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All About History Books
The Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke. Baker was a secular clerk from Swinbroke, now Swinbrook, an Oxfordshire village two miles east of Burford. His Chronicle describes the events of the period 1303-1356: Gaveston, Bannockburn, Boroughbridge, the murder of King Edward II, the Scottish Wars, Sluys, Crécy, the Black Death, Winchelsea and Poitiers. To quote Herbert Bruce 'it possesses a vigorous and characteristic style, and its value for particular events between 1303 and 1356 has been recognised by its editor and by subsequent writers'. The book provides remarkable detail about the events it describes. Baker's text has been augmented with hundreds of notes, including extracts from other contemporary chronicles, such as the Annales Londonienses, Annales Paulini, Murimuth, Lanercost, Avesbury, Guisborough and Froissart to enrich the reader's understanding. The translation takes as its source the 'Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke' published in 1889, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson. Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback.
Before 1257 Bishop Ralph de Ireton became a Canon at Guisborough Priory [Map].
In 1261 Bishop Ralph de Ireton was elected Prior of Guisborough Priory [Map].
On 14th December 1278 Bishop Ralph de Ireton was elected Bishop of Carlisle.
On 9th April 1280 Bishop Ralph de Ireton was consecrated Bishop of Carlisle by the Bishop of Tusculum [now Frescati].
On 29th February 1292 Bishop Ralph de Ireton died while attending a parliament at London, from a burst vein. He was buried at Carlisle Cathedral [Map]. His tomb was destroyed ten weeks after in a fire at the Cathedral.
Chronicle of Walter of Guisborough. In the same year, namely 1292, on the last day of February, the bishop of Carlisle, Ralph1 of good memory, formerly our prior at Guisborough, died and was buried in the same church at Carlisle. Then, on the following feast of Saint Dunstan the Archbishop [19th May 1292], the entire city of Carlisle was horribly consumed and burned in a great fire, including the whole abbey and all the houses of the Friars Minor and the churches. Only the Dominican Friars were saved, and even then with great difficulty. For the fire broke out at night, and because a strong wind was blowing, there was nothing that could resist it. Now the cause of that wicked disaster was this: one of the townsmen had a depraved son, and because he hated him, he sold the houses he owned to a stranger. The son, angered by this, publicly threatened that the buyer would never peacefully enjoy his inheritance. And because the fire began almost suddenly in those very houses at dusk, the son was seized, drawn, and hanged.
Eodem anno scilicet MCCXCII ultimo die Februarii obiit bonæ memoriæ Radulphus Carleolensis episcopus, quondam prior noster Gisburniæ, et in eadem Carleolensi ecclesia sepultus. In sequenti vero festo Sancti Dunstani archiepiscopi tota civitas Carleolensis horribili incendio concremata est et combusta, cum tota abbatia et universis domibus Fratrum Minorum et ecclesiis, solique Prædicatores salvati sunt, sed cum difficultate maxima; nocte enim evenit ignis, et irruente vento maximo non erat quod resistere posset. Contigit autem sic casus ille nefandus: erat unus ex civibus habens filium sceleratum, et quia habebat eum exosum vendidit extraneo domos quas habebat: indignatusque filius minabatur publice dicens quod emptor ille nunquam gauderet pacifice hæreditate sua: et quia in crepusculo noctis in eisdem domibus ignis quasi subito initium assumpsit, captus est ille filius, tractus, et suspensus.
Note 1. Ralph de Ireton, Prior of Gisborough, elected Bishop of Carlisle December, 1278, on the refusal of William de Rotherfeld, Dean of York, to accept that dignity, and consecrated by the Bishop of Tusculum, now Frescati, 1280.
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