BY THE SAME AUTHOR. GEOFFREY DE MANDEVILLE: A Study of the Anarchy. pp. xii., 461. "Mr. Round treats his subject with great learning and acumen."-Times. "For many reasons this is the most remarkable historical work which has recently appeared."-Spectator. "It is not easy, within the limits of a review, to do justice to the learning and ability which characterise Mr. Round's study. Indeed few books so learned and suggestive have recently been published."--Literary World. "All the vivacity, keenness, freshness, and accuracy that have marked Mr. Round's previous writings."-Manchester Guardian. "The work is most skilfully and ably done, and a whole series of important discoveries is derived from Mr. Round's efforts. . . . The result is a very large addition to our knowledge, the clearing-up of many doubtful points, and the opening-up of further possibilities of investigation. Mr. Round has carried through an undertaking which raises him to a foremost position among historical scholars."-Athenæum. "Fresh life from dry records is what Mr. Round aims at .. he has permanently associated his name with the scientific study of Anglo-Norman his tory."-DR. LIEBERMANN (English Historical Review). "M. J. H. Round vient de nous donner une étude des plus pénétrantes et fécondes c'est un véritable modèle, et l'on doit souhaiter pour nos voisins qu'il fasse école."-Revue Historique. LONGMANS, GREEN & CO. FEUDAL ENGLAND HISTORICAL STUDIES ON THE XITH AND BY J. H. ROUND, M.A. Author of "Geoffrey de Mandeville: a Study of the Anarchy" "Patres nostri et nos hanc insulam in brevi edomuimus, in brevi nostris THE PREFACE HE present work is the outcome of a wish expressed to me from more than one quarter that I would reprint in a collected form, for the convenience of historical students, some more results of my researches in the history of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. But to these I have added, especially on Domesday, so much which has not yet seen the light, that the greater portion of the work is new, while the rest has been in part re-written. The object I have set before myself throughout is either to add to or correct our existing knowledge of facts. And for this I have gone in the main to records, whether in manuscript or in print. It is my hope that the papers in this volume may further illustrate the value of such evidence as supplementing and checking the chroniclers for what is still, in many respects, an obscure period of our history. As a foreign scholar has felicitously observed: Je lis avec plaisir le chroniqueur qui nous raconte les événements de son époque. Les détails anecdotiques, les traits piquants dont son œuvre est parsemée font mes délices. Mais comment saurai-je s'il dit la vérité si les pages qu'il me présente ne sont pas un roman de pure imagination? Dans les chartes, au contraire, tout est authentique, certain, précis, indubitable. Leur témoignage est contradictoirement établi, sous le contrôle de la partie adverse, avec l'approbation et la reconaissance de l'autorité souveraine, en présence d'une imposante assemblée de notables qui apposent leur signature. C'est la plus pure de toutes les sources où il soit possible de puiser un renseignement historique.1 1 Table chronologique des chartes et diplômes imprimés concernant l'histoire de la Belgique. Par Alphonse Wauters, vol. i., p. xxxi. 365459 |