Thomas Elmham (1364in or after 1427) was an
English chronicler.
Life
Thomas Elmham was probably born at
North Elmham in
Norfolk. He may have been the Thomas Elmham who was a scholar at
King's Hall, Cambridge
King's Hall was once one of the constituent colleges of Cambridge, founded in 1317, the second after Peterhouse. King's Hall was established by King Edward II to provide chancery clerks for his administration, and was very rich compared to Michae ...
from 1389 to 1394. He became a
Benedictine monk at
Canterbury, and then joining the
Cluniacs, was prior of
Lenton Priory, near
Nottingham; he was chaplain to
Henry V Henry V may refer to:
People
* Henry V, Duke of Bavaria (died 1026)
* Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor (1081/86–1125)
* Henry V, Duke of Carinthia (died 1161)
* Henry V, Count Palatine of the Rhine (c. 1173–1227)
* Henry V, Count of Luxembourg (121 ...
, whom he may have accompanied to
France in 1415, and may have been present at the
Battle of Agincourt
The Battle of Agincourt ( ; french: Azincourt ) was an English victory in the Hundred Years' War. It took place on 25 October 1415 (Saint Crispin's Day) near Azincourt, in northern France. The unexpected English victory against the numerica ...
.
Works
Elmham wrote a history of the
monastery of
St. Augustine
Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Afri ...
at Canterbury, which was edited by
Charles Hardwick
Charles Hardwick (22 September 1821 – 18 August 1859) was an English historian and a priest of the Church of England who became the Archdeacon of Ely.
Life
Hardwick was born in Slingsby, North Yorkshire, Slingsby, North Yorkshire, the son of ...
for the ''
Rolls Series'' (1858); and a ''Liber metricus de Henrico V'', edited by C. A. Cole in the ''Memorials of Henry V'' (1858).
As well as this verse life of Henry V, Elmham himself says he wrote a prose biography of the king. The eighteenth-century editor of the ''Vita et Gesta Henrici V'',
Thomas Hearne, made a claim for Elmham's authorship of that biography but, in fact, it was written in the mid-1430s, long after Elmham's death. The attribution was rejected by the early twentieth century and the ''Vita et Gesta'' since then has gone by the designation of "Pseudo-Elmham" (this biography was the main source of the ''Vita Henrici Quinti'' by
Tito Livio Frulovisi). In the early twentieth century, it was suggested instead that Elmham's prose life could be equated with the ''
Gesta Henrici Quinti'', which is the best authority for the life of Henry V from his accession to 1416. This work, sometimes referred to as the chaplain's life, and thought by some to have been written by
Jean de Bordin, was first published for the
English Historical Society
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
by B. Williams (1850).
However, the modern editors of the ''Gesta'' convincingly rejected this attribution to Elmham. In short, the prose life by Thomas Elmham is not known to survive.
References
Literature
* C. L. Kingsford, "The Early Biographies of Henry V", ''English Historical Review'', xxv (1910), pp. 58–92.
* F. Taylor & J. S. Roskell ed., ''
Gesta Henrici Quinti'' (Oxford, 1975), pp. xviii – xxiii and iid., "The Authorship and Purpose of the Gesta Henrici Quinti: I", ''Bulletin of the John Rylands Library'', liii (1970–71), pp. 428–464.
External links
*
*The Text of the ''Liber Metricus De Henrico V'' https://books.google.com/books?id=hLeUGlUjqoAC
1364 births
1420s deaths
English Benedictines
English Roman Catholics
Roman Catholic writers
15th-century English historians
People from North Elmham
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