 1006) [q. v.], in dedicating his book of homilies to him, requested him to correct any errors in it; and he had a valuable collection of books, which he left to his church. While archbishop he gave seven palls to Glastonbury Abbey, with which the whole of the ‘ancient church’ was hung on his anniversary.

[Anglo-Saxon Chron. ann. 989–94, ed. Plummer; Flor. Wig. ann. 989–91; Kemble's Codex Dipl. Nos. 624, 655, 673, 687 (both Engl. Hist. Soc.); Will. Malm. Gesta Regum, ii. c. 184, and Gesta Pontiff. pp. 32, 33, 181, Gerv. Cant. i. 15, ii. 357 (all Rolls Ser.); Thorn's Chron. ap. Decem Scriptt. col. 1780; Anglia Sacra, i. 54; Freeman's Norman Conquest, i. 304–5 (1st ed.); Hook's Archbishops of Canterbury, i. 431, 522.]

 SIGFRID or SIGFRITH (d. 689), co-abbot of the monastery of St. Peter's at Wearmouth, a monk and deacon of that house, was elected abbot during the absence of Benedict Biscop [q. v.] on his fifth journey to Rome. On his departure Benedict had left