The medieval monk as a worldly traveller, not a bookworm
William’s career dispels the notion of the medieval monk as a solitary bookworm. The abbot ranked as a great noble, sitting among earls and bishops in the Great Council and being…
William’s personal observations across England
William’s little sketches of town and country in his survey of English dioceses must have been made on the spot.…
The new intellectual movement beyond the cloister
The new intellectual movement was by no means confined to the cloister. Clerks and laymen shared in it, and king and queen encouraged it warmly—marking their sympathy with the pat…
Henry I as a royal patron of learning
Henry I exemplified the royal patronage of learning. Beyond cherishing the maxim that an unlettered king is a crowned ass, he studied natural science in characteristically practic…
Queen Maude and the scholars at her court
Henry’s queen Maude shared his tastes. She had received at her aunt’s convent at Romsey an education given to few women of her time, and in her later years at Westminster, when th…
Earl Robert of Gloucester as scholar and patron
The king’s son Earl Robert of Gloucester was renowned as a scholar no less than as a warrior and statesman.…
The secular clergy and historical writing
The secular clergy had no mind to be outstripped by the regulars in literary activity. Bishop Alexander of Lincoln, a nephew of the justiciar, urged his archdeacon Henry of Huntin…
Natural science and Philip de Thaun’s Bestiary
Natural science had its followers beyond the king himself. Philip de Thaun, an Anglo-Norman poet, composed a Bestiary which found a patroness in Henry’s second queen, Adeliza of L…
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