Text this colour links to Pages. Text this colour links to Family Trees. Text this colour are links that disabled for Guests.
Place the mouse over images to see a larger image. Click on paintings to see the painter's Biography Page.
Mouse over links for a preview. Move the mouse off the painting or link to close the popup.
Chronicle of a Bourgeois of Valenciennes
Récits d’un bourgeois de Valenciennes aka The Chronicle of a Bourgeois of Valenciennes is a vivid 14th-century vernacular chronicle written by an anonymous urban chronicler from Valenciennes in the County of Hainaut. It survives in a manuscript that describes local and regional history from about 1253 to 1366, blending chronology, narrative episodes, and eyewitness-style accounts of political, military, and social events in medieval France, Flanders, and the Low Countries. The work begins with a chronological framework of events affecting Valenciennes and its region under rulers such as King Philip VI of France and the shifting allegiances of local nobility. It includes accounts of conflicts, sieges, diplomatic manoeuvres, and the impact of broader struggles like the Hundred Years’ War on urban life in Hainaut. Written from the perspective of a burgher (bourgeois) rather than a monastery or royal court, the chronicle offers a rare lay viewpoint on high politics and warfare, reflecting how merchants, townspeople, and civic institutions experienced the turbulence of the 13th and 14th centuries. Its narrative style combines straightforward reporting of events with moral and civic observations, making it a valuable source for readers interested in medieval urban society, regional politics, and the lived experience of war and governance in pre-modern Europe.
Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback format.
Archaeologia Volume 2 Section XVII is in Archaeologia Volume 2.
An Account of the Monument [Kit's Coty House [Map]] commonly ascribed to Catigern. By Mr. Colebrooke. Read at the Society of Antiquaries, June 12, 1766.
In the parish of Addington, near Town Mailing, in Kent, about 500 paces to the north east of the church, in a rabbit warren, upon a little eminence, are the remains of several large Stones, placed in an oval form. The inside of the area from east to west is 50 paces, the breadth in the middle from north to south 42 paces; at the east end is a flat stone, placed somewhat like that which they call the Altar at Stone Henge: PI. vi. fig. 1. N°. 1. This stone in the longest part is nine feet, in the broadest seven feet, and near two feet thick. Behind this, a little to the north, is another flat stone, No. 2. which seems to have stood upright, but is now, by some accident thrown down. This is fifteen feet long, seven feet wide, and two feet thick. The stone N°. 3. next the altar on the north side, is seven feet high, seven feet wide, and two feet thick; the top of this hath been broken off. There are but two others which appear above the surface of the ground, (N°. 4 and 5) and these are not more than two feet high. One may easily trace the remains of seventeen of them; though from the distances between the stones, which are pretty nearly equal, there must have been rather more than twenty to complete the oval, which consisted of only one row of stones. The soil hereabout is very sandy, and the rain hath washed the sand so much over many of them, that by their distances from each other, I could only find them when I thrust my cane into the ground. Those of the stones which were fallen down have been carried away by the inhabitants, and applied to mend causeways, or make steps for stiles. The stones are of the same species with those at Stone Henge, and being placed in the same form, seem as if they were designed for the same use.
I first viewed this monument of antiquity, or temple, in 1754. Since that time the place is fo overgrown with brom, fern &c. that I could trace out very few of the stones, when again upon the spot in 1761.
About 130 paces to the north west of this is another heap of a large stones, tumbled inwards one on another. This originally consisted of six stones, (see PL vi. fig. 2.) each stone seven feet wide, two feet thick, and by measuring the longest piece with the base, from which it seems to have been broken off, it must have been 19 feet in height. The bases of these are at equal diflances, about 3 paces asunder, and in the circuit wmeasure 33 paces; so that the area must have been near 11 paces in diameter. The form is circular, not oval, and the openings are due east and west: this is the same kind of stone as the former. Fig. 3. is the largest fragment, which I measured with the base nearest it, to ascertain the original height.