Adhemar of Chabannes (d. c. 1028)
Adhemar was a monk at Limoges in the county of Poitou, well-placed to write of the Viking devastation of the Loire valley in the ninth and tenth centuries. He wrote a chronicle of the Franks, which became his own independent work at the end of the tenth century, see his Chronique, ed. J. Chavanon (Paris, 1897).
Ailred of Rievaulx (d. 1163)
Son of Eilaf, priest of the community of Hexham, and descendant of a dynasty of clergy associated with the community of St Cuthbert, he was born around 1110. Ailred had a career as a courtier of King David of Scotland until c. 1134 when he encountered the new Cistercian community at Rievaulx in North Yorkshire. He entered it as a novice and was nominated as first abbot of its colony of Revesby in Lincolnshire in 1143. He returned to become abbot of Rievaulx itself in 1147. Apart from his important theological work, Ailred was a keen historian of the north of England, writing tracts on the history of Hexham and on the Battle of the Standard (1138). One particularly important work he composed was a tract On the Genealogy of the Kings of England, composed around the beginning of the year 1154 in honour of the young Duke Henry of Normandy (the future King Henry II) who had just been nominated as heir to King Stephen. The work praises the English (not Norman) lineage of the duke. An (untranslated) text is to be found in Patrologia cursus completus, series latina, ed. J-P. Migne, 221 volumes, Paris (1844-1864) vol. 195.
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
The English-language annal of English history whose entries begin in the year 494, but whose systematic compilation seems to have begun
In the reign of King Alfred the Great (871-99). It was kept concurrently at several great churches, but after the Norman Conquest it was maintained in English only at the abbey of Peterborough. The most convenient translation is the Everyman text by G. N. Garmonsway, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (2nd edn, London, 1954), but a more detailed and scholarly treatment of the later chronicle is The Peterborough Chronicle, 1070-1154, ed. C. Clark (2nd edn, Oxford, 1970).
Bayeux Tapestry
An unusual visual source still preserved in the treasury of Bayeux cathedral. The general consensus still seems to be that it was designed and embroidered in Kent probably around the year 1070 on the commission of Bishop Odo of Bayeux. A similar ‘tapestry’ is known to have been commissioned for Adela, countess of Blois-Chartres, the Conqueror’s daughter, although it does not survive.
Brevis relatio de Guillelmo nobilissimo comite Normannorum
This is a short history of the Normans focused principally on the Conqueror and his sons, but including other diverse material. It was written at Battle abbey in Sussex between 1114 and 1120. For text see. The Brevis relatio de Guillelmo nobilissimo comite Normannorum, written by a Monk of Battle Abbey, ed. E. M. C. van Houts, in Chronology, Conquest and Conflict in Medieval England, Camden Miscellany, 35, Camden Society, fifth series, 10, (1997), pp. 1-48.
Brut y Tywysogyon (Welsh Annals of the Princes)
The Welsh equivalent of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, whose entries begin in 680. It was originally a Latin text compiled up to around 1100 in the episcopal community of Mynwy (St Davids) in Pembrokeshire, but thereafter at the Welsh minster church of Llanbadarn Fawr near Aberystwyth. It is very interested in the doings of the Norman kings of England and provides numerous independent insights. It exists nowadays only in several later medieval Welsh translations. For a Welsh text and English translation. Brut y Tywysogyon, or the Chronicle of the Princes: Red Book of Hergest Version, ed. and trans. T. Jones (Cardiff,
Carmen de Hastingae Proelio (Song of the Battle of Hastings)
A long Latin poem on the battle of Hastings which has attracted much debate as to its date of composition and authorship, attributed by Frank Barlow to Bishop Guy of Amiens, writing in 1070. For text and translation, see The Carmen de Hastingae Proelio of Guy Bishop of Amiens, ed. and trans. F. Barlow (Oxford, 1999).
Chronicle of Hyde Abbey
A problematical but very useful text. Its author is anonymous but from the text would seem to have been a secular cleric associated with the Warenne family, earls of Surrey and lords of Bellencombre. The author gives a history of what he called the ‘Norman-English realm’ from the death of Duke Robert I (1035) to 1120. His work is a valuable and independent source for the reigns of William Rufus and Henry I. The brief work is associated with Hyde Abbey (in Winchester) only because of the preservation of the text in its library. An untranslated text is appendix A of Liber monasterii de Hyda, ed. E. Edwards, Rolls Series (1866).
Discovery of the Relics of St Wulffam
This anonymous tract originated in the abbey of St-Wandrille in the Seine valley. It was composed in 1053-54 by a monk of the abbey who says that previously he had been a clerk in southern Normandy at Asnebecq. The author had access to older material and gives a number of insights into the family history and identity of an earlier Normandy. Text (but no translation); Tnventio et miracula sancti Vulfranni’, ed. J. Laporte, in, Mdanges: XlVe sHie, Societe de I’histoire de Normandie (1938), pp. 21-83.
Dudo of St-Quentin
Dudo was a clerk from Vermandois whose acquaintance with Normandy and its rulers went back to the 980s; he became dean of the collegiate church of St-Quentin in his homeland. In 1025 he was one of the leading chaplains of Duke Richard II and was commissioned by the duke to tell the story of Normandy and its rulers in a way that reflected well on their piety and Frenchness. His version of Norman origins became the master-narrative behind the work of every subsequent generation. For this source, De moribus et actis primorum Normanniae Ducum, ed. J. Lair (Caen, 1865), and for a translation. History of the Normans, trans. E. Christiansen (Woodbridge, 1998).
Eadmer of Canterbury (d. 1124)
An English monk of the Benedictine cathedral community of Canterbury, who became a constant member of the household of Archbishop Anselm as sacristan of his chapel after his election in 1093 until the archbishop’s death in 1109. He followed the archbishop into exile in 1097. He began a biography of Anselm during the archbishop’s own lifetime and finished revising it around 1114: see The Life of St Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, ed. and trans. R. W. Southern (Oxford, 1962). He also wrote a general history of his own times, the Historia novorum which in fact covers the period from the Conquest up to 1121 although its value is limited after 1116 and it is obsessed by narrow Canterbury interests. A translation up to 1109 is Eadmer s History of Recent Events in England, trans. G. Bosanquet (London, 1964), the Latin text is to be found in Eadmeri historia novorum in Anglia et opuscula duo de vita sancti Anselmi et quibusdam miraculis eius, ed. M. Rule, Rolls Series (1884).
Fecamp abbey sources
The abbey of Fecamp had a long association with the ducal house and it is clear that the abbey kept historical notes as well as a set of annals. Fecamp is the likely source for a list of the burial places of the Norman dukes that was copied into the latter sections of the Battle abbey Brevis relatio (q. v.) and also for the famous ship list of 1066. See E. M. C. van Houts, ‘The Ship List of William the Conqueror’, in Anglo-Norman Studies, 10, ed. R. A. Brown (Woodbridge, 1988), pp. 165-77.
Flodoard of Reims (d. 996)
Flodoard was a canon of the episcopal community of Reims and set himself to draw up an annalistic history of the Western Franks from 919. He writes several contemporary notices of the developing principality of Rollo and his immediate descendants. Text is in Les annales de Flodoard, ed. P. Lauer, Collections des textes pour servir a Fetude et a I’enseignement de I’histoire, 39 (Paris, 1905). Flodoard also wrote a history of his great church, see Historia Remesensis ecclesiae, ed. M. Strat-mann, Monumenta Germaniae Historiae, Scriptores, 39 (1998).
Galbert of Bruges
The murder of Count Charles of Flanders in 1127 at Bruges inspired several writers, of whom the most distinguished was Galbert, a notary of the town of Bruges. Galbert’s work is a detailed and journalistic account of the critical and dangerous years 1127-28 in Flanders and has much to say of William Clito. See the translation and commentary. The Murder of Charles the Good, trans. J. B. Ross (New York, 1967).
Gamier of Rouen
Gamier was a noted poet and member of the collegiate community of St Stephen of Rouen at the end of the tenth century and is now chiefly famous for his satirical and scurrilous attack on his Irish neighbour, Moriuht, for which see Moriuht, ed. and trans. C. J. McDonough (Toronto, 1995).
Geoffrey Gaimar
A Lincolnshire clergyman who wrote a rhyming French ‘History of the English’ in the late 1140s, which he dedicated to the countess of Lincoln. Original though it is, the work has little information in it that is unique, although it is markedly more sympathetic to King William Rufus than the Latin monastic sources. The text (but no translation) is published as L’estoire des Engleis, ed. A. Bell (Anglo-Norman Text Society, i960).
Gesta Stephani (The Deeds of King Stephen)
An anonymous history of the reign of Stephen, whose authorship was ascribed by Ralph Davis to Bishop Robert of Bath (1136-66). If it was not written by the bishop, it was certainly written by a senior cleric quite close to him. It was begun around 1147 when it seemed that Stephen would soon win the dynastic struggle with Mathilda, but by 1150 the author had decided the future lay with Duke Henry. It was revised probably soon after Stephen’s death. See Gesta Stephani, ed. and trans. K. R. Potter and R. H. C. Davis (Oxford, 1976).
Henry of Huntingdon (d. c. 1157)
Son and successor of Nicholas, archdeacon of Huntingdon, Henry took up his office around 1110 and held it for nearly fifty years. He wrote several notable works, principally his Historia Anglorum, ed. and trans. D. Greenway (Oxford, 1996), a history of the English which becomes his independent work in the 1120s and carried on till the succession of Henry II. Although his chronicle is regrettably concise, Henry was one of only two historians who worked throughout Stephen’s reign. He also wrote a satire on his times, De contemptu mundi, which is informative about leading men and women of the reign of Henry I. See Greenway edition for text and translation.
Hermann of Tournai (d. 1147)
Hermann was a senior monk and former abbot of Tournai in Flanders, and in 1142-43, while kicking his heels at the papal curia, wrote a history of his abbey. It is racy and chatty and contains a good deal of material relating to Normandy and England. A translation is The Restoration of the Monastery of Saint Martin of Tournai, trans. L. H. Nelson (Washington, DC, 1996).
John of Worcester
The Worcester chronicle compiled by the monk John up till 1141 is mostly a Latin translation of the lost version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle kept at Worcester until as late as 1120; however, from 1067 onwards, the work becomes more expansive and varied. John began collating his work in the 1120s and relied a lot on Eadmer’s Historia novorum for the previous decades, but also trawled other local sources, notably a lost chronicle of Gloucester abbey. John’s independent value is greatest in the 1130s. See the text and translation, The Chronicle of John of Worcester, ed. and trans. R. R. Darlington and P. McGurk, 3 vols (Oxford, 1995-98).
Orderic Vitalis (d. c. 1141)
Orderic was sent by his Anglo-Norman parents as a child oblate to the Benedictine abbey of St-Evroult in southern Normandy in 1085 at the age of ten, after a Shropshire childhood. He became a senior monk of the community, noted for his literary abilities. Inspired by the historical work of Bede, he began work on an ‘ecclesiastical history’ of the Norman church around 1114 and continued to work on it until his death in or soon after 1141. In fact it is a history of the Norman people and its rulers. His work on the earlier period is dependent on Dudo, William de Jumieges and William de Poitiers, but also incorporates his genealogical research on the early Norman families of the south of the duchy. For further details and a text. The Ecclesiastical History, ed. and trans. M. Chibnall, 6 volumes (Oxford, 1969-80). Orderic also annotated and expanded the work of William de Jumieges, for which see The Gesta Normannorum Ducum of William of Jumieges, Orderic Vitalis and Robert of Torigni, ed. and trans. E. M. C. van Houts, 2 vols (Oxford, 1992-5).
Planctus (Lament) for William Longsword
This poetic lament on the murder of the second Viking count of Rouen was written at the abbey of Jumieges soon after the event itself. The most accessible text and commentary is to be found in the site created by Robert Helmerichs: http://www. ukans. edu/carrie/Planctus.
Ralph Glaber (d. c. 1046)
Ralph was a Cluniac monk associated principally with the distinguished community of St-Benigne of Dijon in Burgundy. This abbey had links with Normandy, and Ralph’s abbot and patron at Dijon, St William (d. 1031) travelled to the duchy to reform the abbey of Fecamp, who died there. Not surprisingly, Ralph makes a number of useful references to Normandy and its rulers. His Histories and Life of St William are both to be found in Rodulfus Glaber: Opera, ed. and trans. J. France, N. Bulst and P. Reynolds (Oxford, 1989).
Richer of Reims
Richer was a contemporary of Flodoard at Reims, but his annals from 966 onwards are based on his independent memories, and continue into 998. Like Flodoard, he has independent material on the Normans and their activities in northern France and has a distinctly hostile attitude to Richard I of Rouen. See Histoire de France, ed. R. Latouche, 2 vols (Paris, 1937).
Robert de Torigny (d. 1186)
Robert was monk and prior of the Norman community of Bec-Hellouin and began his historical work early in the 1130s. He was elected abbot of Mont St-Michel in 1154, but continued work on his Chronicles, which are a major source for Norman history from the 1120s onwards. The untranslated Latin text is in Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II and Richard I, ed. R. Howlett, iv, Rolls Series (1889). Robert also made copious annotations on the work of William de Jumieges, for which see The Gesta Normannorum Ducum of William of Jumieges, Orderic Vitalis and Robert of Torigni, ed. and trans. E. M. C. van Houts, 2 vols (Oxford, 1992-95).
Symeon of Durham (d. 1129)
Symeon was precentor of the Benedictine cathedral comunity of Durham and a major literary figure in the north of England in his lifetime. A number of works are credited to his authorship, the principal being his History of the Kings - a chronicle of the kings of the English which continues through to 1129. His work is a key source for post-Conquest northern history, but is also (unexpectedly) very informative on Norman events in the 1120s, A text is in the second volume of Symeonis monachi opera omnia, ed. T. Arnold, 2 vols (Rolls Series, 1885).
Wace of Bayeux
Wace was already active as canon of Bayeux before 1135, for he says that he owed his promotion there to Henry I. His literary career lasted until the 1160s, and he produced two major vernacular works. His Roman de Brut is a French version of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s legendary history of Britain. In the 1160s Wace was commissioned by Henry II to write the history of the Norman dynasty, his Roman de Rou (‘Rou’ being ‘Rollo’). The work is largely a rehash in French of the work of previous Latin historians, although it includes some legendary material and Norman local history which is unique, and has an unusually positive outlook on King William Rufus. It ends with the aftermath of the battle of Tinchebray. The untranslated text is Le Roman de Rou, ed. A. J. Holden, 3 volumes, Societe des anciens textes franqais (1970-73).
Walter Map (d. 1209/10)
A royal clerk of the reign of Henry II whose origins lay in Herefordshire. Famous as the author of a chatty scrap-book of stories for courtiers, called the De nugis curialium (‘courtiers’ trifles’), Map included in his book a number of unique stories going back to the reign of Henry I. His career brought him considerable promotion, including the chancellorship of Lincoln cathedral and archdeaconry of Oxford. See De Nugis Curialium: Courtiers’ Trifles, ed. and trans. M. R. James, revised C. N. L. Brooke and R. A. B. Mynors (Oxford, 1983).
William de Jumieges (d. c. 1071)
After Dudo, William was the most influential early historian of Normandy. He was a monk of the abbey of Jumieges on the Seine, near Rouen, and was making historical notes there as early as 1026. In the 1050S he began his labours on a revision and continuation of Dudo, which he called ‘The Deeds of the Dukes of the Normans’. He ended his work at the year 1069. See The Gesta Normannorum Ducum of William of Jumieges, Orderic Vitalis and Robert of Torigni, ed. and trans. E. M. C. van Houts, 2 vols, Oxford (1992-95).
William de Poitiers (d. c. 1080)
William was from a noble Norman family, which some reckon to have been that of the Conqueror’s adviser, Roger de Beaumont, lord of Pont Audemer and Beaumont-le-Roger. After a warlike youth in the 1030s, he entered the clerical life, going to study at Poitiers. He returned to Normandy in the 1050s to take up a post as a chaplain of Duke William, and was given promotion to an archdeaconry in the diocese of Lisieux in the io6os. In the aftermath of the Norman Conquest of England he began a account of the life and times of King William, of which an incomplete manuscript (up to 1076) survives. The missing books up to 1079 are preserved in part by Orderic Vitalis’s extensive use of them. See The Gesta Guillelmi of William of Poitiers, ed. and trans. R. H. C. Davis and M. Chibnall (Oxford, 1998).
William of Malmesbury (d. c. 1143)
William was the most prolific and (some would say) distinguished of the Anglo-Norman historians. His clear and ironic Latin style has made
Him many friends down the ages. He was librarian of Malmesbury abbey, and a compulsive traveller and researcher. His first major historical works were produced in the mos, a paired secular and ecclesiastical history of England: the De gestis regum Anglorum, ed. and trans. R. A. B. Mynors, M. W. Thompson and M. Winterbottom, 2 vols (Oxford, 1998-99), and the as yet untranslated, De gestis pontificum Anglorum, ed. N. E. S. A. Hamilton, Rolls Series (1870). After some years of indifference to history writing, perhaps caused by the poor reception of his work, William returned to the history of England with his ‘History of Recent Events’ commissioned by Earl Robert of Gloucester, which tells the story of the latter years of Henry I and the early years of Stephen, up till the year 1143, when William must have died. See now Historia novella, ed. and trans. E. King (Oxford, 2000).
Witgar, priest of Compiegne
Between 951 and 959 Witgar composed a brief genealogical essay on the ‘holy forbears’ of Count Arnulf I of Flanders, the murderer of William Longsword. See Genealogiae comitum Flandriae, ed. L. C. Bethmann, in Monumenta Historiae Germaniae, Scriptores, 9, pp. 302ff.
World History
