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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.
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Oyer and Terminer is in Legal Terms.
Oyer and Terminer. Literally "to hear and to determine". The Law French name for one of the commissions by which a judge of assize sat.
In November 1364 John Savile of Shelley and Golcar (age 39) was a Commissioner of oyer and terminer of Conspiracies in Yorkshire.
In February 1365 John Savile of Shelley and Golcar (age 40) was a Commissioner of oyer and terminer of disorder at Wortley.
In February 1370 John Savile of Shelley and Golcar (age 45) was a Commissioner of oyer and terminer of poaching at Halifax.
In January 1381 John Savile of Shelley and Golcar (age 56) was a Commissioner of oyer and terminer for liability for poll tax.
In November 1382 John Savile of Shelley and Golcar (age 57) was a Commissioner of oyer and terminer for the goods of traitors.
In April 1388 John Savile of Shelley and Golcar (age 63) was a Commissioner of oyer and terminer of obstructions to the Ouse.
In October 1388 and November 1388 John Savile of Shelley and Golcar (age 63) was a Commissioner of oyer and terminer of escapes from York jail.
In May 1390 John Savile of Shelley and Golcar (age 65) was a Commissioner of oyer and terminer of obstructions to the Ouse.
By 27th July 1453, says Griffiths, the situation in the north had deteriorated so badly that the crown effectively abrogated its authority in the region, by writing directly to the two earls [Note Henry Percy 2nd Earl of Northumberland (age 60) and Richard Neville Earl Salisbury (age 53)], laying responsibility for ending the dispute on them, and instructing them to keep their sons in order. It was at this point too, that the commission of oyer and terminer of 12 July was re-issued.
John Evelyn's Diary. 11th October 1660. The regicides who sat on the life of our late King, were brought to trial in the Old Bailey, before a commission of oyer and terminer.
Jean de Waurin's Chronicle of England Volume 6 Books 3-6: The Wars of the Roses
Jean de Waurin was a French Chronicler, from the Artois region, who was born around 1400, and died around 1474. Waurin’s Chronicle of England, Volume 6, covering the period 1450 to 1471, from which we have selected and translated Chapters relating to the Wars of the Roses, provides a vivid, original, contemporary description of key events some of which he witnessed first-hand, some of which he was told by the key people involved with whom Waurin had a personal relationship.
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Samuel Pepys' Diary. 17th March 1663. Up betimes and to my office a while, and then home and to Sir W. Batten (age 62), with whom by coach to St. Margaret's Hill in Southwark, Surrey [Map], where the judge of the Admiralty came, and the rest of the Doctors of the Civill law, and some other Commissioners, whose Commission of oyer and terminer was read, and then the charge, given by Dr. Exton, which methought was somewhat dull, though he would seem to intend it to be very rhetoricall, saying that justice had two wings, one of which spread itself over the land, and the other over the water, which was this Admiralty Court.
Samuel Pepys' Diary. 24th October 1663. It seems that, after the much talk of troubles and a plot, something is found in the North that a party was to rise, and some persons that were to command it are found, as I find in a letter that Mr. Coventry (age 35) read to-day about it from those parts1.
Note 1. This refers to a rising in the West Riding of Yorkshire, which took place on October 12th, and was known as the Farneley Wood Plot. The rising was easily put down, and several prisoners were taken. A special commission of oyer and terminer was sent down to York to try the prisoners in January, 1663-64, when twenty-one were convicted and executed. (See Whitaker's "Loidis and Elmete", 1816.).