In any period, displaying a succession of rulers has always been a sensitive issue, whatever the manner of doing it. However simple this kind of undertaking may seem at first sight, in fact giving a coherent picture of the past requires making choices – occasionally difficult ones. Choices also have to be made in order not to offend the sensitivities of potential readers or viewers. Even a simple list of rulers may be indicative of its author's intentions or opinions. This is even more so when the format adopted is that of a genealogical diagram, whose primary intent is to show as clearly as possible the family ties between individuals. Therefore tracing the genealogy of a royal dynasty over a long period cannot be neutral: indeed, it is bound to reflect explicitly or implicitly upon the foundations of royal legitimacy.

It is with these preliminary thoughts in mind that I would like to analyse the handling of usurpers in the genealogical rolls of the kings of England, one of the most original products of medieval English historical culture. These rolls appeared at the end of Henry III's reign (1216–72) and went on being produced until the end of the reign of Henry V (1413–22), with a peak during the half-century corresponding to the reigns of the first two Edwards (1272–1327) and to the early years of the reign of Edward III (1327–77).

Let us first consider why this unusual form, the genealogical roll, was adopted in England at this time. As far as we know, it had never been used before to trace the history of any other medieval Western dynasty. In England, genealogical rolls of kings were first written in Latin, at the turn of the reigns of Henry III and Edward I, and soon afterwards in Anglo-Norman French. Before then, the only work using a combination of the commented genealogical diagram and the roll format was the Compendium historiae in genealogia Christi, the work of Peter of Poitiers, a French theologian who taught in Paris in the late twelfth century; Peter's aim was to help students understand and memorize Biblical history.

Matthew Paris, the great thirteenth-century St Albans chronicler, who stands as one of the major historians of medieval Europe, has long been acknowledged as a firsthand authority for English and European events during his lifetime and as one of the richest sources of information about them, especially for the period 1235–1259. Yet, this very prolific historian and hagiographer, whose numerous writings it would be too long and unnecessary to list exhaustively here, is mostly known for his Chronica majora, an impressive and voluminous universal chronicle mainly centred on English history, which incorporates a ‘re-issue’ of the Flores historiarum of his immediate predecessor at St Albans, Roger of Wendover. Most of his other historical narratives, such as the Historia Anglorum, the Abbreviatio chronicorum Angliae and his own Flores historiarum, still sizeable indeed, are all, one way or another, abridgements of – or a complement to, in the case of the Liber additamentorum – the ‘monument’ that is the Chronica majora, which undoubtedly was, in his own eyes, his greatest achievement. The other characteristic which has held the attention of historians or art historians is his undeniable talent as a draughtsman: he himself executed the major part of the marginal or prefatory drawings which tellingly illustrate the pages of his various autograph manuscripts.

Text 1

Fol. 8v:

Willelmus primus, rex Anglie primus post conquisic(i)onem ejus.

Iste Willelmus, dictus Bastardus, dux Normannorum, Angliam sibi, expulso rege Haraldo, triumphator magnificus, potenter adquisditam subjugavit. Abbaciam de Bello, ubi triumpharat, fundavit. Regnavit annis XXI et amplius.

Willelmus secundus, rex secundus, Rufus.

Iste Willelmus secundus, Rufus dictus et existens, Anglos nobiles, qui et patrem ejus receperunt et ipsum creaverunt, fatigavit et expulit. Aulam Westmonasterii construxit. Tandem sagitta periit, postquam regnaverat annis XXI.

Henricus Primus senior, rex tercius.

Iste Henricus Primus, vir potens et sapiens, juravit leges sancti Eduuardi inviolabiliter tenere, sed postquam vicerat fratrem suum, noluit. Nobile cenobium de Radingo, ubi sepultus jacet, fundavit et episcopatum constituit Karleolis. Regnavit autem annis XXXIIII et circiter dimidium.

Stephanus, rex quartus.

Iste Stephanus, miles strenuissimus, omnibus diebus dubiis casibus bellorum interfuit. Iste abbaciam de Fevresham fundavit. In qua ipse et Eustachius, filius ejus, et Matildis regina, uxor ejus, jacent sepulti. Iste regnavit annis XIX.