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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.

Biography of Archbishop Robert Kilwardby 1215-1279

In 1261 Archbishop Robert Kilwardby was appointed provincial prior of the Dominicans for England.

On 11th October 1272 Archbishop Robert Kilwardby was elected Archbishop of Canterbury.

On 26th February 1273 Archbishop Robert Kilwardby was consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury.

Coronation of King Edward I

Chronicle of Walter of Guisborough. In the year of our Lord 1274, on the fourth day before the Nones of August [2nd August], Edward, son of King Henry, arrived in England; and on the 14th day before the Kalends of September [19th August], on the feast of Saint Magnus the martyr, he was elevated and crowned as King of England, in the second year of his reign following the death of his father. He was anointed king, and his wife Eleanor was anointed queen, by Brother Robert of Kilwardby, Archbishop of Canterbury, at Westminster in London, amid the rejoicing and acclamations of the crowd, who cried, "Long live the king!" He was of handsome appearance, tall and of elegant form, for from the shoulders upward he stood out among common men, and he was still of youthful age, not yet having completed his thirty-sixth year. In the early days of his reign, desiring to establish just laws and to fulfil what was lacking, being a man of justice, great counsel, and sound judgment, he summoned his nobles and, in the third year of his reign, in the year of our Lord 1275, by their common counsel, issued statutes at London, known as the First Statutes of Westminster, comprising forty-seven chapters.

Anno Domini MCCLXXIV quarto nonas Augusti applicuit in Angliam Edwardus, filius regis Edward Henrici, et XIV kalendas Septembris, die scilicet beati Magni martyris, magnificatus est, et in regem Angliæ coronatus, secundo anno regni sui post obitum patris; ipsumque inunxit in regem et Alienoram conjugem suam in reginam frater Robertus de Kiluerby archiepiscopus Cantuariensis apud Westmonasterium Londoniis, congaudentibus turbis et conclamantibus, Vivat rex! Erat enim aspectu pulcher, magnæ staturæ et elegantis formæ, ab humeris enim et supra in populo communi eminebat, et juvenilis ætatis, nondum enim compleverat annum ætatis suæ XXXVI. Hic in primordiis novitatis suæ leges justas condere et insufficientes adimplere cupiens, utpote justus, magni consilii, et discreti animi, convocatis magnatibus suis, anno regni sui tertio, de communi A. D. 1275. consilio, statuta condidit Londoniis quæ dicuntur Statuta Westmonasterii prima, et continent capitula XLVII.

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In 1278 Archbishop Robert Kilwardby was appointed Cardinal Bishop of Porto and Santa Rufina after which he resigned Canterbury and left England, taking with him papers, registers and documents belonging to the see.

On 11th September 1279 Archbishop Robert Kilwardby died.

Chronicle of Walter of Guisborough. A day was then appointed for a written response, either granting support or presenting clear reasons why it should not be done. When the day arrived, many consented, not daring to object, among them the Archbishop of Canterbury, Brother Robert of Kilwardby of the Order of Preachers, who had been appointed to that post by the Pope. He responded thus: "Holy Father, I am the work and creation of your hands; my church is your church, and my goods are your goods. Therefore dispose of my church and my goods as if they were your own."

Datusque est ei dies ad respondendum in scriptis, ut vel concederent vel certas rationes prætenderent quare non esset hoc faciendum. Adveniente die, multi consenserunt, contradicere non audentes, inter quos Cantuariensis archiepiscopus, frater Robertus de Kiluerby, de ordine Prædicatorum, qui per papam in hunc locum positus fuerat, sic respondit: Pater sancte, opus et creatio manuum vestrarum ego sum, ecclesia mea ecclesia vestra et bona mea bona vestra sunt; disponite ergo de ecclesia mea et de bonis meis sicut et de bonis propriis.