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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Nine Stones Close Stone Circle is in Middleton-by-Youlgreave, Derbyshire [Map], Peak District Stone Circles.
Archaeologia Volume 6 Section XIII. Plate XV. N° 8. is a view of the remains of another Druid temple on Hartle Moor, about half a mile west of the Nine Ladies. It consists at present only of six stones; but the field they stand in goes by the name of the Nine Stone Close [Map], and if we may judge by the eye, there were formerly that number. The height of the tallest stone is seventeen feet; at seventy-five yards south stand two stones somewhat smaller.
Thomas Bateman 1846. On the 6th of March, 1847, a small excavation was made within the circle inclosed by the six stones standing in the "Nine Stone Close [Map]" upon Harthill Moor, with a view of noting the claim of such stone circles to be considered sepulchral structures. The result in this instance was favorable to this opinion of their origin and purpose as several fragments of imperfectly-baked pottery, accompanied by pieces of flint, both in a natural and calcined state, were dug up.
These remains probably would have been more complete, had not the repeated passage of the plough in the progress of cultivation materially reduced the height of the land within the inclosed area.
Transactions of the British Archaeological Association August 1845 Pages 192-195. The Druid temple of Nine Stones, on Stanton Moor, about half a mile from Rowter; known to the country people as the Nine Ladies [Map]; and which, although an undoubted early British remain, is scarcely of sufficient magnitude to entitle it to the designation of a temple, — being only eleven yards in diameter,—is now completely hidden in a plantation of firs; and the cairns in the neighbourhood, in which bones and glass beads were found a century ago, are levelled with the surrounding soil. It is remarkable that, about half a mile west of the Nine Ladies, there exists a similar circle of stones, in a close called Nine-stone close [Map]; four only, however, at present (1845) remain erect (although six existed as late as 1824). These, probably, have a reference to the mystic number 9, and may have been cenotaphs, if not cemeteries, of the chief Druids. About two hundred yards from this spot, in an adjoining field, a fine brass celt, weighing twenty-four ounces, was dug up in 1824, and is now in my possession.