Chronicles and Memorials of the Reign of Richard I

William Stubbs (1824-1901) was an important constitutional medievalist and Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford. This two-volume work, published in 1864-5, was the first of his nineteen editorial contributions to the Rolls Series. It chronicles foreign diplomacy and church affairs during the reign of Richard I, whom Stubbs regarded with disdain. Volume 2 comprises a collection of letters relating to a dispute which erupted between the Archbishops Baldwin and Hubert, and the monks of Canterbury, who saw the Archbishops’ attempts to establish a church and college of secular canons as a threat to their status. The correspondence, in Latin, was compiled by a certain Reginald around 1205, although only three pages can be definitively attributed to him. A chronological calendar (1185-1200) provides details of each letter in English, while Stubbs’ substantial introduction contains a fascinating narrative of the history of monasticism in England.