Note 1258 — Chapter X · THE REIGN OF EADWARD FROM THE DEATH OF THE ÆTHELING TO THE DEATH OF THE KING.[1258] 1057–1066.

The authorities for this chapter are essentially the same as those for the last. With regard to the Chronicles, it may be noticed that the Abingdon Chronicle, which must be looked on as in some degree hostile to Godwine, is in no sort hostile to Harold. The Peterborough Chronicler, who seems rather to keep himself for great occasions, is rather meagre during this period. As Welsh matters are still prominent, the Welsh Chronicles have still to be consulted, and, towards the end of the period, the Northern Sagas again become of some little importance. But the characteristic of the period is the prominence of ecclesiastical affairs, which brings several local and legendary writers into a position of some consequence. Thus, for the history of Westminster, the tales of Æthelred of Rievaux and his followers have to be compared with the authentic narratives of contemporary chroniclers, and, as Harold’s great foundation comes within these years, we now begin to make use of the local Waltham writers. The main facts and fictions belonging to the local Waltham history are found in the two tracts, De Inventione Sanctæ Crucis and Vita Haroldi, which were first published by M. Francisque Michel in his Chroniques Anglo-Normandes (Rouen, 1840). From these I endeavoured in 1857 to put together the early history of Waltham, and of Harold in relation to Waltham, in a paper in the Transactions of the Essex Archæological Society, vol. ii. p. 34. But M. Michel’s editions are by no means accurate, and of the De Inventione he left out many chapters altogether. I was therefore led into some errors of detail. Since that time, a perfect edition of the De Inventione has been published, with a Preface, by Professor Stubbs (Oxford, 1861). The Vita Haroldi was written after 1205. In its essence, as regards the main facts of English history, it is a mere romance, but, like other local romances, it has its value for points of local description, and even for purely local facts. The De Inventione is a work of higher character. It was written by an anonymous Canon of Waltham, who was born in 1119, who entered the College in 1124, who was made a Canon before 1144, and who wrote after 1177, when he lost his prebend at the change in the foundation of Waltham under Henry the Second. This tract contains a good deal of legend, but no romance. The author writes in evident good faith, and with a manifest desire to be fair and accurate. He repeats the legends of his house as he heard them from his childhood; he was inclined, like the rest of his contemporaries, to see, and even to expect, miracles where we see only natural causes. But, making the necessary deductions on these scores, he is distinctly more trustworthy than the average of local historians. On his general character as an historian, and especially on the miraculous element in his narrative, see the remarks in Professor Stubbs’ Preface, p. xxvii.

As we have to deal with Westminster and Waltham, we have also to deal in a less degree with Wells and Worcester, two churches which figure prominently in the ecclesiastical history of these years. For Wells we have Gisa’s own narrative of his controversy with Harold, in the “Ecclesiastical Documents” published by the Camden Society. For Worcester we have the Life of its great Bishop Saint Wulfstan, by William of Malmesbury, in the second volume of Anglia Sacra, and the shorter Life by the contemporary Heming. This last is given in Old-English in Hearne’s edition of Heming’s Worcester Cartulary (a book which ought to be reprinted), p. 403, and in Latin in the first volume of Anglia Sacra.