Hardyng, or Harding, JOHN

Hardyng, or Harding, JOHN, a 15th-century English rhyming chronicler, was born in 1378, and was brought up in the household of Harry Percy, the famous Hotspur, whom he saw fall on Shrewsbury field in 1402. Pardoned for his treason, he served under Sir Robert Umfraville, became constable of Warkworth Castle, fought at Agincourt, and served the crown in confidential and critical missions to Scotland. His chronicle, composed in limping stanzas, and treating the history of England from the earliest times down to the flight of Henry VI. into Scotland, he rewrote and presented to Edward IV. just after his accession. It is poor history and poorer poetry, but the account of the Agincourt campaign has the interest of the eye-witness. For his hostility to the Scots he had apparently good grounds in his own experience. Hardyng's Chronicle was continued by the printer Richard Grafton down to the thirty-fourth year of the reign of Henry VIII., but Grafton's work was little more than a recast of Hall. The best edition of Hardyng's Chronicle and its continuation is that by Sir Henry Ellis (1812).