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Antiquarian Studies in Fifteenth-Century England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2011

Antonia Gransden
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Summary

This article seeks to counteract the tendency of some recent historians to underrate antiquarian studies in medieval England. It demonstrates the flourishing antiquarianism of the fifteenth century, first especially among the monks and later among the clergy and even the laity. The monks did research on local history in order to prove the antiquity and legal rights of their houses, while the ‘seculars’ viewed the subject more broadly. It is usually impossible to assess exactly to what extent a scholar engaged in antiquarian studies for practical reasons, and to what extent his motive was objective, intellectual curiosity; however, the evidence suggests that by the end of the century the latter motive was gaining ground.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 60 , Issue 1 , March 1980 , pp. 75 - 97
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1980

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References

1 McKisack, May, Medieval History in the Tudor Age (Oxford, 1971), p. 11Google Scholar.

2 Kendrick, T. D., British Antiquity (London, 1950), pp. 18–33Google Scholar.

3 Ibid. p. 18 and nn. 3–4.

4 For example, Sir Thomas states that Leland, like many antiquaries of his day, remained ‘medieval in mind’; he was ‘a man two-faced, i n one direction looking hopefully forward into a new era of empirical research and practical survey, and at the same time looking with affection backward to the writing-desk of the medieval scholastic chronicler-antiquary where a traditional fable might be repeated without unrestful inquiry or impertinent sixteenth century doubt’; Ibid. p. 63. Similarly, Sir Thomas comments that in the sixteenth century ‘antiquarian thought tended to remain medieval in kind—medieval in credulity and in recklessness of conjecture’; Ibid. p. 65.

5 Ibid. pp. 2 et seq.

6 Ibid. p. 15.

7 Southern, R. W., ‘Aspects of the European tradition of historical writing: the sense of the past’, T.R.H.S. 5th ser. xxxiii (1973), 246–56Google Scholar.

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9 For this tract, its versions and their dissemination, see Pantin, W. A., ‘Some medieval English treaties on the origins of monasticism’, Medieval Studies presented to Rose Graham, eds. Ruffer, Veronica and Taylor, A. J. (Oxford, 1950), pp. 189–215Google Scholar.

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11 Printed Historia et Cartularium Monasterii Sancti Petri Gloucestriae, ed. Hart, W. H. (Rolls Series, 1863-1866, 3 vols.), i, 3–58Google Scholar. For the composition and value of this chronicle see Brooke, C. N. L., ‘St. Peter of Gloucester and St. Cadoc of Llancarfan’, Celt and Saxon. Studies in the Early British Border, ed. Chadwick, N. K. (Cambridge, 1963), pp. 260–70, 277–9Google Scholar.

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19 Printed Liber Monasterii de Hyda, ed. Edwards, Edward (Rolls Series, 1866)Google Scholar. The possibility that Rudborne was the author of the Liber is suggested by the similarity of its arrangement, under kings, with that of the Historia Major, and also by the fact that it uses two of the unidentified sources cited in the Historia Major—Girardus Cornubiensis's De Gestis Regwm West-Saxonum (see Hist. Major, pp. 189, 201, 204 etc.Google Scholar, and, for Girardus,Hardy, T. D., Descriptive Catalogue of Materials relating to the History of Great Britain and Ireland to 1327 (Rolls Series, 1862-1971, 3 vols. in 4 pts., reprinted New York, 1963, iii, 50–1))Google Scholar, and ‘Vigilantius’ (for which see p. 78 and nn. 31, 32 below); see Edwards, op cit., p. xxi. The evidence of the only extant manuscript is compatible with this suggestion; see p. 78 and n. 40 below. Perhaps further research would result in a firm conclusion.

20 For works attributed to Rudborne, see Wharton, op. cit., i, pp. xxvi–xxviii. However, Wharton's list needs revision. For Rudborne's possible authorship of the Book of Hyde see p. 77 and n. 19 above.

21 Joannis Rossi Antiquarii Warwicensis Historia Regum Angliae, ed. Hearne, Thomas (Oxford, 1716), p. 73Google Scholar. For references to the Historia Major see Ibid. pp. 78, 82, 96, 98.

22 For Elmham's career see Roskell, J. S. and Taylor, Frank, ‘The authorship and purpose of the Gesta Henrici Quinti: I’, Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, liii (1970-1971), 455–61Google Scholar, and Kingsford, C. L., English Historical Literature in the Fifteenth Century (Oxford, 1913, reprinted New York, 1962), pp. 45–6Google Scholar.

23 For Frocester's authorship of the Gloucester history see Brooke, op. cit., p. 260 and n. 3.

24 See Chron. Mon. de Melsa, i, lxii–lxxGoogle Scholar; iii, 239–40, 258–71, 274–5.

25 See Rous, , Historia Regum, p. 96Google Scholar. Cf. p. 78 and n. 39 below.

26 Trinity Hall, Cambridge, MS.i. See James, M. R., A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity Hall (Cambridge, 1907), pp. 1–3Google Scholar.

27 The Crowland chronicle is discussed: Riley, op. cit., pp. 32–49, 114–33; Liebermann, op. cit., pp. 249–67; Searle, op. cit., passim.

28 Fulman, op. cit., p. 1.

29 Ibid. pp. 80, 83. Cf. Searle, op. cit., pp. 7–12.

30 Fulman, op. cit., pp. 108–10.

31 e.g.Rudborne, , Hist. Major, pp. 181, 186, 199, 223Google Scholar.

32 The chronicle from Lucius to the beginning of Henry VI's reign, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, MS. no, pp. 314 et seq. (for which see James, M. R., A Descriptive Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (Cambridge, 1909-1912, 2 vols.), ii, 235Google Scholar, and Quirk, R. N., ‘Winchester Cathedral in the tenth century’, Arch. J. cxiv (1957), 57, n. 1)Google Scholar; the Epitomes Historiae Majoris Ecclesiae Wintoniensis (for which see Wharton, , Anglia Sacra, i, xxvi)Google Scholar; the Book of Hyde (see p. 77 and n. 19 above).

33 Willis, R., ‘Architectural history of Winchester Cathedral’, Proc. R.A.I. Winchester (1845), p. 3, n.aGoogle Scholar.

34 Quirk, op. cit., p. 29, n. 2.

35 In a letter of 7th Decembe r 1976.

36 Hist. Major, pp. 181–2Google Scholar.

37 The Historia Regum Britanniae of Geoffrey of Monmouth, ed. Griscom, Acton (London, 1929), pp. 328–30 (Bk IV, cap. xix)Google Scholar.

38 The monks were attempting to prove that the king, not the bishop of Winchester, was their patron; see Registrum Johannis de Pontissara Episcopi Wyntoniensis, ed. Deedes, Cecil (Canterbury and York Soc, xix, xxx, 1915, 1924, 2 vols.), ii, 609–15Google Scholar. For the conflict between the bishop and his chapter see ibid. i, xx-xxi; ii, 676–94. The monks even earlier had falsified the history of the old Minster; see Finberg, H. P. R., The Early Charters of Wessex (Leicester, 1964), pp. 226–44 passimGoogle Scholar.

39 For the foundation of Cambridge University, Rous cites a chronicle of Hyde which mus t surely be th e extant Book of Hyde (for the account in it of the foundation of Cambridge University see Liber Monasterii de Hyda, ed. Edwards, , p. 11)Google Scholar. He writes that he found the passage ‘in dicta abbathia [de Hyde] in quadam bene indictat a nobili Chronica, quae de vetusta et antiqua manu iterum, ne periret, nova manu et placida scripta est, ut egomet vidi benevola licentia domini abbatis ejusdem loci’;Historia Regum Angliae, p. 96Google Scholar.

40 Davis, G. R. C., Medieval Cartularies of Great Britain (London, 1958), p. 121, no 1051Google Scholar. The manuscript is owned by the earl of Macclesfield and is in the library of Shirburn Castle. A page is reproduced in facsimile as a frontispiece to Edwards, op. cit.

41 John, of Glastonbury, , Cronica, i, p. 70Google Scholar.

42 Hist. Major, p. 194Google Scholar.

43 Ibid. pp. 187–8.

44 John, of Glastonbury, , Cronica, i, pp. 7–8Google Scholar.

45 For the legends in John of Glastonbury see Robinson, J. Armitage, Two Glastonbury Legends: King Arthur and St. Joseph of Arima-thea (Cambridge, 1926), passimGoogle Scholar.

46 Craster, op. cit., p. 514.

47 For his record of the original burial place of Swithun, St. (Hist. Major, p. 203)Google Scholarsee Quirk, op. cit., 65 and n. 6, and Biddle, Martin and Quirk, R. N., ‘Excavations near Winchester Cathedral, 1961’, Arch. J. cxix (1962), 174 and n. 6Google Scholar.

48 See Flete, pp. 22–4. Flete also mentions the tapestries in the church, and the sumptuous mosaic pavement before the high altar; ibid. pp. 105 (cf. pp. 24–9), 113.

49 For a synopsis of the causes of contention between St. Augustine's and the archbishops of Canterbury, see Levison, Wilhelm, England and the Continent in the Eighth Century (Oxford, 1946), pp. 182–3Google Scholar.

50 See ibid., and in particular Knowles, M. D., ‘Essays in monastic history, iv. The growth of exemption’, Downside Review 1 (1932), 401–15Google Scholar.

51 Elmham, op. cit., pp. 87–8. Elmham also had to counter the attacks of the canon s of St. Gregory's, Canterbury, who claimed to have the relics of St. Mildred; Ibid. pp. 218–19, 225–6.

52 Ibid. pp. 309–10.

53 Levison, op. cit., pp. 205–6; Elmham, op. cit., pp. xxvii–xxxiv.

54 Knowles, op. cit., p. 414 and nn.; Elmham, op. cit., pp. xxviii–xxxiv; William Thome's Chronicle of Saint Augustine's Abbey Canterbury, translated, by Davis, A. H., with a preface by Thompson, A. Hamilton (Oxford, 1934), pp. liv–lvi, 116 et seqGoogle Scholar.

55 Elmham, op. cit., pp. 109 and n. 4, no, in and n. 1, 112–13, 114 and n. 1, 115–16, 119 and n. 3, 120–1. The facsimiles are described and some reproduced in Hunter, Michael, ‘The facsimiles in Thomas Elmham's History of St. Augustine's, Canterbury’, The Library, 5th ser. xxviii (1973), 215–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

56 Elmham, op. cit., pp. 122–4. Elmham erroneously dates this dispute to Henry Ill's. reign, apparently because he identified Archbishop Richard as Richard Grant, archbishop 1229–31. However, the reference (see below) to Philip, count of Flanders (1168–91) makes it clear that the archbishop concerned was Richard of Dover (1173–84). This conclusion is confirmed by the account of the dispute between St. Augustine's and Archbishop Richard of Dover given by Gervase of Canterbury, which mentions that the leaden bulla was then called in question;The Historical Works of Gervase of Canterbury, ed. Stubbs, William (Rolls Series, 1879-1880, 2 vols.), i, 296–7Google Scholar.

57 Reproduced Hunter, op. cit., pl. III.

58 Elmham, op. cit., p. 123.

59 Ibid. p. 118. Rous made a rather similar statement; see p. 86 and n. 123 below.

60 See Ker, N. R. in Margaret Deanesly, ‘The court of King Æthelberh t of Kent’, Cambridge Historical Journal, vii (1942), 107, n. IIGoogle Scholar.

61 Elmham's library list (see p. 80 below) includes at least one ancient manuscript in uncials. For the school of uncial writing at Canterbury, c. 700, see Thompson, E. Maunde, An Introduction to Greek and Latin Palaeography (Oxford, 1912), pp. 384–5Google Scholar. Professor Deanesly argues that Elmham's facsimiles of Ethelbert's charters are in Merovingian script and are based on genuine documents; Deanesly, op. cit., pp. 103–10 passim, and the same author's ‘Early English and Gallic ministers’, T.R.H.S. 4th ser. xxiii (1941), 53–66 passimGoogle Scholar, and ‘Canterbury and Paris in the reign of Æthelberht’, History, xxvi (1941), 101–4Google Scholar. However Levison, op. cit., pp. 174 et seq., has demonstrated that this view is not sound.

62 BL MS. Cotton Vitellius A II, folios 14, 19, 19v; see Hunter, op. cit., 218 and pl. vi (a)-(c). See also the picture of the rota of William II of Sicily in ‘Benedict of Peterborough’: BL MS. Cotton Vitellius E XVII, fo. 28; reproduced Gransden, A., ‘Realistic observation in twelfth-century England’, Speculum, xlvii (1972), fig. 1 (cf. p. 38)Google Scholar.

63 Elmham copies a passage in Anglo-Saxon from a charter and supplies a Latin translation; op. cit., p. 332.

64 Ibid. pp. 137, 324.

65 Ibid. pp. 233, 237–8.

66 Trinit y Hall MS. 1, fo. 26V.

67 Ibid. fo. 90V. See Hunter, op cit., p. 217. and pl. 1 (b).

68 Elmham, op. cit., p. 123.

69 Ibid. pp. 118–19. The foundation charter of Lewes priory, granted by William de Warenne, first earl of Surrey, makes no reference to the presence of th e earl's hair in the seal;Early Yorkshire Charters, ed. Clay, C. T. (Yorkshire Archaeological Soc. record ser., extra ser. 1935-1965, 10 vols.), vi, 54–5, no. 2Google Scholar. However, the confirmation by William de Warenne, third earl of Surrey (1138–48), notes that he gave seizin of a tenth penn y of his rents ‘by hair of his own head and that of Ralph de Warenne his brother, cut with a knife by Henry, bishop of Winchester, before the altar’; printed Ibid. vi, 84–5, no. 32. Cf.Galbraith, V. H., ‘Monastic foundation charters of the eleventh and twelfth centuries’, Cambridge Historical Journal, iv (1934), 211Google Scholar. The entry concerning the seal at Castle Acre is even more problematical. Elmham states that the earl of Lincoln in question ‘pluribus possessionibus eandem ecclesiam dotavit’. But the founder of Castle Acre priory was William de Warenne, first earl of Surrey (1088) and its benefactors were his successors as earls of Surrey; see V.C.H., Norfolk, ii, p. 356, and C[ockayne], G. E., The Complete Peerage, ed. Gibbs, Vicary et al. (London 1910-1959, 13 vols.), xii, pt. i, 494–7 passimGoogle Scholar. None of the known names of their wives is Muriel; however, the name of the first earl's second wife is unknown (G. E. C[ockayne], op. cit., xii, pt. i, 494); possibly she was called Muriel. None of the countesses of Lincoln was called Muriel, as far as is known.

70 Trinity Hall MS. 1, fo. 63; cf. Elmham, op. cit., pp. 286, n. 1, 346, n. 1. The plan and Elmham's map of Thanet (see p. 81 and n. 75 below) are to be discussed and reproduced in the forthcoming Local Maps and Plans from England, ed. Skelton, R. A. and Harvey, P. D. A. (Oxford)Google Scholar.

71 Elmham, op. cit., pp. 96–9.

72 See The Vespasian Psalter, ed. Wright, D. M. (Copenhagen, 1967), p. 37–43Google Scholar.

73 Elmham, op. cit., pp. 132–3 (cf. Bede, H.E., II, 3). This passage is not cited as evidence for the church built by King Ethelbert in Taylor, H. M. and Taylor, Joan, Anglosaxon Architecture (Cambridge, 1965, 2 vols.), i. PP. 135–7Google Scholar.

74 Elmham, op. cit., pp. 207–9 passim.

75 Trinity Hal l MS. 1, fo. xxviiiv. Reproduced in Elmham, op. cit., frontispiece. Cf. p. 80, n. 70 above.

76 Chron. de Melsa, iii, 237–76. Cf. Ibid. i, xlviii-xlix.

77 Ibid., i, 71.

78 e.g. the pedigrees of the families of Sayers (ibid., i, 96), Scures (ibid., i, 97–8), Fossard (ibid., i, 104), and Sculcottes (ibid., i, 169–70). The pedigree of the Etton family of Gilling, which is combined with the history of its estates (ibid., i, 316–18, and other references, for which see th e index in Ibid. iii), provided much of the information used in Bilson, John, ‘Gilling Castle’, Yorks. Arch. J. xix (1907), 105–22 passimGoogle Scholar. Burton also gives the pedigree of the Forz family (the earls of Aumale), the founders of the abbey, and the descent of the honour and of th e lordship of Holderness;Chron. de Melsa, i, 89–93Google Scholar.

79 Chron. de Melsa, iii, 130, 134Google Scholar. For this case see Hilton, R. H., ‘Peasant movements in England before 1381’, Essays in Economic History, ed. Carus-Wilson, E. M. (London, 1954-1962, 2 vols.), ii, 89 (the article is reprinted in the same author'sGoogle ScholarThe Decline of Serfdom in Medieval England (London-New York, 1969); see pp. 37–8)Google Scholar.

80 For the practice with regard to the taxation of clerical properties see Stubbs, W., Constitutional History of England, ii (3rd ed., Oxford, 1887), pp. 416, n. 1, 443, n. 4, 580Google Scholar;Willard, J. F., ‘The taxes upon movables of the reign of Edward II’, E.H.R. xxix (1914), 318CrossRefGoogle Scholar;Lunt, W. E., The Valuation of Norwich (Oxford, 1926), p. 72, n. 6Google Scholar;Willard, J. F., Parliamentary Taxes on Personal Property I2go to 1334 (Cambridge, Mass., 1934), pp. 94 et seqqGoogle Scholar. For the ninth granted in 1339 in particular see Fryde, Natalie, ‘Edward Ill's removal of his ministers and judges, 1340–1’, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, xlviii (1975), 152Google Scholar. For help on the subject of clerical taxation and for the above references I am indebted to Dr. Gerald Harriss and Professor E. B. Fryde.

81 Chron. de Melsa, iii, 24–9Google Scholar. Cf. Rot. Parl. ii. 129, 130Google Scholar. Collation of the relevant entry on the Memoranda Rolls, in the Recorda for Trinity term, 18 Edward III (P.R.O., 159/20 membrane 245) with the text in the chronicle shows that the latter is slightly shorter, has the king in the third person instead of the first, and uses the past instead of the present tense.

81 Chron. de Melsa, iii, 28Google Scholar.

82 Ibid. iii, 123, 247 et seqq.

83 The tract is among the material appended to one of the two manuscripts of the chronicle, BL MS. Egerton 1141, the revised version; see Chron. de Melsa, i, liii–livGoogle Scholar. Cf. the account of the struggle between the abbey and the royal assessors in the continuation to Burton's chronicle; Ibid. iii, 279 et seqq.

84 Ibid. ii, 236. See Early Yorkshire Charters, ed. Farrer, William (Edinburgh, 1914-1916, 3 vols.), i, 95–6Google Scholar.

85 Ibid. i, 71–2.

86 The register is now BL MS. Cotton Vitellius C VI; see Chron. de Melsa, i, lvi–lviiiGoogle Scholar. For the collectanea appended to one of the two manuscripts of the chronicle see p. 82, n. 83 above.

87 Chron. de Melsa, i, 71Google Scholar.

88 Ibid. i, 71.

89 Ibid., i, 71.

90 Ibid. i, 81. For the charter see Early Yorkshire Charters, ed. Farrer, , iii, 89–91, 93Google Scholar. Compare also Burton's detailed account of the foundation of a chantry in the abbey with the inspeximus of 1238 on the Charter Rolls;Chron. de Melsa, ii, 59–62Google Scholar; Cal. Charter Rolls, i. 233–4Google Scholar.

91 For the burial places of abbots see e.g.Chron. de Melsa, i, 107, 234, 380Google Scholar; ii, 119; iii, 167, 234. Burton states that the burial place of Abbot Robert de Skyrne (1270–80) is unknown; Ibid. ii, 157. For th e burial places of laymen see Ibid. i, 260; ii, 106; cf. i, 212.

92 Ibid. iii, 152.

93 Ibid. iii, 35–6.

94 Ibid. iii, 36.

95 Ibid., i, 78–81.. Cf. Ibid. iii, 1 and n. 2.

96 Ibid. i, 168–9. For the vill of Wick, later the site of Kingston-upon-Hull, see ibid., ii, 186, 192, and V.C.H., Yorks., East Riding, i, p. 16Google Scholar. For Grangewick see also Chron. de Melsa, ii, 192Google Scholar.

97 Ibid. iii, 79, 120–1. The latter passage is noticed by N. Denholm-Young in his account of Ravenser Odd in ‘The Yorkshire estates of Isabella de Fortibus’, Yorks. Arch. J. xxxi (1934), 404, n. 2Google Scholar. For Ravenser Odd and Old Ravenser, with references to Burton's chronicle, see Poulson, George, The History and Antiquities of the Seigniory of Holderness (Hull, 1840-1941, 2 vols.), ii, pp. 529–40Google Scholar.

98 The passage occurs twice in th e chronicle; Ibid. ii, 30; iii, 121–2.

99 A number of other examples can b e cited of tracts written with a commemorative intention but which show antiquarian interests. Some of John Wessington's tracts (see p. 84, and n. 108 below) are primarily commemorative. One, for example, gives th e scriptural references to the inscriptions beneath the images (or pictures) of the hundre d and forty-eight monks at the altar of SS. Jerome and Benedict in Durham Cathedral, and names some of the hitherto unidentified figures: Durha m Cathedral Library MS. B II I 30, folios 6–25 v; partly printed in Rites of Durham, ed. Fowler, J. T. (Surtees Soc, cvii, 1903), 124–36Google Scholar; cf.Historiae Dunelmensis Scriptores Tres, Gaufridus de Coldingham, Robertus de Graystanes, et Willielmus de Chambre, ed. Raine, James (Surtees Soc, ix, 1839), cclxixGoogle Scholar,Pantin, , ‘Some medieval treatises on the origins of monasticism’, 200, Dobson, Durham Priory 1400–1540. p. 382Google Scholar. Wessington worked on the books in the cloister and cathedral library; Raine, op. cit., cclxx. The desire to instruct and antiquarian interest were probably the main reasons why at Christ Church, Canterbury, William Glaston-bury described the scenes in the twelve windows of the choir, partly from his own observation. His description is noticed and printed The Chronicle of William Glastynbury, Monk of the Priory of Christ Church, Canterbury, 1418–48, ed. Woodruff, C. E. in Arch. Cant. xxxvii (1925), 123–5, 138. 139–51Google Scholar.

100 Printed in Annales Monasterii S. Albani a Johanne Atnundesham, ed. Riley, H. T. (Rolls Series, 1870-1871, 2 vols.), i, 431–49Google Scholar. Described Ibid. ii, lix-lxii.

101 Ibid. i, 431–2. Cf. Ibid. i, 434–41 passim. Perhaps this Book of Benefactors is to be identified with that by Thomas Walsingham. now BL MS. Cotton Nero D VII, for which see The St. Albans Chronicle 1406–1420, ed. Galbraith, V. H. (Oxford, 1937), pp. xxxvi–xxxviiGoogle Scholar.

102 Amundesham, i, 448Google Scholar.

103 Ibid., i, 433–4.

104 Ibid., i, 445–6.

105 Printed Ibid. i, 418–30. Described Ibid. ii, lviii-lix.

106 See Ibid. i, 418.

107 Ibid. i, 421.

108 Wessington's tracts, not all of which survive, were listed by a contemporary on a roll, three copies of which are preserved in Durham Cathedral Library; Dobson, op. cit., p. 379 and n. 2. One copy is printed in Raine, op. cit., cclxviii–cclxxi. See also Craster, op. cit., 515 and n. 2. Rather similar tracts were written at Bury St. Edmunds early in the fifteenth century, the Visitatio Thome de Arundel, the Contentio cum Episcopo Eliensi, and the Pensio de Woolpet; printed Memorials of St. Edmund's Abbey, ed. Arnold, Thomas (Rolls Series, 1890-1896, 3 vols.), iii, 183–8, 188–211, 78–112, respectivelyGoogle Scholar.

109 Raine, op. cit., cclxviii–cclxix.

110 Ibid. cclxix.

111 Durham Dean and Chapter Archives, Register III, fo. 211–211v. Discussed and printed by Brentano, Robert, ‘The Jurisdictio Spiritualis: an example of fifteenth-century English histiography’, Speculum, xxxii (1957), 326–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Professor Brentano (op. cit., 327) only tentatively ascribes the work to Wessington (it is not in the contemporary list of his works), but his authorship is accepted by Professor Dobson (op. cit.), p. 386). Another tract written to establish the truth about the past, without litigious or even tendentious purpose, was written at St. Albans: it explains exactly how the abbot of St. Albans had lost his right to precedence in parliament in the reign of Richard II; printed Amundesham, i, 414–17Google Scholar.

112 Brentano, op. cit., 331.

113 Ibid. 331 and n.g. Cf. Ibid. 327–8.

114 For Rous's career see the introduction to This rol was laburd and finished by Master John Rows of Warrewyk, ed. Courthope, William (London 1845/1859)Google Scholar, and Kendrick, op. cit., pp. 19–29.

115 For the printed edition of the Historia Regum Angliae see p. 90, n. 21 aboveGoogle Scholar.

116 Ibid. pp. 77–8. For another example in the Historia showing Rous's antiquarian interest in Oxford, see his account of the processional cross and stone cross owned by the university;Historia, pp. 201–2Google Scholar.

117 The holograph of Rous's list has not survived, but there are a number of copies, the best of which is printed in ‘Survey of the Antiquities of the City of Oxford’ composed in 1661–6 by Anthony Wood; i.The City and Suburbs, ed. Clark, Andrew (Oxford Historical Soc. xv, 1889), pp. 638–41Google Scholar. See Aston, T. H., ‘Oxford's medieval alumni’, Past and Present, no. 74 (1977), 36–8 and nnCrossRefGoogle Scholar. It should be noted that the remarkably accurate bird's eye view (executed c. 1463) of New College by the warden Thomas Chandler, belongs to this period; see Smith, A. H., New College Oxford and its Buildings (Oxford, 1952), p. 179 (see also pp. 43, 49, 109) and frontispieceGoogle Scholar. I am grateful to Dr. J. N. L. Myres for calling my attention to this picture.

118 Historia, ed. Hearne, , pp. 45–6, 58, 60, 104Google Scholar.

119 The latter, the so-called Yorkist roll, the text of which is in English, now BL MS. Additional 48976, is printed with line reproductions of the pictures, by Courthope, op. cit. See also Wright, C. E., ‘The Rous Roll: the English version’, British Museum Quarterly, xxx (1955-1956), 79Google Scholar. The revised roll, the so-called Lancastrian roll, preserved in the College of Arms, has no t been published but its text, which is in Latin, is printed in footnotes to the descriptions of the plates in Courthope, op. cit., and there is a good account of it in Wagner, A. R., A Catalogue of English Mediaeval Rolls of Arms (Harleian Soc, c (1948) and Oxford, 1950), 116–18Google Scholar. Pictures from it are reproduced in Russell, A. G. B., ‘The Rous Roll’, Burlington Magazine, xxx (1917), 31 and pl. 1Google Scholar;Mann, J. G., ‘Instances of antiquarian feeling in medieval and renaissance art’, Arch. J. lxxxix (1932), pls. 11 (2), in, iv, opposite pp. 259, 260, 261Google Scholar, respectively, and Kendrick, op. cit., pls. n (b)-iv. It may be noted that a rather similar roll to Rous's was executed in the mid-fifteenth century for the Sudeleys and Botelers of Sudeley castle. The roll is now in the New York Public Library, Spenser Collection MS. 193. It comprises a history of England, the royal pedigree with portraits of the kings in roundels, and the pedigree of the Sudeleys and Botelers, with heraldic shields; see Sudeley, Lord, ‘Medieval Sudeley. Part I. The Sudeleys and Botelers of Sudeley Castle’, Family History, the Journal of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies, x (1977), 9–20Google Scholar, and D. Winkless, ‘Medieval Sudeley. Part II. The fifteenth century roll chronicle of the kings of England, with Sudeley and Boteler pedigree. The Latin text and roundels’, Ibid. 21–39. For another roll chronicle of the Sudeleys and Botelers see Herald's Commemorative Exhibition 1484–1934 … Catalogue (London, 1936), p. 38, no. 68Google Scholar.

120 Historia, p. 5Google Scholar. For the life of Bernard de Breydenbach, dean of Mainz, and the artist, Erhard Reuwich of Utrecht, who accompanied him to the Holy Land, see Davies, H. W., Bernhard von Breydenbach and his Journey to the Holy Land 1483–4 (London, 1911, reprinted Utrecht, 1968), pp. i-iii, xxiGoogle Scholar. See also Mitchell, J. R., John Tiptoft (1427–70) (London, 1938), p. 28Google Scholar.

121 Rous's pictorial history of medieval armour is discussed by Kendrick, op. cit., pp. 28–9, and by Mann, art. cit., p. 262. For full mail with coifs in one piece, resembling that worn by the British earls of Warwick in Rous's pictures, see Laking, G. F., A Record of European Armour and Arms through Seven Centuries (London 1920-1922, 5 vols.), i, 66–70Google Scholar. For a ribbed helm like those worn by the early Anglo-Saxon earls in Rous's pictures, see Ibid. i, 8, fig. 11. For a reconstruction of an Anglo-Saxon warrior not unlike those depicted by Rous, see ibid, i, 31, fig. 39. For the introduction of mixed mail and plate in the mid-thirteenth ceutury see ibid, i, 121 et seqq., and for its development in the fourteenth century see ibid, i, 145. For the introduction of war-hats and surcoat see respectively ibid, ii, 57, 66; i, 124. For th e suit on Richard Beauchamp's effigy, itself an important landmark in the history of armoury, see Laking, op. cit., i, 163–70. See also the next note.

122 For an English example of the helm chained to the hauberk see the brass (c. 1300) of Sir Roger de Trumpington; reproduced Lysons, Daniel and Lysons, Samuel, Magna Britannia (London, 1806-1822, 6 vols.), ii, opposite p. 65Google Scholar. For a German example see the effigy of Heinrich von Seinsheim (d. 1360) in Wurtzburg Cathedral; reproduced Martin, Paul, Armour and Weapons, trans. North, René (London, 1968), p. 70 and pl. 63Google Scholar. For an example of the sword and dagger chained to the hauberk see the brass (1370) of Ralph de Knevyngton in Aveley church, Essex (reproduced Laking, op. cit., iii, 5); for similar fourteenth-century examples from Germany see Martin, op. cit., pp. 52, 57, 70, and pls. 51, 52, 55, 58, 62, 65. I am indebted to Mr. A. R. Dufty for supplying some of the references for this note.

123 Historia, p. 138. In fact Edward the Confessor was the first king to use a great seal, which is of wax;Facsimiles of English Royal Writs to A.D. 1100 presented to Vivian Hunter Galbraith, ed. Bishop, T. A. M. and Chaplais, Pierre (Oxford, 1957), pp. xix, xxiiGoogle Scholar, and Chaplais, Pierre, English Royal Documents, King John to Henry VI, 1199–1461 (Oxford, 1971), p. 2Google Scholar. However, surviving examples of Henry I's seals are more numerous than of those of previous kings; see Birch, W. de G., Catalogue of Seals in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London, 1887-1900, 6 vols.), i, pp. 2–8Google Scholar.

124 Historia, p. 204Google Scholar. In fact this change took place early in the thirteenth century;Blair, C. H. Hunter, ‘Armorials upon English seals from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries’, Archaeo-logia, lxxxix (1943), 1–26 passimGoogle Scholar.

125 Kendrick, op. cit., p. 28.

126 Historia, pp. 106, no, 204, 205, 131, 202, 139–40, respectivelyGoogle Scholar.

127 Chronica Johannis de Reading …, ed. Tait, James (Manchester, 1914), p. 167Google Scholar;Chronicon Henrici Knighton, ed. Lumby, J. R. (Rolls Series, 1889-1895, 2 vols.), ii, 229Google Scholar;Eulo-gium Historiarum, ed. Haydon, F. S. (Rolls Series, 1858-1863, 3 vols.), iii, 230–1Google Scholar;Historia Vitae et Regni Ricardi Secundi, ed. Stow, G. B. (University of Pennsylvania, 1977), p. 168CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

128 Historia, pp. 69 and 200 (London), 120 (Windsor), 60 (St. Albans), 203 (Osney), 73 (St. Swithun's), 96 (Hyde), 54 (North Wales and Anglesey)Google ScholarPubMed.

129 Ibid. p. 120. There is no evidence confirming the statement that John Seymour, a canon of St. George's chapel, Windsor, was master of the work at the chapel at the end of the reign of Edward IV. However, he was in charge of repairs to the college early in Henry VII's reign. See The History of the King's Works, ed. Colvin, H. M. (London, 1963-1976, vols. i-iii, v, vi, and a volume of plans published to date), iii, pt. i, 305–6Google Scholar.

130 e.g.Historia, pp. 22–7 passim, 96, 119Google Scholar.

131 e.g. Ibid. pp. 140–1, 203, 204, 210-n, 215–16.

132 Ibid. pp. 66, 194–5, 205.

133 Rous denies that he undertook his research on enclosures for its own sake; he states that ‘pro certo nunquam aliud intendebam quam honorem dei, et regis ac totius rei publicae proficuum, ut deus novit’; Ibid. p. 86.

134 Ibid. pp. 120–1. For his petition to the Coventry parliament of 1459 see Maurice Beresford,The Lost Villages of England (London, 1954), p. 102Google Scholar, and The Agrarian History of England and Wales, ed. Finberg, H. P. R., ivGoogle Scholar,1500–1640, ed. Thirsk, Joan (Cambridge, 1967), pp. 213–14Google Scholar.

135 Historia, pp. 39–43, 87–96, 112–37Google Scholar.

136 Ibid. pp. 122–4. Rous was a pioneer in his use of the Hundred Rolls; Beresford, op. cit., p. 282. Rous also cites Domesday Book;Historia, p. 107Google Scholar.

137 Ibid. pp. 125–6.

138 Ibid., pp. 123–4; cf-V.C.H., Warwick., iii, 91–2Google Scholar. For Joan, Lady Bergavenny (d. 1435), wife of William Beauchamp, Lord Bergavenny (1392–1411) see C[ockayne], G. E., Complete Peerage, ed. Gibbs, Vicary et al. (London, 1910-1959, 13 vols.), i, p. 26Google Scholar.

139 See Beresford, op. cit., pp. 81–2, 117, 148–9, and Deserted Medieval Villages: Studies, ed. Beresford, Maurice and Hurst, J. G. (London, 1971), p. 11Google Scholar.

140 For John Hardyng's career see Kingsford, C. L., ‘The first version of Hardyng's chronicle’, E.H.R., xxvii (1912), 462–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

141 ibid., 463–7 passim, 741–3, 751.

142 Palgrave prints the eight documents preserved in the Public Record Office;Documents and Records illustrating the History of Scotland, ed. Palgrave, Francis (London, 1837, one vol. only printed), i, pp. 367–76Google Scholar. Cf. Kingsford, op. cit., p. 468, and, with particular reference to the documents relating to the Cause, Great, Edward I and the Throne of Scotland, 1290–1296: an Edition of the Record Sources for the Great Cause, ed. Stones, E. L. G. and Simpson, G. G. (publishe d for the University of Glasgow, Oxford, 1978, 2 vols.), ii, PP. 385–7Google Scholar.

143 Palgrave, op. cit., p. ccxxni. Palgrave was referring to the content of the forgeries, not to their handwriting which is that of Hardyng's own time.

144 The orginal version is discussed and part printed in Kingsford, op. cit., 469–82, 740–53. The revised version is printed The Chronicle of John Hardyng, ed. Ellis, Henry (London, 1812, reprinted New York 1974)Google Scholar. For the date when Hardyng started the chronicle see Kingsford, op. cit., 465.

145 See Ibid. 465–6.

146 Chronicle, ed. Ellis, , pp. 42–3, 159, 166, 210, 212, 214, 223, 228, 235–6, 240, 243, 247, 253–4, 256 262 269, 270, 276, 283, 294, 296, 299. 323Google Scholar.

146 ibid., pp. 87–8. The bust of the king on Scottish coins was in profile probably until the reign of Robert III (1390–1406); thereafter the head was full-face: see Grueber, H. A., Handbook of the Coins of Great Britain and Ireland in the British Museum (revised ed. London 1970), pp. 170 et seqq.Google Scholar, and Purvey, P. F., Coins and Tokens of Scotland, Seaby's Standard Catalogue of British Coins, iv (Seaby's Numismatic Publications Ltd., London, 1972), pp. 13–34Google Scholar. However, the full-face portrait may have been introduced at the end of the reign of Robert II (1371–90);Burns, Edward, The Coinage of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1887, 3 vols.), i 364Google Scholar. Hardyng also suggests etymologies for the name of the Scots, and gives the (legendary) history of the Stone of Scone;Chronicle, ed. Ellis, , pp. 86, 87, respectivelyGoogle Scholar.

148 There are two versions of the itinerary, one in verse, in the original chronicle, and one in prose, in the revised version. Both are printed by Ellis;Chronicle, pp. 422–9, 414–20, n. 12, respectivelyGoogle Scholar.

149 Ibid. p. 414, n. 12.

150 Three copies are known. One is in th e original chronicle and is reproduced by Moir, D. G., The Early Maps of Scotland to 1850 (Royal Scottish Geographical Soc, Edinburgh, 1973), facing p. 5Google Scholar. The two others are in the revised version; one is reproduced in G[ough], R[ichard], British Topography (London, 1780, 2 vols.), ii, p. 579Google Scholar, and in Facsimiles of National Manuscripts of Scotland, photozinco-graphed by Colonel Sir James, Henry (Record Publications, Edinburgh, 1867-1872, 3 pts.), pt. iiGoogle Scholar.

151 Chronicle, p. 11Google Scholar. For the value of Hardyng's maps see Moir, op. cit., pp. 6, 163.

152 For Worcester's life see McFarlane, K. B., ‘William Worcester: a preliminary survey’, Studies presented to Sir Hilary Jenkinson, ed. Davies, J. Conway (Oxford, 1957), pp. 196–221Google Scholar.

153 Printed The Boke of Noblesse, ed. Nichols, J. G. (Roxburghe Club, London, 1860, reprinted New York, 1972)Google Scholar. It is discussed by McFarlane, op. cit., pp. 210–15.

154 The ‘codicil’ is printed in Letters and Papers illustrating the Wars of the English in France, ed. Stevenson, Joseph (Rolls Series, 1861-1864, 2 vols. in 3 pts.), ii, pt. ii, 521–742Google Scholar. It is discussed in McFarlane, op. cit., pp. 210–13.

155 For a map of Worcester's itineraries see the end of the printed edition;William Worcestre, Itineraries, ed. Harvey, J. H. (Oxford Medieval Texts, 1969)Google Scholar.

156 Ibid., pp. xiii-xiv.

157 See e.g. Ibid. pp. 18, 76, 260.

158 Ibid,, pp. 180, 184, 220.

159 See Ibid. pp. 306–12 passim.

160 For the manuscript of the Itinerary see Ibid. pp. xviii-xxi.

161 For his various interests see Ibid. pp. x-xi.

162 Ibid. pp. 260, 292, 293, n. 2.

163 See e.g. Ibid. pp. ioo, 101, n. 1,112,122, 148, 154, 164, 224, 236, 312.

164 See ibid., pp. xi-xii.

165 Worcester's survey of Bristol is not included in Harvey's edition, but is printed by Dallaway, James, Antiquities of Bristowe (Bristol, 1834)Google Scholar.

166 Galbraith, V. H., Historical Research in Medieval England (London, 1951), pp. 42–3Google Scholar.