284 СНАР. CHAPTER V. FROM THE ACCESSION OF EDWARD III. TO THE (A.) Contemporary Writers.-The materials for English history throughout this period reflect the general decline of the literary spirit, and are at once defective as sources Murimuth. of information, and inferior as specimens of historical Adam of Robert 1356. literature. We meet with no such writers as William of Malmesbury or Matthew Paris. Adam of Murimuth continues to be a principal witness for events up to the year 1346, after which the narrative is carried on by his unknown Continuator to the year 1380. His statements are for the most part made on good authority, or as the result of personal observation, and the impression we derive is that of one who was an honest, and veracious chronicler, although possessed of no descriptive or literary power. The achievements of Edward III. are also recorded Avesbury. by ROBERT AVESBURY,' who was registrary of the archid. (circ.) episcopal court at Canterbury. He likewise can claim no higher rank than that of a painstaking chronicler, but his work incorporates some valuable original documents and transcripts of letters. In connexion with the invasion of Cambresis in 1339, the expedition into Brittany 1 Robert of Avesbury, Hist. de mirabilibus Gestis Edwardi III. Ed. Hearne. 1720. in 1342, and the events that led to the battle of Crecy his narrative is of the highest authority, and affords material corrections of that of Froissart. CHAP. V. of Trevisa. The Polychronicon of HIGDEN becomes the account Higden of a contemporary with the first half of the fourteenth and John century. Higden was a member of the wealthy and powerful abbey of St. Werburg, a Benedictine community at Chester. His work is divided into seven books, of which the sixth concludes with the Norman Conquest, the seventh reaching to the reign of Edward III.' The Polychronicon is almost entirely a compilation, but in the second chapter of the first book the author enumerates at length the sources from which he has drawn his narrative, and the work is consequently valuable as showing what historical writers were studied in England at this period. Towards the close of the century, the Polychronicon was translated by JOHN OF TREVISA, a secular priest of Berkeley in Gloucestershire, and his version is valuable as a specimen of contemporary English prose. The Polychronicon is now in course of publication in the Rolls Series, and in the prefaces to the several volumes the sources from which Higden has derived his facts are pointed out.2 HENRY KNIGHTON, a canon of the abbey at Leices- Henry Knighton. ter, was a contemporary of John of Trevisa and compiled a History of England from the time of king Edgar to the death of Richard II.3 According to his own statement, his compilation was mainly founded on Higden's seventh book; but it includes many facts not therein 1 That is, as appears most probable, to the year 1342; but this question cannot be considered as decided until the appearance of professor Lumby's preface to the concluding volume of his edition of Higden. 2 Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden, with Trevisa's Translation. Vols. i. and ii. edited by Churchill Babington, D.D. Vols. iii. iv. v. vi. and vii. edited by Professor Lumby. R. S. 1865–79. ' Printed in the Decem Scriptores; see supra, p. 216. СНАР. V. Chronicle by a Monk of St. Alban's. Walsingham's Historia. contained. The text, as it has reached us, is extremely corrupt, and Knighton's style and method are alike faulty. Notwithstanding, however, his history is valuable on account of the facts and original records which it contains. Among other sources of information, he appears to have had access to the private collections and letters of Henry, duke of Lancaster, and those of John of Gaunt. A Chronicle of England, during the sixty years A.D. 1328-88, written by another member of the active centre of St. Alban's, fills up what had before been regarded as almost a blank in our history,-namely, the concluding years of the reign of Edward III., of which it supplies a circumstantial account.1 It is in connexion with the first fifteen years of the reign of Richard II. that the Historia Anglicana of Walsingham (see supra) assumes its highest value and becomes a work of primary importance. Prior to this period it is grounded chiefly on the Annals of St. Alban's, while the concluding portion (A.D. 1393-1422) contains not a few inaccuracies of detail.2 For the years 1377 to 1392, however, it is a strictly contemporary account (compiled probably by Walsingham, soon after he left St. Alban's in 1392 to become prior of the cell of Wymundham), which is at once intelligent and authoritative, 1 Chronicon Angliae, ab Anno Domini 1328 usque ad Annum 1388, auctore Monacho quodam Sancti Albani. Edited by Edward Maunde Thompson, Esq. R. S. 1874. 6 2 These defects induced Mr. Riley, the latest editor of the work, to conclude that the Historia, after the year 1392, is not the production of Walsingham. Mr. Gairdner, however, a highly competent critic of the literature of this period, assigns satisfactory explanations of the inferiority discernible, and gives it as his opinion that there is nothing of the nature of internal evidence to create a doubt that the writer of the history during the reigns of Henry IV. and Henry V. is the same as the writer of the history in Richard II.'s time, ‘On the contrary,' he says, 'the style is the same throughout.' Early Chronicles of England, p. 269. notwithstanding that certain contradictions and expressions of conflicting opinion (especially with respect to the characters of Richard and John of Gaunt) shew that it is still a compilation from diverse and sometimes discordant sources. 1 CHAP. V. Chroniclers II. In relation to the concluding portion of Richard's French reign, we have also a Cronique and a metrical composi- on Richard tion, Histoire du Roy d'Angleterre,2-both by French writers. Of these, the former is the production of one who was an eye-witness of many of the events which he describes, and who sympathised with the ill-fated monarch. His account is of the more value from the fact that the chroniclers of the fifteenth century invariably espouse the side of the House of Lancaster. The writer of the poem also pleads the cause of Richard, and his production is likewise deserving of attention. Usk. The Chronicle of ADAM OF USK3 throws some ad- Adam of ditional light on the years A.D. 1377-1404. Adam was a Monmouthshire man and a priest, who, after having been educated at Oxford, entered the service of Henry IV. and subsequently ingratiated himself with pope Boniface IX. His chief contribution to the history of the period consists of some interesting facts relating to the deposition and last days of Richard II. and the early part of the reign of Henry IV. His account of the march of Henry's army to Chester and of the events 1 Cronique de la traison et mort de Richart deux Roy Dengleterre. Edited by B. Williams. E. H. S. 1846. 2 Histoire du Roy d'Angleterre, Richard, traictant particulierement la rebellion de ses subjectz et prinse de sa personne, composee par un gentilhomme françois qui fut a la suite dudict Roy, avecq permission du Roy de France, 1399. Edited and translated by Rev. John Webb. Archaeolog. Britann. XX. I-423. 3 Chronicon Adae de Usk, A.D. 1377-1404. tion and Notes by Edward Maunde Thompson. direction of the Royal Society of Literature. Edited with a Transla Published under the CHAP. John Cap grave. b. 1393. d. 1464. that followed is also of some value. We learn from these pages that Henry, in his hatred of the Welsh, had designed, if possible, altogether to suppress the Welsh language. JOHN CAPGRAVE, a native of Lynn in Norfolk, was a member of the house of Augustinian friars in that city, and afterwards provincial of his order. He was a voluminous writer, and composed among other works (1) A Chronicle of England,' and (2) The Book of the Noble Henries. Of these the former, extending from the Creation to A.D. 1417, is written in English and is valuable as a specimen of the Norfolkshire dialect of the period. It also supplies some facts, not found elsewhere, respecting the history of the writer's own times. His Noble Henries (designed in honour of the reigning monarch) includes Henries of the Empire and other illustrious characters of the same name, besides the first six Henries of England. His notices of the latter extend from the accession of Henry I. to the year 1446; his facts, as regards the first four Henries, are derived mainly from Henry of Huntingdon, Higden, and Walsingham. In adverting to the circumstances under which the Lancastrian dynasty succeeded to the crown, he professes to maintain the strictest impartiality, but as a contemporary record the work is disfigured by the tone of degrading sycophancy employed by the writer with respect to the Henry on the throne. His latest editor claims for him, however, the merits of 'honesty and sincerity of purpose.' 3 The Chronicle of England. By John Capgrave. Edited by Rev. F. C. Hingeston. R. S. 1858. 2 Johannis Capgrave Liber de Illustribus Henricis. Edited by Rev. F. C. Hingeston. R. S. 1858. Of this work Mr. Hingeston has also published a translation. • Hingeston, Pref. p. xvii. |