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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King's Quoit, Manorbier is in Manorbier, Pembrokeshire, Prehistoric Wales Neolithic Burials.
Archaeologia Cambrensis 1872 Pages 81-143. No. 2. The Manorbeer cromlech [King's Quoit, Manorbier [Map]] has been already described in the Third Series of the Arch. Camb., and by Sir Gardner Wilkinson in one of the Collectanea volumes of the British Archaeological Association. There are certain anomalous features about it which seem to render it a rather exceptional example. The capstone, 16 feet 9 inches long by 8 feet 6 inches broad, has one of its ends resting on a small block of stone, and the other on three low supporters nearly at right angles to each other. Immediately above the block of stone is a wall of limestone, which Sir Gardner thinks has furnished the capstone, the thickness of which is 1 ft. 9 ins. It lies to the north-east, and the entrance is at the north-eastern extremity. Sir Gardner Wilkinson thinks this may have been an exceptional case as regards its not having been enclosed in a mound or cairn, as the ground on both sides falls away too sharp to admit of one. Although in the present state of the spot on which it now stands, it would have been almost impossible to build any mound over it, yet who can say what changes may not have taken place since its erection, and that at one time this difficulty did not exist? At any rate it must have had some external protection if it were a grave, unless, as suggested by Sir Gardner, it is the cenotaph and monument of some chief who perished in the waters below. Still, however, it may be questioned whether an uncovered and imperfect structure as this could ever have been thought an appropriate honour worthy of a great chief; for the cenotaph, in any case, would be after the usual form and fashion of a tomb of that period, which these bare stones certainly did not represent.