''Pancartes'' were medieval historical documents, drawn up by a

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

, that recorded a sequence of gifts to the monastery. They were created in order that the whole group of grants or gifts could be confirmed by the ruler. They are known from Normandy and other northern French regions. Sometimes they were created over a number of years as successive gifts were added to the original document. Generally the various grants were tied together with a narrative usually quite short, that linked the various gifts to a short history of the religious house. These documents were a frequent product of monastic houses in

Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...

during the early 11th century and afterwards. Normally, they were not a product of the lay administration's chanceries, and came from ecclesiastical sources. The historian David Bates said that the term ''pancartes'' has been overused in historical studies, that the strict definition of the term is "a charter which reproduces the text of more than one charter", and that the document duplicates the original of the copied charter. Sometimes the ''pancarte'' was recopied after a number of additions had been made to the original, and this could occasionally lead to errors in chronology, as the additions to the original might have been made without respect to the actual order of the donations. The historian

Marjorie Chibnall Marjorie McCallum Chibnall (27 September 1915 – 23 June 2012) was an English historian, medievalist and Latin translator. She edited the ''Historia Ecclesiastica'' by Orderic Vitalis, with whom she shared the same birthplace of Atcham in S ...

states that the medieval historian

Orderic Vitalis Orderic Vitalis (; 16 February 1075 – ) was an English chronicler and Benedictine monk who wrote one of the great contemporary chronicles of 11th- and 12th-century Normandy and Anglo-Norman England.Hollister ''Henry I'' p. 6 Working out of ...

used now lost ''pancartes'' of various Norman monastic houses as sources for his historical writings. The surviving ''pancartes'' are important for their recording of now-lost charters, and for understanding the history of historical writing. The practice of writing ''pancartes'' influenced English monasteries, which were in contact with Norman houses after the

Norman conquest of England The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, French people, French, Flemish people, Flemish, and Bretons, Breton troops, all led by the Du ...

in 1066. Post-Conquest cartularies, such as ''

Hemming's Cartulary ''Hemming's Cartulary'' is a manuscript cartulary, or collection of charters and other land records, collected by a monk named Hemming around the time of the Norman Conquest of England. The manuscript comprises two separate cartularies that we ...

'', bear many similarities to the Norman ''pancartes''. Later, in the reign of King

Henry II of England Henry II () was King of England The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the form of government used by the United Kingdom by which a hereditary monarch reigns as the head of state, with the ...

, the monastic writers

Benedict of Peterborough Benedict, sometimes known as Benedictus Abbas (Latin for "Benedict the Abbot"; died 29 September 1193), was abbot of Peterborough. His name was formerly erroneously associated with the ''Gesta Henrici Regis Secundi'' and ''Gesta Regis Ricardi'', En ...

Roger of Howden Roger of Howden or Hoveden (died 1202) was a 12th-century English chronicler, diplomat and head of the minster of Howden in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Roger and Howden minster Roger was born to a clerical family linked to the ancient minst ...

, and Ralph Diceto also built on the ''pancarte'' when they inserted documents into their narratives, although their connecting stories were much more elaborate than many other ''pancartes''.

Citations

References

* * * {{Short description, Medieval monastic legal documents Medieval legal texts Anglo-Norman literature