Roger of Wendover (died 6 May 1236), probably a native of
Wendover in
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...
, was an
English chronicler of the 13th century.
At an uncertain date he became a
monk
A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...
at
St Albans Abbey; afterwards he was appointed prior of the
cell of Belvoir, but he forfeited this dignity in the early years of
Henry III, having been found guilty of wasting the endowments. His latter years were passed at St Albans, where he died on 6 May 1236.
Works
Roger is the first in the series of important chroniclers who worked at St Albans. His best-known
chronicle
A chronicle (, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events ...
, called the ''
Flores Historiarum'' (''Flowers of History''), is based in large part on material which already existed at St Albans. The actual nucleus of the early part of Roger's ''Flowers of History'' is supposed to have been the compilation of John de Cella (also known as
John of Wallingford), who was abbot of St Albans from 1195 to 1214, although that is inconclusive.
John's work started from the year 1188, and was revised and continued by Roger up to 1235, the year before his death. Roger claims in his preface to have selected "from the books of catholic writers worthy of credit, just as flowers of various colours are gathered from various fields." Hence he called his work ''Flores Historiarum''—a title appropriated in the 14th century to a long compilation by various hands. Begun at St Albans based upon the Chronicle of
Matthew Paris
Matthew Paris, also known as Matthew of Paris (; 1200 – 1259), was an English people, English Benedictine monk, English historians in the Middle Ages, chronicler, artist in illuminated manuscripts, and cartographer who was based at St A ...
, it was finally completed at
Westminster
Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...
continuing to the year 1326. The work was long ascribed to one "
Matthew of Westminster", but it is now known that no actual chronicler of that name ever existed.
Roger's work, like that of most chroniclers, is valued not so much for what he culled from previous writers as for its full and lively narrative of contemporary events, from 1216 to 1235. An example being his description of
King John's troops action in the north during the bitter war at the end of his reign:
The historian
W. L. Warren argued that Roger intended to tell stories which encouraged virtue rather than to record facts:
The ''Revelation of St Nicholas to a monk of Evesham'' was composed in 1196 but the author is unknown. In an abridged form, it is found in Roger of Wendover's ''Flores Historiarum'' under the year 1196. It is a curious religious allegory, treating the pilgrimage of a soul from death through purgatory and paradise to heaven. The monk, conducted by
St Nicholas
Saint Nicholas of Myra (traditionally 15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greeks, Greek descent from the maritime city of Patara (Lycia), Patara in Anatolia (in modern-day Antalya ...
, is taken from place to place in purgatory, where he meets and converses with persons of various ranks, who relate their stories and their suffering. From purgatory he advances slowly to paradise, and finally reaches the gates of heaven; after which he awakes.
Publication history
Roger's work is known to us through one thirteenth-century manuscript in the
Bodleian Library (
Douce manuscript 207), a mutilated 14th-century copy in the
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...
(
Cotton
Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...
manuscript Otho B. v.), and the edition prepared by
Matthew Paris
Matthew Paris, also known as Matthew of Paris (; 1200 – 1259), was an English people, English Benedictine monk, English historians in the Middle Ages, chronicler, artist in illuminated manuscripts, and cartographer who was based at St A ...
which forms the first part of that writer's ''Chronica Majora''.
[See Paris, ed. Henry Richards Luard, Rolls Series, seven volumes).] The best edition of Roger's works is that of
H. O. Coxe (four volumes, London, 1841–44); there is another (covering the material from 1154) in the Rolls Series by H. G. Hewlett (three volumes, 1886–89). Roger wrote on the
Order of Assassins claiming they were situated in
Tyre "in Phoenicia, around the bishopric of Antardus". It is presumed he got this information from travellers visiting
St Albans or people returning from pilgrimage to
Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
.
Notes
References
* ''Roger of Wendover's Flowers of History, Comprising the History of England from the Descent of the Saxons to A. D. 1235 Formerly Ascribed to Matthew Paris'', trans. by J. A. Giles, 2 vols (London: Bohn, 1849) https://archive.org/details/rogerofwendovers01rogemiss.
* Luard's prefaces to vols. i, ii, iii and vii of the ''
Chronica Majora''
* ''
Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Scriptores'', Band xxviii
*
*
External links
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{{Short description, English monk and chronicler (died 1236)
1236 deaths
12th-century births
13th-century English historians
English Christian monks
English chroniclers
People from Wendover
13th-century writers in Latin