Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- 1 Discovering William of Malmesbury: The Man and his Works
- 2 Gesta Pontificum Anglorum: History or Hagiography?
- 3 William of Malmesbury and Civic Virtue
- 4 The Ironies of History: William of Malmesbury's Views of William II and Henry I
- 5 William of Malmesbury and the Jews
- 6 Advising the King: Kingship, Bishops and Saints in the Works of William of Malmesbury
- 7 Roman Identity in William of Malmesbury's Historical Writings
- 8 William of Malmesbury and the Chronological Controversy
- 9 William of Malmesbury and Durham: The Circulation of Historical Knowledge in Early Twelfth-Century England
- 10 William of Malmesbury as Librarian: The Evidence of his Autographs
- 11 William of Malmesbury: Medical Historian of the Crusades
- 12 German Emperors as Exemplary Rulers in William of Malmesbury and Otto of Freising
- 13 Lector amice: Reading as Friendship in William of Malmesbury
- 14 William of Malmesbury's Historical Vision
- 15 Verax historicus Beda: William of Malmesbury, Bede and historia
- 16 William of Malmesbury and the Britons
- 17 Words, Words, Words . . .
- Epilogue: The Rediscovery of William of Malmesbury
- Index
4 - The Ironies of History: William of Malmesbury's Views of William II and Henry I
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 August 2018
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- 1 Discovering William of Malmesbury: The Man and his Works
- 2 Gesta Pontificum Anglorum: History or Hagiography?
- 3 William of Malmesbury and Civic Virtue
- 4 The Ironies of History: William of Malmesbury's Views of William II and Henry I
- 5 William of Malmesbury and the Jews
- 6 Advising the King: Kingship, Bishops and Saints in the Works of William of Malmesbury
- 7 Roman Identity in William of Malmesbury's Historical Writings
- 8 William of Malmesbury and the Chronological Controversy
- 9 William of Malmesbury and Durham: The Circulation of Historical Knowledge in Early Twelfth-Century England
- 10 William of Malmesbury as Librarian: The Evidence of his Autographs
- 11 William of Malmesbury: Medical Historian of the Crusades
- 12 German Emperors as Exemplary Rulers in William of Malmesbury and Otto of Freising
- 13 Lector amice: Reading as Friendship in William of Malmesbury
- 14 William of Malmesbury's Historical Vision
- 15 Verax historicus Beda: William of Malmesbury, Bede and historia
- 16 William of Malmesbury and the Britons
- 17 Words, Words, Words . . .
- Epilogue: The Rediscovery of William of Malmesbury
- Index
Summary
‘If our Christian faith admitted such a thing’, wrote William of Malmesbury, ‘it might be said that just as the soul of Euphorbus is supposed to have passed into Pythagoras of Samos, so also did the soul of Julius Caesar pass into King William’. This, the concluding sentence of chapter 320 of the Gesta Regum, combining a reference to Julius Caesar with an allusion to Ovid's Metamorphoses, is a spectacular demonstration of Rod Thomson's comment on William of Malmesbury's pen portrait of Rufus: ‘It is a sign of William's particular engagement with his subject that more classical reminiscences are deployed by him in characterising Rufus in the Gesta Regum than any other [person].’ In other ways too William took a great deal of trouble over his characterisation of Rufus. For Heinz Richter, a German student of twelfth-century English historical writing deeply impressed by William's skill in understanding and delineating personality, the portrait of Rufus was his masterpiece. William would surely have been pleased that his characterisation of the king has been identified as ‘the most complete and balanced’ of those composed by the next generation of chroniclers and, in consequence, as the one ‘upon which subsequent historians have primarily relied’. In this essay, however, I shall begin by arguing that nearly all subsequent historians – though not Richter – have overemphasised the darker colours in that portrait, in one case even suggesting that ‘when William talked of Rufus's resemblance to a Roman emperor, Nero might have been a better comparison’.
Without question, William's opinion of the king was far more balanced than Eadmer of Canterbury's. He saw some redeeming features where Eadmer, singlemindedly making his case that Anselm was in no way to blame for the difficulties faced by churches in England, was determined to see none. Although William admired and was influenced by Eadmer's vivid prose, his own values were much more open to the secular world. He not only added much that was in Rufus's favour, but at several key points, he silently disassociated himself from his predecessor's version of events. It has been suggested that the historian was ‘captivated by the king's dry wit.
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- Discovering William of Malmesbury , pp. 37 - 48Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2017
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