Chronicle of a Bourgeois of Valenciennes
Récits d’un bourgeois de Valenciennes aka The Chronicle of a Bourgeois of Valenciennes is a vivid 14th-century vernacular chronicle written by an anonymous urban chronicler from Valenciennes in the County of Hainaut. It survives in a manuscript that describes local and regional history from about 1253 to 1366, blending chronology, narrative episodes, and eyewitness-style accounts of political, military, and social events in medieval France, Flanders, and the Low Countries. The work begins with a chronological framework of events affecting Valenciennes and its region under rulers such as King Philip VI of France and the shifting allegiances of local nobility. It includes accounts of conflicts, sieges, diplomatic manoeuvres, and the impact of broader struggles like the Hundred Years’ War on urban life in Hainaut. Written from the perspective of a burgher (bourgeois) rather than a monastery or royal court, the chronicle offers a rare lay viewpoint on high politics and warfare, reflecting how merchants, townspeople, and civic institutions experienced the turbulence of the 13th and 14th centuries. Its narrative style combines straightforward reporting of events with moral and civic observations, making it a valuable source for readers interested in medieval urban society, regional politics, and the lived experience of war and governance in pre-modern Europe.
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Nicholson's Cambrian Guide is in Georgian Books.
At a little distance is a large Carnedd [Plas Newydd Burial Chamber [Map]]; which once covered a space of ground 142 yards in circumference, raised into a pyramid with stones, nearly the same size, thrown promiscuously together and mixed with soil to favour the growth of trees on the surface. One of it's recent proprietors, supposing this mound a mere heap of rubbish, began to level it, but meeting with human bones the workmen were ordered to desist. The present state of the Carnedd is a bank about 90 yards in circumference, and 14 feet high, composed of stones covered with grass, and here and there a tree. This bank is also sloped down on the inside, in the form of a bowl or dish. At the bottom of this hollow lies a flat stone, 6 feet square, which, supported at one end and two sides by other upright stones, leaves an opening into which a man might creep. At the far end is another stone, which lies in the same state, but is only about 4 feet square. At six yards distance, are some other parts.
Two hundred yards N. of this carnedd [Plas Newydd Burial Chamber [Map]], and the same distance from the Menai, stands the completest Cromlech in Anglesea, perhaps in Britain. The cap stone of this ancient british monument is 12 feet long in the centre, and 10 broad. On one side it is 12½ feet long, and only 8 on the other. A corner seems always to have been wanting. The head or upper end of this stoné, which lies flat, and points towards the E., is, in the thickest part, 4½ feet, and the otherend 3½. This ponderous weight was supported by 7 upright stones, 4 feet high, or rather the irregular points of 7, but two of them have fallen. One lies within and the other is in an inclined position near the foot. It may give an idea of this druidic erection,which has weathered out more than 2000 years, to suppose it the inside of a small room, 4 feet high, and 6 wide, supported by five stones. As the Cromlech stands on the declivity of an eminence, the cap-stone, on one side, is only 2 feet from the ground, that ground being also a little elevated, but on the other side 4 feet. Eleven inches from the lower end stands a much smaller Cromlech. ¢
November 1777. Mr. Wyndham says that in the beginning of November 1777, there was accidentally discovered, at the hamlet of Brynkelly [Bryn Celli Ddu Burial Mound [Map]], between Plas Newydd and Moel y Bon ferry, a subterraneous gallery, 18 feet in length, 3 in breadth, and 6 in height, This led to a chamber of the same height, covered with a stone 12 feet long and 9 wide. A small round pillar, seemed to afford some support to this stone from the centre of the room. Many human bones were upon the floor, which mouldered into dust on being touched.