Stow, George B., 'Richard II in Thomas Walsingham’s Chronicles', Speculum 59 (1984), 68-102

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Quick Summary

Thomas Walsingham altered earlier versions of his chronicle to convey a more negative and damaging impression of Richard II

  • The St Albans histories contain various drafts of Walsingham’s Chronica maiora
  • Walsingham was not consistently hostile towards Richard II
  • Walsingham relied heavily on the official Lancastrian record of Richard II’s deposition
Key Conclusion

Stow explores the changing depiction of Richard II in different versions of the chronicle of Thomas Walsingham, a monk at St Albans Abbey. Stow concludes that the various texts that comprise the ‘corpus of St Albans histories’ were all written by Walsingham; they represent ‘various drafts and recensions’ of the same two chronicles – the Chronica maiora and the short chronicle (p. 100). Stow revises the dating of the various texts to demonstrate how textual alterations in successive manuscripts reflect changing authorial bias. For example, whereas Richard is depicted in ‘neutral tones’ in earlier versions of Walsingham’s work, in the later versions written in 1397 and 1408, Walsingham altered passages to convey negative and damaging impressions of Richard II.

Content Overview

By analysing the contents of several manuscripts, Stow demonstrates that Walsingham was not ‘consistently anti-Ricardian’, but rather provided ‘evolving and kaleidoscopic assessments of Richard II’ (p. 100). Walsingham tended to change his depictions of the king in conformity with shifts in public opinion. In early versions of his chronicle, John of Gaunt bore the brunt of Walsingham’s criticism as the ‘best-hated man in England’, while the ten-year-old boy-king Richard II began his reign with the ‘heartfelt sympathy of the majority of his subjects’ (p. 101). Later versions of Walsingham’s chronicle reflect the increasing popularity of Gaunt, and the decreasing popularity of Richard as he made a series of inept judgments and alienated most of the realm by 1397.

Further Findings

The ‘enormous importance and influence’ of Thomas Walsingham is a key reason why the traditional interpretation of Richard’s reign is so hostile to the king’s character and government (p. 68). Yet Stow demonstrates that it was ‘politically expedient’ for Walsingham to write a history favourable to Henry IV. By altering earlier versions of his work and borrowing ‘wholesale and often verbatim’ from the Record and Process – the official Lancastrian version of Richard II’s deposition – Walsingham incorporated increasingly violent assaults on Richard’s character ‘until by 1408 scarcely any of Richard’s actions was considered safe from scandal’ (p. 100).  Ultimately, Stow’s research demonstrates the ‘influence of public opinion and political propaganda on contemporary assessments of character in medieval chronicles’ (p. 102).

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