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Walter of Coventry and the Barnwell Chronicle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

Richard Kay
Richard Kay*
Affiliation:
University of Kansas
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Extract

The so-called Barnwell chronicle contains “the best, the fullest and most sophisticated annals” written in England for the years 1202–25. Bishop Stubbs made its reputation, declaring it to be “one of the most valuable contributions in existence to the history of that eventful period,” and those who have used it since agree; J. C. Holt, for instance, thinks it is the “most perceptive” narrative source. Because the text has never been printed from the “Barnwell” manuscript, the chronicle is better known from the Memoriale fratris Walteri de Coventria, which reproduces these annals almost verbatim. But their origin remains shrouded in mystery. Although many questions have been raised about them, the essential one is: Where were they written? To answer that question, one must first determine the interrelationship of the existing manuscripts that contain the text; then one can try to establish the provenance of the oldest manuscript and hence of the chronicle itself. Stubbs, of course, attempted to do just that, but with insufficient evidence and little concern for the canons of textual criticism. The present study will demonstrate that the “Barnwell” manuscript is in fact not the earliest; instead, it derives from British Library MS Add. 35,168, which was written at Crowland Abbey and which was probably copied from a lost original that was both composed and written at Peterborough.

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Traditio , Volume 54 , 1999 , pp. 141 - 167
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Copyright © Fordham University Press 

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References

1 Gransden, A., Historical Writing in England c. 550 to c. 1307 (Ithaca, N.Y., 1974), 318. At the outset, I wish to acknowledge the generous help I have received in making this study. Above all, I am grateful to the librarians who have granted me access to the relevant manuscripts and have arranged for them to be photocopied. Moreover, at an early stage I benefited from the advice and assistance of the late C. R. Cheney; I am similarly obliged to Schafer Williams and Alexandra Mason (see n. 26 below) and to James A. Brundage, Casey Law, and R. Dean Ware. Finally, for the tables, I am indebted to the skill of Paul Hotvedt and Pam LeRow.Google Scholar

2 Memoriale fratris Walteri de Coventria: The Historical Collections of Walter of Coventry, ed. Stubbs, W., 2 vols., Rolls Series, no. 58 (London, 1872–73) 2:vii. Cited hereafter as Walt. Cov. plus volume, page, and line numbers (e.g., 2:278/11).Google Scholar

3 Holt, J. C., Magna Carta, 2d ed. (Cambridge, 1992), 223. Likewise, , “this surprisingly accurate and sympathetic account survives in the chronicle of Barnwell priory” (215). Holt had planned to edit the “Barnwell” annals 1202–26 for the Oxford Medieval Texts series (Gransden, , Historical Writing, 339, n. 161) but has now abandoned the project (personal communication).Google Scholar

4 The “Barnwell” annals 1202–26 fill 84 pages in the Rolls edition (Walt. Cov., 2:196–279).Google Scholar

5 Walt. Cov., l:xx, xxii.Google Scholar

6 Walt. Cov., l:xx–xxi.Google Scholar

7 A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, 2 vols. (Cambridge, 1912) 1:405. On the meaning of memoriale, see also Ker, N. R., Medieval Libraries of Great Britain, 2d ed., Royal Historical Society, Guides and Handbooks, no. 3 (London, 1964), 329. Further references in Luard, H. R., ed., Matthaei Parisiensis, monachi Sancti Albani Chronica majora, 7 vols., Rolls Series, no. 57 (London, 1872–83) 2:xii, n. 2; Russell, J. C., Dictionary of Writers of Thirteenth Century England, in Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, Special Supplement, no. 3 (London, n. d. [1936]), 176.Google Scholar

8 James, , Descriptive Catalogue, 1:404.Google Scholar

9 Walt. Cov., l:xxiii–xxvi, xxx–xxxiv. For the use of dominus , see The Chronicle of St Mary's Abbey, York, ed. Craster, H. H. E. and Thornton, M. E., Surtees Society 148 (London, 1934).Google Scholar

10 Walt. Cov., l:xl, xlv–xlvii. See also Coxe, H. O., Catalogus codicum MSS. qui in collegiis aulisque Oxoniensibus hodie adservantur, 2 (Oxford, 1852).Google Scholar

11 Walt. Cov., l:xxxix.Google Scholar

12 Thomas Gale (d. 1702) collated several manuscripts in the margin of his copy of Walter of Coventry, today preserved as Cambridge, Trinity College, MS Gale O. xi (Walt. Cov., l:xii). Stubbs could not identify some of Gale's sources for certain (l:xxviii–xxx), but he had no doubt that the manuscript Gale cited simply as “Cotton” was Vitellius E. xiii (2:227, n. 4, and 240, n. 5).Google Scholar

13 Inc. “Inter scripturae sacrae cronographos prima causa dissentionum translationum est varietas.” Quoted by Hardy, T. D., Descriptive Catalogue of Materials Relating to the History of Great Britain and Ireland, 4 vols., Rolls Series, no. 26 (London, 1862–71) 3:344.Google Scholar

14 Stubbs stated that there is a change of hand on fol. 105vb at the close of the 1225 annal (Walt. Cov., l:xlii), but he was mistaken. An insignificant change can be perceived on fol. 110v, in the annal for 1228, for there the ink becomes lighter and the characters slightly larger, but as the break occurs in midsentence, it is hardly possible that the exemplar ended at that point. A similar variation is found on fol. 89v within the annal for 1217.Google Scholar

15 In Stubbs's edition, the CMV annals 1002–1201 occupy 630 printed pages, whereas A's annals A.D. 1–1201, though beginning a millennium earlier, would cover hardly more than 60 such pages.Google Scholar

16 The first blank occurs on the first folio of the new quire: “nstabat,” fol. 103r = Walt. Cov., 2:272/31. Similar blanks are left through the last annal, for 1232.Google Scholar

17 Walt. Cov., l:xli; cf. 2:vii, lxxxvi; Stubbs admitted the possibility “that it existed in an earlier form before it was incorporated in the Barnwell book” but preferred the traditional ascription to a canon of Barnwell (2: viii).Google Scholar

18 MGH SS 27 (1885), 185, n. 6. Coggeshall relates the tale.Google Scholar

19 Changes of head in the period 1202–25 are recorded for seventeen religious houses: Peterborough, Crowland, Thorney, Abingdon, Battle, Burton, Bury, St. Augustine's Canterbury, Evesham, Holme St. Benets, Leicester, Ramsey, Reading, Selby, Waltham, Westminster, Whitby.Google Scholar

20 Quoted by Stubbs, , Walt. Cov., 2:212, n. 4, and 2:218, n. 1 (A 81r and 83r).Google Scholar

21 Prior William of Bedford was elected on 23 Oct. 1213 and died on 28 Nov. according to the Liber memorandorum ecclesie de Bernewelle [MS Harley 3601, ca. 1296], ed. Clark, J. W. (Cambridge, 1907), 67–68; but A's annotator notes the obit at the end of the annal for 1214, thereby extending the prior's term by a year.Google Scholar

22 “Dominus Johannes Whaddum Canonicus Et Vicarius De Waterbeche plantavit cimitorium sancti Egidii De Bernwell’ huiusmodi debitoribus. Anno domini m.cccc.xl.iiii.” (A 68v, s.a. 1093). Gransden's transcription has him planting “arboribus viridibus” (Historical Writing, 339, n. 162), not establishing a cemetery “huiusmodi debitoribus.” The marginal “huiusmodi” apparently refers to the text — at this point from Florence of Worcester — which tells how St. Margaret “servos et ancillas Dei dilexit et honoravit” by providing food and clothing to the poor (Walt. Cov., 1:108). Barnwell had received two-thirds of the tithes of Waterbeach as part of its original endowment in 1092, and a century later the church itself was under the priory's control: see Liber memorandorum, xxxiv, xxxvi, 40, 66. In 1468, Johannes Waddon was prior of Barnwell (ibid., 5, n. 1).Google Scholar

23 Extracts from the A-annals 1190, 1194, 1198, 1228 are quoted by Stubbs, , Walt. Cov., l:xli, n. 2. C. R. Cheney pointed out to me that a Crowland provenance for A was more likely than Barnwell, which I had accepted on Stubbs's authority in “An Eyewitness Account of the 1225 Council of Bourges,” Studia Gratiana 12 (1967): 61–80, at 68.Google Scholar

24 Walt. Cov., 2:231, at n. 3. Cf. Gransden, , Historical Writing, 340.Google Scholar

25 If the stemma I am proposing is correct, the order of the 1216 annal in CMV should also be found in L. This would confirm the present hypothesis that the altered order of the annal is peculiar to A.Google Scholar

26 Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1894–1899 (London, 1901), 195–96; cf. vii. I am indebted to the late Schafer Williams, who kindly examined the manuscript for me in 1969, and to Alexandra Mason, who did likewise in 1977; I examined it myself in 1984.Google Scholar

27 Text similar to that of Florence in Lambeth MS 42 (Abingdon, saec. xii ex.). The Cat. Add. 1894–99 also noted an Abingdon entry in L at A.D. 948.Google Scholar

28 Annals of the first millennium similar to those found in A were incorporated into the chronicle of “John of Peterborough” (S), which, as we shall see, borrowed much from Alpha. See also Walt. Cov., l:xxxix, n. 1, and xlii, n. 2.Google Scholar

29 Namely items r–u in Table 3 = Walt. Cov., 2:274–79.Google Scholar

30 Stubbs thought they were taken directly from MS Cotton Julius A. xi (Walt. Cov., l:xliii), but Cat. Add. 1894–99 identifies L as the immediate source (p. 196). Neither A nor L was included among the Crowland books listed in the highly selective Franciscan finding-list (saec. xiv in.) published by Boese, H., “Ein mittelalterliches Bücherverzeichnis von Croyland Abbey,” Bibliothek, Bibliothekar, Bibliothekswissenschaft: Festschrift Joris Vorstius zum 60. Geburtstag dargebracht, ed. Roloff, Heinrich (Leipzig, 1954), 286–95.Google Scholar

31 Walt. Cov., l:xxxv–xliv.Google Scholar

32 E.g., as set forth by Maas, Paul, Textual Criticism, trans. Flower, B. (Oxford, 1958).Google Scholar

33 In Stubbs's edition, the passage collated begins “Harum bajulus litterarum” and runs to the end of the chronicle (Walt. Cov., 2:274–79); cf. Tables 3 and 4 below, items r-v. Google Scholar

34 E.g. Walt. Cov., l:xxxviii; 2:viii.Google Scholar

35 MGH SS 27:185, n. 6, citing Walt. Cov., 2:256, n. 3: provide CMV] om. A. The correct reading is confirmed by the patent-roll text printed in Councils and Synods with Other Documents Relating to the English Church, 2, ed. Powicke, F. M. and Cheney, C. R., part 1 (Oxford, 1964), 160.Google Scholar

36 Walt. Cov., 2:276/11: suadebant? ACM] suadebant? Nonne ad id toto videbantur desiderio aspirare? Tunc tamen sedes apostolica distulit, ne videretur ad hoc concilium evocasse (convocasse SaSb) AvSaSb.Google Scholar

37 Walt. Cov., l:xlii.Google Scholar

38 Walt Cov., 2:274–79.Google Scholar

39 Stubbs noted s.a. 1190 two instances in which M omits a portion of Hoveden's text that is found in C: Walt. Cov., 1:398, n. 6 (5 words) and n. 7 (11 words).Google Scholar

40 Walt. Cov., l:xlv–xlvii.Google Scholar

41 Walt. Cov., l:xliv, n. 4.Google Scholar

42 Walt. Cov., 2:230, n. 5.Google Scholar

43 Walt. Cov. , 2:233, n. 1.Google Scholar

44 Walt. Cov., 2:255, n. 2.Google Scholar

45 Walt. Cov., 2:227, n. 4. V's reading is known from Gale's collation. If L is Beta's exemplar, as I argue above, then it should be illegible at this point, which would confirm my reconstruction.Google Scholar

46 Walt. Cov., 2:240, n. 5 (Gale's collation).Google Scholar

47 Walt. Cov., l:xxxix.Google Scholar

48 I collated a photocopy of L against Stubbs's text and variants in Walt. Cov., 2:254–60; the fragments of L can be identified with the text on 261–73 but presented no variants. In particular it should be noted that several variants indicate that L cannot have been derived from A: 2:256/35 provide CLM] om. A; 2:260/37 res CLM] rex A.Google Scholar

49 Walt. Cov., l:xxxv–xxxvii.Google Scholar

50 Walt. Cov., l:xxxviii, xli; Hardy, , Descriptive Catalogue, 3:345.Google Scholar

51 Walt. Cov., 1:184–86, 308–9. The Spalding annalist (“John of Peterborough”) also drew on these annals (n. 74 below).Google Scholar

52 Walt. Cov., l:xxxv–xliv.Google Scholar

53 See text after n. 27 above.Google Scholar

54 The papal legate Otto arrived in England in September 1225, as reported in item r, bearing q, Honorius Ill's undated letter Certum est fili. Strangely, this letter is not recorded either by Potthast or by Pressutti, P., Regesta Honorii papae III, 2 vols. (Rome, 1888–95). Its authenticity is shown by a follow-up letter, Recolentes fida utiliaque, 11 July 1226 (Pressutti 6016), the text of which is printed by Horoy, C. A., Honorii III Romani pontificis opera omnia, 5 vols., Medii aevi bibliotheca patristica 1–5 (Paris, 1879–82) 5:123–26, no. 174, from La Porte du Theil's transcript. The nuncio's name there is erroneously given as Octavianus, doubtless because the transcriber wrongly expanded Octo (= Otto) or an abbreviation therefor; otherwise the mission of 1225 is described in unmistakable detail. The letter was probably written in mid-August, at the same time as one addressed jointly to Archbishop Langton and “magistro Ottoni”: Dilectis filiis abbate, 13 Aug. 1225, Pressutti 5601. This date is consistent with the normal travel time from the curia to England, which was about a month.Google Scholar

55 Walt. Cov., l:xlv–xlvii, 2:vii.Google Scholar

56 On Crowland elements in Barnwell-Coventry, see Gransden, , Historical Writing, 339–40.Google Scholar

57 Walt. Cov., l:xlii, xliv.Google Scholar

58 London, Society of Antiquaries, MS 60. Annals 1122–1294 (fols. 68r-132v) ed. Stapleton, T. [and Bruce, J.] as Chronicon Petroburgense, Camden Society, o.s. 47 (London, 1849), 1–155. For description, see Davis, G. R. C., Medieval Cartularies of Great Britain, A Short Catalogue (London, 1958), 86, no. 754.Google Scholar

59 Powicke, F. M., The Thirteenth Century, 1216–1307, 2d ed., Oxford History of England, 4 (Oxford, 1962), 376–77.Google Scholar

60 No annals in N for 1231, 1234, 1244, 1255–57, 1260–62, 1269–71. See Chronicon Petroburgense, vii–xiv.Google Scholar

61 Chronicon Petroburgense, 7–8.Google Scholar

62 Ibid., 8–9.Google Scholar

63 Statutes of the Realm, 1 (London, 1810), 22, 26. Cf. Councils and Synods, 2.1:137.Google Scholar

64 The bishops’ excommunication of those who declared their income fraudulently to the assessors was probably proclaimed on the same occasion as that against violators of Magna Carta. Cf. Councils and Synods, 2.1:137, n. 1.Google Scholar

65 Acta Stephani Langton Cantuariensis archiepiscopi A.D. 1207–28, ed. Major, K., Canterbury and York Society, no. 50 (Oxford, 1950), 106–7, no. 88; Councils and Synods, 2.1:161–62. Major restored the damaged Salisbury text from Walt. Cov., 2:256–57. Instead of the incipit “Cum necesse” (j), the Salisbury copy has “Cum igitur necesse.” Following an error by the editor of the Salisbury Register (Rolls Series, no. 78, 1:367), Major mistook xvi. kal. Julii to be 16 July; Cheney gives the correct date, 16 June. He assigns both of Langton's letters to “May-June 1226.” Google Scholar

66 Acta Langton, ed. Major, , 107–8, no. 89; Councils and Synods, 2.1:162. The letter begins with a reference to (h): “A memoria vestra non credimus excidisse quanta diligentia scripserit dominus papa nobis et vobis necnon ecclesie Anglicane ut domino regi secundum facultates ecclesiarum nostrarum competens auxilium faceremus” (Cheney's ed.).Google Scholar

67 Councils and Synods, 2.1:158–65, esp. nos. I, II, IIIb.Google Scholar

68 This alteration in the accounting system may explain why the tax was still being collected in 1226. The accounts were audited in January and June 1226; some were still due in December 1226, and the final accounting was made shortly after January 1227. Mitchell, S. K., Studies in Taxation under John and Henry III, Yale Historical Publications, no. 2 (New Haven, 1914), 164, nn. 224–25. Cazel, F. A., “The Fifteenth of 1225,” Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research 24 (1961): 68, n. 1.Google Scholar

69 To be on the safe side, I have assumed that “in quaternione sequenti” (N 72v) refers to N 74–77, which falls between the annals 1230 and 1232. The edition simply states (13): “At the bottom of fol. lxxiii. verso, is this entry: — Mococoxxxi. Quere in quinto folio. The four next leaves are indexes, and other matters, but on the fifth leaf the Chronicle continues — (fol. lxxviii.ro.).” If upon examination there proved to be no copy of the Bedford charter on N 74–77, it would then follow that the quire in question, and the reference to it, were in Alpha.Google Scholar

70 MS Cotton Claudius A. v, fols. 2–45: Chronicon, saec. xiv ex., attributed to Peterborough by ex-libris (Ker, , Medieval Libraries, 151). Ed. Giles, J. A., Chronicon Angliae Petriburgense, Caxton Society, no. 2 (London, 1845); this is a revision of the 1723 edition by J. Sparke.Google Scholar

71 S has been inscribed, “Chronicon Angliae per Johannem Abbatem Burgi Sancti Petri,” quoted by Giles (n. 70 above), xi. For attempts to identify the author, see the article “John of Peterborough” in the Dictionary of National Biography , 29 (1892), 451; Walt. Cov., l:xliv; Liebermann, F., “Ueber ostenglische Geschichtsquellen des 12., 13., 14., Jahrhunderts, besonders den falschen Ingulf,” Neues Archiv der Gesellschaft für ältere deutsche Geschichtskunde 18 (1893): 227–67, at 235–36. Ker does not consider such formulas as a statement of authorship: “If an inscription consists only of the word per followed by a personal name in the accusative case, it may be uncertain whether the person named wrote the manuscript, procured or gave it, or merely handed it over” (Medieval Libraries, 330). The reference in S is probably to John Deeping, abbot of Peterborough 1408–38, as dated by Dugdale, W., Monasticon Anglicanum, 2d ed., 1 (London, 1817), 361. The manuscript itself was written ca. 1380, well before Deeping's abbacy, as Liebermann pointed out (“Ueber ostenglische Geschichtsquellen,” 235–36).Google Scholar

72 Chronicon Angliae Petriburgense, 49, 57–58, 131, 139–41, 149, 157, 166, 170. The last annals (1354–58) omit to mention either Spalding or her prior.Google Scholar

73 Chronicon Angliae Petriburgense, 36, 151. Noted by Liebermann, MGH SS 27:183.Google Scholar

74 Walt. Cov., l:xxxvii. Liebermann, , “Ostenglische Geschichtsquellen” (n. 71 above), 233. The BM catalogue description (see at n. 26 above), expressly notes the presence of these annals in L.Google Scholar

75 A Hungarian archbishop present at Becket's translation in 1220 is qualified Strigonensi only in S. Even more convincing is the substitution of secum detulit, in quibus idem papa (ed. Giles, , 123) for the obviously corrupt praecipiens (see Walt. Cov., 2:244/8).Google Scholar

76 In L, the closing sentence of f is paraphrased at the opening of k, but S preserves no trace of this doublet. Presumably when L's redactor inserted ghij, to pick up the thread of his narrative he composed item (k), “Cum igitur rex … mobilium concesserunt.” Spalding (ed. Giles, , 127) retains the original transition (italics in common with L): “(f) In concilio apud Londoniam rex Henricus concessit libertates, tam ecclesiae quam regni, a forestis, sicut chartae suae inde confectae testantur. Item in eodem concilio, pro praedictarum libertatum concessione, quinta decima domino regi omnium mobilium, de communi assensu, per totam Angliam concessa est; (k) exceptis de equitaturis … Hospitalariorum.” The “pro libertatibus” of the rubric (e) may echo in the second sentence.Google Scholar

77 The source, Martin of Troppau, stated the length of the pontificates of Honorius III and Gregory IX but gave no anno Domini, hence Spalding's error: MGH SS 22 (1872), 439.Google Scholar

78 Chronicon Angliae Petriburgense, 128–29; cf. Walt. Cov., 2:272/6–30.Google Scholar

79 See n. 69 above.Google Scholar

80 Handbook of British Chronology, 3d ed., ed. Fryde, E. B. et al., Royal Historical Society, Guides and Handbooks, no. 2 (London, 1986), 244.Google Scholar

81 S, ed. Giles, , 129–30; N, ed. Stapleton, , 9–10.Google Scholar

82 In MS Cotton Julius A. xi: see Walt. Cov., l:xxxv, n. 1, and text after n. 49 above.Google Scholar

83 Stubbs, similarly wavering between Peterborough and Crowland as the provenance of A, likewise assigned it to “the Fen country”: Walt. Cov., l:xliv.Google Scholar