Henry Knighton (or Knyghton) (died c. 1396, in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

) was an

Augustinian Augustinian may refer to: *Augustinians, members of religious orders following the Rule of St Augustine *Augustinianism, the teachings of Augustine of Hippo and his intellectual heirs *Someone who follows Augustine of Hippo * Canons Regular of Sain ...

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 ...

at the abbey of St Mary of the Meadows,

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

, England, and an ecclesiastical historian (

chronicler 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 ...

). He wrote a history of England from the Norman conquest until 1396, thought to be the year he died.

Biography

Biographical information on Knighton mainly comes from his chronicle, in the first three books of which his name is shown as HENRICVS CNITTON.Martin, 1995, p. xvii It is thought his name indicates that he came from Knighton. He was a canon at the "St Mary of the Meadows" abbey before 1363, since he was recorded as being present during a visit from

King Edward III Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring ro ...

. He was at the abbey for a further 33 years and in his writings included considerable detail on the abbey's economic well being. The Augustinian abbey, where Henry Knighton was made a canon, was one of the wealthiest in England and stood on the northern edge of Leicester, in what is now Abbey Park. Knighton was a supporter of

and wrote well of him, although historian Louisa D. Duls labels Knighton as a member of the "Lancastrian Detractors of Richard" school. Knighton calls five of

King Richard II Richard II (6 January 1367 – ), also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. He was the son of Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales, and Joan, Countess of Kent. Richard's father d ...

's trusted advisors – Robert de Vere,

Alexander Neville Alexander Neville ( 1340–1392) was a late medieval prelate who served as Archbishop of York from 1374 to 1388. Life Born in about 1340, Alexander Neville was a younger son of Ralph Neville, 2nd Baron Neville de Raby and Alice de Audley. He ...

(Archbishop of York), Sir

Michael de la Pole, 1st Earl of Suffolk Michael de la Pole, 1st Earl of Suffolk, 1st Baron de la Pole, (c. 13305 September 1389) of Wingfield Castle in Suffolk, was an English financier and Lord Chancellor of England. His contemporary Froissart portrays de la Pole as a devious and in ...

(lord chancellor), Sir

Robert Tresilian Sir Robert Tresilian (died 19 February 1388) was a Cornish lawyer, and Chief Justice of the King's Bench between 1381 and 1387. He was born in Cornwall, and held land in Tresillian, near Truro. Tresilian was deeply involved in the struggles be ...

(chief justice of the King's Bench), and Sir

Nicholas Brembre Sir Nicholas Brembre (died 20 February 1388) was a wealthy magnate and a chief ally of King Richard II in 14th-century England. He was Lord Mayor of London in 1377, and again from 1384–5,6. Named a "worthie and puissant man of the city" by Rich ...

– the ''five evil seducers of the king ("quinque nephandi seductores regis")'' . Knighton lived during the same time period as

John Wycliffe John Wycliffe (; also spelled Wyclif, Wickliffe, and other variants; 1328 – 31 December 1384) was an English scholastic philosopher, theologian, biblical translator, reformer, Catholic priest, and a seminary professor at the University of O ...

and had personal knowledge of him as he went to Oxford when Wycliffe was a master there. However he was neither directly associated with Wycliffe or nor with the

Lollard 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 Catho ...

s ("Wycliffites", followers of Wycliffe's philosophies). Knighton was the first historian of

Lollardy 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 Catholi ...

. He writes that those voicing Church complaints and echoing the principles of Wycliffe in 1382, hence being associated with the principles of the Lollards, were every second man in the

Kingdom of England The Kingdom of England (, ) was a sovereign state on the island of Great Britain from 12 July 927, when it emerged from various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, until 1 May 1707, when it united with Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain. On 1 ...

. Knighton did not care for Wycliffe's church reform doctrines or the Lollards as both threatened his way of life. He respected Wycliffe as an academic scholar, however, writing that he was a famous and important ecclesiastic and philosopher of the time.Deanesly, p. 239

Notes

Sources

* Geoffrey Haward Martin (translator); ''Knighton's Chronicle 1337–1396''; Clarendon Press, 1995, * Duls, Louisa DeSaussure, ''Richard II in the Early Chronicles'', Paris: Mouton, 1975 * Deanesly, Margaret, ''The Lollard Bible and other Medieval Biblical Versions'', Cambridge University Press, 1920 * Vaughan, Robert,
The life and opinions of John de Wycliffe
', Holdsworth and Balls, 1831, 2nd ed.

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

everyone is dum

External links

Henry Knighton's account of highway robbers in England
{{DEFAULTSORT:Knighton, Henry 1396 deaths 14th-century English historians Augustinian canons Year of birth unknown English male non-fiction writers People from Knighton, Leicester

Biography

See also

Notes

Sources

External links