WILLIAM OF MALMESBURY, circa 1095-1143. The greatest historian of his time and the acknowledged expert on Saxon history. His Mother was undoubtedly English and his father supposed to have come over with the Conqueror. He was educated at the Abbey School and in early years showed promise as a historian. It is said that he was too lazy to undertake the full rigours of monastic life and preferred the warm life of the Library, for which we are grateful. He certainly made this the finest in Europe of that day, and it is said that the Pope used to borrow books from here. His Latin was fair but his Greek poor, but in spite of this he travelled a great deal visiting all the important seats of learning digging up facts for his histories of his time.
He was a great lover of truth and extremely accurate, checking and double-checking all his information. Most of his information was either from persons who had been present at the incident or their fathers, or grandfathers had, so we have the finest collection of Saxon history possible. When in doubt of the authenticity of any information, he always mentions the name of his informant and makes his comments on the same. In matters of his own times, he spared none and mentions the "ferocious snarl" of the Conqueror and the "brutal horse-laugh" of Rufus. In fact, he was so honest and outspoken that these had to be tuned down for political reasons later, but they still happily survive in spite of the protests of the formidable Bishop Roger le Poer.
He was a great "chit-chat" about the affairs of the great men of his day and rather bawdy, but probably accurate in fact. He would have made a good modern "Gossip Column Writer" of these days. He wrote many books, all concerning the history of Kings and Prelates, and wrote the only authentic account of the First Crusade. Some of his original mss are in Oxford at the Bodlean, Magdalene and Lincoln Colleges, and in Lambeth Palace. He was greatly in demand by the Abbots of other Monasteries to write up their histories and those of their Patron Saints. A truly great man and worthy Malmesburian.
