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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Serious Admonitions to Youth is in Georgian Books.
Serious admonitions to youth, in a short account of the life, trial, condemnation and execution. Of Mrs. Mary Channing (age 18). Who, for poisoning her husband, was burnt at Dorset ... 1706.
About Noon, two Men were executed, the one for House breaking and the other for murdering his Wife; the latter of which, shewed not the least Care for his Soul, but died an ignorant, hardened Wretch, denying to the very last the Fact for which he suffered.
[21st March 1706] After the Under Sheriff had taken some Refreshment, she [Mary Brookes aka Channing (age 18)] was brought out of Prison, and drag'd by her Fathers and Husband's Houses, to the Place of Execution [Maumbury Rings [Map]]. Here Mr. Hutchins and other Clergy continued a long time with her in Prayer, and supposing that Death being now in View, might mollifie her hard Heart, repeated their Exhortations to Confession, but to no purpose., they found no tthe least Alteration. In the midst of her Prayers she was strangely concern'd at the Sight of Mr. Richard Channing her Husband's eldest Brother, and 'twas with some Difficulty Mr. Hutchins brought her again to a calm Attendance on her Devotians. She manifested nothing of Alteration when fixed to the Srake, but justified her Innocence to the very last, and left the World with a Courage seldom found in her Sex. She being first strangled, the Fire was kindled five in the Afternoon, and in the sight of many thousand Spoctmors she was consum'd to Ashes.