Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Introduction
- Abbreviations
- Did Henry II Have a Policy Towards the Earls?
- The Career of Godfrey of Crowcombe: Household Knight of King John and Steward of King Henry III
- Under-Sheriffs, The State and Local Society c.1300–1340: A Preliminary Survey
- Revisiting Norham, May–June 1291
- Treason, Feud and the Growth of State Violence: Edward I and the ‘War of the Earl of Carrick’, 1306–7
- The Commendatio Lamentabilis for Edward I and Plantagenet Kingship
- Historians, Aristocrats and Plantagenet Ireland, 1200–1360
- War and Peace: A Knight's Tale. The Ethics of War in Sir Thomas Gray's Scalacronica
- The King's Secrets: Richard de Bury and the Monarchy of Edward III
- Budgeting at the Medieval Exchequer
- Recent Scholarship on Crusading and Medieval Warfare, 1095–1291: Convergence and Divergence
- The Military Ordinances of Henry V: Texts and Contexts
- Chivalry and English Kingship in the Later Middle Ages
- Cloth of Gold and Gold Thread: Luxury Imports to England in the Fourteenth Century
- Bibliography of the Writings of Michael Prestwich
- Index
- Tabula Gratulatoriad
The Commendatio Lamentabilis for Edward I and Plantagenet Kingship
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Introduction
- Abbreviations
- Did Henry II Have a Policy Towards the Earls?
- The Career of Godfrey of Crowcombe: Household Knight of King John and Steward of King Henry III
- Under-Sheriffs, The State and Local Society c.1300–1340: A Preliminary Survey
- Revisiting Norham, May–June 1291
- Treason, Feud and the Growth of State Violence: Edward I and the ‘War of the Earl of Carrick’, 1306–7
- The Commendatio Lamentabilis for Edward I and Plantagenet Kingship
- Historians, Aristocrats and Plantagenet Ireland, 1200–1360
- War and Peace: A Knight's Tale. The Ethics of War in Sir Thomas Gray's Scalacronica
- The King's Secrets: Richard de Bury and the Monarchy of Edward III
- Budgeting at the Medieval Exchequer
- Recent Scholarship on Crusading and Medieval Warfare, 1095–1291: Convergence and Divergence
- The Military Ordinances of Henry V: Texts and Contexts
- Chivalry and English Kingship in the Later Middle Ages
- Cloth of Gold and Gold Thread: Luxury Imports to England in the Fourteenth Century
- Bibliography of the Writings of Michael Prestwich
- Index
- Tabula Gratulatoriad
Summary
John of London's Commendatio Lamentabilis in Transitu Magni Regis Edwardi, a eulogy for Edward I of England composed c.1307, has been overlooked by historians and literary scholars alike. As we will see, this means setting aside one of the most widely copied texts about the king, and one that presents a highly complex view of kingship. Michael Prestwich has been one of the Commendatio's few modern readers to recognize its value as a source if not for Edward's life, then certainly his posthumous reputation. I would like to build on his work here, and will suggest that there was more to the Commendatio than immediately meets the eye. While by no means a literary or intellectual masterpiece, it was nonetheless distinctive in its structure and content, and different in equal measure from English and mainland European models of writing about dead kings. Because of these textual and stylistic idiosyncrasies, moreover, the Commendatio offers a rare insight into the political mentalities of late thirteenth- and early fourteenth-century England, as well as into the ideology of kingship not only in Plantagenet England, but in Western Europe as a whole.
To get a flavour of John's writing and imagery, a short summary of the Commendatio is required. The text opens with a dedicatory preface to Edward's widow, and promises to offer an account of the late king's physical appearance and morals, which, in turn, is set alongside Peter of Blois' description of Henry II. Edward’s eyes were thus normally as tranquil and peaceful as those of the dove, but when angry, they resembled those of a lion.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- War, Government and Aristocracy in the British Isles, c.1150–1500Essays in Honour of Michael Prestwich, pp. 114 - 130Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2008