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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.
St Alban's Shrine, St Albans Cathedral is in St Albans Cathedral [Map].
Vault below St Alban's Shrine, St Albans Cathedral in which Humphrey Lancaster 1st Duke Gloucester (age 56) was buried after 23rd February 1447. Restored in 2000.
A stone chamber, below the abbey shrine area, built in the 1440s as the tomb of Duke Humphrey of Gloucester; it was rediscovered in 1703. This is 'the earliest accessible vault with its own distinct entrance, approached down a steep flight of steps. On the east wall are traces of a painting of the Crucifixion, another unique feature. The original coffin was destroyed 1713-22 but some bones remain in the vault.
On 20th January 1465 Abbot John Whethampstede (age 46) died. He was buried under what is not the Welcome Centre at St Albans Cathedral. There is a memorial to him in St Alban's Shrine, St Albans Cathedral.
Abbot John Whethampstede: In or before 1419 he was born to Hugh Bostock. in Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire [Map]. In 1451 he was appointed Abbot of St Albans.
St Alban's Shrine, St Albans Cathedral. Vault of the Shepherd family built in 1768.
St Alban's Shrine, St Albans Cathedral was built, or rebuilt, in 1308 but was destroyed when the Abbey was closed down in 1539. Pieces from this shrine were used to restore the shrine in 1872 and again in 1993. There is also a small memorial chapel underneath the main shrine chapel.
