''Estoire des Engleis'' (English: ''History of the English'') is a chronicle of

English history England became inhabited more than 800,000 years ago, as the discovery of stone tools and footprints at Happisburgh in Norfolk have indicated.; "Earliest footprints outside Africa discovered in Norfolk" (2014). BBC News. Retrieved 7 February ...

composed by

Geffrei Gaimar Geoffrey Gaimar (fl. 1130s), also written Geffrei or Geoffroy, was an Anglo-Norman chronicler. His contribution to medieval literature and history was as a translator from Old English to Anglo-Norman. His ''L'Estoire des Engleis'', or ''History o ...

. Written for the wife of a landholder in

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

and

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

, it is the oldest known history chronicle in the French language. Scholars have proposed various dates for the chronicle's writing; the middle-to-late 1130s is commonly accepted. Largely based upon, or directly translated from, pre-existing chronicles, the ''Estoire des Engleis'' documents English history from the 495 landing of

Cerdic of Wessex Cerdic (; la, Cerdicus) is described in the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' as a leader of the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, being the founder and first king of Saxon Wessex, reigning from 519 to 534 AD. Subsequent kings of Wessex were each cla ...

to the death of William II in 1100. The original chronicle opened with England's mythical Trojan beginnings, but all portions which document the period before Cerdic have been lost.

History

wrote the ''Estoire des Engleis'' for Constance, the wife of Ralf FitzGilbert. FitzGilbert, who, according to Gaimar in the chronicle's epilogue, commissioned its writing, possessed land in

and

. Gaimar himself may have been FitzGilbert's chaplain, or perhaps a secular clerk. Scholars have varying opinions concerning the date of the chronicle's writing, with commonly accepted ranges including March 1136 – April 1137 and 1135–1140. Gaimar possibly started the chronicle's composition in Hampshire and completed it in Lincolnshire. Ian Short, an emeritus professor of French at Birkbeck, University of London, stated that the chronicle was written "to provide a vast panorama of the Celto-British, Anglo-Saxon, and Anglo-Norman dynasties in the British Isles from Trojan times until the death of William Rufus." It is the oldest known history chronicle written in the French language. The chronicle was written with a Norman bias, stating that the Normans were the true successors to the English throne. As mentioned in the chronicle's epilogue, it opened with England's mythical Trojan beginnings when it was first written. However, this first portion of the chronicle, known as the ''Estoire des Troiiens'', along with another early part named the ''Estoire des Bretuns'', has been lost. The present-day copy begins with the 495 landing of

in England, and ends with William II's death in 1100. The chronicle was written in

couplets A couplet is a pair of successive lines of metre in poetry. A couplet usually consists of two successive lines that rhyme and have the same metre. A couplet may be formal (closed) or run-on (open). In a formal (or closed) couplet, each of the ...

, containing 6,532

octosyllable The octosyllable or octosyllabic verse is a line of verse with eight syllables. It is equivalent to tetrameter verse in trochees in languages with a stress accent. Its first occurrence is in a 10th-century Old French saint's legend, the '' Vie de ...

s. Four manuscripts of the ''Estoire des Engleis'' currently exist. The title ''Estoire des Engleis'' derives from the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

version. The ''Estoire des Engleis'' is based upon pre-existing chronicles. For instance, the now-lost portions of the chronicle, the ''Estoire des Troiiens'' and ''Estoire des Bretuns'', likely used information from the ''

Historia Regum Britanniae ''Historia regum Britanniae'' (''The History of the Kings of Britain''), originally called ''De gestis Britonum'' (''On the Deeds of the Britons''), is a pseudohistorical account of British history, written around 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. I ...

'', which was written by

Geoffrey of Monmouth Geoffrey of Monmouth ( la, Galfridus Monemutensis, Galfridus Arturus, cy, Gruffudd ap Arthur, Sieffre o Fynwy; 1095 – 1155) was a British cleric from Monmouth, Wales and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography ...

. After this, starting with Cerdic, the chronicle is primarily a translation of the '' Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' to about 959. Its accuracy is questioned by scholars, but the chronicle is nonetheless recognized as valuable in other areas of study.

References

{{reflist, 30em 1130s books 12th-century history books English chronicles