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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St Elvis Farm Burial Chamber, Pembrokeshire is in Solva, Pembrokeshire, Prehistoric Wales Neolithic Burials.
Archaeologia Cambrensis 1844 Pages 129-144. The cromlech at St. David's Head [St Elvis Farm Burial Chamber, Pembrokeshire [Map]] (see Arch. Camb., 1872, Plate, p. 141) having lost the supporting stone at one end, thus becomes what some consider a distinct class of cromlech, which they call "demi-cromlechs" or "dolmens". Earthfast is also another name for the same class; but these distinctions are already going out of fashion.
Archaeologia Cambrensis 1872 Pages 81-143. The last representation is the dolmen on St. David's Head [St Elvis Farm Burial Chamber, Pembrokeshire [Map]], close to the strongly fortified camp there. This is a fair example of what some would call a variety of the cromlech or dolmen as previously stated, but is simply a half-ruined chamber. One of the stones of the chamber is lying by its side; and around it is abundant evidence that it had at one time been buried under a carn of stones, and that most of the stones have been removed, although neither the land nor the stones are of any use. So that this single instance by itself is an answer to those who maintain that in certain cases denudation was impossible, because there was no motive for denuding; for what motive could have existed here, on a wild heath, far removed from population,—when thousands of cartloads of stone might be collected from the ruins of the encampment, and where the land is to this day of no value whatsoever?
1890. St Elvis Farm Burial Chamber, Pembrokeshire [Map]. They were blasted by the tenant farmer in 1890 who also removed the stones from the eastern chamber.
The burial chambers at St Elvis Farm consist of two purported capstones, 4.0m by 2.0m and 2.2m by 2.0m, set astride a fieldbank, each rest on the ground at one end and are supported by an errect stone at the other. Other stones may have been structural components. Early accounts refer to a cratered mound and describe the stones as 'a heap'.