DOCSLIB.ORG

The First Version of Hardyng S Chronicle

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

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.
Recommended publications
  • John Hardyng Professor Sarah L. Peverley, University of Liverpool Introduction Reference Works and Bibliographies Surveys Textua

    John Hardyng Professor Sarah L. Peverley, University of Liverpool Introduction Reference Works and Bibliographies Surveys Textua

    John Hardyng Professor Sarah L. Peverley, University of Liverpool Introduction Reference Works and Bibliographies Surveys Textual History Manuscripts and Early Prints Editions and Extracts Hardyng’s Sources Hardyng and Scotland Hardyng and the Wars of the Roses Hardyng and the Arthurian Tradition Hardyng’s Arthurian Narrative Hardyng and Malory Hardyng and the Holy Grail Hardyng’s Influence Introduction The English chronicler John Hardyng (b. 1378 – d. c. 1465) had a colourful career before settling down to write his two versions of British history in the 1450s and 1460s. Born in Northumberland, he served in the household of Sir Henry Percy (1364-1403) from the age of twelve, where he learnt the art of warfare and fought in numerous battles, including The Battle of Shrewsbury (1403). Later, he served Sir Robert Umfraville, fighting alongside him in Scotland and in the first years of Henry V’s French campaign (1415- 16). In 1418 Henry V sent Hardyng into Scotland to survey the topography of the realm and seek out evidence of English overlordship. Promised a substantial gift for his espionage, Hardyng returned after three and a half years, but Henry V’s untimely death deprived him of his prize. He remained unrewarded until the 1440s, when Henry VI honoured the late king’s promise and granted Hardyng an annuity. By this time Hardyng’s patron, Sir Robert, was dead and Hardyng had taken up residence in the Augustinian Priory at Kyme, Lincolnshire. It was here that he began writing his first account of British history in Middle English verse. Surviving in a single manuscript, which was presented to Henry VI and his family in 1457 along with a map of Scotland and several of the Scottish documents recovered for Henry V, Hardyng’s Chronicle draws primarily on Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, Robert Mannyng’s Chronicle and a Latin Prose Brut, to give an account of British and English affairs from the mythical founding of Britain by Brutus to 1437.
  • John Hardyng . Oxford Bibliographies in Medieval Studies

    John Hardyng . Oxford Bibliographies in Medieval Studies

    John Hardyng Professor Sarah L. Peverley, University of Liverpool Introduction Reference Works and Bibliographies Surveys Textual History Manuscripts and Early Prints Editions and Extracts Hardyng’s Sources Hardyng and Scotland Hardyng and the Wars of the Roses Hardyng and the Arthurian Tradition Hardyng’s Arthurian Narrative Hardyng and Malory Hardyng and the Holy Grail Hardyng’s Influence Introduction The English chronicler John Hardyng (b. 1378 – d. c. 1465) had a colourful career before settling down to write his two versions of British history in the 1450s and 1460s. Born in Northumberland, he served in the household of Sir Henry Percy (1364-1403) from the age of twelve, where he learnt the art of warfare and fought in numerous battles, including The Battle of Shrewsbury (1403). Later, he served Sir Robert Umfraville, fighting alongside him in Scotland and in the first years of Henry V’s French campaign (1415- 16). In 1418 Henry V sent Hardyng into Scotland to survey the topography of the realm and seek out evidence of English overlordship. Promised a substantial gift for his espionage, Hardyng returned after three and a half years, but Henry V’s untimely death deprived him of his prize. He remained unrewarded until the 1440s, when Henry VI honoured the late king’s promise and granted Hardyng an annuity. By this time Hardyng’s patron, Sir Robert, was dead and Hardyng had taken up residence in the Augustinian Priory at Kyme, Lincolnshire. It was here that he began writing his first account of British history in Middle English verse. Surviving in a single manuscript, which was presented to Henry VI and his family in 1457 along with a map of Scotland and several of the Scottish documents recovered for Henry V, Hardyng’s Chronicle draws primarily on Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, Robert Mannyng’s Chronicle and a Latin Prose Brut, to give an account of British and English affairs from the mythical founding of Britain by Brutus to 1437.
  • John Hardyng . Oxford Bibliographies in Medieval Studies

    John Hardyng . Oxford Bibliographies in Medieval Studies

    John Hardyng Professor Sarah L. Peverley, University of Liverpool Introduction Reference Works and Bibliographies Surveys Textual History Manuscripts and Early Prints Editions and Extracts Hardyng’s Sources Hardyng and Scotland Hardyng and the Wars of the Roses Hardyng and the Arthurian Tradition Hardyng’s Arthurian Narrative Hardyng and Malory Hardyng and the Holy Grail Hardyng’s Influence Introduction The English chronicler John Hardyng (b. 1378 – d. c. 1465) had a colourful career before settling down to write his two versions of British history in the 1450s and 1460s. Born in Northumberland, he served in the household of Sir Henry Percy (1364-1403) from the age of twelve, where he learnt the art of warfare and fought in numerous battles, including The Battle of Shrewsbury (1403). Later, he served Sir Robert Umfraville, fighting alongside him in Scotland and in the first years of Henry V’s French campaign (1415- 16). In 1418 Henry V sent Hardyng into Scotland to survey the topography of the realm and seek out evidence of English overlordship. Promised a substantial gift for his espionage, Hardyng returned after three and a half years, but Henry V’s untimely death deprived him of his prize. He remained unrewarded until the 1440s, when Henry VI honoured the late king’s promise and granted Hardyng an annuity. By this time Hardyng’s patron, Sir Robert, was dead and Hardyng had taken up residence in the Augustinian Priory at Kyme, Lincolnshire. It was here that he began writing his first account of British history in Middle English verse. Surviving in a single manuscript, which was presented to Henry VI and his family in 1457 along with a map of Scotland and several of the Scottish documents recovered for Henry V, Hardyng’s Chronicle draws primarily on Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, Robert Mannyng’s Chronicle and a Latin Prose Brut, to give an account of British and English affairs from the mythical founding of Britain by Brutus to 1437.
  • Genealogy and John Hardyng's Verse

    Genealogy and John Hardyng's Verse

    GENEALOGY AND JOHN HARDYNG’S VERSE CHRONICLE Sarah L. Peverley he two distinct versions of the Middle English verse Chronicle composed by John Hardyng during the Wars of the Roses offer a privileged insight Tinto how genealogy was utilized within a historical narrative to negotiate the politically unstable backdrop of the 1450s/60s and articulate a public desire for unity and stability. At their most basic level, Hardyng’s texts engage with the genealogy of contemporary sovereigns by charting the succession of British and English monarchs from the first founding of Britain down to the late fifteenth century.1 However, rather than settling into the familiar pattern of many other Brut-orientated narratives, whereby the deeds of past kings are recorded and, for the most part, passed over without explicit attention or comment from the author, each of Hardyng’s texts has its own idiosyncratic method of connecting figures and events from his sovereigns’ past with the politically volatile present. Whilst the first version reprocesses history and genealogy in distinctly aesthetic terms, regularly employing literary and thematic devices appropriated from Boethius, 1 The first version survives in London, British Library, MS Lansdowne 204; the second is extant in twelve manuscripts, three fragments, and two printed editions. For a study of the two versions see my PhD thesis, ‘John Hardyng’s Chronicle: A Study of the Two Versions and a Critical Edition of Both for the Period 1327–1464’ (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Hull, 2004). I am currently preparing new editions of both versions: the first with James Simpson for TEAMS Mid- dle English Texts; the second for Boydell and Brewer’s Medieval Chronicle Series.
  • Sarah L. Peverley Throughout His Life, John Hardyng

    Sarah L. Peverley Throughout His Life, John Hardyng

    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of Liverpool Repository DYNASTY AND DIVISION: THE DEPICTION OF KING AND KINGDOM IN JOHN HARDYNG’S CHRONICLE Sarah L. Peverley Abstract Composed during a period of increased dynastic awareness and political tension, John Hardyng’s late fifteenth-century Chronicle survives in two versions. Previous scholars have labelled the first version a ‘Lancastrian’ account of history, written with little purpose other than to elicit financial reward and advocate the conquest of Scotland; the second is regarded as a ‘Yorkist’ revision. This article assesses Hardyng’s representation of the kings and their kingdom, with particular emphasis on the depiction of division within the realm; it demonstrates that Hardyng’s portrayal of Henry VI in the first version, and his use of commonplace imagery and themes, are conscientiously crafted to facilitate a wider-ranging political focus and concern with late medieval affairs than previously accepted. Conversely, comparable examples from the second version show that it is not exclusively concerned with fortifying the Yorkist dynasty, but that it promotes the same call for peace and good governance as the first version. Throughout his life, John Hardyng (1378-c.1465), had many guises: soldier, esquire, spy, forger, chronicler, cartographer. By the time of his death, he had lived through the reigns of five kings; fought in some of the most famous battles of the period, both at home and abroad; worked as a spy and forger in Scotland for Henry V; retired to an Augustinian priory; and written two versions of a verse chronicle.
  • Narrative Historiography and the Rules of Succession by Paulina

    Narrative Historiography and the Rules of Succession by Paulina

    Chapter 10 Narrative Historiography and the Rules of Succession By Paulina Kewes Do not cite without permission Now let these alterations of regiments be remembred...and teach vs that therein the iudgements of God reuealed themselues to speciall purposes. And whatsoeuer hath beene mentioned before, either concerning the subuersion of people, the desolation of prouinces, the ouerthrow of nobles, the ruine of princes, and other lamentable accidents diuerslie happening vpon sundrie occasions: let vs (I say) as manie as will reape fruit by the reading of chronicles, imagine the matters which were so manie yéeres past to be present, and applie the profit and commoditie of the same vnto our selues; knowing (as one wisely said) Post sacram paginam chronica viuum veritatis typum gerere, that next vnto the holie scripture, chronicles doo carie credit. Holinshed, Chronicles (1587)1 Clandestine succession tracts were accessible to few, chronicles and abridgements to many. One need not have had a copy of Robert Persons’ Conference about the Next Succession to the Crowne of Inglande (1595) to hand, however, to learn that England had once been an elective monarchy and perhaps to infer that some form of election might serve as a basis for a future settlement. Tudor chronicles, many of which had been the work of several hands or had been updated, revised, or continued after the decease of the original author, were hardly innocent of polemical meaning even if that meaning was not always consistent or unequivocal. Sometimes ambiguity was the object. By 1 ‘A notable aduertisement touching the summe of all the foresaid historie’, in Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, 6 vols.
  • The Historical Reputation of Edward IV 1461-1725 Phd University Of

    The Historical Reputation of Edward IV 1461-1725 Phd University Of

    The Historical Reputation of Edward IV 1461-1725 Andrew Robert Whittle King Edward IV by Unknown English artist; oil on panel, circa 1540. NPG 3542 PhD University of East Anglia, School of History June, 2017 This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that use of any information derived there-from must be in accordance with current UK Copyright Law. In addition, any quotation or extract must include full attribution. i ii ABSTRACT This thesis comprises a chronological study of different historical accounts of Edward IV’s life and reign from his life until the early eighteenth century. It focusses primarily on the way that historical portrayals of the king changed and developed alongside political, cultural and technological factors, something which has never been done before in any great detail. It begins begin with an examination of the primary sources from Edward’s reign, including the propagandist accounts The Historie of the Arrivall of Edward IV and The Chronicle of the Rebellion in Lincolnshire , the Crowland Chronicle Continuations , Warkworth’s Chronicle , and the vernacular urban chronicles of London and Bristol. It will contextualise these by briefly examining the English chronicle tradition up to the fifteenth century, as well as the historical treatment of other late medieval kings, especially Henry V and Henry VI The core of the thesis concerns itself with historical accounts over the period from 1485 to the early seventeenth century, during which Edward IV’s historical reputation underwent its greatest period of development.