Anglo-Norman Historians

After a generation of silence a number of Anglo-Normans wrote histories of England.¹ At Christ Church, Canterbury, Eadmer wrote a compendious biography of Archbishop Anselm, including much national history. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was continued at Peterborough, while Latin annals were written at Worcester. Historical collections, including a good contemporary history, were made at Durham. Abroad, an Englishman, Orderic Vitalis, who had become a monk of St Évroul in Normandy, wrote a long Historia Ecclesiastica (Ecclesiastical History) of England and Normandy. He was the most gifted of all the Anglo-Norman historians, with the exception of William of Malmesbury who will be discussed in the next chapter. The authors wrote primarily in the Anglo-Saxon tradition. They were influenced by the Anglo-Saxon biographies and chronicles, and by Bede. These influences were reinforced by continental historiography, notably by the universal history of Marianus Scotus.