Higden’s Britain

Abstract

On 21 August 1352 Ranulph Higden, a monk of the Benedictine abbey of St Werburgh’s, Chester, stood before the king’s council at Westminster. He had been summoned to appear ‘una cum omnibus cronicis vestris et que sunt in custodia vestra ad loquendum et tractandum cum dicto consilio nostro super aliquibus que vobis tunc exponentur ex parte nostra’ (Svith all your chronicles and those in your charge to speak and treat with our council concerning matters to be explained to you on our behalf). This wording suggested to Edwards that Higden was probably at that time ‘the official custodian of the abbey’s library and the head of the scriptorium’.¹ However, Higden was not at court merely in his official capacity, but also as an authority on the subject of chronicles. In particular, he was the author of the well-known Polychronicon in seven books. The term ‘cronicis vestris’ in the council’s summons probably refers to it.