King Henry II and the Monks of Battle: The Battle Chronicle Unmasked

Abstract

Abstract As defined by the introduction to its most recent edition, ‘The Chronicle of Battle Abbey is a roughly chronological account of legal and administrative affairs of Battle Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in Sussex, from the foundation of the house in the late eleventh century until the n8os’ . It survives today in a single, incomplete manuscript: London, British Library, Cotton Domitian A ii. It has twice been printed, most recently by Professor Eleanor Searle, much of whose career was spent in the study of Battle Abbey, its lands and records. Professor Searle judged that the Chronicle was composed towards the end of the reign of King Henry II, drawing for its earliest materials upon late eleventh-and early twelfth-century narrative and administrative records, but from the n3os onwards representing the work of a single man, ‘the chronicler', who could himself recall an event that took place during the time of Abbot Warner (n25-38).

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