The History of William Marshal was commissioned by his son shortly after William’s death in 1219 to celebrate the Marshal’s remarkable life; it is an authentic, contemporary voice. The manuscript was discovered in 1861 by French historian Paul Meyer. Meyer published the manuscript in its original Anglo-French in 1891 in two books. This book is a line by line translation of the first of Meyer’s books; lines 1-10152. Book 1 of the History begins in 1139 and ends in 1194. It describes the events of the Anarchy, the role of William’s father John, John’s marriages, William’s childhood, his role as a hostage at the siege of Newbury, his injury and imprisonment in Poitou where he met Eleanor of Aquitaine and his life as a knight errant. It continues with the accusation against him of an improper relationship with Margaret, wife of Henry the Young King, his exile, and return, the death of Henry the Young King, the rebellion of Richard, the future King Richard I, war with France, the death of King Henry II, and the capture of King Richard, and the rebellion of John, the future King John. It ends with the release of King Richard and the death of John Marshal.
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Langtoft's Chronicle is in Georgian Books.
They cause barges and boats to be tied together
Across that water, and place hurdles over them,
Just in the manner of a bridge for the people to pass,
Mounted and armed, who go to try it,
The Welsh attack, and drive them back;
The crowd is so great at their return,
That the load causes boats and barges to sink.
Knights are drowned; I heard them named
David goes skulking about, and expects in certainty
To hold the lordship after the death of his brother.
He has drawn the Welsh to his parliament
At Christmas, in Denbigh, and they make an ordinance
By assent to defend the Welshery.
The king causes him to be hunted; David defends himself;
On the eve of St. Maurice1, by power of people,
David is dismembered very disgracefully;
His head is sent to London for a present,
And his four members cut off completely.
In four cities a man might see how
At each by itself one of the members hangs
Note 1. The Fest Day of St Maurice is the 22nd of September. Other sources [ 
Walter of Guisborough] describe his captured on the 22nd of September and his execution on the 3rd October 1283.
[23rd August 1305] We have heard news, among companions,
Of William Wallace, the master of thieves;
Sir John de Meneteith followed him at his heels,
Took him in hiding by the side of his concubine;
Carried him to London in shackles and bonds,
Where he was judged on the following conditions:
In the first place to the gallows he was drawn for treasons,
Hanged for robberies and slaughters;
And because he had annihilated by burnings,
Towns and churches and monasteries,
He is taken down from the gallows, his belly opened,
His heart and his bowels burnt to cinders,
And his head cut off for such treasons as follow:
Because he had by his assumptions of authority
Maintained the war, given protections,
Seized into his subjection the lordship
Of another's kingdom by his usurpations.
His body was cut into four parts;
Each one hangs by itself, in memory of his name,
In place of his banner these are his gonfanons.1
Note 1. 'gonfanons' i.e. 'pennants'. The poem is suggesting his body parts are his banners.
A Fool's Bolt soon shott at Stonehenge.
From another MS. lent me by the same Friend, Mr. James West, of Balliol Coll. written in the same hand, and by the same anonymous Author.
Wander witt of Wiltshire, rambling to Rome to gaze at Antiquities, and there skrewing himself into the company of Antiquaries, they entreated him to illustrate unto them, that famous Monument in his Country, called Stonehenge. His Answer was, that he had never seen or ever heard of, it. Whereupon, they kicked him out of doors, and bad him goe home, ans ee Stone henge; and I wish all such Æsopicall Cocks, as slight these admired Stones, and other our domestick Monuments (by which they might be admonished, to eschew some evil, or doe some good) and' scrape for barley Cornes of vanity out of forreigne dunghills, might be handled, or rather footed, as he was. If I had been in his place, I should have been apt to have told them) that, surely, it was some heathonish temple demolished by the immediate hand of God, as an intollerable abomination unto him: yet reserving so much of it standing, as may deeclare what the whole was, and how, and why, so destroyed, that, as we are to remember Lot's wife, turned into a Piller of Salt, for looking back-ward towards Idolatrous Sodome, so we should remember, that these forlorne Pillers of Stone are left to be our remembrancers, dissuading us from looking back in 'our licarts upon any thing of Idolatry, and persuading us, in imitation of Moses, and the Prophets, so to describe, and deride, it in it's uglie Coullers, that none of us, or our posterity, may returne, with Doggs, to such Vomit, or Sows to wallowing in such mite. And since all, that have (as yet) written on this Subject, have contradicted and: confuted each other, and never any hath as yet revealed this mysterie of iniquity to this purpose, and that Pedlers and Tinckers, vamping on London way near. it, may, and do, freely spend their mouthes on it, I know nothing to the contraty, but that also may shoot my bolt a little farther into i, however:I will adventure, were it: for nothing else, but to recreate my self somtimes, after other studies, and to provoke my friends, which imiportun'd mie to it, to shoote their acute shafts: at it 'also, 'hoping, that one or other of us, by art or accident, shall hit the mark. - My bolt is soon shott in this short conjecture: that Stondge was an old: British triumphall tropical temple, erected to Anaraith, their Godess of victory, in a blondy field there, wone, by illustrious Stanengs and his Cangick Giants, from K. Divitiacus and his Belgæ. In which temple the Captives and spoiles were sacrifised to the said Idol Aniraith. So that these 12 particulers hereof are to be demonstrated:
The messenger went to the army of low people,
It began to arrange itself in order of battle. Sir Richard Siward, who gave the advice,
Comes to our English, and says, "If God protect me,
I see people coming with very great appearance,
As though they intended to give battle, with innumerable foot,
I go, if you approve it, to put an impediment among them,
That they come no nearer;" ours say "Care not,"
And take Siward that he may go there no further;
They place keepers upon gate and upon wall.
Humphrey de Bohun the young has the ward in charge
That aid from the castle attack them not in the rear;
And they mount their steeds, spur them to the hill;
And he who can go quickest, springs before the others.
The Scots see them come, turn tail upon them like as a quail
In fleeing away flies before the wind like straw does.
The English after chace them like sheep
Which flies when it sees the wolf come out of the bush.
The presumptious Scot believes that he is worth more than
The duke sir Corineus who conquered Cornwall.
Of so many armed men it was very great wonder
That not one of them is worth a farthing in deed,
Except Patrick de Graham, who remains and fights
With the furbished sword, but he is slain without fail.
Ten thousand and fifty - four are killed in the engage- ment;
They are all of Scotland, the number is by count.
These were the chieftains who slaughtered the cattle Through
Northumberland, they left the entrails to the dogs;
They were excommunicated by book and candle,
Because to holy church, to priest nor clergy,
Did they show mercy more than to oven or barn;
Sin has driven them to such a result,
That they have lost in the field their heads with the ears.
The foot folk
Put the Scots in the poke,
And bared their buttocks.
By way
Never heard I say
Of readier boys,
To rob
The robes of the rich
That fell in the field.
They took of each man;
May the rough ragged fiend
Tear them in hell!
Of battle or combat was never recorded
That so many people were so soon slain,
Nor thus without resistance turned their backs;
Ravens have their corpses, their souls to the fiends
Of all those who have thus conducted wars!
For on that side was never once,
Within town or without, a good deed shown,
But only to sneak about and plunder the towns,
Burn holy church, slay the clergy.
May that God be praised who at Dunbar has avenged it!
The earls who had committed the offences,
As soon as they knew and were informed
Of the discomfiture upon their kindred,
They have delivered up the castle to the English when they come back
And without conditions obliged. themselves
To the king sir Edward to be at his will.
The king came there next day with his barons,
The prisoners who are taken are presented to him,
Three earls, three barons, three bannerets of name,
Besides them twenty-eight knights addubbed,
With five score gentlemen who are found there;
Two clerks and two Pikards are numbered among them.
The earls are sent to the Tower of London,
Some of the barons are associated with them;
And the others sent to different castles
By two and two together mounted on a hackney,
Some in carts, with fetters on the feet.
In such a style of dance their game is ended;
Throughout England in all the countries
There will be for ever talk of their presumption,
Their deed has turned them to mockery as long as the world shall last.
For the Scots
I reckon for fools,
And wretches unwary;
Want of luck
In dealing blows
Drew them to Dunbar.
Of the taking of the castle of Stirling.
The king after Easter takes his departure,
With his knighthood, to besiege Stirling.
When they are come there, they go ad examine the place,
And cause to be raised there thirteen great engines.
Two knights had the castle in ward,
Sir William Olifard was the first,
I heard the other named sir William of Dipplyn,
And twenty gentlemen, besides pages and porter,
A Jacobin friar, à monk as counsellor,
And thirteen gentlewomen with their laundress;
No more persons they numbered there.
They had an engine, and brought it out to cast;
The rod broke, afterwards it was of no use.
The engines without are put to work,
And cause the stones to pass walls and towers;
They overthrow the battlements around,
And throw down to the ground the houses inside.
In the midst of these doings the king causes to be built of timber
A terrible engine, and to be called Ludgar;
And this at its stroke broke down the entire wall.
Three months and eight days, reckoning by days,
Lasted the storm; the endurance was hard
To wretches within, who had nothing to eat.
From no side came to them succour or power,
Wherefore they desire much to have the king's peace;
By intermessengers they often solicit him.
The king sends them word that he will not grant it so soon.
So long the conference for peace dragged out,
That I know not nor can I record the half of it;
But I have heard well that, in the sequel,
The eastle was surrendered to the king at his will,
So that those within, knight, squire,
And all the others, without making conditions,
Put themselves in his pardon with piteousness of heart.
The castle is taken possession of; the king causes to be appointed
Wardens throughout the land to judge the people;
He will not dwell in a land so wasted,
Returns with vietory back into England.