It is not certain, but it is possible that Emma succeeded as abbess at Shaftesbury Abbey after the death of Eulalia in 1106.[2]
The Abbey owned a large quantity of land, which was leased to tenants in order to provide income to the abbey. The charter from the king related to a number of lawsuits that Emma conducted in 1127 against various tenants of the abbey's lands who had appropriated the land for themselves; the charter given by the king affirmed the abbey's ownership of the lands in question.[2] In the reign of King Stephen, he confirmed by charter the lands which Emma had earlier proved to belong to the abbey in the presence of Henry I and his barons.[3][4]
The "Shaftesbury Psalter" which has been dated to 1130-1140 was originally attributed to Emma, with other theories claiming that it belonged to Henry I's second wife and queen consort Adeliza of Louvain.[1] Either of these women would have been in a position to be able to commission such an expensive book, as antiquary Dugdale described Shaftesbury as "one of the best endowed nunneries in England."[5] The psalter is made of vellum, features female forms of Latin and depicts a woman wearing golden slippers and praying in full-page illuminations.[1] It is currently held in the collection of the British Library[6] and copies of the illuminations are on display.[1]
Emma was succeeded by Mary of Shaftesbury as abbess, who was the illegitimate daughter of Count Geoffrey V of Anjou and half-sister of King Henry II of England.[2]
