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.
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In 1628 Henry Stanhope and [his mother] Katherine Wotton Countess Chesterfield (age 19) were married. He the son of Philip Stanhope 1st Earl Chesterfield (age 44) and Catherine Hastings Countess Chesterfield.
Before 9th May 1630 [his father] Jehan Lord of Heenvliet (age 35) and [his mother] Katherine Wotton Countess Chesterfield (age 21) were married.
On 9th May 1643 Charles Kirkoven 1st Earl Bellomont was born to [his father] Jehan Lord of Heenvliet (age 48) and [his mother] Katherine Wotton Countess Chesterfield (age 34) at The Hague.
In 1649 Charles Kirkoven 1st Earl Bellomont (age 5) was created 1st Baron Wotton.
In 1652 [his half-brother] Philip Stanhope 2nd Earl Chesterfield (age 18) and [his sister-in-law] Anne Percy 2nd Countess Chesterfield (age 17) were married. She by marriage Countess Chesterfield. She the daughter of Algernon Percy 10th Earl of Northumberland (age 49) and Anne Cecil. He the son of Henry Stanhope and [his mother] Katherine Wotton Countess Chesterfield (age 43). They were fourth cousin once removed.
After 1654 [his half-brother] Philip Stanhope 2nd Earl Chesterfield (age 20) and [his sister-in-law] Elizabeth Butler Countess Chesterfield (age 13) were married. She by marriage Countess Chesterfield. She the daughter of James Butler 1st Duke Ormonde (age 43) and Elizabeth Preston Duchess Ormonde (age 38). He the son of Henry Stanhope and [his mother] Katherine Wotton Countess Chesterfield (age 45).
Before 1655 [his brother-in-law] Charles Stanley 8th Earl of Derby (age 26) and [his sister] Dorothea Helena Kirkoven Countess Derby (age 24) were married. She by marriage Countess Derby. She the daughter of [his father] Jehan Lord of Heenvliet (age 60) and [his mother] Katherine Wotton Countess Chesterfield (age 45). He the son of James Stanley 7th Earl of Derby and Charlotte Thouars Countess Derby (age 55).
On 12th September 1656 Philip Stanhope 1st Earl Chesterfield (age 72) died. His grandson [his half-brother] Philip (age 22) succeeded 2nd Earl Chesterfield, 2nd Baron Stanhope of Shelford in Nottinghamshire.
In 1660 [his mother] Katherine Wotton Countess Chesterfield (age 51) was created 1st Countess Chesterfield.
William of Worcester's Chronicle of England
William of Worcester, born around 1415, and died around 1482 was secretary to John Fastolf, the renowned soldier of the Hundred Years War, during which time he collected documents, letters, and wrote a record of events. Following their return to England in 1440 William was witness to major events. Twice in his chronicle he uses the first person: 1. when writing about the murder of Thomas, 7th Baron Scales, in 1460, he writes '… and I saw him lying naked in the cemetery near the porch of the church of St. Mary Overie in Southwark …' and 2. describing King Edward IV's entry into London in 1461 he writes '… proclaimed that all the people themselves were to recognize and acknowledge Edward as king. I was present and heard this, and immediately went down with them into the city'. William’s Chronicle is rich in detail. It is the source of much information about the Wars of the Roses, including the term 'Diabolical Marriage' to describe the marriage of Queen Elizabeth Woodville’s brother John’s marriage to Katherine, Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, he aged twenty, she sixty-five or more, and the story about a paper crown being placed in mockery on the severed head of Richard, 3rd Duke of York.
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On 7th March 1660 [his father] Jehan Lord of Heenvliet (age 65) died.
In September 1660 [his step-father] Daniel O'Neill (age 48) and [his mother] Katherine Wotton Countess Chesterfield (age 51) were married.
Before 1662 [his brother-in-law] William Alington 1st and 3rd Baron Alington (age 21) and [his half-sister] Catherine Stanhope Baroness Alington were married. She by marriage Baroness Alington of Killard. She the daughter of Henry Stanhope and [his mother] Katherine Wotton Countess Chesterfield (age 52). They were third cousin once removed.
On 19th November 1662 [his half-sister] Catherine Stanhope Baroness Alington died.
After July 1665 [his half-brother] Philip Stanhope 2nd Earl Chesterfield (age 31) and [his sister-in-law] Elizabeth Dormer Countess Chesterfield (age 12) were married. She by marriage Countess Chesterfield. She the daughter of Charles Dormer 2nd Earl Carnarvon (age 32) and Elizabeth Capell Countess Carnarvon (age 32). He the son of Henry Stanhope and [his mother] Katherine Wotton Countess Chesterfield (age 56). They were third cousin once removed.
On 9th April 1667 [his mother] Katherine Wotton Countess Chesterfield (age 58) died. Earl Chesterfield extinct. Her son Charles Kirkoven 1st Earl Bellomont (age 23) inherited Boughton aka Bocton Place, Kent [Map].
Samuel Pepys' Diary. 17th August 1668. Up, and by water to White Hall, and so to St. James's, and thence with Mr. Wren (age 39) by appointment in his coach to Hampstead, to speak with the Atturney-general (age 70), whom we met in the fields, by his old route and house; and after a little talk about our business of Ackeworth, went and saw the Lord Wotton's (age 25) house and garden, which is wonderfull fine: too good for the house the gardens are, being, indeed, the most noble that ever I saw, and brave orange and lemon trees.
On 6th April 1673 [his sister] Dorothea Helena Kirkoven Countess Derby (age 43) died.
John Evelyn's Diary. 2nd June 1676. We returned in the evening by Hampstead, to see Lord Wotton's (age 33) house and garden (Bellsize House), built with vast expense by [his step-father] Mr. O'Neale, an Irish gentleman who married Lord Wotton's mother, [his mother] Baroness Stanhope. The furniture is very particular for Indian cabinets, porcelain, and other solid and noble movables. The gallery very fine, the gardens very large, but ill kept, yet woody and chargeable. The soil a cold weeping clay, not answering the expense.
On 25th August 1679 Charles Kirkoven 1st Earl Bellomont (age 36) and Frances Willoughby Countess Bellomont (age 36) were married. She by marriage Baroness Wotton. His paternal grandfather Thomas Wotton 2nd Baron Wotton had been the last of the previous creation of Baron Wotton. He the son of Jehan Lord of Heenvliet and Katherine Wotton Countess Chesterfield.
In 1680 Charles Kirkoven 1st Earl Bellomont (age 36) was created 1st Earl Bellomont. [his wife] Frances Willoughby Countess Bellomont (age 37) by marriage Countess Bellomont.
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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In 1683 Charles Kirkoven 1st Earl Bellomont (age 39) died. Earl Bellomont and Baron Wotton extinct. He was buried at Canterbury Cathedral [Map]. He willed Boughton aka Bocton Place, Kent [Map] to his nephew, [his nephew] Charles Stanhope aka Wooton (age 7), son of his half-brother [his half-brother] Philip Stanhope 2nd Earl Chesterfield (age 49).
On 25th May 1714 [his former wife] Frances Willoughby Countess Bellomont (age 71) died in Derby, Derbyshire [Map].
Father: Jehan Lord of Heenvliet
Charles Kirkoven 1st Earl Bellomont
Great x 4 Grandfather: Robert Wotton of Boughton Malherbe 
Great x 3 Grandfather: Edward Wotton of Boughton Place in Kent
Great x 2 Grandfather: Thomas Wotton
Great x 1 Grandfather: Edward Wotton 1st Baron Wotton
GrandFather: Thomas Wotton 2nd Baron Wotton