1 - William of Malmesbury and his World

Summary

THE PERIOD FROM 1066 to the mid-twelfth century has been seen as critical in the history of early medieval English historical writing. Post-1066 there was a flowering of historical and hagiographical writing that was unique for its time. Most took place in monastic communities and in particular great Old English Benedictine communities like Malmesbury, Worcester and Canterbury. These monastic communities were literary powerhouses, producing a variety of different works in a diverse range of genres, which included charters, saints' lives, local histories, institutional histories and national histories. Traditionally historians have focused on the Norman conquest of England as the key to understanding this explosion of historical and hagiographical writing. R. W. Southern argued that these monastic communities and the works they produced were a response to the complicated situations caused by the 1066 conquest. He suggested that there was a need for monastic communities to preserve and legitimise their past in order to survive in the present. Essentially 1066 can be viewed as a threat to the continuity of the Anglo-Saxon past, and one response to this was the production of written materials to justify future existence. Likewise S. J. Ridyard suggested that fear drove many religious communities to write defensively in order to maintain their positions in the political aftermath of conquest. Vindication of the community's respective traditions and history created a type of monastic propaganda, which was especially evident in hagiographical works written shortly after 1066.