Add MS 11713

Contents: A genealogical chronicle of English kings to Edward I, with a commentary in Anglo-Norman French.

Membrane 1: A diagram of the Heptarchy (consisting of five kingdoms instead of seven) with a commentary, incipit 'Par ceste figure desus';

Membranes 2-9: A genealogical diagram of the kings of England from Brutus to Edward I, with a commentary in Anglo-Norman French on the left, incipit, 'Quatre mil e trente deus ans'. The text and layout is similar to that of Oxford, Bodleian MS Additional E. 14, which may have been the exemplar for this manuscript. Both do not include the genealogy of William the Conqueror; only one other copy, Cotton Roll XIII 17 omits this section (see Laborderie, Histoire, memoire et pouvoir (2014), p. 268); a 3-line continuation, to the reign of Edward II, incipit, 'Icestu Edward, que regna après, il esposa Isabele', probably added between the births of Edward II's second and third children, Jean d'Eltham (b. 15 August, 1316) and Eleanor of Woodstock (b. 18 June, 1318).

The diagram is on the right hand side of the roll and the commentary on the left. To the right of the diagram, or rarely to the left, a further commentary has been added in Latin in a hand of the first half of the 14th century.

The dorse of the roll is blank (dorse abbreviated as d).

Decoration:

A circular diagram in black and red of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy, but with only five kingdoms instead of seven (membrane 1). Two initials in gold on rose and blue chequered grounds at the beginning of the commentaries (membranes 1,2). A genealogical diagram with roundels in black and red, containing names of kings in red, in a border consisting of columns with capitals on either side and foliate decoration, incorporating hybrid creatures, some with human heads, surrounded by fine dots in black (membranes 2-9). Above the first medallion (Brutus) is a crown (membrane 2). Geometrical decorations in brown marking the joins of the membranes. Numerous paraphs in red or blue.