HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor

210 NORBERT KERSKENto the accession to the throne of Louis XI (1461). 105 The Brut inEngland had a comparable significance, the latest revision of whichends likewise with 1461. 106 Here, however, the difference betweenthe historiographic traditions in Spain and France as well as inEngland becomes apparent: if national historiography is bound closelyto the kingdom with respect to the milieu of the writing as well asthe conception, then one can not speak of an official historiographyfor England, even if one may assume a relatively stable institutionalframework for the long-lasting productivity of the Brut, possibly aconnection to the central governing body and chancellery in London.A second phenomenon is the writing in many countries of new,large national-historical syntheses, which newly canonized the conceptionof history for a long time. At the beginning of the texts relevanthere stands the Scotichronicon of Walter Bower (ca. 1385–1449),the abbot of Inchcolme (an island in Firth of Forth). 107 He linked himselfto Fordun’s chronicle but developed it further and continuedthe depiction in sixteen books up through the murder of James I(1437). In England, shortly thereafter, new comprehensive depictionsappeared against the background of the dynastic conflicts betweenthe houses of Lancaster and York. John Hardyng (1378–ca. 1465)dedicated his English rhymed chronicle, extending at first to 1457,to Henry VI; however, he dedicated a second, revised version to theformer’s opponent, Richard of York, as well as his son Edward IV. 108John Capgrave (1393–1464), provincial of the English Augustine hermits,wrote an English history conceived in universal-historical terms,the Abbreuiacion of Cronicles, written around 1462/63 and ending withthe 6615th year after the creation of the world, that is 1417, omittingcontemporary history. 109A new development in Danish historiography dates back to the1470s as, presumably in the Sorø Cistercian monastery, the firstsignificant depiction of Danish history in the vernacular, the so-called105See Avril, et al. (1987).106Brut; continuatio of 1333–1461, ed. F. W. D. Brie, vol. 2 (as n. 89), 291–332,335–91, 491–533.107Walter Bower, Scotichronicon, ed. D. E. R. Watt, 9 vols. (Aberdeen, 1987–98).108See Gransden (1982), 274–87.109John Capgrave, Abbreuiacion of Cronicles, ed. P. J. Lucas, Early English TextSociety 285 (Oxford, 1983), with detailed introduction by the editor and bibliography.See also Zumkeller (1992).