Bradshaw

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Life

BRADSHAW, HENRY (d. 1513), Benedictine monk and poet, was a native of Chester. Being from childhood "much addicted to religion and learning", he was, while young, received among the monks of St. Werburgh's (now Chester Cathedral). At some point, possibly well into his adult life, he was sent to Gloucester Hall, Oxford, and there passed his course in theology. He then returned to his monastery.

Works

He is said to have written a history of Chester: "De Antiquitate et magnificentia Urbis Cestriæ" of which, unfortunately, no copy survives. His best known work is: "Chronicon and a Life of St. Werburgh", in English verse, including the "Foundation of the City of Chester", the "Chronicle of the Kings", &c. The date of his death is fixed at 1513, by 'A Balade to the Auctour,' printed with this poem.

The Life of St Werburgh draws on a wide range of historical sources including Bede, William of Malmesbury, Gerald of Wales and Henry of Huntingdon, as well as Ranulph Higden, a former alumnus of Bradshaw’s own abbey of St Werburgh’s (died around 1363) and author of the Polychronicon. Book II also makes particular use of a source described by Bradshaw as the ‘third passionarye’ (Book II, l. 1690), which seems to have been a compilation of various different hagiographic and miracle texts relating to Werburgh and her association with Chester. The Vita included in this collection was almost certainly the twelfth-century Latin text attributed to Goscelin of Saint-Bertin. Whilst the ‘third passionarye’ is no longer extant, several plausible identifications and assessments of the available evidence have been made.

Ormerod takes some information from Bradshaw and confuses hemself utterly:

  • In 894, according to Henry Bradshaw, Harold king of the Danes, Mancolin king of the Scots, and another confederate prince, encamped on Hoole Heath, near Chester, and after a long siege reduced the city, but soon afterwards were attacked by Alfred, who pursued thither their comrades who had fled from Buttingdune. The time and the success of the siege by Alfred are variously related by the historians, but the result appears to be that the Danes left the city in consequence of famine

Bradshaw is known to be a not very accurate historical source (and his Latin treatise "De antiquitate et magnificentia Urbis Cestricie" is lost). In 894 the king of Scotland, or rather Picts/Alba was Domnall mac Causantín. He ruled 889-900. The Chronicle of the Kings of Alba has Donald succeeded by his cousin Constantine II. Donald's son Malcolm (Máel Coluim mac Domnall) was later king as Malcolm I and while he raided England, he never got as far south as Chester. The Battle of Buttington was fought in 893 between a Viking army and an alliance of Anglo-Saxons and Welsh. However it took place either near Welshpool or on the River Wye. The same Vikings (under Hastein) are known to have attacked Chester in 894, but other than Bradshaw no independent source mentions the Scots as being involved at all.

Sources and Links

Texts