14th century? Scotland. The title Skene gave to a Latin regnal list of Scottish and Pictish kings to the death of Lulach ca 1058 that survives in an early 15th-century manuscript, Edinburgh, NLS, Advocates 34.7.3, transcribed by John Gray, priest of the diocese of Dunblane, during the reign of James V.See also the Anglo-Norman Chronicle of the Picts and Scots, and Regnal lists of Scotland. Edward Donald KennedyBibliography Text W.F. Skene, Chronicles of the Picts, Chronicles of the Scots and Other Early Memorials of Scottish History, 1867, 148-523. Literature RepFont 3, 446.

13th & 14th century. Scotland. This was the title Skene gave to two Scottish regnal lists containing some commentary. The first, written in the 13th century but surviving only in an early 18th century transcript, BL, Harley 4628, lists 23 kings, beginning with Fergus, who reigned in "Scotia", then 60 kings of the Picts, and finally 26 kings of the Scots from Kenneth mac Alpin (ca 842) to the coronation of Alexander III (given here as 1251, but actually 1249). The second list, completed in 1317 and surviving in Oxford, Bodleian Library, ms. Lat. Misc. C. 75 (formerly Phillips 3119)…

ca 1292-1304. Scotland. Anglo-Norman origin narrative and regnal list. The text, a translation of a Latin original, survives as an interpolation in Thomas Gray of Heton's Scalacronica (both are transmitted uniquely in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, ms. 133), inserted into its account of the Great Cause. Attributed to an unknown Life of St Brendan, it describes the foundations of Ireland and Scotland by Gaidel and Fergus, followed by a regnal list which traces the kings of Scotland to John Balliol. The text shares many features with similar origin narratives in chronicl…

(A Chronicle about the origin of the ancient Picts) 12th century. Scotland. A short Latin chronicle based in part on Isidore of Seville's Etymologiae and on the Historia Brittonum, and including a list of Pictish kings. It is preserved in the 14th century Paris, BnF, lat. 4126 (the Poppleton manuscript, or Colbert manuscript), fol. 27r-28v. Howlett points out that it is textually related to the De Situ Albanie (see Cronica regum Scotorum) that precedes it in the manuscript and possibly to the Chronicle of the Kings of Alba that follows it, and it shares with other texts in the man…

13th-16th century. Scotland. Scottish regnal lists were lists of kings that functioned as non-diagrammatic genealogies to indicate the relationship of kings to their predecessors. They were originally recited at Scottish coronations to bolster the belief that Scotland had been independent since antiquity, in contrast to England, which had been ruled by Britons, Romans, Danes, Anglo-Saxons, and Normans. Although at times the lists, like genealogical chronicles, had brief accounts of the kings' re…

(Chronicle of the kings of Scots over 314 years) 12th century. Scotland. A Latin Scottish king list, with considerable commentary, from Fergus son of Eric to William I (the Lion), which, although the title suggests 314 years, was intended to cover 315 years, from ad 850 to 1165, the year of the accession of William. It follows the Chronicle of the Kings of Alba in Paris, BnF, lat. 4126 (the Poppleton manuscript, the Colbert manuscript), fol. 29v-31r, a 14th-century manuscript compiled at York by the Carmelite friar, Robert of Poppleton (d. 1368). Howlett, drawing analogies with the aut…

[Scottish Chronicle; Pictish Chronicle; Poppleton Annals] 9th-12th century. Scotland. Brief Latin chronicle of Scottish history from mid 9th to late 10th century, preserved in Paris, BnF, lat. 4126 (known as the Poppleton manuscript, or the Colbert manuscript), fols. 28v-29v, as part of a historical miscellany compiled in the 14th century at the house of Carmelite friars in York by Robert of Poppleton. The chronicle, written much earlier than the manuscript, is important as one of the few surviving annalistic compilations from an early period in Scotlan…

[Verse Chronicle; Metrical Chronicle] 13th century. Scotland. 138-line Latin Scottish regnal list in verse from Kenneth I's expulsion of the Picts from Albania (ca 834/9) to the first half of the reign of Alexander III (ca 1270); cited in Watt's edition of Walter Bower's Scotichronicon as Chronicon Elegiacum and by Anderson and Broun as Verse Chronicle. Written in Latin elegiac couplets, it also presents notes on the reigns of the kings. Although the later part was probably written ca 1270, Skene believed that the text up to Malcolm IV may have been written about the time of Malco…

14th century. Scotland. Chronicle of the Scots is the title Skene gave to four different short Latin works of the 14th century, two of them regnal lists. Chronicle of the Scots [1] extends from Kenneth mac Alpin's reign (843-58) to 1334 when Edward Balliol ceded Scotland's southern counties to Edward III of England. Not supportive of Scottish independence, it notes that no Scottish king before David II was anointed. It survives in BL, Cotton Claudius ms. D.vii, with material prefaced to the Chronicon de Lanercost. The manuscript, dating 1350-1400, was based on an exemplar endin…

[Chronicle of the Scots] ca 1482-1530. Scotland. A brief account of the six ages of the world in Scots English prose, followed by a list of major events in Scottish (and, to some extent, English and Continental) history from the origin of the Scots until 1482. Its most detailed entries concern James III and the Wars of the Roses. It survives only in BL, Royal ms. 17.D.xx, although it has been confused with the Brevis cronica and thus has been said to appear in manuscripts in which it does not (Edinburgh, NLS, Adv. ms. 19.2.3 & 19.2.4). It was probably written to teach major points about Sc…

[Cronica canonicorum beate Marie Huntingdonie] 13th century. England. A Latin list of Scottish kings, beginning with Kenneth mac Alpin and ending at the beginning of the reign of Alexander III (1249), compiled by the canons at St. Mary's Church, Huntingdon (Cambridgeshire) in the spring of 1291 as a reply to Edward I's demand, with little advance notice, that the monasteries of England compile historical data on relations between English and Scottish kings. The chronicle concludes that the Scots had ruled Scotland for 456 years, from ad 834 to 1290. Based in part upon the Chronicle of Me…

(Supplementary Book) [Breve Chronicon Scoticum, Chronicon Rhythmicum] 15th century. Scotland. Latin chronicle, surviving in different versions as a "supplementary book" in some manuscripts of Walter Bower's Scoticronicon. In its longest version it consists of a prose prologue, a 352-line poem on Scottish history from its legendary origins to the battle of Falkirk in 1298, a 72-line poem on English history from the Anglo-Saxons to Henry VI, a 70-line poem on the Norman Conquest that explains that the descendants of St. Ma…

(True chronicle of Scotland) 1464. France. This anonymous short chronicle in Old French traces the history of Scotland from its origins to December 1464. The text summarises: Greek and Egyptian antecedents of the Scots; settlement in Portugal and Ireland; migration to Scotland; arrival and expulsion of the Picts; Scottish claims to the English throne; key events in Anglo-Scottish relations (notably the succession dispute between John Balliol and Robert Bruce); and historical examples of French support for the Scots against the English. The author seems to have …

[Chronicle of Scotland in a part; Chronicle of the Scots] ca 1470-1530. Scotland. Short prose chronicle in Scots English written as propaganda against England. Presumably translated from a lost Latin source. Three manuscripts: Edinburgh, National Archives of Scotland, Dalhousie Muniments, GD 45/31/1 (formerly Brechin Castle, Panmure manuscript), also known as the Dalhousie manuscript; Edinburgh, NLS, ms. 16500 (Asloan); and BL, Royal ms. 17.D.xx, all somewhat different and possibly all derived independently from a Latin origina…

ca 673-735. Britain. Bede was an Anglo-Saxon monk (later claimed as a Benedictine) who spent his entire life teaching and writing in the twin monasteries of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow in Northumbria. One of the most important exegetes of his period, he was particularly valued throughout the later Middle Ages for his historical and historiographical work. He wrote two major studies on the nature of time ( De temporibus and De temporum ratione) which each included a world chronicle ( Chronica minora and Chronica maiora respectively), the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum - his best k…