Chronicle of Abbot Ralph of Coggeshall
The Chronicle of Abbot Ralph of Coggeshall (Chronicon Anglicanum) is an indispensable medieval history that brings to life centuries of English and European affairs through the eyes of a learned Cistercian monk. Ralph of Coggeshall, abbot of the Abbey of Coggeshall in Essex in the early 13th century, continued and expanded his community’s chronicle, documenting events from the Norman Conquest of 1066 into the tumultuous reign of King Henry III. Blending eyewitness testimony, careful compilation, and the monastic commitment to record-keeping, this chronicle offers a rare narrative of political intrigue, royal power struggles, and social upheaval in England and beyond. Ralph’s work captures the reigns of pivotal figures such as Richard I and King John, providing invaluable insights into their characters, decisions, and the forces that shaped medieval rule. More than a simple annal, Chronicon Anglicanum conveys the texture of medieval life and governance, making it a rich source for scholars and readers fascinated by English history, monastic authorship, and the shaping of the medieval world.
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Before 17th November 1598 [her father] John Stansfield (age 31) and [her mother] Eleanor Comber were married.
On 17th November 1598 Eleanor Stansfield was born to [her father] John Stansfield (age 31) and [her mother] Eleanor Comber.
On 27th January 1614 Richard Evelyn of Wotton (age 27) and Eleanor Stansfield (age 15) were married.
After 27th January 1614 [her daughter] Elizabeth Evelyn was born to [her husband] Richard Evelyn of Wotton (age 27) and Eleanor Stansfield (age 15). She married 21st October 1632 Edward Darcy.
On 18th June 1617 [her son] George Evelyn of Wotton was born to [her husband] Richard Evelyn of Wotton (age 30) and Eleanor Stansfield (age 18). He married (1) 28th May 1640 Mary Caldwell (2) before 1647 Mary Offley and had issue.
On 31st October 1620 [her son] John Evelyn was born to [her husband] Richard Evelyn of Wotton (age 33) and Eleanor Stansfield (age 21). He married before 10th September 1647 Mary Browne, daughter of Richard Browne 1st Baronet and Elizabeth Prettyman, and had issue.
John Evelyn's Diary. I was born at Wotton, Surrey [Map], in the County of Surrey, about twenty minutes past two in the morning, being on Tuesday the 31st and last of October, 1620, after my [her husband] father (age 33) had been married about seven years, and that my mother (age 21) had borne him three children; viz, two daughters and one son, about the 33d year of his age, and the 23d of my mother's.
On 9th November 1622 [her son] Richard Evelyn was born to [her husband] Richard Evelyn of Wotton (age 35) and Eleanor Stansfield (age 23). He married 16th August 1648 Elizabeth Mynne and had issue.
On 5th February 1627 [her father] John Stansfield (age 60) died.
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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On 21st October 1632 [her son-in-law] Edward Darcy and [her daughter] Elizabeth Evelyn (age 18) were married.
On 15th December 1634 [her daughter] Elizabeth Evelyn (age 20) died. She was buried in St John's Church, Wotton.
John Evelyn's Diary. 1635. But my dear mother (age 36) being now dangerously sick, I was, on the 3d of September following, sent for to Wotton, Surrey [Map]. Whom I found so far spent, that, all human assistance failing, she in a most heavenly manner departed this life upon the 29th of the same month, about eight in the evening of Michaelmas-day. It was a malignant fever which took her away, about the 37th of her age, and 22d of her marriage, to our irreparable loss and the regret of all that knew her. Certain it is, that the visible cause of her indisposition proceeded from grief upon the loss of her daughter, and the infant that followed it; and it is as certain, that when she perceived the peril whereto its excess had engaged her, she strove to compose herself and allay it; but it was too late, and she was forced to succumb. Therefore summoning all her children then living (I shall never forget it), she expressed herself in a manner so heavenly, with instructions so pious and Christian, as made us strangely sensible of the extraordinary loss then imminent; after which, embracing every one of us she gave to each a ring with her blessing and dismissed us. Then, taking my [her husband] father (age 48) by the hand, she recommended us to his care; and, because she was extremely zealous for the education of my [her son] younger brother (age 12), she requested my father that he might be sent with me to Lewes [Map]; and so having importuned him that what he designed to bestow on her funeral, he would rather dispose among the poor, she labored to compose herself for the blessed change which she now expected. There was not a servant in the house whom she did not expressly send for, advise, and infinitely affect with her counsel. Thus she continued to employ her intervals, either instructing her relations, or preparing of herself.
On 29th September 1635 Eleanor Stansfield (age 36) died. On 3rd October 1635 she was buried at St John's Church, Wotton.
On 24th December 1640 [her former husband] Richard Evelyn of Wotton (age 53) died.
John Evelyn's Diary. 2nd January 1641. It was a sad and lugubrious beginning of the year, when, on the 2nd of January 1641, we at night followed the mourning hearse to the church at Wotton; when, after a sermon and funeral oration by the minister, my [her former husband] father was interred near his formerly erected monument, and mingled with the ashes of our mother, his dear wife. Thus we were bereft of both our parents in a period when we most of all stood in need of their counsel and assistance, especially myself, of a raw, vain, uncertain, and very unwary inclination; but so it pleased God to make trial of my conduct in a conjuncture of the greatest and most prodigious hazard that ever the youth of England saw; and, if I did not amidst all this impeach my liberty nor my virtue with the rest who made shipwreck of both, it was more the infinite goodness and mercy of God than the least providence or discretion of mine own, who now thought of nothing but the pursuit of vanity, and the confused imaginations of young men.
John Evelyn's Diary. I was now (in regard to my mother's weakness, or rather custom of persons of quality) put to nurse to one Peter, a neighbour's wife and tenant, of a good, comely, brown, wholesome complexion, and in a most sweet place toward the hills, flanked with wood and refreshed with streams; the affection to which kind of solitude I sucked in with my very milk. It appears, by a note of my father's, that I sucked till 17th of January 1622, or at least I came not home before.
[her daughter] Jane Evelyn was born to Richard Evelyn of Wotton and Eleanor Stansfield. She married after 1638 William Glanville.
John Evelyn's Diary. My mother's name was Eleanor, sole daughter and heiress of [her father] John Standsfield, Esq, of an ancient and honorable family (though now extinct) in Shropshire, by his wife [her mother] Eleanor Comber, of a good and well-known house in Sussex. She was of proper personage; of a brown complexion; her eyes and hair of a lovely black; of constitution more inclined to a religious melancholy, or pious sadness; of a rare memory, and most exemplary life; for economy and prudence, esteemed one of the most conspicuous in her country: which rendered her loss much deplored, both by those who knew, and such as only heard of her.