and the accuracy with which they are recorded.' We note also in Hemingford what is still more rare at this period - an adequate sense of the value and importance of the Great Charters of England; it is to him that we are indebted for the most satisfactory text of the so-called statute de Tallagio non concedendo, of the year 1297. He also in the latter portion of his work- that relating to the years 1339-1346-cites at length, in connexion with the reign of Edward III., a large number of Royal Letters and Papal Bulls to which he supplies the neces- · sary connecting narrative. CHAP. IV. Gilds. Among the local chronicles, that of Peterborough' is History of exceptionally valuable. It was in the thirteenth century that our municipal institutions became consolidated and the trade gilds attained to full possession of the privileges which secured the 'craftsmen' against the tyranny of the burgher class. The gradual development of these gilds, from the frith-gild' of Anglo-Saxon times to the confederation of gilds which resulted in an organised municipality, is ably illustrated in Dr. Brentano's essay." In London, in marked contrast to the traditional patriotism of the citizens whenever the cause of popular freedom throughout the country was at stake, the struggle for independence against the oligarchical rule of the merchants, on the part of the ever-augmenting numbers of the craftsmen,' was singularly protracted and severe. The incidents of these successive contests and the whole history of the civic community may be traced in the archives preserved in the Record Room of the Guildhall,—a collection unrivalled in its kind by that of any other city in the world. Of these documents three of the most important have been printed and published: 1 Chronicon Petroburgense. Nunc primum typis mandatum, curante Thoma Stapleton. C. S. 1849. * Prefixed to Ordinances of English Gilds. E. E. T. S. The City Records of London. CHAP. Liber de Liber Albus. (1) the Liber de Antiquis Legibus,' a Latin chronicle of the city transactions from A.D. 1178 to 1274; (2) the Liber Albus, compiled in the year 1419, by John Carpenter, Common Clerk to the city of London; (3) the Liber Custumarum, a compilation of a similar character, of Liber Cus- about 1320, put together under the supervision of one Andrew Horn. Both these latter volumes are of high value from the light they throw upon the political and commercial condition of the country during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, upon the social usages and institutions of the city, and on the foreign wars of Edward III. tumarum. Other Records of of St. Paul's. 2 Another record of considerable importance for the same subject, is the Domesday of St. Paul's,3 a compilation Domesday of the year 1222, which gives a detailed account of the churches and landed property belonging to the cathedral body, and also affords a useful insight into the conditions of land tenure and agricultural industry at the same period, a state of affairs which resulted in the agrarian insurrections of the following century. There is also Chroniques a Chronicle of London composed in French' (at that time the language both of the royal court and of the courts of law), which extends from the forty-fourth year of Henry III. to the seventeenth of Edward III. Another Chronicle, published by Sir Harris Nicolas in 1827,5 appears to have been a compilation of the time of Henry de London. The Chronicle of London. 'Edited by T. Stapleton (together with Cronica Maiorum et Vice comitum.) C. S. 1846. 2 Munimenta Gildhallae Londoniensis. Vol. i. Liber Albus; vol. ii. Liber Custumarum; vol. iii. Translation of the Anglo-Norman Passages in Liber Albus, Glossaries, Appendices, and Index. Edited by H. T. Riley, M.A. R. S. 1159-62. The Domesday of St. Paul's of the Year 1222. With Introduction, C. S. 1858. • Chroniques de London, depuis l'an 44 Hen. III. jusqu'à l'an 17 Edw. III. Edited by G. I. Aungier. C. S. 1844, Chronicle of London from 1089 to 1483. With an Appendix containing Poems by Lydgate. Edited by N. H. Nicolas. 1827. СНАР. IV. VI. and to have been subsequently continued to the death of Edward IV. To the foregoing, we may add a volume compiled by WILLIAM GREGORY, lord mayor of Gregory's London, in 1451, the year after Jack Cade's rebellion.' Chronicle. ham, (B.) Non-contemporary Writers-The historical labours. of the monks of St. Albans were continued in the fifteenth century by one of the most eminent of the community, THOMAS WALSINGHAM, who was precentor of the Thomas abbey in the reign of Richard II.; he appears to have Walsingbeen the inspiring genius of its scriptorium, and was also the compiler of a History of the foundation. The part of the Historia Anglicana attributed to his pen which relates to the present period, is however almost entirely a compilation from preceding writers already named. In the year 1618 there appeared the History of England from the Conquest to the reign of Edward III., by SAMUEL DANIEL,3 a production deserving of notice Samuel rather for its literary than its historical merits, being a mere reproduction of the ordinary authorities. Daniel. Royal and episcopal Letters.-The chancellorship of Royal and Episcopal Hubert Walter, in the reign of John, marks the com- Letters. mencement of a new source of information of the highest historical value,-namely, the Letters, preserved either as entries upon the Close and Patent Rolls, or separately among the documents, and known as the Royal Letters. Those of the reign of Henry III., edited by Mr. Shirley, are especially valuable in connexion with the history of Simon de Montfort and the state of affairs in Gascony. 1877. Collections of a London Citizen. Edited by James Gairdner. C. S. Thomae Walsingham Historia Anglicana, forming vols. i. and ii. of the Chronica Monast. S. Albani. R. S. 1863-4. * In Kennet ; see supra, p. 217; see also Hallam's Hist. of Literature, iii. 373-4 (ed. 1864). • Royal and other Historical Letters illustrative of the Reign of Henry III. Vol. i. A.D. 1216-1235; vol. ii. 1236-1272. Selected and edited by the Rev. W. W. Shirley. R. S. 1862-6. CHAP. Papal Letters of Grosseteste. Roll of Political To Walter de Grey, archbishop of York, and bishop Hugh of Wells, deputy of the chancellor of Lincoln, we owe the earliest existing records relating to the ecclesiastical acts of their respective dioceses. Both the royal and the episcopal letters derived their idea and form from the corresponding documents of the Papal Registry, an all-important collection for the relations of England to the Holy See at this period. These may be consulted in the continuation of the Annales Ecclesiastici of Baronius, by Raynaldus; in Jaffé's Regesta Pontificum Romanorum, vol. ii.; and in the Monumenta Britannica ex autographis Romanorum Pontificum (A.D. 1216-1759) in 50 volumes, edited by Marini. The Letters of ROBERT GROSSETESTE, bishop of Lincoln, dating from about 1210 to 1253, afford much insight into both the political and ecclesiastical history of his age; while the Roll of the Household Expenses of Bishop Swinfield illustrates not only the economy of an episcopal palace, but the whole condition of society in the reign of Edward I. A collection of political and satirical Songs of the period, edited by Mr. Wright, affords occasionally interesting evidence with respect to the popular impressions concerning the chief characters and events of the time.3 Welsh History. The history of Wales, the study of which can best be taken up at this period, must be gleaned from the Authorities Itinerarium of Giraldus (see supra, p. 265), and from the Annales Cambriae, edited for the Rolls Series by the Rev. John Williams ab Ithel. This latter, which is, for the most part, a meagre register of events resembling the earlier portions of the for Early Welsh History. Time. Letters of Bishop Grosseteste, illustrative of the Social Condition of his 2 A Roll of the Household Expenses of Richard de Swinfield, Bishop of Hereford, during part of the years 1289 and 1290. Edited by Rev. John Webb. C. S. 1854. 3 The Political Songs of England from the Reign of John to that of Edward II. Edited and translated by Thomas Wright, Esq. C. S. 1839. English Chronicle, was probably compiled by Welsh monks and extends from A.D. 444 to 1288. It is interesting as the earliest source of the kind for information respecting Welsh history, and the probable basis of later chronicles relating to the principality. To this may be added the Bruty Tywysogion; or, Chronicle of the Princes of Wales, in the same series and by the same editor. The Annals of the monasteries of Margan and Tewkesbury, in the first volume of the Annales Monastici, edited by Mr. Luard, will also be found of service from the facts they record relating to local history. Other sources, whether for tradition or historical fact, are Gildas, Nennius, Geoffrey of Monmouth, Tysilio, Ponticus Verannius, Wace's Brut, Layamon, Caradoc of Llancarvan, John Brechfa, and the Chronicon Walliae. Of all of these, a concise account will be found in the first chapter of Lappenberg's History of England.1 4 СНАР. IV. Scottish History. The chief sources for this subject are Authorities the series of Documents edited by the late Sir Francis Palgrave Scottish 2 for Early and by the Rev. Joseph Stevenson; the Chronicles relating to History. Pictish and Scottish history edited by Mr. W. F. Skene, who has also embodied the results of a succession of valuable researches in his work entitled Celtic Scotland; and, for the subsequent period, the able work of Mr. E. William Robertson, entitled Scotland under her Early Kings. The theory put 5 A History of England under the Anglo-Saxon Kings. By Johann Martin Lappenberg. Translated from the German, with Additions and Corrections by the Author and the Translator. 2 vols. 1845. 2 Documents and Records illustrating the History of Scotland and the Transactions between the Crowns of Scotland and England; preserved in the Treasury of Her Majesty's Exchequer. Edited by Sir Francis Palgrave. 1 vol. R. C. 1837. Documents illustrative of the History of Scotland, from the Death of King Alexander III. to the Accession of Robert Bruce. A.D. 1286-1306. Selected and arranged by the Rev. Joseph Stevenson. 2 vols. H.M. General Register House. Edinburgh. 1870. Chronicles of the Picts, Chronicles of the Scots, and other Early Memorials of Scottish History. Edited by William F. Skene. I vol. H.M. General Register House: Edinburgh. 1867. (These extend from the tenth to the fifteenth century.) 5 Celtic Scotland: a History of Ancient Alban. By William F. Skene. Vol. i.: History and Ethnology; vol. ii.: Church and Culture; vol. iii.: Land and People. 1876-80. Scotland under her Early Kings: a History of the Kingdom to the |