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Tuesday 4 March 2008

The Normans in Normandy: Recent Historiography 2

Looking at hagiography

Other places, like Rouen,[1] Fecamp[2] or Mont-Saint-Michel[3] benefited from conditions that resulted in the development of important Norman hagiographical sources. This can be seen in the publications of the colloquy of Cerisy-la-Salle on the saints in medieval Normandy[4], the case studies of the output of Saint-Wandrille[5] and of Jumièges in a volume of Beihefte der Francia on the hagiography of the high Middle Ages in northern France and the recent edition of the Gesta of the abbots of Fontenelle[6]. Three pieces produced in the Norman-Poitevan milieu that led to the revival of the abbey of Jumièges[7] were: the life of Saint Aycadre, that of Saint Hugh[8] and the Complaint of William Longsword[9]. Their importance lies in the insight they provide into the regency of Louis IV in Normandy after the assassination of William Longsword in 942 and the role played by Jumièges in the revival of historical narrative in the tenth century. It was in the period after 942 that Felice Lifshitz[10] dated the Vita Romani written by a certain Fulbert, whose identity and chronology has not been accepted uncritically by historians. If the results of this research on the life of Saint Romain are contested, it becomes even more important to pose questions about the development of Norman ‘identity’[11] and the role played by the archbishops of Rouen[12] in restoring a literary culture to the duchy of Normandy.

Examining this material poses a series of problems about the ideas that were established during the first century of the duchy’s history. First, it means ditching the notion of a ‘cultural desert’ that has traditionally been ascribed to Normandy before 1000[13]. Secondly, the paucity of history that seemed to characterise the civil and ecclesiastical elites in the duchy in the tenth century now needs substantial revision[14]. It is now evident that the first major historiographical work composed in Normandy by Dudo of Saint-Quentin was not an isolated example and considerable efforts were being made to translate oral testimony into written forms. This was clearly visible in the last decade of the tenth century at precisely the same time as there were profound changes in society and the Norman state[15]. From this standpoint, though a range of possible interpretation remains, there is ample evidence of assimilation of the Normans in the civilisation of Christian Europe and this situation led to major anxieties especially how the descendants of the Scandinavian invaders established in Neustria[16] created a clear ‘identity’.

Diplomatic sources and the ‘mutation documentaire’ of the eleventh century

Historical writing was not simply the domain of chroniclers[17]. David Bates has underlined the fact that several of the great Norman charters of confirmation possibly resemble a sort of literary work. The two versions of the charter of donation to the collegial church of Auchy, drawn up at the end of the eleventh century, each in different ways trace the establishment of Norman domination on the frontiers of Normandy[18]. Research on the cartularies of Mont-Saint-Michel, Notre-Dame de Mortemer, Saint-Pierre de Préaux and Saint-Martin de Troarn shows that they were not only concerned with the management of the church but that there was also a temptation to use them to write or rewrite the histories of the establishments concerned. This systematic use of quite detailed charters and the systematic keeping of large charter collections[19] after c.1000 signalled what has been called a ‘documentary mutation’ rather than a tenurial or familial one. The familiarity of those writing documents with the production of history can easily be demonstrated. It is often the same individuals who produced both. The anonymous author of the Gesta of the abbots of Fontenelle was probably the monk charged with the care of the archives that he could easily have used to supplement his history. We know that Dudo of Saint-Quentin produced ducal diplomas: in one of the two original acta[20] carrying his signature, the author of De moribus et actis primorum Nomanniae ducum called himself ‘cancellarius’.

When examining documentary sources, it is necessary to recognise the continued importance of the views of Léopold Delisle expressed at the end of a lecture to the Société des Antiquaires de Normandie on 4th December 1862, that it was essential to publish the Norman sources[21]. Echoes of this demand can be seen in the articles published in the last few years. Cassandra Potts clearly recognised this in 1992: “Outside of the corpus of ducal charters, the number of private charters available in Normandy in the eleventh century is impressive. A considerable number have been published but hundreds remain unedited in archives, in libraries and in private collections in France.” This was reinforced by David Bates at a conference on actas as an expression of power in the high Middle Ages in November 1999 when he underlined the difficulties created for the analysis of Norman documents in the eleventh century because of the large number of unedited actas.

The publication by David Bates[22], in 1998, of the actas of William the Conqueror after his conquest of England completed the work of Marie Fauroux[23] and Lucien Musset[24]. This means that there are 340 known ducal actas covering the tenth and eleventh century as far as 1087. Beyond this date, historians have to rely to the older publications of Charles Homer Haskins[25], Léopold Delisle and Elie Berger[26] or the theses of Henry Chanteux[27] and Claude Fagnen[28], respectively on the Norman acta of Henry I and Richard I. Projects to publish the acta of Robert Curthose are underway in France by Pierre Bauduin and V. Gazeau and in Britain by David Bates, Judith Green and Elisabeth Van Houts, of Henry II and Richard Cœur de Lion[29] by Nicholas Vincent and there has already been some important work published in the charters of the Empress Matilda[30] and the Young Henry[31].

The publication of other Norman diplomas is not as well advanced. The tools necessary to examine the fascicules containing sources for the history of Normandy in the Bibliothèque nationale have already been published by Michel Nortier[32]. A list of sources for a history of the ‘régime domanial’ produced by Lucien Musset in 1945[33] included tenth century Normandy but there has been little research using these sources for the early decades of the duchy. The list of eleventh century acta established by Emily-Zack Tabuteau in 1988[34], does not pretend to be exhaustive but contains 888 acta, of which forty percent remain unedited or in a large number of old publications. This gives a good idea of the scale of what remains to be accomplished[35]. Several initiatives are already underway. The last few years have seen the publication of important documents from the abbey of the Trinité de Caen[36], the establishments of the regular canons in the province of Rouen[37], the abbeys of Notre-Dame-du-Val and Val-Richer[38]. The publication of the cartularies of the abbey of Saint-Pierre de Préaux[39], of Mont-Saint-Michel[40], of the cathedral of Coutances[41], the charters of the abbey of Conches (by Claire de Haas), the cartulary of Saint-Martin de Sées[42] and Savigny[43] is imminent The letters of leading Norman and Anglo-Norman church leaders (Anselm[44], Thomas Becket[45], and Arnoul de Lisieux[46]) are now available.

Besides the gradual extension of the range of documents, one of the most significant advances has examined the production of Norman diplomas by placing the form and diversity of the practice of writing in their political, social and cultural contexts (‘mutation documentaire’). Ten years ago, Cassandra Potts[47] identified the main characteristics of the evolution of Norman charters before 1066, linking observable changes before the reign of Richard II to a breakdown of public authority and control but also to more widespread use of writing and the growth of secular involvement in the religious life of the duchy. These conclusions were strengthened by an examination of different types of diploma such as charters[48], bills, chirographs and conventiones[49]. It was believed that even if the diversification of Norman documents, especially in the second half of the eleventh century is no problematic, there was no fundamental break and the development of new types of diplomas was not accompanied by the disappearance of older forms. As far as the supposed relationship between the ‘mutation documentaire’ and social and political change is concerned, David Bates[50] has recently emphasised the difficulties in regarding charters simply as an accurate reflection of political power: the analysis needs to take into account the complex forms of power takes A major problem remains the amount of material that is still unedited[51]: for example, there is still insufficient material available on the acta of the Norman episcopacy[52]. However, in others area of the production of Norman diploma, like dating or diffusion in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries[53] there are also problems.

These advances necessitate the use of existing methods and the creation of new ways of analysing documentary sources[54]. The database of ‘diplomatic texts’ developed by ARTEM (Atelier de recherche sur les textes médiévaux) is familiar to those working on Norman acta between the eleventh and the early thirteenth century. The inventory of 5000 original acta before 1121 that exist in French archives[55] contains more than 180 acta in favour of establishments inside the duchy of Normandy as well as dependencies of Norman houses outside Normandy: Jumièges[56]: 34 actas, Saint-Ouen de Rouen: 33, Fécamp: 22, and more than 12 acta covering Saint-Etienne de Caen[57], Saint-Wandrille and Saint-Martin de Troarn[58]). The project ‘Données textuelles et production documentaire dans la Normandie médiévale’ launched in 2000 by Centre de Recherches Archéologiques et Historiques Médiévales de Caen, proposes the development of ways of working that focus research on the process of documentary production in medieval Normandy. The area of research currently deals with the tenth and eleventh centuries though this will undoubtedly be chronologically extended. Its current objective is the creation of a database of Norman acta from the tenth and eleventh centuries. However, the development of this body of evidence will be linked to the conditions in which the production of documentary materials occurred and the ways in which writing developed in Norman society. This means taking into account the narrative sources, the transmission of memories and the ways in which writing revealed social changes. The journal Tabularia, issued by the project provides a medium through which the findings of the project and further debate and reflection may occur.


[1] Mathieu Arnoux, (dir.), Des clercs au service de la réforme. Etudes et documents sur les chanoines réguliers de la province de Rouen, Bibliotheca Victorina, volume ix, Turnhout, Brepols, 2000, pages 273-367 and Pierre Bauduin, ‘A propos d’un acte inédit du fonds de Saint-Ouen de Rouen: aperçu sur les débuts de la féodalité normande’, La Normandie vers l’An Mil , Rouen, Société de l’Histoire de Normandie, 2000, pages 93-104.

[2] Mathieu Arnoux, Les premières chroniques de Fécamp: de l’hagiographie à l’histoire’ in Pierre Bouet and François Neveux (eds.), Les Saints dans la Normandie médiévale, Actes du colloque de Cerisy-la-Salle (26-29 septembre 1996), Caen, PUC, 2000, pages 71-82

[3] Pierre Bouet and Olivier Desbordes are preparing an edition of the Revelatio, the Introductio monachorum and the De scuto et gladio of Baudry de Bourgueil and Catherine Bougy an edition of Roman du Mont-Saint-Michel by Guillaume de Saint-Pair. Pierre Bouet, ‘La Revelatio ecclesiae sancti Michaelis et les origines du culte de saint Michel sur le Mont Tombe’, in Cultes et pèlerinage à saint Michel en Occident, Actes du colloque de Cerisy-la-Salle (2000) is also in preparation.

[4] Of especial importance are the papers by Pierre Bouet ‘Les sources hagiographiques: nature et méthode d’analyse’ and ‘Bibliographie des sources relatives aux saints normands’, in Pierre Bouet and François Neveux (eds), Les Saints dans la Normandie médiévale, Actes du colloque de Cerisy-la-Salle (26-29 septembre 1996), Presses Universitaires de Caen, 2000, pages 11-20 and pages 305-323

[5] On the historiography of Saint-Wandrille, see: Elisabeth M. C. Van Houts, ‘Historiography and Hagiography at Saint-Wandrille: the “Inventio et Miracula Sancti Vulfranni”’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume xii, 1989, pages 233-251, reprinted in Elisabeth M. C. Van Houts, History and Family Traditions in England and the Continent, 1000-1200, Ashgate (Variorum Collected Studies Series), 1999, John Howe, ‘The Hagiography of Saint-Wandrille (Fontenelle) (Province of Haute-Normandie)’, in L’hagiographie du haut Moyen Age en Gaule du Nord. Manuscrits, textes et centres de production, Martin Heinzelmann (dir.), Stuttgart, Thorbecke, Beihefte der Francia, volume lii, 2001, pages 127-192 and Pascal Pradié, ‘Saint Wandrille à Romainmôtier’, Gesta. Revue de l’abbaye Saint-Wandrille, volume xxiv, 2002, pages 151-166.

[6] Chronique des abbés de Fontenelle (Saint-Wandrille), edited by Pascal Pradié, Paris, Les Belles-Lettres, 1999.

[7] On Jumièges, see Mathieu Arnoux, ‘Disparition ou conservation des sources et abandon de l’acte écrit: quelques observations sur les actes de Jumièges’, dossier Jumièges, foyer de production documentaire. Tabularia. Sources écrites de la Normandie médiévale, Etudes, n° 1, 2001, pages 1-10, Pierre Bouet, (editor and translator), ‘Carmen de fundatione, ruina et restauratione inclyti monasterii Gemmeticensis’, dossier Jumièges, foyer de production documentaire. Tabularia. Sources écrites de la Normandie médiévale, Etudes, n° 1, 2001, pages 33-52, Jacques Le Maho, ‘La production éditoriale à Jumièges vers le milieu du Xe siècle’, dossier Jumièges, foyer de production documentaire. Tabularia. Sources écrites de la Normandie médiévale, Etudes, n° 1, 2001, pages 11-32, Benoit-Michel Tock, ‘Les chartes originales de l’abbaye de Jumièges jusqu’en 1120 ’, Tabularia. Sources écrites de la Normandie médiévale, Études, n° 2, 2002, pages 1-19 and John Howe, ‘The Hagiography of Jumièges (Province of Haute-Normandie)’, in L’hagiographie du haut Moyen Âge en Gaule du Nord. Manuscrits, textes et centres de production, Martin Heinzelmann (dir.), Stuttgart, Thorbecke, Beihefte der Francia, volume lii, 2001, pages 91-125.

[8] Nancy Gauthier, ‘Quelques hypothèses sur la rédaction des vies des saints évêques de Normandie’, Memoriam sanctorum venerantes. Miscellanea in onore di Monsignor Victor Saxer, Vatican, Pontifico Istituto di archeologia cristiana, Vatican, 1992, pages 449-468.

[9] Robert Helmerichs (ed.), The Planctus for William Longsword, http://www.ukans.edu/carrie/Planctus). See a discussion and translation of this enigmatic text in my Rollo and William Longsword, 2003, pages 29-53.

[10] Felice Lifshitz, ‘St Romain de Rouen: missionnaire franc dans la Normandie des Vikings’, Voix d’ouest en Europe. Souffles d’Europe en ouest. Actes du colloque international d’Angers, 21-24 mai 1992, Presses de l’Université d’Angers, 1993, pages 23-30.

[11] On the issue of ‘identity’ see the papers by Pierre Bauduin, ‘Autour d’une construction identitaire: la naissance d’une historiographie normande à la charnière des Xe-XIe siècles’, in Conquête, acculturation, identité: des Normands aux Hongrois. Les traces de la conquête, textes rassemblés et présentés par Piroska Nagy, Cahiers du GRHIS, 2001, pages 79-91 and Cassandra Potts, ‘Atque unum ex diversis gentibus populum effecit: historical tradition and the norman identity’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume xviii, 1995, pages 139-152.

[12] Louis Violette, ‘Une entreprise historiographique au temps de la Réforme grégorienne: les Actes des archevêques de Rouen’, Revue d’Histoire de l’Église de France, volume lxxxiii, 1997, pages 343-365. For further information on Rouen see, Mathieu Arnoux, ‘La conversion des Normands de Neustrie et la restauration de l’Église dans la province de Rouen’, in Le christianisme en Occident du début du VIIe siècle au milieu du XIe siècle. Textes et documents réunis par François Bougard, Paris, SEDES, 1997, pages 269-281 and Louis Violette, ‘Le thème des origines de l’Église de Rouen d’après une œuvre de ses chanoines: les Annales de Rouen’, in Sylvette Lemagnen et Philippe Manneville (eds.), Chapitres et cathédrales en Normandie, Actes du XXXIe Congrès des Sociétés historiques et archéologiques de Normandie, Série des Congrès des Sociétés historiques et archéologiques de Normandie, Caen, 1997, pages 287-294 and ‘Le problème de l’attribution d’un texte rouennais du XIe siècle: les Acta archiepiscoporum Rothomagensium’, Analecta Bollandiana, volume cxv, 1997, pages 113-129.

[13] Bate, Keith, ‘Les Normands et la littérature latine au début du nouveau millénium, Cahiers de civilisation médiévale, 43e année, juil.-sept., Poitiers, 2000, pages 233-241.

[14] Two papers are of particular importance on this issue: Pierre Bouet, ‘Les chroniqueurs francs et normands face aux invasions vikings’ and Catherine Bougy, ‘Comment les chroniqueurs du XIIe siècle ont-ils perçu les invasions vikings?’, in Elisabeth Ridel (ed.) L’Héritage maritime des Vikings en Europe de l’Ouest, Actes du colloque international de la Hague (Flottemanville-Hague, 30 septembre-3 octobre 1999), Presses Universitaires de Caen, 2002, pages 57-74 and pages 75-100 respectively.

[15] See, for example the two papers by Elisabeth M. C Van Houts, ‘A Note on Jezabel and Semiramis, Two Latin Norman Poems from the Early Eleventh Century’, Journal of Medieval Latin, volume ii, 1992, pages 18-24 and ‘The Date of Warner of Rouen’s Moriuth’, both reprinted in Elisabeth M. C. Van Houts History and Family Traditions in England and the Continent, 1000-1200, Ashgate (Variorum Collected Studies Series), 1999

[16] Felice Lifshitz, The Norman Conquest of Pious Neustria. Historiographic Discourse and Saintly Relics 684-1090, Toronto, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1995 is crucial.

[17] Gilduin Davy, ‘Le scribe, le droit et le prince : recherche autour de l’utilisation de l’écrit juridique par les ducs de Normandie de la fin du Xe à la fin du XIe siècle’, Tabularia. Sources écrites de la Normandie médiévale, http://www.unicaen.fr/mrsh/crahm/revue/tabularia/debatdavy.html, 2002.

[18] On this point see, Pierre Bauduin, La Première Normandie (Xe-XIe siècles). Sur les frontières de la haute Normandie: identité et construction d’une principauté, Caen, Presses Universitaires de Caen, 2002.

[19] The systematic keeping of large charter collections was not unique to Normandy. There is ample evidence from southern Italy, for example, the chronicle-chartulary of Casauria written around 1175 copied some 2,100 charters and the archives of the abbey of the Holy Trinity, Cava near Salerno contains over a thousand eleventh century charters and over 3,500 from the twelfth.

[20] The first acta is dated 1011, printed in Recueil des chartes des ducs de Normandie, 911-1066 ed. Marie Fauroux, Mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de Normandie 36; Caen, 1961, no. 13, pages 86-89, and survives in the original (Rouen, Archives Départementales, Seine-Maritime ms. 14 H 915A). The second is dated 1015, printed in Recueil des chartes des ducs de Normandie, 911-1066 ed. Marie Fauroux, Mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de Normandie 36; Caen, 1961, no. 18, pages 100-102 from the original in Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Collection de Picardie 352 no. 1.

[21] Léopold Delisle, ‘Discours d’ouverture de la séance publique du 4 décembre 1862’, Bulletin de la Société des Antiquaires de Normandie, volume ii, 1862, pages 304-337 and 336-337: “En publiant nos anciennes chartes, vous resterez fidèles aux inspirations qui ont présidé à la fondation de la Société; vous arracherez à l’oubli les restes d’un passé glorieux; vous établirez sur des bases inébranlables l’histoire de la Normandie; vous mettrez dans tout son jour la part que nos pères ont prise à développer la civilisation du moyen-âge et à préparer les progrès des temps modernes”. This statement is quoted by David Bates in the introduction to his edition of the charters of William I.

[22] David Bates, Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum. The Acta of William I (1066-1087), Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1998. See also his ‘The Conqueror’s Charters’, in Carola Hicks (ed..), England in the Eleventh Century, Harlaxton Medieval Studies, volume ii, Stamford, 1992, pages 1-15 and ‘The Prosopographical Study of Anglo-Norman Royal Charters’, in Katharine Keats Rohan (ed.), Family Trees and the Roots of Politics: the Prosopography of Britain and France from the Tenth to the Twelfth Centuries, Woodbridge, Boydell Press, 1997, pages 89-102.

[23] Marie Fauroux (ed.) Recueil des actes des ducs de Normandie (911-1066), Mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de Normandie, volume xxxvi, Caen, 1961 remains essential.

[24] Lucien Musset, Les actes de Guillaume le Conquérant et de la reine Mathilde pour les abbayes caennaises, Mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de Normandie, volume xxxvi, Caen 1967.

[25] Charles Homer Haskins, Norman Institutions, Harvard University Press, 1918.

[26] Léopold Delisle and Elie Berger, Recueil des actes d’Henri II, roi d’Angleterre et duc de Normandie concernant les provinces françaises et les affaires de France, four volumes, Paris, Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 1909-1924.

[27] Henry Chanteux, Recueil des actes d’Henri Ier Beauclerc, duc de Normandie, three volumes, Thèse de l’École nationale des chartes, Paris, 1932.

[28] Claude Fagnen, Essai sur quelques actes normands de Richard Cœur-de-Lion, five volumes, Thèse de l’École nationale des chartes, Paris, 1971.

[29] Richard Mortimer, ‘The charters of Henry II: what are the criteria for authenticity?’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume xii, 1989, pages 119-134 and ‘The Angevin Acta Project in France and England’, Anglo-Norman Anonymous, 13, 3, October 1995.

[30] Marjorie Chibnall, ‘The charters of the Empress Mathilda’, in George Garnett and John Hudson (eds.), Law and Government in Medieval England, Essays in honour of Sir James Holt, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1994, pages 276-298.

[31] R. J. Smith, ‘Henry II’s heir: the Acta and Seal of Henry the Young King, 1170-1183’, English Historical Review, volume cxvi, 2001, pages 297-326.

[32] Pierre Bauduin ‘Bibliographie des travaux de Michel Nortier’, in Recueil d’études normandes offert en hommage à Michel Nortier, Cahiers Léopold Delisle, volume, xliv, 1995, pages 5-27.

[33] Lucien Musset, ‘Notes pour servir d’introduction à l’histoire foncière de la Normandie. Les domaines de l’époque franque et les destinées du régime domanial du IXe au XIe siècle’, Bulletin de la Société des Antiquaires de Normandie, volume xlix, 1942-1945, pages 7-97.

[34] Emily Zack Tabuteau, Transfers of Property in Eleventh-Century Norman Law, University of North California Press, 1988.

[35] Important publications in this area include two papers by Mathieu Arnoux, ‘Cartulaire de la sidérurgie normande (1085-1337)’, in Mineurs, férons et maîtres de forge. Études sur la production du fer dans la Normandie du Moyen Âge, XIe-XVe siecles., Paris, 1993, pages 419-484 and ‘Aux origines d’une léproserie: la pancarte de la Madeleine d’Orbec (1105-1135)’, in Recueil d’études normandes offert en hommage à Michel Nortier, Cahiers Léopold Delisle, volume xliv, 1995, pages 209-222. In addition, see David Bates, ‘Four recently rediscovered charters’, Annales de Normandie, volume xlv, 1995, pages 35-48, Marc-Antoine Dor, Seigneurs en Ile-de-France occidentale et en Haute-Normandie: contribution à l’histoire des seigneurs de Montfort-l’Amaury, des comtes d’Evreux, et de leur entourage au XIIe siècle et au début du XIIIe siècle, Thèse de l’École nationale des chartes, two volumes, Paris, 1992 and Judith Everard and Michael Jones (eds.), The Charters of Duchess Constance of Brittany and her Family, 1171-1221, Woodbridge, The Boydell Press, 2000

[36] John Walmsley, Charters and custumals of the abbey of Holy Trinity Caen, Part 2: The French Estates, Oxford University Press, 1994.

[37] Mathieu Arnoux (ed.), Des clercs au service de la réforme. Études et documents sur les chanoines réguliers de la province de Rouen, Bibliotheca Victorina, volume xi, Turnhout, Brepols, 2000. A documentary appendix, pages 273-357 contains the Chronique de Sainte-Barbe-en-Auge, pages 275-293, Chronique de fondation de l’Ile-Dieu, pages 297-306 and the Chronique de fondation de Notre-Dame d’Ardenne, pages 306-310.

[38] Mathieu Arnoux and Christophe Maneuvrier, ‘Deux abbayes de Basse-Normandie: Notre-Dame du Val et le Val Richer (XIIe-XIIIe siècles)’, Le Pays Bas Normand, n° 237-238, 2000 (1-2).

[39] Dominique Rouet, Le cartulaire de l’abbaye Saint-Pierre de Préaux: étude et édition du manuscrit dans son état de 1227, Thèse pour le diplôme d’archiviste paléographe, Paris, École nationale des chartes, four volumes, 1999 and ‘Le cartulaire de l’abbaye Saint-Pierre de Préaux: présentation du manuscrit’, Tabularia, n° 1, 2000, pages 1-11.

[40] Katharine S. B. Keats-Rohan, The Cartulary of Mont-Saint-Michel, Stamford, Paul Watkins Publishing, (in press) and her earlier statement ‘Bibliothèque municipale d’Avranches, 210: Cartulary of Mont-Saint-Michel’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume xxi, 1998, pages 95-112.

[41] Julie Fontanel, Le chartrier de la cathédrale de Coutances, XIe-XIVe siècles. Étude et edition, Thèse pour le diplôme d’archiviste paléographe, four volumes, Paris, École nationale des chartes, 1999 and her paper ‘La réorganisation religieuse sous Guillaume le Conquérant: le cas de l’église de Coutances’, Revue de l’Avranchin et du Pays de Granville, volume lxxvii, 2000, pages 189-208.

[42] Jean-Michel Bouvris, ‘Aux premiers temps d’une grande abbaye normande au XIe siècle: les chartes de fondation de Saint-Martin de Sées’, Annales de Normandie, volume xxxix, 1989, pages 452-454.

[43] Béatrice Poulle Le chartrier de l’abbaye de Savigny au diocèse d’Avranches: édition partielle (1202-1243) et commentaires, Thèse de l’École nationale des chartes, Paris, 1989 and Béatrice Poulle, ‘Les sources de l’histoire de l’abbaye cistercienne de Savigny (Manche) au diocèse d’Avranches’, Revue Mabillon, new series, volume vii, 1996, pages 105-125

[44] The Letters of Saint Anselm of Canterbury translated and annotated by Walter Fröhlich, three volumes, Cistercian Publications (96, 97 and 142), Kalamazoo, 1990-1994.

[45] The Correspondence of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1162-1170, edited and translated by Anne J. Duggan, two volumes, Oxford, Clarendon Press (Oxford Medieval Texts), 2000.

[46] The letter collections of Arnulf of Lisieux, translated by Carolyn Poling Schriber, Lewiston (N.Y.), Mellen Press, 1997.

[47] Cassandra Potts, ‘The Early Norman Charters: A New Perspective on an Old Debate’, in Carola Hicks (ed.), England in the Eleventh Century, Harlaxton Medieval Studies, volume ii, Stamford, 1992, pages 25-40.

[48] David Bates, ‘Les chartes de confirmation et les pancartes normandes du règne de Guillaume le Conquérant’, Pancartes monastiques des XIe-XIIe siècles, études réunies par Michel Parisse, Turnhout, Brepols, 1998, pages 97-109.

[49] David Crouch, ‘A Norman conventio and bonds of lordship in the Middle Ages’, George Garnett and John Hudson (eds.), Law and Government in Medieval England, Essays in honour of Sir James Holt, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1994, pages 299-324.

[50] David Bates, ‘La mutation documentaire et le royaume anglo-normand (seconde moitié du XIe siècle-début XIIe siècle)’, Les actes comme expression du pouvoir au Haut Moyen Âge, Actes de la table ronde organisée par l’ARTEM (Nancy 2), 27-29 novembre 1999, in press.

[51] Hubert Dupuy, Recueil des actes des évêques de Bayeux antérieurs à 1205, two volumes, Thèse de l’École nationale des chartes, Paris, 1970 and Thomas Waldman, Hugh of Amiens, archbishop of Rouen (1130-1164), PhD Thesis, University of Oxford, 1970, containing the acta of Hugues d’Amiens on pages 166-561.

[52] David Bates, ‘Le rôle des évêques dans l’élaboration des actes ducaux et royaux entre 1066 et 1077’, Pierre Bouet et François Neveux (eds.)Les évêques normands du XIe siècle, Actes du colloque de Cerisy-la-Salle (30 sept.-3 oct. 1993), Presses Universitaires de Caen, 1995, pages 103-115.

[53] Mathieu Arnoux, ‘Essor et déclin d’un type diplomatique: les actes passés coram parrochia en Normandie (XIIe-XIIIe siècles)’, Bibliothèque de l’École des Chartes, volume cliv, 1996, pages 323-357.

[54] Véronique Gazeau, , ‘Recherches autour de la datation des actes normands aux Xe-XIIe siècles’, Michael Gervers (ed.), Dating Medieval Undated Charters, Woodbridge, The Boydell Press-Collegium Budapest, 2000, pages 61-79.

[55] La diplomatique française du Haut Moyen Âge. Inventaire des chartes originales antérieures à 1121 conservées en France, Benoît-Michel Tock (dir), two volumes, Turnhout, Brepols, 2001.

[56] Mathieu Arnoux, ‘Disparition ou conservation des sources et abandon de l’acte écrit: quelques observations sur les actes de Jumièges’, Tabularia, 2001, pages 1-10 and Benoît-Michel Tock, ‘Les chartes originales de l’abbaye de Jumièges jusqu’en 1120’, Tabularia, 2002, pages 1-19.

[57] See the two papers by Jean-Michel Bouvris, ‘A propos des échanges entre les “scriptoria” des abbayes caennaises au XIe siècle: la “donation” de la dîme de Biéville par Renouf, vicomte de Bayeux’, Recueil d’études en hommage à Lucien Musset, Caen, 1990, pages 203-214 and ‘Une possession des comtes d’Eu dans le Houlme à l’époque ducale: Bazoches. A propos d’une charte originale de Jean, comte d’Eu, de 1154’, Annuaire des cinq départements de la Normandie, volume clv, 1995, pages 79-89.

[58] Dominique Rouet, ‘Une dépendance de l’abbaye Saint-Pierre-de-Préaux: le prieuré Sainte-Radegonde de Neufchâtel-en-Bray d’après les sources de l’abbaye de Préaux’, Annales de Normandie, volume xixl, 1999, pages 515-538 and Entre gestion et historiographie: les cartulaires monastiques de la Normandie moyenne (Xe-XIIe siècles). L’exemple des cartulaires de Notre-Dame de Mortemer, Saint-Pierre de Préaux et Saint-Martin de Troarn, Diplôme de conservateur de bibliothèque, Lyon, 2000.

Monday 3 March 2008

The Normans in Normandy: Recent Historiography 1

The millennium of the reforms begun by William of Volpiano in the early years of the eleventh century provided an opportunity to reappraise the place held by the monastery of Fécamp in the creation of materials from which historians have been able to reconstruct the history of the duchy of Normandy from the earliest stages of its development. The monastery at Fécamp was the centre of a revival of written materials in the eleventh century. One expression of this is the foundation charter of the collegiate church at Fécamp in 990. It is also important to remember that the oldest ducal known was granted during the reign of Richard II in favour of the abbey of Fécamp dated 30th May 1006 and preserved in the Musée de la Bénédictine[1]. Meanwhile, from the end of the tenth century, the basis of a historiographical tradition appears to have been established at Fécamp. This material considers the renaissance of research on Normandy between the tenth and thirteenth century that has occurred in recent years and especially since 1990. An overview of this period and some of the historiographical developments can be found in two recent works[2].

Looking again at the chronicles

One of the most fertile areas in recent research has without doubt been a re-evaluation of the historiography of the ducal period in Normandy. The recent studies by Leah Shopkow[3], Elisabeth Van Houts[4] and Emily Albu[5] each illustrate the importance of new interpretations of the sources, the necessity of examining both their function and significance in the history of Normandy in the eleventh and twelfth centuries and the part women played, alongside men in the transmission of the facts of the past. Women’s ‘remembrance of the past’ continued to be embodied in both histories and hagiographies in this period. Dudo of St Quentin in his De moribus et actis primorum Normanniae ducum praises the ‘capricious memory’ of countess Gunnor, whose husband and son had commissioned Dudo to write. Edward the Confessor’s widow Edith was surely a major source of oral evidence for the author of Edward’s life. Elisabeth Van Houts notes that Constance fitzGilbert was the patron of the historian Gaimar and surmises the impact on the historians Orderic Vitalis and William of Malmesbury of their Anglo-Saxon mothers. Thus histories incorporated women’s as well as men’s memories.

This broadening of the boundaries of historiographical research has greatly profited from the ‘grand narrative’ left by the chroniclers of the duchy. New editions of the central texts have proliferated in the thirty years since the publication of a modern edition of Orderic Vitalis’ history[6]. The last decade has seen new editions of Gesta Normannorum Ducum by Guillaume de Jumièges, Orderic Vital and Robert de Torigni[7], the Gesta Guillelmi of Guillaume de Poitiers[8] and of Carmen de Hastingae Proelio by Guy d’Amiens[9]. There have also been new critical editions, some in translation, of the French chroniclers (Adémar de Chabannes[10] and Ralph Glaber[11]), English chroniclers[12] (William of Malmesbury[13], Henry of Huntingdon[14] and John of Worcester[15]) and the Italian chronicler Geoffrey Malaterra[16], all of whom included valuable information on the history of the duchy and its inhabitants in their writings. In addition to new editions of chronicles, there has been important new work in Orderic Vitalis[17] and William of Jumièges[18].

For the De moribus et actis primorum Normanniae ducum of Dudo of Saint-Quentin, historians still rely on the nineteenth century edition by Jules Lair[19], though there is an English translation by Eric Christiansen published in 1998 and a version on the Internet edited by Felice Lifshitz, based on the Berlin manuscript[20]. A significant number of studies have been published in the late two decades showing that a fundamental reappraisal of this seminal source is essential. Henri Prentout’s[21] influential study is in need of revision after almost a century. Pierre Bouet is currently working on a new edition of the canon of Saint-Quentin’s magnum opus.[22]

The chronicle of Robert de Torigni has not been the subject of such intense attention but the genealogies inserted by the chronicler in the Gesta Normannorum ducum have been reassessed[23]. The Roman de Rou, available in an English translation[24], has been re-examined from the perspective of the importance and validity of the oral traditions recorded by Wace[25]. The work of these two authors and of their contemporary Benoît de Sainte-Maure[26] have been placed in a different perspective as a result of work concentrating on the court and political culture of the Plantagenet world[27]. The political and ideological motives[28] of the writing or the rewriting of history aimed at raising the status of the maternal ancestors of Henry II to establish links between the Plantagenets with Normandy and to justify their right to the English throne. However, this had the effect of reviving the old antagonism between the Normans and the Angevins and providing the dynasty with a Norman memory[29]. The willingness to reconcile an impartial narrative of contemporary history with effective support for the Plantagenet king led Robert de Torigni to use an annalistic genre in the redaction of his universal chronicle.

Beyond the ‘grand narratives’

A further positive effect of the re-evaluation of the major chroniclers has been the discovery, and in some cases rediscovery of sources on the margins of the ‘grand’ Norman historiography. Jacques Le Maho has drawn our attention to a source that reports the arrival of the first settlers at Asiniaca (probably Isigny-sur-Mer) on the site of a ruined ancient monastery at Fécamp[30]. The text, attributed to a churchman, perhaps Henry, bishop of Bayeux is well informed about the traditions of Fécamp[31] and is the oldest piece of writing composed in the duchy dating from the beginning of the 930s. The development of this first Fécamp historiography appears to prepare the ground for later and better known works like the chronicle contained in ‘manuscript 128’ at Rouen that reports the foundation of the abbey and was probably composed a little before 1001[32]. Elisabeth Van Houts has discovered a document, invaluable for understanding the organisation and logistics of the Norman Conquest of England containing a list of the major players in the expedition with an indication of the number of ships they provided[33]. The text, probably drawn up at Fécamp based on information received in the months before the Norman fleet sailed, shows not simply the role played by Fécamp in organising the Conquest but also the preservation and transmission of a written or oral memory of the events. Between 1160 and 1170, Wace drew on Fécamp for part of his information on the conquest at the same time as the ship list was being copied into the Chronicle of Battle Abbey. This monastery, founded by William I on the site of his victory over Harold, probably assembled some historiographical traditions that had come from the continent and which can be seen in the Brevis relatio de Guillelmo nobilissimo comite Normannorum[34].


[1] Fécamp, Musée de la Bénédictine, n° 1 printed in Marie Fauroux (ed.) Recueil des actes des ducs de Normandie (911-1066), Mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de Normandie, volume xxxvi, Caen, 1961, n° 9, pages 79-91.

[2] François de Beaurepaire et Jean-Pierre Chaline (eds.) La Normandie vers l’an mil, Rouen, Société de l’Histoire de Normandie, 2000 is a useful collection of short papers on Normandy c.1000 and Elisabeth M. C Van Houts The Normans in Europe, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2000 provides selective translation and commentary of some of the major sources.

[3] Leah Shopkow, History and Community: Norman Writing in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries, Washington D. C., Catholic University of America Press, 1997.

[4] For Elisabeth M. C. Van Houts, see Memory and Gender in Medieval Europe 900-1200, Basingstoke, Macmillan Press, 1999 and History and Family Traditions in England and the Continent, 1000-1200, Aldershot, Ashgate (Variorum Collected Studies Series), 1999. There is a valuable review of Memory and Gender in Pauline Stafford and Anneke B. Mulder-Bakker (eds.) Gendering the Middle Ages, Oxford, Blackwell, 2001, pages 192-196.

[5] Emily Albu, The Normans in their Histories: Propaganda, Myth and Subversion, Woodbridge, Boydell Press, 2001.

[6] The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis, edited and translated by M. Chibnall, six volumes, Oxford, Clarendon Press (Oxford Medieval Texts), 1969-1980.

[7] The Gesta Normannorum Ducum of William of Jumièges, Orderic Vitalis and Robert of Torigni, edited and translated by Elisabeth M. C. Van Houts, two volumes, Oxford, Clarendon Press (Oxford Medieval Texts), 1992-1995.

[8] The Gesta Guillelmi of William of Poitiers, edited and translated by Ralph H. C. Davis and Marjorie Chibnall, Oxford, Clarendon Press (Oxford Medieval Texts), 1998.

[9] The Carmen de Hastingae Proelio of Guy Bishop of Amiens, edited Frank Barlow, Oxford, Clarendon Press (Oxford Medieval Texts), 1999.

[10] Adémar de Chabannes, Ademari Cabannensis Chronicon, edited Pascale Bourgain, Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaeualis, volume cxxix, Turnhout, Brepols, 1999.

[11] Raoul Glaber, Histoires, edited and translated by Mathieu Arnoux, Turnhout, Brepols, 1996. See also Mathieu Arnoux, ‘Un observateur indulgent: Raoul le Glabre, les ducs de Normandie, leurs concubines et leurs enfants’, La Normandie vers l’An Mil, Rouen, Société de l’Histoire de Normandie, 2000, pages 88-90.

[12] Encomium Emmae Reginae, edited Alistair Campbell, Camden, 3rd series, vol. lxxii, London, 1949, reprinted with an introduction by Simon Keynes, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1998,

[13] William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum Anglorum, edited and translated by Roger A. B. Mynors, Rodney M. Thomson, Michael Winterbottom, two volumes, Oxford, Clarendon Press (Oxford Medieval Texts), 1998-1999 and Historia novella, The contemporary history, edited Edmund King, translated K.R. Potter, Oxford, Clarendon Press (Oxford Medieval Texts), 1998.

[14] Henry of Huntingdon, Historia Anglorum (History of the English People), edited and translated by Diana Greenway, Oxford, Clarendon Press (Oxford Medieval Texts), 1996.

[15] John of Worcester: The Chronicle of John of Worcester, II, The Annals from 450 to 1066, edited and translated by Reginald Ralph Darlington and Patrick McGurk, The Chronicle of John of Worcester, III, The Annals from 1067 to 1140 with the Gloucester Interpolations and the Continuation to 1141, edited and translated by Patrick McGurk, Oxford, Clarendon Press (Oxford Medieval Texts), 1995-1998.

[16] Étude critique avec traduction et commentaire des deux premiers livres de la chronique de Geoffroi Malaterra, De rebus gestis Rogerii Calabriae e Siciliae comitis et Roberti Guiscardi ducis fratris eius, edited Maris-Agnès Lucas-Avenel, four volumes, Thèse de doctorat de Langues et littératures anciennes, Universités de Caen Basse-Normandie/Palerme, 2001.

[17] Pierre Bouet, ‘L’image des évêques normands dans l’œuvre d’Orderic Vital’, Pierre Bouet et François Neveux (eds.) Les évêques normands du XIe siècle, Actes du colloque de Cerisy-la-Salle (30 sept.-3 oct. 1993), Caen, Presses Universitaires de Caen, 1995, pages 253-275 and Marjorie Chibnall, ‘A Twelfth-Century View of the Historical Church: Orderic Vitalis’, in The Church Retrospective, R. N. Swanson (ed.), Studies in Church History, volume xxxiii, Woodbridge, Boydell, 1997, pages 115-134

[18] Elisabeth M. C Van Houts, ‘Une hypothèse sur l’identification de Willelmus notarius comme l’historien Guillaume de Jumièges’, Tabularia, http://www.unicaen.fr/mrsh/crahm/revue/tabularia/debatevha.html

[19] Dudon de Saint-Quentin, De gestis Normanniae ducum seu de moribus et actis primorum Normanniae ducum, edited Jules Lair, Mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de Normandie, volume xxii, Caen, 1865.

[20] Dudo of Saint-Quentin, History of the Normans, translated by Eric Christiansen, Woodbridge, The Boydell Press, 1998. Felice Lifshitz’s version is on the Internet at the following location: http://orb.rhodes.edu/ORB_done/Dudo/dudintro.html

[21] Henri Prentout, Étude critique sur Dudon de Saint-Quentin et son histoire des premiers ducs normands, Paris, Picard, 1916

[22] The most important recent studies on Dudo of St Quentin are: Emily Albu Hanawalt, ‘Dudo of Saint-Quentin: The Heroic Past Imagined’, Haskins Society Journal, volume vi, 1994, pages 111-118; Pierre Bouet, ‘Dudon de Saint-Quentin et Virgile: l’Enéide au service de la cause normande’, in Recueil d’études en hommage à Lucien Musset, Caen, 1990, pages 215-236 and ‘Dudon de Saint-Quentin et le martyre de Guillaume Longue Épée’, Pierre Bouet et François Neveux (eds..), Les Saints dans la Normandie médiévale, Caen, 2000, pages 237-258; Claude Carozzi, ‘Des Daces aux Normands, le mythe et l’identification d’un peuple chez Dudon de Saint-Quentin’, Claude Carozzi et Huguette Taviani-Carozzi (eds.), Peuples du Moyen Âge. Problèmes d’identification, Séminaire Société, Idéologies et Croyances au Moyen Âge, Publications de l’Université de Provence, 1996, pages 7-25; Pado Gatti et Antonella Degl’Innocenti (eds.), Dudone di San Quintino, Trente, Universita degli Studi di Trento (Labirinti, 16), 1995; Jean-Guy Gouttebroze, ‘La violence peut-elle fonder un état? Dudon de Saint-Quentin et l’établissement du duché de Normandie’, in La violence dans le monde medieval, Aix-en-Provence, 1994, pages 255-264; Victoria B. Jordan, ‘The Role of Kingship in Tenth Century Normandy: Hagiography of Dudo of Saint-Quentin’, Haskins Society Journal, volume iii, 1991, pages 53-62, Felice Lifshitz, ‘Dudo’s Historical Narrative and the Norman Succession of 996’, Journal of Medieval History, volume xx, 1994, pages 101-120 and ‘Translating “Feudal” Vocabulary: Dudo of Saint-Quentin’, Haskins Society Journal, volume ix, 1997, Woodbridge, Boydell Press, 2001, pages 39-56, Elisabeth Ridel, ‘A-t-on vraiment parlé la “langue danoise” à Bayeux vers 940? Une relecture de Dudon de Saint-Quentin’ in Mélanges Pierre Bouet, Cahiers des Annales de Normandie, n° 32, 2002, pages 135-143 and Pierre Bouet, ‘Dudon de Saint-Quentin et Fécamp’, Tabularia. Sources écrites de la Normandie médiévale, Études, n° 2, 2002, pages 57-70.

[23] Elisabeth M. C. Van Houts, ‘Robert of Torigni as Genealogist’, in Christopher Harper-Bill, Christopher Holdsworth et Janet L. Nelson (eds) Studies in Medieval History presented to R. Allen Brown, Woodbridge, The Boydell Press, 1989, pages 215-233, reprinted in Elisabeth M. C. Van Houts, History and Family Traditions in England and the Continent, 1000-1200, Ashgate (Variorum Collected Studies Series), 1999. See also, Katharine S. B. Keats-Rohan, ‘Aspects of Robert of Torigny’s Genealogies Revisited’, Nottingham Medieval Studies, volume xxxvii, 1993, pages 21-27, Elisabeth M. C. Van Houts, ‘Le roi et son historien: Henri II Plantagenêt et Robert de Torigni, abbé du Mont-Saint-Michel’, in Henri II Plantagenêt et son temps. Actes du colloque de Fontevraud, 29 septembre-1er octobre 1990, Cahiers de civilisation médiévale, 1994, pages 115-118 and Jean Béasse, ‘Au XIIe siècle... Un prestigieux abbé au Mont-Saint-Michel, Robert de Torigni (1154-1186)’, Les Annales du Mont-Saint-Michel, 126e année, 1, 2000, pages 7-12 and 3, 2000, pages 2-4.

[24] Wace, The Roman de Rou, translated by Glyn S. Burgess, Saint-Hélier, Société Jersiaise, 2002 is the most recent English translation.

[25] On Wace, see Elisabeth M. C. Van Houts, ‘Wace as Historian’, in Katharine Keats-Rohan (ed.), Family Trees and the Roots of Politics. The Prosopography of Britain and France from the Tenth to the Twelfth Century, Woodbridge, The Boydell Press, 1997, pages 103-132, republished in Elisabeth M. C. Van Houts, History and Family Traditions in England and the Continent, 1000-1200, Ashgate (Variorum Collected Studies Series), 1999. Two important articles are by Jean-Guy Gouttebroze, ‘Pourquoi congédier un historiographe: Henri II Plantagenêt et Wace (1155-1174)’, Romania, volume cxii, 1992, pages 289-311 and Françoise Vielliard, ‘Deux historiens normands du XIIe siècle, Guillaume de Saint-Pair et Wace’, Revue de l’Avranchin et du Pays de Granville, volume lxxviii 78, 2001, page 325-352.

[26] Emmanuèle Baumgartner, ‘Les Danois dans l’histoire des ducs de Normandie de Benoît de Sainte-Maure’, Le Moyen Âge, volume cviii, 2002, pages 481-485.

[27] Peter Damian-Grint, The New Historians of the Twelfth-Century Renaissance: inventing vernacular authority, Woodbridge, Boydell and Brewer, 1999 and Jean Blacker The Faces of Time: Portrayal of the Past in Old French and Latin Historical Narrative of the Anglo-Norman Regum, University of Texas Press, 1994 provide a critical analysis of the development of twelfth century historical writing and thinking.

[28] Amaury Chauou L’idéologie Plantagenêt: Royauté arthurienne et monarchie politique dans l’espace Plantagenêt (XIIe-XIIIe siècles), Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2001 is essential on this and for his discussion of the role of history and historians in the Plantagenet court.

[29] Martin Aurell, ‘La cour Plantagenêt (1154-1189): entoutrage, savoir et civilité’, in Martin Aurell (ed.), La cour Plantagenêt (1154-1204). Actes du colloque tenu à Thouars du 30 avril au 2 mai 1999, Poitiers, Centre d’études supérieures de civilisation médiévale, 2000, pages 9-46 and his L’Empire des Plantagenêts, Perrin, 2003, especially pages 41-94.

[30] Jacques Le Maho, ‘Un exode de reliques dans les pays de la Basse Seine à la fin du IXe siècle’, Bulletin de la Commission départementale des Antiquités de Seine-Maritime, volume xlvi, 1998, pages 174-181 and ‘Les origines de l’abbaye de Fécamp, de l’histoire à la légende’, De l’histoire à la légende. La broderie du Précieux-Sang, Catalogue de l’exposition tenue à Fécamp, avril-juin 2001, Fécamp, 2001, pages 25-26.

[31] On the historiographical traditions of Fécamp, see Mathieu Arnoux, ‘Les premières chroniques de Fécamp: de l’hagiographie à l’histoire’, Pierre Bouet and François Neveux (eds.) Les Saints dans la Normandie médiévale, Actes du colloque de Cerisy-la-Salle (26-29 septembre 1996), Presses Universitaires de Caen, 2000, pages 71-82 and ‘La fortune du Libellus de revelatione, edificatione et auctoritate Fiscannensis monasterii. Note sur la production historiographique d’une abbaye bénédictine normande’, Revue d’Histoire des Textes, volume xxi, 1991, pages 135-158.

[32] Mathieu Arnoux, ‘Before the Gesta Normannorum and beyond Dudo: some evidence on early Norman historiography’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume xxii, 1999, pages 19-48 with the text of Chronique dite du Manuscrit Rouen 128on pages 43-46.

[33] Elisabeth M. C. Van Houts, ‘The ship list of William the Conqueror’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume x, 1987, pages 159-183, republished in Elisabeth M. C. Van Houts, History and Family Traditions in England and the Continent, 1000-1200, Ashgate (Variorum Collected Studies Series), 1999.

[34] The Brevis relatio de Guillelmo nobilissimo comite Normannorum, edited Elisabeth M. C. Van Houts, Chronology, Conquest and Conflict in Medieval England, Camden 5th series, volume x, 1997, pages 1-48, reprinted in Elisabeth M. C. Van Houts, History and Family Traditions in England and the Continent, 1000-1200, Ashgate (Variorum Collected Studies Series), 1999.