Feudal England: Historical Studies on the Eleventh and Twelfth CenturiesRound, John Horace
History
Feudal England: Historical Studies on the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries
Round, John Horace
Domesday book; Feudalism -- Great Britain; Great Britain -- History -- Norman period, 1066-1154; Normans -- Great Britain
instead of lifting ignorance to competence by teaching what
ought to be known, they cut down what ought to be known to the
capacity of those who are deficient of that knowledge. Instead
of making them understand the meaning of the ancient and
established word 'Anglo-Saxon', they disturb the whole world
of learning with an almost violent attempt to turn out of use
the established word, which has been thoroughly understood for
ages.
The simple answer to Mr Freeman's contention is, that it is needless
to make the change in histories, because those who read them learn
that the fight was at Battle; while as to those who do not read
histories, it is obvious that such a name as 'Senlac' will in no way
lighten their darkness.
The change, therefore, was uncalled for. But it was not merely
uncalled for; it was also absolutely wrong. 'To the battle itself,' Mr
Freeman wrote, 'I restore its true ancient name of Senlac.' In so
doing the writer acted in the spirit of those who 'restore' our
churches and who gave that word so evil a sound in the ears of all
archæologists, Mr Freeman himself included. I am reminded of the
protest of the Society of Antiquaries on hearing 'with much regret
that a fifteenth-century pinnacle' at Rochester Cathedral 'is in
danger of destruction in order that a modern pinnacle, professing to
represent that which stood in the place in the twelfth century, may be
set up in its stead'. Precisely such a 'restoration' is Mr Freeman's
'Senlac'. Professing to represent the ancient name of the battle, it
is substituted for that name which the battle has borne from the days
of the Conqueror to our own. In William of Malmesbury as in Domesday
Book we read of 'the Battle of Hastings' (_Bellum Hastingense_), and
all Mr Freeman's efforts failed admittedly to discover any record or
any writer who spoke of the Battle of Senlac (_Bellum Senlacium_)
save Orderic alone. Now Orderic wrote two generations after the battle
was fought; the name he strove to give it fell from his pen stillborn;
and the fact that this name was a fad of his own is shown by what Mr
Freeman suppressed, namely, that Orderic, in the same breath, tells
us that Battle Abbey was founded as 'c[oe]nobium Sanctæ Trinitatis
Senlac', whereas we learn from Mr Freeman himself that
the usual title is 'ecclesia Sancti Martini de Bello',
'ecclesia de Bello', or, as we have seen, in English 'þæt
mynster æt þære Bataille'. The fuller form, 'Abbas Sancti
Martini de loco Belli', appears in Domesday, 11_b_: but it is
commonly called in the Survey 'ecclesia de Labatailge'.
So much for Orderic's authority.
So violent an innovation as this of our author's could not
pass unchallenged. Mr Frederic Harrison threw down the gauntlet
(_Contemporary Review_, January 1886), attacking, in a brilliant and
incisive article, Mr Freeman's 'pedantry' along the whole line. But he
chiefly complained of
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