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The First Version of Hardyng S Chronicle

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The First Version of Hardyng S Chronicle 462 July The First Version of Hardyng s Chronicle HEN Sir Henry Ellis published his edition of John Hardyng's Chronicle, now just a hundred years ago, he W Downloaded from followed for the most part the printed version of Richard Graf ton, collating it with the copy in the Harleian MS. 661. He did not, however, overlook the fact that the first manuscript in point of time, and perhaps the most curious of all, is the Lansdowne MS. 204.1 But since the text is ' altogether so different from the other copies as not to admit of a collation ' Ellis contented http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/ himself with making some considerable extracts for his preface, and did not stop to consider the relation of this, the oldest and fullest version of the chronicle, to the later copies. Hardyng's Chronicle is not a work of the first importance, but what value it possesses turns largely on the personal view of the author. A just estimate of that view can only be formed by comparing the Lansdowne copy, which was written for Henry VI with at UQ Library on March 15, 2015 a Lancastrian bias, with the later copies, which are continued to the reign of Edward IV and have been modified to suit the altered circumstances of the time. The failure of Ellis to deal fully with the Lansdowne MS. has robbed his edition of the virtue of finality. It is therefore not unimportant to devote some space to an account of Hardyng's Chronicle in its earliest form. Since the quality of the work depends so much on the charac- ter and career of the author, I must begin with a brief sketch of John Hardyng's life. This is the more necessary because the account given by Ellis, and followed by subsequent biographers, contains various errors and omissions, which if not serious in themselves are of importance for their bearing on the composition of his chronicle. Hardyng tells us that he was ' brought up from twelve years of age in Sir Henry Percy's house to the battle of Shrewsbury, where I was with him armed of twenty-five years of age, as I had been afore at Homildon, Cocklaw, and divers other raids and fields '.* Thus Hardyng was born in 1378 and entered the service of Percy in 1390. The battle of Homildon or Humbledon was fought on 14 September 1402, and the siege 1 Preface, p. xiv. Ellis describes it as Lansdowne 200, bat the correct number is AS given above. • Ed. Ellis, p. 351. 1912 HARDY NO'S CHRONICLE 463 of Cocklaw took place in the following spring. These therefore can hardly have been his first essays in arms. But he has told us nothing more of his early career ; he was, however, clearly in the confidence of his patrons ; for he knew Hotspur's intent and had it written,3 and had heard the earl of Northumberland relate how Henry IV had proposed before the deposition of Richard II to put forward a forged chronicle pretending that Edmund Crouchback was the elder brother of Edward I,4 and how John of Gaunt had previously devised this chronicle in order to support his claim to be recognized as heir to the crown.5 After the battle of Shrewsbury Hardyng entered the service of Sir Robert Umfraville, a Northumbrian knight of distinction, Downloaded from grandson of Gilbert, earl of Angus, and uncle of Gilbert Umfra- ville, who was to win renown as titular earl of Kyme in Lincoln- shire. Umfraville made Hardyng warden of Warkworth Castle, and kept him in his service till his death more than thirty years later. Under his master Hardyng made the campaign of Agincourt, http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/ of which he embodied a valuable account in Latin, prose in the later editions of his work ; but this account is not, as Ellis seems to have supposed, a personal journal of Hardyng's own composi- tion ; it is derived in the main from the Gesta Henrid Quinti of Thomas Elmham, though with some small additions relating to the Umfravilles ; ' its chief interest consists in the fact that it is perhaps the only instance in the fifteenth century of the use of Elmham'8 prose narrative. From his use of ' us ' and ' our ' at UQ Library on March 15, 2015 in the account of Bedford's expedition to Harfleur in 1416 it would seem that Hardyng was present there.7 In 1417 Robert Umfraville was employed on the Scottish marches, and the precision of Hardyng's narrative of ' The Foul Raid ' of the Scots in that year suggests that he himself was engaged in his master's company.8 During the early years of Henry V Hardyng was at court with Umfraville. He tells that he had seen the muniment in support of the Yorkist claims to Spain and Portugal, Which your uncle to my lord Umfrevill At London shewed, which I red that while.9 Probably he thus came under the king's notice, and was by him entrusted with a mission to Scotland to spy out the prospects of an invasion of that country, and to collect evidence on the English claim to sovereignty.10 This would seem to have been • Ed. Ellis, p. 351. ' Ibid. p. 353. • Ibid. p. 364. • Ibid. pp. 389-91 ; cf. Oesta Htnrici QvitUi (Engl. Hist. Soc.), pp. 13-68. 1 Chrtn., ed. Ellis, p. 377. 1 Ibid. pp. 380-2. • Ibid. p. 21. 10 Lanadowne MS. 204, f. 3. Extracts from this manuscript will be published in the next number of this Review. 464 THE FIRST VERSION OF July in the early part of 1418 ; for Hardyng states that he spent three years and a half on that mission, and writing in 1457 alleges that he had kept certain documents, which he obtained in Scotland, • for Bix and thirty years. Hardyng must have been back in England in the nummer of 1421, if it is true, as he says, that he was present at that time when Henry V put an end to the private warfare of two knights.11 However, that incident may have belonged to an earlier date, and in any case it was probably not till a year later that Hardyng delivered the first-fruits of his mission to the king at the Bois de Vincennes, where Henry V resided for a few days in May 1422. Hardyng alleges that the king rewarded him with a promise of the manor Downloaded from of Geddington in Northamptonshire, but that after Henry's death he was defrauded of it by Henry Beaufort, who gave it away in dower to the queen.12 Nevertheless Hardyng, who was already pursuing his historical studies, seems to have profited by the patronage of Beaufort, at whose instance he obtained http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/ daily instruction in Justin's Epitome of Trogus Pompeius from Julyus Caesarine, auditor of the Pope Martin's Chamber. This we learn from a rubric in the Lansdowne MS.,13 which Ellis interpreted to indicate that Hardyng had visited Rome in 1424. More probably Hardyng obtained his instruction in England, where Julius de Caesarinis was present as a papal envoy in 1426 and 1427.1* Some years later Hardyng would seem to have paid a second at UQ Library on March 15, 2015 visit to Scotland on a similar errand to that of the first. One of the documents which he afterwards produced in support of his claims for reward was a safe-conduct granted by James I of Scotland on 10 March 1434, in which the king offered to pay him a thousand marks in return for the surrender of his ' Evidences '.u Though the document is a forgery, it may be sufficient evidence that Hardyng visited Scotland at this time. At all events, he made his professed honesty in rejecting the bribe an additional excuse for seeking from Henry VI bis promised reward. Hardyng relates that he delivered a second 11 Citron., ed. Ellis, p. 383. The story clearly relates to the same incident as that in a late version of the Brut (p. 006), where, however, it is attributed to the first year of the reign. u Chron., ed. Ellis, pp. 292-3. u f. 5. Hardyng there recites amongst his authorities: ' As the greto cronycler TrogUB Pompeyus in his book of Storyes of alle the worlde hath wryten : the whiche Book hys disciple Justynus hathe drawe into xliiij books that bene at Borne in the kjepynge of the pope, all compiled agayn in til oon, so that The Stories of alle the worlde in it may be clerelyche sene : the whiche Julyus Caesaryne, auditonr of the pope Martynee Chanmbre the Fyfte, in his seuent yer gate the maker of this book John Hardyng dayly instruocion and discripcion in at instanoe and writyng of the Cardinal of Wynchestre.' " Calendar of Papal Bqiatera, vii. 16, 34, 36. u Palgrave, Document* and Record* relating to Scotland, p. 376. 1912 HARDYNG'S CHRONICLE 465 instalment of documents to Henry VI at Eaethampstead.1* This is true ; for on 16 July 1440, at Easthampstead, the king made a grant for life to John Hardyng of the county of Lincoln of the 101 a year, which the farmer or occupier of the manor or preceptory of Wyloughton pays the King for the fee farm of the same ; in completion of the promise of the King's father of such reward to the said John for obtaining at great risk from the King's enemies of Scotland certain evidences concerning the King's overlordship of Scotland, which evidences have now been handed to the King.
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