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IV.

Guizot,

Pauli,

Stubbs,
Brewer,
Milman,
Hallam,

&c.

forth by Mr. Robertson (vol. ii. append. 1), of the original relations of Scotland to England should be compared with that maintained by Mr. Freeman in his Norman Conquest [vol. i. (edit 2), pp. 117-129, and Appendix G, I, and N], and with his elaborate investigation of the whole question in his Historical Essays (1st series), in the essay on The Relations between the Crowns of England and Scotland. The theory of the English monarchic supremacy may be compared with that involved in the claims of the head of the Holy Roman Empire, a subject which requires again to be carefully studied in connexion with the history of Richard of Cornwall. The early charters and coinage of the realm are to be found in the collections by Anderson.1

(C.) Modern Writers.-The whole period of the Angevin reigns (1154-1272) has been summarised with his wonted Freeman, vigour and mastery of the subject by Mr. Freeman in the concluding chapter of his History of the Norman Conquest. The thirteenth Leçon in Guizot's Histoire de la Civilisation en France furnishes an outline which brings out some of the main points of difference between the institutions of France and England during this century. The best account of the reigns of John and Henry III. is that given by DR. PAULI in his Geschichte von England, iii. 294-855. The work of Mr. William Longman, entitled Lectures on the History of England from the Earliest Times to the Death of Edward II., will be found useful in connexion with the period of the present chapter. The prefaces by professor Stubbs to his edition of Walter of Coventry, and by Mr. Luard to the several volumes of his edition of Matthew Paris, together with those by Brewer to the Monumenta Franciscana and his editions of the Opus Tertium and Opus Minus of ROGER BACON 2 Close of the Thirteenth Century. By E. William Robertson. 2 vols.. Edinburgh. Edmonston and Douglas. 1862.

1 Selectus Diplomatum et Numismatum Scotia Thesaurus. Edited by James Anderson. Fol. Edinburgh, 1739.

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The Opus Tertium,' Opus Minus,' &c. of Roger Bacon. Edited by J. S. Brewer, M. A. R. S. 1859.

are full of illustrative material for thirteenth century history, a period which professor Stubbs, in the preface above referred to, designates, as one of the most remunerative of all studies to the careful student.' The ninth and tenth chapters of the ninth book of MILMAN'S History of Latin Christianity supplies a graphic sketch of the rise of the orders of St. Dominic and St. Francis of Assisi. The second part of the ninth chapter of HALLAM'S Middle Ages points out the elements of progress and improvement which England shared in comn.on with the Continent, and the 'four causes' which he assigns of the intellectual advance then perceptible should be carefully noted. In the writer's History of the University of Cambridge (vol. i. cc. 2 & 3), will be found a systematic account of the commencement of the universi y era throughout Europe, and of the rise of Oxford and Cambridge, together with the history of the foundation of their most ancient colleges.'

CHAP.

IV.

Lives of

Simion de

Montfort.

The Barons' War (1871) by Mr. Blaauw, Dr. Pauli's Simon von Montfort, der Schöpfer des Hauses der Gemeinen (1867) and the Life of Simon de Montfort (1877), by Mr. G. W. Prothero, afford all the requisite information respecting the great political contest of the thirteenth century. The Lives of Stephen Langton (archbishop 1207-1228), Edmund Rich (1234-1240), Boniface of Savoy (1245-1270), and Robert Winchelsey (1294-1313), in dean Hook's Archbishops of Canterbury, Hook's offer good illustrations of the relations of Church and State in England at this period; while for the policy of Boniface VIII. and its effects in England and France, Milman's Latin Christianity (bk. xi. cc. 7, 8, and 9) should be consulted.

The University of Cambridge: from the earliest times to the Royal Injunctions of 1535. By James Bass Mullinger, M. A. Cambridge University Press. 1873.

Arch

bishops.

CHAP.
V.

Adam of
Murimuth.

Robert

1356.

CHAPTER V.

FROM THE ACCESSION OF EDWARD III. TO THE
DEATH OF RICHARD IIL

(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 of information, and inferior as specimens of historical 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

Robert of Avesbury, Hist. de mirabilibus Gestis Edwardi III.
Hearne.

1720.

Ed.

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V.

in 1342, and the events that led to the battle of Crecy CHAP his narrative is of the highest authority, and affords material corrections of that of Froissart.

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.

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.

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.

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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.'

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. 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.

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.

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