HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor

HIGH AND LATE MEDIEVAL NATIONAL HISTORIOGRAPHY 191More significant in this respect was the historiography that wasdeveloped in the monastery of St. Albans in the middle of the thirteenthcentury. The Flores historiarum begun by Roger of Wendover(†1236) was developed by his student Matthew Paris (ca. 1200–59)into the Chronica Majora, a voluminous embedding of English historyin universal history. 36 From this rich material, Paris wrote severalexcerpts, which demonstrate his interest in offering a whole depictionof English history: the Historia Anglorum 37 and the Abbreviato chronicorumAngliae 38 limit themselves to the Anglo-Norman period, coveringthe period from 1067 to 1253 and 1000 to 1255; while the Floreshistoriarum 39 begin, like the initial text, with the creation of the world.A historiographic new beginning and the end of the monasticallyinfluenced national historiography are marked by a chronicle whoseauthor, Robert of Gloucester, is hardly comprehensible. The rhymedchronicle in Middle English 40 attributed to him has been passed downin two versions and ends with its depiction in 1270; the independentaccount of the years 1258 to 1270, detailing the serious conflictsbetween the king and aristocratic opposition, reveals an aristocraticbias on the part of the author. With respect to the biased contentas well as the choice of the vernacular, on the basis of which onecan assume a noble lay public as the audience, this historiographyexpresses a national consciousness that is not bound to the kingdom.In France in the time of Philip II Augustus, the ground was laidfor a historiography which built up the idea of French history abovethe history since the beginning of the rule of the Capetian dynastythrough dynastic-historical constructions. The corresponding draftgoes back to Andrew of Marchiennes, who detected the reditus regniFrancorum ad stirpem Karoli for Philip II in the Historia succincta de gestiset successione regum Francorum 41 in 1191/96. At the same time, the monkRigord in Saint-Denis, which since the time of Abbot Suger (1081–1151) had developed as the location for the upkeep of the official36Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, ed. H. R. Luard, 7 vols., RS 57.1–7 (London,1872–83). See also Vaughan (1958); Lewis (1987).37Matthew Paris, Historia Anglorum, ed. F. Madden, 3 vols., RS 44.1–3 (London,1866–69).38Matthew Paris, Abbreviatio Chronicorum Angliae, in Historia Anglorum, vol. 3, 151–348.39Flores historiarum, ed. H. R. Luard, 3 vols., RS 95.1–3 (London, 1887).40The Metrical Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester, ed. W. A. Wright, 2 vols., RS 86.1–2(London, 1887). See also Pafford (1957); Hudson (1966).41See Werner (1952); Spiegel (1971).