''Knighton's Chronicon'' (also known as ''Knighton's Leicester Chronicle'') is an English

chronicle A chronicle ( la, chronica, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and lo ...

written by

Henry Knighton Henry Knighton (or Knyghton) (died c. 1396, in England) was an Augustinian canon at the abbey of St Mary of the Meadows, Leicester, England, and an ecclesiastical historian (chronicler). He wrote a history of England from the Norman conquest u ...

in the fourteenth century. He referred to it as his "work in hand" that he wrote while at the Augustinian Abbey of Saint Mary de Pratis, associated with the

House of Lancaster The House of Lancaster was a cadet branch of the royal House of Plantagenet. The first house was created when King Henry III of England created the Earldom of Lancasterfrom which the house was namedfor his second son Edmund Crouchback in 126 ...

, where he was a

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western ca ...

The chronicle

Knighton wrote a four-volume chronicle, first published in 1652, giving the history of England from 959 to 1366. It was originally considered that a fellow canon completed the work in a fifth book, covering the years 1377 to 1395, probably due to Knighton's growing

blindness Visual impairment, also known as vision impairment, is a medical definition primarily measured based on an individual's better eye visual acuity; in the absence of treatment such as correctable eyewear, assistive devices, and medical treatment� ...

(see the "Continuator of Knighton", below). The earlier books (to 1337) are simply re-workings of earlier histories. But the latter two books are vital to the contemporary study of the period, since they were written by informed scholars who actually lived through the times they write about. The latter two books give us an exemplary and detailed first-hand insight into the 14th century - such as the effects of the

Black Death The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...

and the consequent breakdown of the

feudal Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a wa ...

system, and precise details of the systems of wages and prices in England. He also reflects the prejudices common among the clergy at the time; notably being against the translation of the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

into the common tongue, lamenting the low standards of scholarship among young religious clerks, and being strongly against the rising of the

Lollards Lollardy, also known as Lollardism or the Lollard movement, was a proto-Protestant Christian religious movement that existed from the mid-14th century until the 16th-century English Reformation. It was initially led by John Wycliffe, a Catholic ...

. :"This Master John Wyclif translated into the Anglic (English) -not Angelic-tongue, the Gospel that Christ gave to the clergy and the doctors of the Church, that they might minister it gently to laymen and weaker persons, according to the exigence of their time, their personal wants, and the hunger of their minds; whence it is made vulgar by him, and more open to the reading of laymen and women than it usually is to the knowledge of lettered and intelligent clergy; and thus the pearl of the Gospel is cast forth and trodden under the feet of swine."

Continuator of Knighton's Chronicon

The ''Continuator of Knighton'' (or "Knighton's Continuator") was a supposed late 14th century

continuator A continuator, in literature, is a writer who creates a new work based on someone else's prior text, such as a novel or novel fragment. The new work may complete the older work (as with the numerous continuations of Jane Austen's unfinished novel ...

of ''Knighton's chronicle''. The Continuator's existence was first supposed by the nineteenth-century historian

Walter Waddington Shirley Prof. Rev. Walter Waddington Shirley (1828–1866) was an English churchman and ecclesiastical historian. Life The only son of Walter Augustus Shirley, bishop of Sodor and Man, he was born at Shirley, Derbyshire, on 24 July 1828. In 1837 he beca ...

, who noted a lengthy break in events described by the Chronicle, and concluded that the later section had been written by a different and unnamed author, commencing in 1377. Shirley also posited that the Continuator had been a foreigner of Lancastrian sympathies, though with little affection for the English language, who had managed to obtain a position in

Leicester Abbey The Abbey of Saint Mary de Pratis, more commonly known as Leicester Abbey, was an Augustinians, Augustinian religious house in the city of Leicester, in the East Midlands of England. The abbey was founded in the 12th century by the Robert de Be ...

.Aston, p. 28 Shirley's theory was taken up by J. Rawson Lumby, a classicist and Hebraicist who edited ''Knighton's Chronicle'' in the 1880s for the

Rolls Series ''The Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages'' ( la, Rerum Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores), widely known as the is a major collection of British and Irish historical materials and primary sources publish ...

. Despite some reservations about the Continuator's existence, Lumby also concluded a different author had written the post-1377 sections. His division of the Chronicle's authorship was followed by later authors, with the result that the Continuator was referenced in subsequent historical study footnotes of learned historians that followed him. The existence of the Continuator was not questioned until 1957, when the historian

Vivian Hunter Galbraith Vivian Hunter Galbraith (15 December 1889 – 25 November 1976) was an English historian, fellow of the British Academy and Oxford Regius Professor of Modern History. Early career Galbraith was born in Sheffield, son of David Galbraith, ...

published an in-depth study of the Chronicle's chronology. In particular, he was able to prove that the section of the Chronicle covering later events, from 1377–95, was actually written ''before'' the earlier section, confirming Knighton's probable authorship of both sections. The current academic view agrees with Galbraith in that the Continuator most likely never existed, and Knighton wrote the entire Chronicle.Myers, p. 37

Notes

Sources

* Aston Margaret, ''Lollardy and the gentry in the later Middle Ages'', Palgrave Macmillan, 1997, * Gordon, Donald James, ''Fritz Saxl, 1890-1948: a volume of memorial essays from his friends in England'', T. Nelson, 1957 * Martin, Geoffrey Haward (translator); ''Knighton's Chronicle 1337-1396''; Clarendon Press, 1995, * Myers, A. R., ''English Historical Documents 1327-1485'', Psychology Press, 1996, {{ISBN, 0415143691

The chronicle

Continuator of Knighton's Chronicon

See also

Notes

Sources

Further reading