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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Our Ancient Monuments by Charles Kains-Jackson is in Prehistory.
Our ancient monuments and the land around them. By Charles Philip Kains-Jackson; with a preface by Sir John Lubbock. 1880.
The Danes came from Northamptonshire, and they are reputed to have been told that should they come to see Hoarstone [Map] (seven miles S.S.E. of Rollrich) they would be lords of England. Hooknorton, the entrenched position of the Saxons, was stormed by the Danes. Hooknorton lies about midway between Rollrich and Bunbury. The Saxon defeat was very severe, but the battle seems to have checked the Danish advance. There is no proof that their army ever went to Rollrich. Why they should drag the bodies of the slain of Hooknorton five miles from the battle-field is difficult to say. One word more on Professor Fergusson, and we have done. The little legend of the Danes' wish to reach the mystic dolmen of Hoar, the Hoar-stone, is well known to local tradition. It bears the imprint of truth, itis too simple and unpretentious for invention. It embodies a most common idea of early warfare and invasion. It may fairly be admitted, and if admitted it shows a stone close to and precisely similar to those of Rollrich, to have been already old to tradition at the time when the Danes first penetrated into Oxfordshire.