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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 of Sir Miles Stapleton and his Lady

Effigy of Sir Miles Stapleton and his Lady is in Monumental Effigies of Great Britain.

ONE of those engraved plates familiarly termed brasses. It is on the floor of the chancel of Ingham church, Norfolk, and commemorates Sir Miles Stapleton, Knight of the Garter, and his wife, Joan, daughter of Sir Oliver Ingham, and widow of Lord Strange, of Knockyn. He died on Wednesday before the feast of St. Nicholas, 38 Edward III. (December 4,1364.) The lady, perhaps from courtesy as a coheiress, is placed on the knight's right hand. An elegant crocketed gothic canopy and pinnacles surmount the figures. These have suffered some mutilation. Into the verge of the stone has been inserted a fillet of brass, with this inscription:

Priez pour les almes de Monseur Miles de Stapleton, et Dame Johanne, sa femme, fille de Monseur Oliver de Ingham, fondours de ceste maison; qe dieu de jour almes eit pitie.

[Pray for the alms of Sir Miles of Stapleton, and Dame Johanne, his wife, daughter of Sir Oliver of Ingham, founders of this house; may god of day almes have mercy]

That portion printed in the black letter alone now remains, the rest is supplied from Bloomfield.