Bøker av Henry of Huntingdon

Henry of Huntingdon (c.1088-c.1157) wrote his comprehensive Latin chronicle of English history at the behest of the bishop of Lincoln, who asked him to provide a narrative from the earliest English kings right up to their own day. Henry's fondness for anecdotes - including the story of King Cnut attempting to hold back the tide - adds charm to his account. Although the work was originally completed by 1130, Henry continued to add to his magnum opus for many years, producing a version that concluded with the death of King Stephen and the accession of Henry II in 1154. This is the version edited for the Rolls Series in 1879 by Thomas Arnold (1823-1900), whose scholarly introduction describes the various different versions of the text, lists the extant manuscripts, and surveys Henry's sources. The text is accompanied by side-notes in English as well as appendices, a glossary and an index.

This is the first complete edition of Henry of Huntingdon's Historia Anglorum (The History of the English People), covering the period between 55 BC and 1154 AD. Henry was an eyewitness of events under Henry I (1100-35) and Stephen (1135-54), and was also one of the finest Anglo-Latin poets.

Henry of Huntingdon's History is a major source for events in England and Normandy during his lifetime, including the Battle of Hastings, the reigns of William II, Henry I, and Stephen, written with panache and passion and embellished with anecdotes such as Henry's death from a surfeit of lampreys, and Cnut and the waves.