Thorney Annals 963-1412 A. D. An Edition and Translation

Thorney Abbey lies in the Cambridgeshire Fenlands. It was founded in 971 and survived until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1540, and ranked as one of the most important religious houses in the Eastern fenlands. The early annals are all in a hand datable to 1110, and were therefore entered retrospectively, but for the next three centuries the annals appear to have been added contemporaneously year by year. In this first complete edition, Latin text and English translation on opposing pages, and a full introduction, critical notes and indexes are provided. Individual annals recorded events of both local and national importance. Besides the succession of abbots and bishops, they covered such topics as the price of wheat, floods, fires, epidemics, and royal successions. Occasional entries cover a range of unexpected subjects sch as the sinking of the White Ship, the beheading of Piers Gaveston, the suppression of the Templars, the writings and trial of John Wycliffe, and the Black Death.