''Relatio de Standardo'' ("An Account of the attle of theStandard"), or ''De bello standardii'' ("on the Battle of the Standard"), is a text composed probably in 1153 or 1154 by the

Cistercian The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...

monk

Aelred of Rievaulx Aelred of Rievaulx ( la, Aelredus Riaevallensis); also Ailred, Ælred, and Æthelred; (1110 – 12 January 1167) was an English Cistercian monk, abbot of Rievaulx from 1147 until his death, and known as a writer. He is regarded by Anglicans a ...

, describing the

Battle of the Standard The Battle of the Standard, sometimes called the Battle of Northallerton, took place on 22 August 1138 on Cowton Moor near Northallerton in Yorkshire, England. English forces under William of Aumale repelled a Scottish army led by King David ...

, fought near

Northallerton Northallerton ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Hambleton District of North Yorkshire, England. It lies in the Vale of Mowbray and at the northern end of the Vale of York. It had a population of 16,832 in the 2011 census, an increase ...

in 1138 between

David I David I may refer to: * David I, Caucasian Albanian Catholicos c. 399 * David I of Armenia, Catholicos of Armenia (728–741) * David I Kuropalates of Georgia (died 881) * David I Anhoghin, king of Lori (ruled 989–1048) * David I of Scotland (di ...

King of Scotland The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the constitutional form of government by which a hereditary sovereign reigns as the head of state of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies (the Bailiw ...

, and a Norman army fighting in support of King Stephen of England. It is notable for being one of Aelred's two most seriously historical or political works, the other being his "Genealogy of the Kings of the English". The work has no known patron, though it eulogises

Walter Espec Walter Espec (died 1153) was a prominent military and judicial figure of the reign of Henry I of England. His father was probably William Speche (William Espec), who joined William the Conqueror in the Norman conquest of England. The senior Spe ...

and

Eustace fitz John Eustace fitz John (died 1157), Constable of Chester, was a powerful magnate in northern England during the reigns of Henry I, Stephen and Henry II. From a relatively humble background in South East England, Eustace made his career serving Henry I ...

and gives a good account of King David; it is hostile towards

William fitz Duncan William fitz Duncan (a modern anglicisation of the Old French Guillaume fils de Duncan and the Middle Irish Uilleam mac Donnchada) was a Scottish prince, the son of King Duncan II of Scotland by his wife Ethelreda of Dunbar. He was a territoria ...

. "Relatio" praises the English and Normans fighting on Stephen's behalf and is critical of the Scots and Galwegians. The work has been commented upon by modern historians for its vision of English and Norman unity against the alleged barbarism from the Scots and Galwegians. According to Gransden it survives in only one manuscript, the famous Corpus Christi College Cambridge MS. 139.Gransden, ''Historical Writing'', p. 214, n. 260; Marsha L. Dutton says, contrary to Gransden, that it exists in three manuscripts, the best of them a twelfth-century manuscript from Rievaulx (York Minster Archives XVI.I.8), see Freeland and Dutton, ''Aelred of Rievaulx'', p. 24. In addition to the narrative of the battle, with the Norman forces fighting under the protection of the saints, this work also explores the nature and value of history and gives some extended attention to the founding of Rievaulx itself.

Notes

References

*Bliese, John. “The Battle Rhetoric of Aelred of Rievaulx.” ''Haskins Society Journal'' 1 (1989): 99–107. *Burton, Pierre-André. ''Aelred de Rievaulx (1110–1167): Essai de Biographie Existentielle et Spirituelle.'' Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 2010. *Burton, Pierre-André. “Le Récit de ''La Bataille de l’Étendard'' par Aelred de Rievaulx. Présentation et Traduction.” ''Cîteaux'' 58 (2007): 7–41. * :*An English translation of this text is on pp. 245—69 *Freeman, Elizabeth. “Aelred of Rievaulx’s ''De Bello Standardii.'': Cistercian Historiography and the Creation of Community Memories.” ''Cîteaux'' 49.1–2 (1998): 5–28. *Freeman, Elizabeth. “The Many Functions of Cistercian Histories Using Aelred of Rievaulx’s ''Relatio de Standardo'' as a Case Study.” In ''The Medieval Chronicle: Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on the Medieval Chronicle.'' Edited by Erik Kooper. Amsterdam and Atlanta: Rodopi, 1999. 124–132. *Freeman, Elizabeth. ''Narratives of a New Order: Cistercian Historical Writing in England, 1150–1220.'' Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols Publishers, 2002. * * Howlett, Richard (ed.). "Relatio de Standardo", in ''Chronicles of the reigns of Stephen, Henry II and Richard I,'' 3, ''Rerum Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores'', 82, (1886). :*For the Latin text, see pp. 179-99 * {{Citation , last =Thomas , first = Hugh M. , title = English and the Normans: Ethnic Hostility, Assimilation, and Identity 1066-c.1220 , place = Oxford , publisher = Oxford University Press , year = 2003 , isbn = 0-19-925123-1 12th-century Latin books Cistercian Order Latin historical texts from Norman and Angevin England