Chronicle of a Bourgeois of Valenciennes
Récits d’un bourgeois de Valenciennes aka The Chronicle of a Bourgeois of Valenciennes is a vivid 14th-century vernacular chronicle written by an anonymous urban chronicler from Valenciennes in the County of Hainaut. It survives in a manuscript that describes local and regional history from about 1253 to 1366, blending chronology, narrative episodes, and eyewitness-style accounts of political, military, and social events in medieval France, Flanders, and the Low Countries. The work begins with a chronological framework of events affecting Valenciennes and its region under rulers such as King Philip VI of France and the shifting allegiances of local nobility. It includes accounts of conflicts, sieges, diplomatic manoeuvres, and the impact of broader struggles like the Hundred Years’ War on urban life in Hainaut. Written from the perspective of a burgher (bourgeois) rather than a monastery or royal court, the chronicle offers a rare lay viewpoint on high politics and warfare, reflecting how merchants, townspeople, and civic institutions experienced the turbulence of the 13th and 14th centuries. Its narrative style combines straightforward reporting of events with moral and civic observations, making it a valuable source for readers interested in medieval urban society, regional politics, and the lived experience of war and governance in pre-modern Europe.
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Archaeologia Cambrensis 1865 Page 284 is in Archaeologia Cambrensis 1865.
The whole ridge of Carn Ingli, in the barony of Cemmaes, is worthy of careful antiquarian examination; more careful, we mean, than what it has hitherto received. It will be found, like the far larger range of Precelly, to present many striking features connected with the early history of the district; and it is to be hoped that a complete account of both ridges will ultimately be compiled for the Association.
On the north-eastern slope of this ridge, upon ground which until lately was unenclosed, stands the great cromlech of Pentre Ifan, so called from the ancient neighbouring mansion. Itisone of the largest in Wales; and its size may be judged of from the fact that, when the Association visited it in 1859, five persons on horse-back were ranged beneath the cap-stone at one and the same time. It seems to have formed one of several other sepulchral chambers, covered by a common mound; traces of these others, and of the carnedd of stones, being visible in the immediate vicinity; but the enclosures of the land have been brought close to the south side of the mound, or have cut through it; and hence the disappearance of its contents and materials is easily accounted for.
The stones are all of the same kind as the rocks towering on the ridge not far behind them and they may have been forced down by the rude mechanical appliances of early times without much difficulty. Still the cap-stone is one of unusual magnitude, and the whole monument has an appearance as grand as it is picturesque.
~~ Although the covering tumulus has disappeared, and though from the height of the cap-stone above the soil it may be supposed that the very foundations are laid bare, yet it might lead to the discovery of remains, if the soil all around were carefully probed and examined.
Here the cromlech stands some five or six miles away from the sea; and it probably served as a resting-place to a chieftain and his family dwelling in comparative security, though at what period of the history of Wales it would be vain to conjecture. The adjacent district offers a tempting field of operations for any one interested in the early antiquities of Pembrokeshire; and it would not be surprising if other remains, now not known, were brought to light by sufficient research.
H. L. J.