Free Richard & John: Kings at War by Frank McLynn Page B

famous chroniclers and questioning their good faith. In some quarters a rather curious bifurcation has arisen: charters, letters patent and pipe rolls good; Roger of Howden, Matthew Paris and Roger of Wendover bad. Like most types of revisionism, this ascetic approach generates as many absurdities as the previous and allegedly gullible vantage point. To those who say that chronicles are a poor source for medieval history, I reply that charters are an inadequate guide to human personality, and it is that with which I am principally concerned in this would-be dual biography. I hope my debt to all the fine scholars who have worked in this field is clear and is sufficiently acknowledged in the notes. But declaring an interest, I have to confess that the academic who has most influenced me is the great John Gillingham, a man whose wit, humour and humanity are as obvious as his erudition and scholarship. Needless to say, I am not attempting to co-opt him or anyone else into responsibility for any errors that have crept into the text. I also acknowledge the sterling assistance given me by Will Sulkin and Tony Whittome at Random House and my wife Pauline at home.
     
    Farnham, Surrey, 2006

Note

Guide to Most Frequently Cited rim ry So rce
    Acta of the Legate Guala , ed. N. Vincent (1996)
    Ambroise’s Estoire de la Guerre Sainte , ed. Marianne Ailes (Woodbridge, 2003)
    Annales monastici , ed. H.R. Luard, 5 vols, RS 36 (1869)
    Baha, al-Din Ibn Shaddad, The Rare and Excellent History of Saladin , trans. D.S. Richards (Aldershot, 2001)
    Catalogue des Actes de Philippe-Auguste , ed. L. Delisle (Paris, 1856)
    Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II and Richard I , ed. R. Howlett, 4 vols, RS 1890
    The Chronicle of Meaux (Chronica de Monasterii de Melsa) , ed. E.A. Bond, 3 vols, RS 1868
    The Chronicle of Melrose , ed. A.O. Anderson (1936)
    Chronique de Saint-Martial de Limoges , ed. H. Duplès-Agier (Paris, 1874)
    Coggleshall, Radulphi de, Chronicon Anglicanum , ed. J. Stevenson, RS 46 (1875)
    Devizes, Richard of, Chronicle of the Time of Richard the First , ed. J.T. Appleby (1963)
    Dialogus de Scaccario , ed. C. Johnson (1950)
    Diceto, Ralph, The Historical Works of , ed. W. Stubbs, 2 vols, RS 68 (1876)
    Documents Illustrative of English History in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries , ed. H. Cole (1844)
    Foedera, Conventiones, Litterae et cuiuscunque Generis Acta Publica , ed. T. Rymer (1816)
    Gerald of Wales, Giraldi Cambrensis Opera , ed. J.S. Brewer et al., 8 vols (1918)
    Gervase of Canterbury, The Historical Works of , ed. W. Stubbs, 2 vols, RS 73 (1880)
    Histoire des ducs de Normandie et des rois d’Angleterre , ed. F. Michel (Paris, 1840)
    Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal , ed. P. Meyer, 3 vols (Paris, 1901)
    Howden, Roger, Chronica , ed. W. Stubbs, RS 51 (1871)
    Howden, Roger, Gesta Regis Henrici , ed. W. Stubbs, 2 vols, RS 49 (1867)
    Itinerarium , ed. W. Stubbs in Chronicles and Memorials of the Reign of Richard I , RS (1864)
    Johannis de Fordun Chronica Gentis Scotorum , ed. W.F. Skene, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1872)
    Layettes du Trésor des Chartes , ed. A. Teulet et al, 5 vols (Paris, 1909)
    The Letters of Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) concerning England and Wales , ed. C.R. Cheney et al. (Oxford, 1967)
    Magna Vita Sancti Hugonis , ed. D.C. Douie & D.H.Farmer, 2 vols (Oxford, 1985)
    Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora , ed. H.R. Luard, 7 vols, RS 57 (1883)
    Matthew Paris, Historia Anglorum , ed. F. Madden, RS (1869)
    Oeuvres de Rigord et Guillaume le Breton , ed. H.F. Delaborde, 2 vols (Paris, 1885)
    Recueil des actes de Philippe Auguste, roi de France , ed. H.F. Delaborde et al., 4 vols (Paris, 1979)
    Recueil des historiens de la Gaule et de la France , ed. M. Bouguet et al., 24 vols (Paris, 1904)
    Red Book of the Exchequer , ed. H. Hall, 3 vols (1896)
    Rotuli Chartarum in Turri Londinensi Asservati , ed. T.D. Hardy (1837)
    Rotuli de Liberate ac de Misis et Praestitis , ed. T. Hardy (1844)
    Rotull de Oblatis et Finibus in