4 - The Presentation of Gentes

Summary

WILLIAM OF MALMESBURY was writing in a period where questions of identity and their definition were crucial. it has been argued that the works of twelfth-century chroniclers like Malmesbury were part of a response to the changing circumstances that conquest brought and in particular played important roles in the preservation of an English past. Definitions of the English and the English nation have long been seen by historians as particularly significant issues in relation to the impact of the 1066 conquest. HOW are national groups or gentes defined and presented? What happens to national groupings in times of war, conquest and invasion? How does a language of gender, ideally suited to a discussion of power and powerlessness, appear in such discussions? The subjective nature of identity makes it useful to focus on an individual's response to such questions, and Malmesbury's circumstances make him an interesting choice. He himself is half English, half Norman by birth and is living in a period where the consequences and effects of the 1066 were still resonating. He was writing for a woman, Matilda II, who was married to a Norman man, and who had commissioned him out of an interest in the English past. His awareness of writing for this mixed audience, whether consciously or unconsciously, requires consideration. Clearly questions of identity were likely to have been of interest for him and as such they require further analysis in his works.