Find Annals Of Dunstable Priory Created By Harriett Webster Distributed As Interactive EBook

priory at Dunstable was founded by Henry I, and was a house of Augustinian canons it stood in close proximity to the royal house at Dunstable, also founded by Henry I and used regularly in the twelfth century by his successors.
In, the house was given to the canons by John, though English kings down to Edward III stayed there at intervals: royal and baronial tournaments were frequently held here.
Its chronicle reflects this connection with national affairs, and at the same time provides a detailed history of the town and priory, It was begun by the prior, Richard de Morins, who was employed by king John on diplomatic missions, and by the church in legal and administrative matters: he attended the Fourth Lateran Council in Paris in.
During his abbacy, which lasted fromto, the priory suffered during the French invasion of, and the chronicle of the priory mixes important political news with the local problems that beset its administrators.
At its best, its narrative is vivid and wellinformed, as in the account of the siege of Bedford in, The annals were continued, with the same mixture of local and national information, after Morins' death, and seem to have been written up year by year, shortly after the events described.
The chronicle gives one of the fullest accounts of the Barons' War of Edward I's reign, including material from official documents, and is generally very accurate, The writer is very strongly in favour of the barons led by Simon de Montfort, whom he regards as a hero and even a martyr, During years of crisis, national affairs predominate but at other times the chronicle gives a remarkably detailed picture of the administration of a priory, struggling to make ends meet for much of the time.
The writers speak of good times as well as bad, a year when there was so much beechmast in the Chilterns that the priory's pigs grazed there all winter.
We learn too of the priory's dealings with the town and the uneasy relations between the prior and the leading citizens, and of the priory's slow financial decline during the latter half of the thirteenth century.
It is a rich text, full of minutely observed detail as well as of great historical events if it is uneven and the work of many hands rather than of one writer with a

broad view of history, it is nonetheless one of the best of the many such annals written in English monasteries at this period, on which knowledge of the thirteenth century often depends.
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