Royal MS 18 B XXVI

HISTORY of the Crusades, in English, in five books. Books i-iv deal respectively with the expeditions of Robert, Duke of Normandy, Godfrey of Bouillon, Richard Coeur- de-Lion, and Edward I; and book v is a translation from the French of the Flos Historiarum of Frere Haiton [Hethoum, Prince of Gorgios, see 13 C. XII, art. 3, 14 C. IV, art. 1]. Without title (the Theyer cat. gives 'The History of the Holy Lond and of the Holy Warre'). Each book has a preface and table of chapters. In the general preface (addressed doubtless to Henry VIII) the translator speaks of his work as 'done to accomplishe your high commaundement as towching the passage of an army and hoste of pylgrymes by your highnes blessedly to be purposed and conducted ayenst infideles for the recouery of the holy lande . . . breuely extracted of sundrye histories for precidentes', and in the preface to bk. v (f. I43) he mentions the changes 'in thise cc yeres' since his author wrote (sc. since 1307). The chief sources, besides Hethoum, are:-(a) for bk. i 'the Cronicles of Normandye', sc. one of the prose paraphrases of Wace's Roman de Rou (cf. Les Croniques de Normendye, Rouen, Jehan Burges, s. a.); -(b) for bk. ii the ixth boke of the ix worthies in Frenche' (cf. Le Triumphe des Neuf Preux, Abbeville, 1487) and 'the boke of conquest of Jerusalem', sc. Guillaume de Tyr (that the compiler used Caxton's translation, as asserted in the Early Engl. Text Soc. edition, Godeffroy of Bologne, 1893, p. xvi, seems doubtful);-(c) for bks. iii, iv the chronicle of Walter of Hemingburgh. The relation of the translation of Hethoum in bk. v to that printed by Pynson for the Duke of Buckingham as A lytell Cronycle, &c., is obscure, but they may be two versions of the same abridgement. A full index in another hand is added at the end (f. 230). Preface beg. 'To the honoure of almyghty god and to accomplisshe'; text, 'In the vere of oure lorde mlxxxv Robart duc of Normandye'. Ends 'in the moneth of August'.

Paper (exc. f. 1) ff. 256. Folio. 12 in. x 8 in. Circ. 1518-1520. Gatherings (beg. f. 2) of 12 leaves (i^ll, xv¹⁴, xix¹¹, xxii³). Sec. fol. 'Robart Duc'. The name of Laurence Howarde is scribbled on ff. 1, 229, 256 b. Afterwards belonged (ff. 1,2) to Richard Hanslepp, and by his gift, 21 Aug. 1656, to John Theyer, senior, who has written in it his monogram and the name of his grandson Charles. Theyer sale-cat. no. 50; CMA. 6601.