The Peterborough Chronicle is the most recent and
the longest sustained of the seven extant manu-
scripts of the ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE. Each manuscript
of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records the
“common stock”—the original account of the history
of Britain from 60 B.C.E. until the reign of King
ALFRED THE GREAT in 891. That original manuscript
was apparently copied at Winchester and sent
throughout England to important centers of regional
culture, where local scribes received regular
updates from the capital, but also began recording
events of local interest, so that after about 915 the
several manuscripts begin to diverge significantly.
What scholars refer to as “Manuscript E” of the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (catalogued in Oxford’s
Bodleian Library as MS. Laud 636) is also called the
Peterborough Chronicle, after the monastery in
which the text was copied and maintained up until
1154, when its last entry records the death of King
Stephen. No other manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle is maintained after the year 1080.
Scholars have conjectured that the extant manuscript
was a copy made after a fire destroyed the
original manuscript kept at Peterborough in 1116.
The scribe that copied the manuscript to that point
continued making entries in the Chronicle until
1131, after which a second scribe took over the task
until the final entry in 1154.
This later part of the Chronicle contains a number
of memorable entries. Particularly poignant is
the entry for 1083, describing the slaughter of the
monks at Glastonbury. The entry for 1087, containing
a biography of William the Conqueror, is
the longest entry in any part of the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle. But the most famous section of the Peterborough
Chronicle is that containing the entries
for 1135–54, describing the civil wars and brutality
during the disastrous reign of King Stephen.Most
notable is the entry for 1137, which describes the
robbing and burning of villages and of churches,
the destruction of fields resulting in starvation,
and the reduction of once-thriving people to begging
or to emigration. The chronicler asserts that
these things went on for the entire 19 years of
Stephen’s reign, and became progressively worse.
In addition to its historical interest, the Peterborough
Chronicle is a valuable text for linguists.
Since it covers the period from before the Norman
Conquest (1066) to almost 100 years later, the
Chronicle is a written record of the transition of
English from the OLD ENGLISH period into the
early MIDDLE ENGLISH.
Bibliography
Clark, Cecily, ed. The Peterborough Chronicle
1070–1154. 2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1970.
Rositzke,Harry A., trans. The Peterborough Chronicle.
New York: Columbia University Press, 1951.
Whitelock, Dorothy, ed. The Peterborough Chronicle.
Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1954.