In 1856 J.S. Davies edited for the Camden Society the continuation of the Middle English prose Brut, from a manuscript in the Bodleian (Lyell 34), that became known as the Davies ChronicleI/>. Covering the reigns of Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V, and Henry VI, it was at once recognised as an important vernacular historical narrative. Unfortunately Lyell 34 is in places badly damaged, and the narrative of the reign of Richard II has survived only in fragments. This new edition of what are in fact two BrutI/> continuations makes use of a full text recently discovered in the National Library of...

First composed in Anglo-Norman French around the end of the thirteenth century, the anonymous prose Brut chronicle became the most popular secular vernacular work, and the most widespread Arthurian work, of the later middle ages in England: repeatedly expanded, revised, and translated, it remained influential for centuries. Yet it has been little studied, in part because of the lack of any full modern edition. This edition of the Oldest Version of the prose Brut, running from the fall of Troy to the death of Henry III in 1272, provides the Anglo-Norman text with facing-page translation and...

The seven chronicles edited here record Scottish history as it circulated in the late fifteenth century and the early sixteenth century in abbreviated and mostly vernacular texts, intended for a broader, less educated audience than was served by the great Latin chronicles of Fordun, Bower, Boece, and their successors. They reflect the greatly expanded literacy of the end of the Middle Ages, and the consequent necessity of educating a broader public in the outlines of Scottish history and contemporary Scottish politics. They build their version of medieval events on Scotland's foundation myths...