Geoffrey of Monmouth and Breton aristocracy in 12th century England: Social and political contexts of “On the deeds of the Britons”
https://doi.org/10.22394/2412-9410-2023-9-2-104-122
Abstract
The article is devoted to reconstructing the social context of the works of Geoffrey of Monmouth, one of the most prominent 12th-century English historical writers. For this, a corpus of documents is analyzed, in which Geoffrey himself and his probable patrons appear, as well as the textual history of the historian’s writings, primarily the “On the deeds of the Britons”. This analysis make it possible to put forward a number of conclusions. Geoffrey himself most likely belonged to a family of Breton immigrants to England, although there is no direct evidence of this. Geoffrey’s patron in the 1130s and the 1140s, Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford, was part of the entourage of the Anglo-Breton baron Brian Fitz-Count, court knight of King Henry I, and later one of the leading supporters of his daughter, Empress Matilda. It is most likely that it was through Brian that Walter and Geoffrey got in touch with Robert, Earl of Gloucester, Empress Matilda’s brother and dedicatee of the original version of the “On the deeds of the Britons”. Perhaps it was through Brian and his wife Matilda that a copy of Geoffrey’s book came to the Norman Abbey of Bec, where it was found in January 1139 by another English historian, Henry of Huntingdon. Around 1141, possibly due to the failures of the ‘Angevin’ party and Brian personally, Archdeacon Walter began to establish contacts with King Stephen’s supporters, including with representatives of the Beaumont family, one of whom, Count Waleran, became the dedicatee of a slightly revised version of the ‘On the deeds of the Britons’.
Keywords
social logic of texts,
historical writing,
England,
twelfth century,
Geoffrey of Monmouth,
Oxford,
Brian Fitz-Count
Supporting agencies: The article was written on the basis of the RANEPA state assignment research programme.
About the Author
S. G. Mereminskiy
The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Stanislav G. Mereminskiy - Cand. Sci. (History) Associate Professor, Department of General History, Institute of Social Sciences
119571, Moscow, Prospekt Vernadskogo, 82
Tel.: +7 (499) 956-96-47
References
1. Aurell, M. (2017). The lettered knight: Knowledge and aristocratic behaviour in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Central European Univ. Press.
2. Brooke, C. N. L. (1956). Gregorian reform in action: Clerical marriage in England, 1050–1200. Cambridge Historical Journal, 12(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1474691300000305.
3. Burchmore D. W. (2019). Introduction. In D. W. Burchmore (Ed.). The history of the Kings of Britain: The first variant version (pp. vii–xxix). Harvard Univ. Press.
4. Cleaver, L. (2018). The monastic library at Le Bec. In B. Pohl, & L. L. Gathagan (Eds.). A companion to the Abbey of Le Bec in the Central Middle Ages (11th–13th centuries) (pp. 171–205). Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004351905_009.
5. Curley, M. (1994). Geoffrey of Monmouth. Twayne Publishers.
6. Davis, H. W. C. (1910). Henry of Blois and Brian Fitz-Count. English Historical Review, 25, 297–303. https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/XXV.XCVIII.297.
7. Gleason, S. E. (1936). An ecclesiastical barony of the Middle Ages: The Bishopric of Bayeux, 1066–1204. Harvard Univ. Press.
8. Guy, B. (2020). Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Welsh Sources. In G. Henley, & J. B. Smith (Eds.). A companion to Geoffrey of Monmouth (pp. 31–66). Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004410398_003.
9. Hutson A. E. (1940). British personal names in the Historia regum Britanniae. Univ. of California Press.
10. Keats-Rohan, K. S. B. (1989). The devolution of the Honour of Wallingford, 1066–1148. Oxoniensia, 54, 311–318.
11. Keats-Rohan, K. S. B. (1999). Domesday people: A prosopography of persons occurring in English documents, 1066–1166. Woodbridge: Boydell.
12. Keats-Rohan, K. S. B. (2009). The genesis of the Honour of Wallingford. In K. S. B. Keats-Rohan& D. R. Roffe (Eds.). The origins of the Borough of Wallingford: Archaeological and historical perspectives (pp. 52–67). Archaeopress.
13. King, E. (2004). The memory of Brian fitz Count. Haskins Society Journal, 13, 75–98.
14. Mason, E. (1984). Legends of the Beauchamps’ ancestors: The use of baronial propaganda in medieval England. Journal of Medieval History, 10, 25–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-4181(84)90023-X.
15. Mooers, S. L. (1984). Patronage in the Pipe Roll of 1130. Speculum, 59, 282–307. https://doi.org/10.2307/2856393.
16. Phillipps, T. (1851). Additional particulars for the biography of three Oxfordshire writers, Geffrey of Monmouth, Walter Map, Archdeacon of Oxford, and Alexander De Swerford. The Archaeological Journal, 8, 281–290. https://doi.org/10.1080/00665983.1851.10850826.
17. Salter, H. E. (1919). Geoffrey of Monmouth and Oxford. The English Historical Review, 34, 382–385.
18. Salter, H. E. (1929). Facsimiles of early charters in Oxford Muniment Rooms. Oxford Univ. Press.
19. Southern, R. W. (1984). From schools to university. In J. I. Catto (Ed.). The history of the University of Oxford, Vol. 1, The early Oxford schools (pp. 1–36). Clarendon Press.
20. Spiegel G. M. (1990). History, historicism, and the social logic of the text in the Middle Ages. Speculum, 65, 59–86. https://doi.org/10.2307/2864472.
21. Tahkokallio, J. (2019). The Anglo-Norman historical canon: Publishing and manuscript culture. Cambridge Univ. Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108624886.
Review
For citations:
Mereminskiy S.G. Geoffrey of Monmouth and Breton aristocracy in 12th century England: Social and political contexts of “On the deeds of the Britons”. Shagi / Steps. 2023;9(2):104-122. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22394/2412-9410-2023-9-2-104-122
Views:
60
Email this article 