Peter Langtoft, also known as Peter of Langtoft was an English historian and chronicler

English historians in the Middle Ages

Historians of England in the Middle Ages helped to lay the groundwork for modern historical historiography, providing vital accounts of the early history of England, Wales and Normandy, its cultures, and revelations about the historians themselves....

 who took his name from the small village of Langtoft

Langtoft, East Riding of Yorkshire

Langtoft is a small village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. Situated north of Driffield town centre and lying on the B1249 between Driffield and Foxholes.According to the 2001 UK census, Langtoft parish had a population of 457....

 in the East Riding of Yorkshire

East Riding of Yorkshire

The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Yorkshire, is a local government district with unitary authority status, and a ceremonial county of England. For ceremonial purposes the county also includes the city of Kingston upon Hull, which is a separate unitary authority...

.

Langtoft was an Augustinian monk at Bridlington

Bridlington

Bridlington is a seaside resort, minor sea fishing port and civil parish on the Holderness Coast of the North Sea, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It has a static population of over 33,000, which rises considerably during the tourist season...

 Priory who wrote a history of England in Anglo-Norman verse

Anglo-Norman literature

Anglo-Norman literature is literature composed in the Anglo-Norman language developed during the period 1066–1204 when the Duchy of Normandy and England were united in the Anglo-Norman realm.-Introduction:...

, popularly known as Langtoft's Chronicle. The history narrates the history of England from the legendary founding of Britain by Brutus to the death of King Edward I

Edward I of England

Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...

. The first part of Langtoft's Chronicle

Chronicle

Generally a chronicle is a historical account of facts and events ranged in chronological order, as in a time line. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events, the purpose being the recording of events that occurred, seen from the perspective of the...

 is translated from Wace

Wace

Wace was a Norman poet, who was born in Jersey and brought up in mainland Normandy , ending his career as Canon of Bayeux.-Life:...

's Roman de Brut

Roman de Brut

Roman de Brut or Brut is a verse literary history of Britain by the poet Wace. Written in the Norman language, it consists of 14,866 lines....

, and the second part is drawn from a number of sources, including Henry of Huntingdon

Henry of Huntingdon

Henry of Huntingdon , the son of a canon in the diocese of Lincoln, was a 12th century English historian, the author of a history of England, Historia anglorum, "the most important Anglo-Norman historian to emerge from the secular clergy". He served as archdeacon of Huntingdon...

's Historia Anglorum. The third part is widely considered to be original work by Langtoft, and he includes in it details not recorded elsewhere such as the fate of Gwenllian

Gwenllian of Wales

Gwenllian ferch Llywelyn was the only child of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the last native Tywysog Cymru . She is sometimes confused with Gwenllian ferch Gruffudd, who lived two centuries earlier.- Lineage :...

, daughter of Llywelyn the Last

Llywelyn the Last

Llywelyn ap Gruffydd or Llywelyn Ein Llyw Olaf , sometimes rendered as Llywelyn II, was the last prince of an independent Wales before its conquest by Edward I of England....

, Prince of Wales. On the whole, the Chronicle is virulently anti-Scottish and famously contains nine 'songs', in both Anglo-Norman

Anglo-Norman language

Anglo-Norman is the name traditionally given to the kind of Old Norman used in England and to some extent elsewhere in the British Isles during the Anglo-Norman period....

 and Middle English, supposedly capturing the taunts between English and Scottish soldiers during the Anglo-Scottish conflicts of the late-13th and early-14th centuries.

Langtoft's Chronicle was the source of the second part of Robert Mannyng

Robert Mannyng

Robert Manning was an English chronicler and Gilbertine monk. Mannyng provides a surprising amount of information about himself in his two known works, Handlyng Synne and a Chronicle...

's Middle English Chronicle

Mannyng's Chronicle

Mannyng's Chronicle is a chronicle written in Middle English by Robert Mannyng in about 1338.Mannyng began writing his chronicle at the beginning of Edward III’s reign in 1327 and probably finished it in 1338, dated at the end of the second part. The chronicle consists of two parts...

, completed around 1338.

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