Malmesbury

Malmesbury, WILLIAM OF, an early English historian, was born near the close of the 11th century, and was educated in the monastery at Malmesbury, where he became a monk, and in due time librarian, and afterwards precentor. In 1140 he declined the office of abbot, took part in the council at Winchester against Stephen in 1141, and died most probably soon after 1142, when his latest work, the Historia Novella, comes abruptly to an end. His two principal works are Gesta Regum Anglorum and Gesta Pontificum Anglorum. The former gives the history of the kings of England from the Saxon invasion to the twenty-eighth year of Henry I., or the year 1128. The Historia Novella brings down the narrative to the year 1142, but is really a separate work. Sir T. D. Hardy edited both together for the English Historical Society in 1840. Sharpe's translation (1815) was included in Bohn's 'Antiquarian Library' in 1847. The two form admittedly one of the most valuable authorities for the Anglo-Norman period of our history, the work of a man of great learning, industry, intelligence, and impartiality—no mere compilation, and written moreover with unusual clearness and force. The Gesta Pontificum gives an account of the bishops and principal monasteries of England from the conversion of Ethelbert of Kent by St Augustine to 1123. It was edited in the Rolls series in 1870 by Mr N. E. S. A. Hamilton. Other works of William's are an account of the church at Glastonbury, printed in Gale's Scriptores XV., and a life of St Dunstan, printed in Wharton's Anglia Sacra.