Book contents
- Medieval Historical Writing
- Medieval Historical Writing
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Notes on Contributors
- Abbreviations
- General Introduction
- Part I Time
- Part II Place
- Chapter 8 Mental Maps: Sense of Place in Medieval British Historical Writing
- Chapter 9 Viking Armies and their Historical Legacy across England’s North–South Divide, c.790–c.1100
- Chapter 10 Cross-Channel Networks of History Writing: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
- Chapter 11 Creating and Curating an Archive: Bury St Edmunds and its Anglo-Saxon Past
- Chapter 12 Historical Writing in Medieval Wales
- Chapter 13 Scotland and Anglo-Scottish Border Writing
- Chapter 14 London Histories
- Chapter 15 History at the Universities: Oxford, Cambridge, and Paris
- Part III Practice
- Part IV Genre
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 14 - London Histories
from Part II - Place
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 December 2019
- Medieval Historical Writing
- Medieval Historical Writing
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Notes on Contributors
- Abbreviations
- General Introduction
- Part I Time
- Part II Place
- Chapter 8 Mental Maps: Sense of Place in Medieval British Historical Writing
- Chapter 9 Viking Armies and their Historical Legacy across England’s North–South Divide, c.790–c.1100
- Chapter 10 Cross-Channel Networks of History Writing: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
- Chapter 11 Creating and Curating an Archive: Bury St Edmunds and its Anglo-Saxon Past
- Chapter 12 Historical Writing in Medieval Wales
- Chapter 13 Scotland and Anglo-Scottish Border Writing
- Chapter 14 London Histories
- Chapter 15 History at the Universities: Oxford, Cambridge, and Paris
- Part III Practice
- Part IV Genre
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain, and in the civic chronicles of the fifteenth century, London serves a symbolic role as the site of consent between the rulers of England and their citizens. This meant that with each new set of rulers, the myth of London’s importance had to be recovered and reestablished. Thus works such as Wace’s Brut and the anonymous Middle English Saint Erkenwald suggest a dialectic between London’s discontinuous history and its continuous connection to the present. London’s symbolic role also meant that even local histories such as the Middle English civic chronicles often conceal the complexity of local politics in order to present a simpler national narrative.
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- Medieval Historical WritingBritain and Ireland, 500–1500, pp. 244 - 257Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019
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