| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
The education William received at Malmesbury Abbey included a smattering of logic and physics; but moral philosophy and history, especially the latter, were the subjects to which he devoted most attention. He made a collection of the histories of foreign countries from which he conceived an idea to produce a popular account of English history, modelled on the great work of Bede.
In fulfilment of this idea, William produced about 1120 the first edition of his Gesta regum anglorum (Deeds of the English kings (449-1127)), now considered by modern scholars to be one of the great histories of England. It was followed by the first edition of the Gesta pontificum anglorum (Deeds of the English Bishops) in 1125. Subsequently William wrote on theological subjects. A second edition of the Gesta regum anglorum was dedicated to Earl Robert of Gloucester in 1127.
William also formed an acquaintance with Bishop Roger of Salisbury, who had a castle at Malmesbury. It may have been due to these friends that he was offered the abbacy of Malmesbury in 1140, but he preferred to remain a scholar. His one public appearance was made at the council of Winchester in 1141, in which the clergy declared for the empress Matilda. About this date he wrote Historia Novella (New History (1128-1142)), giving an account of events since 1125, including important accounts of the anarchy of King Stephen'sStephen ( 1096 October 25, 1154), the last Norman King of England, reigned from 1135 to 1154, when he was succeeded by his cousin (or, as the gossip of the time had it, his natural son) Henry II, the first of the Angevin or Plantagenet Kings. Stephen was reign. This work breaks off abruptly at the end of 1142Events End of the reign of Emperor Sutoku of Japan Emperor Konoe ascends to the throne of Japan Henry the Lion becomes Duke of Saxony Births Muin ad-Din Hasan, Indian Muslim saint Farid ad-Din Attar, Sufi mystic poet Deaths Pierre Abelard, scholastic phil, with an unfulfilled promise that it will be continued. Presumably William died before he could redeem his pledge.
He is the best English historian of his time. The master of a good Latin style, he shows literary instincts which are, for his time, remarkably sound. But his contempt for the annalistic form makes him at times careless in his chronology and arbitrary in his method of arranging his material; he not infrequently flies off at a tangent to relate stories which have little or no connection with the main narrative; his critical faculty is too often allowed to lie dormant. His researches were by no means profound; he gives us less of the history of his own time than we have a right to expect--far less, for example, than Orderic VitalisOrderic Vitalis ( 1075 c. 1142) was a chronicler and historian who wrote one of the great contemporary chronicles of 11th and 12th century Normandy and England. He was the eldest son of a French priest, Odeler of Orleans, who had entered the service of Ro. He is, however, an authority of considerable value from 1066 onwards; many telling anecdotes, many shrewd judgments on persons and events, can be gleaned from his pages.