Roger of Hoveden

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Roger of Hoveden

Roger of Hoveden, or Howden (fl. 1174 - 1201), was a 12th century English chronicler

English historians in the Middle Ages

English historians in the Middle Ages helped to lay the groundwork for modern historical historiography, providing vital accounts of the early history of England, Wales and Normandy, its cultures, and revelations about the historians themselves....
.

From his name and the internal evidence of his work, he is believed to have been a native of Howden in East Yorkshire

East Yorkshire

East Yorkshire could be:*East Yorkshire Motor Services*An alternative name for the East Riding of Yorkshire*East Yorkshire , a former district of Humberside...
. Nothing is known of him before the year 1174. He was then in attendance upon Henry II

Henry II of England

Henry II, called Curtmantle ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France....
, by whom he was sent from France

France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
on a secret mission to the lords of Galloway

Lords of Galloway

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Encyclopedia

Roger of Hoveden, or Howden (fl. 1174 - 1201), was a 12th century English chronicler

English historians in the Middle Ages

East Yorkshire

Henry II of England

France

Lords of Galloway

The Lords, or Kings of Galloway ruled over Galloway, in south west Scotland, for a large part of the High Middle Ages.Many regions of Scotland, including Galloway and Mormaer of Moray, periodically had kings or subkings, similar to those in Ireland during the Middle Ages....
. In 1175 he again appears as a negotiator between the king and a number of English religious houses. The interest which Hoveden shows in ecclesiastical affairs and miracles may justify the supposition that he was a clerk in orders. This, however, did not prevent him from acting, in 1189, as a justice of the forests in the shires of Yorkshire, Cumberland and Northumberland

Northumberland

Northumberland is a Counties of England in the North East England of England. The non-metropolitan counties of England of Northumberland borders Cumbria to the west, County Durham to the south and Tyne and Wear to the south east, as well as having a border with the Scottish Borders council area to the north, and nearly eighty miles of Nort...
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During this time, he is believed to have been working on his Gesta Henrici II et Gesta Regis Ricardi. This chronicle

Chronicle

Generally a chronicle is a historical account of facts and events ranged in chronology order. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events, the purpose being the recording of events that occurred, seen from the perspective of the chronicler....
was formerly ascribed to Benedict of Peterborough, who had the manuscript copied for his library. The Gesta Regis Henrici II & Gesta Regis Ricardi is the work of a well-informed man, connected with the court and inclined to take the side of Henry II. He confines himself to the external history of events, and his tone is strictly impersonal. He incorporates some official documents, and in many places obviously derives his information from others which he does not quote. There is a break in his work at the year 1177, where the earliest manuscript ends. The work begins at Christmas 1169, and concludes in 1192; it is thus in form a fragment, covering portions of the reign of Henry II and Richard I

Richard I of England

Richard I was King of England from 6 July 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Lord of Ireland, Cyprus, Count of Anjou, Count of Nantes and Brittany at various times during the same period....
.

Hoveden went on the Third Crusade

Third Crusade

The Third Crusade , also known as the Kings' Crusade, was an attempt by European leaders to reconquer the Holy Land from Saladin .After the failure of the Second Crusade, the Zengid dynasty controlled a unified Syria and engaged in a conflict with the Fatimid dynasty rulers of Egypt, which ultimately resulted in the unification of Egy...
with Richard I of England

Richard I of England

Marseille

"Marseille" is the second-largest city of France and forms the third-largest aire urbaine, after those of Paris and Lyon, with a population recorded to be 1,516,340 at the 1999 census and estimated to be 1,605,000 in 2007....
in August 1190. He left for Europe in August 1191, in the entourage of Philip II of France

Philip II of France

Philip II Augustus was the King of France from 1180 until his death. A member of the House of Capet, Philip Augustus was born at Gonesse in the Val-d'Oise, the son of Louis VII of France and his third wife, Ad?le of Champagne....
. On his return, about the year 1192 he began to compile his Chronica, a general history of England from 732 to his own time. Up to the year 1192 his narrative adds little to our knowledge. For the period 732-1148 he chiefly drew upon an extant, but unpublished chronicle, the Historia Saxonum sive Anglorum post obitum Bedae (British Museum

British Museum

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture situated in London. Its collections, which number more than 7 million Object , are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its beginning to the present....
manuscript Reg. 13 A. 6), which was composed about 1150. From 1148 to 1170 he used the Melrose Chronicle (edited for the Bannatyne Club

Bannatyne Club

The Bannatyne Club was founded by Sir Walter Scott to print rare works of Scotland interest, whether in history, poetry, or general literature. It printed 116 volumes in all. It was dissolved in 1861....
in 1835 by Joseph Stevenson

Joseph Stevenson

Joseph Stevenson was an England Catholic archivist.Though his parents were Presbyterians, he was educated at University College, Durham under the historian, James Raine, and afterwards at the University of Glasgow....
) and a collection of letters bearing upon the Thomas Becket

Thomas Becket

Thomas Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 to his death. He is venerated as a saint and martyr by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion....
controversy. From 1170 to 1192 he drew upon his own earlier Gesta Regis Henrici II and Gesta Regis Ricardi, revising the text and inserting some additional documents. From 1192, the Chronica is an independent and copious authority.

He is sedulously impersonal, and makes no pretense to literary style, quotes documents in full and adheres to the annalistic method. His chronology is tolerably exact, but there are mistakes enough to prove that he recorded events at a certain distance of time. Both on foreign affairs and on questions of domestic policy he is unusually well informed. His practical experience as an administrator and his official connections stood him in good stead. He is particularly useful on points of constitutional history. His work breaks off abruptly in 1201, though he certainly intended to carry it further. Probably his death should be placed in that year.

Works

Gesta Regis Henrici Secundi et Gesta Regis Ricardi Benedicti abbatis (ed. William Stubbs
William Stubbs

William Stubbs was an England historian and Bishop of Oxford.The son of William Morley Stubbs, a solicitor, he was born at Knaresborough, Yorkshire, and was educated at the Ripon Grammar School and Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated in 1848, obtaining a first-class in classics and a third in mathematics....
) (2 vols., Rolls series
Rolls Series

The Rolls Series, official title The Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages, is a major collection of British and Irish historical materials and primary sources, published in the second half of the nineteenth century....
, 1867), available at .
Chronica (ed. William Stubbs
William Stubbs

William Stubbs was an England historian and Bishop of Oxford.The son of William Morley Stubbs, a solicitor, he was born at Knaresborough, Yorkshire, and was educated at the Ripon Grammar School and Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated in 1848, obtaining a first-class in classics and a third in mathematics....
) (4 vols., Rolls series, 1868-71), available at and .

Sources and further reading

Frank Barlow
Frank Barlow (historian)

Frank Barlow CBE British Academy FRSL is a British historian, known particularly for biographies of medieval figures. He has been Emeritus Professor of History, since 1977, at the University of Exeter....
, "Roger of Howden", English Historical Review, vol. 65 (1950).
David Corner, "The Earliest Surviving Manuscripts of Roger of Howden's Chronica", English Historical Review, vol. 98 (1983).
David Corner, "The Gesta Regis Henrici Secundi and Chronica of Roger, Parson of Howden", Bulletin of the Institute of Historical research, vol. 56 (1983).
John Gillingham, "Roger of Howden on Crusade", in Richard Cœur de Lion: Kingship, Chivalry and War in the Twelfth Century (London, 1994).
D. M. Stenton, "Roger of Howden and Benedict", English Historical Review, vol. 68 (1958).

External links

and. to . Vol. 2 awaited from The Cambridge History of English and American Literature
The Cambridge History of English and American Literature

The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. Originally published in 1907-1921, the 18 volumes include 303 chapters and more than 11,000 pages, edited and written by a worldwide panel of 171 leading scholars and thinkers of the early twentieth century....
, Volume 1, 1907–21.