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All About History Books

The Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke. Baker was a secular clerk from Swinbroke, now Swinbrook, an Oxfordshire village two miles east of Burford. His Chronicle describes the events of the period 1303-1356: Gaveston, Bannockburn, Boroughbridge, the murder of King Edward II, the Scottish Wars, Sluys, Crécy, the Black Death, Winchelsea and Poitiers. To quote Herbert Bruce 'it possesses a vigorous and characteristic style, and its value for particular events between 1303 and 1356 has been recognised by its editor and by subsequent writers'. The book provides remarkable detail about the events it describes. Baker's text has been augmented with hundreds of notes, including extracts from other contemporary chronicles, such as the Annales Londonienses, Annales Paulini, Murimuth, Lanercost, Avesbury, Guisborough and Froissart to enrich the reader's understanding. The translation takes as its source the 'Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke' published in 1889, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson. Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback.

Culture, General Things, Church Monuments Books, Monumental Effigies of Great Britain, Effigy in the Abbey Church of Tewkesbury

Effigy in the Abbey Church of Tewkesbury is in Monumental Effigies of Great Britain.

THIS figure has not been appropriated by Mr. Stothard, and the topographical works on Gloucestershire afford no light by which it may be identified. It lies under an arch in the wall of the North aisle of the Church. The hands are raised in the attitude of prayer, and the bare feet indicate, perhaps, a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The details of the armour, mail and plate, are curious. The cuisses, as in two or three preceding examples, are remarkable: they appear to be composed of fluted steel intermixed with studs. Front and profile views of the figure are given. The herald may perhaps discover the family to which it belongs by the bearing on the shield and surcoat, a chevron between three lions' heads langued.