Stow, G. B., 'The Continuation of the Eulogium Historiarum: Some Revisionist Perspectives', The English Historical Review 119 (2004), 667-681

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Quick Summary

The continuation of the Eulogium Historiarum may not be a reliable narrative source for the reign of Richard II

  • The anonymous author altered a previous draft of the chronicle around 1405
  • The surviving copy of the chronicle was compiled after 1428, perhaps as late as the 1440s
  • The reliability of the chronicle’s famous passage about Richard II’s fascination with royal absolutism is questioned
Key Conclusion

Stow explores the dating, composition and authorship of the medieval chronicle known as the Continuatio Eulogii, or the ‘continuation of the Eulogium Historiarum’. The Continuatio provides coverage of events in England from 1364 to 1413. Stow’s research raises ‘serious questions about the overall reliability of its narrative as a source for the reign of Richard II’ (pp. 680-1). Stow concludes that the anonymous author of the Continuatio, writing around 1405, went back and made alterations to a previous version of the chronicle that no longer survives. This opens the very real possibility that passages in the Continuatio depicting Richard II as an absolutist tyrant may have been ‘later textual interpolations’ to justify his deposition and the accession of Henry IV.

Content Overview

The Continuatio as it exists today was compiled at some date after 1428, perhaps as late as the 1440s. It was compiled from a variety of earlier sources, but drew upon two principle component texts: one was a Latin chronicle covering the period 1367 to 1401, while the other was a chronicle covering the period 1402 to 1413. An original text of the Continuatio, known as the ‘Latin original’, which provided a narrative of the period from 1367 to 1401, has not survived. We know it existed, however, because the surviving copy of the Continuatio and another chronicle known as the Southern Chronicle both drew heavily upon its text.

Further Findings

Historians have often looked to the continuation of the Eulogium Historiarum for its unique insight into Richard II’s character during the last years of his reign, and for evidence of the king’s growing fascination with ‘royal absolutism’ (p. 667). In a famous passage, the Continuatio recounts how Richard would often sit enthroned in his chamber ‘in full view from dinner until vespers speaking to no one but overlooking all men, and if his gaze fell upon anyone, no matter what his rank, he must kneel’ (p. 667, n. 1). Stow questions the reliability of this passage, because it bears the hallmarks of later textual interpolations made by the anonymous author around 1405 (p. 681).

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