Battle Abbey Roll facts for kids

The Battle Abbey Roll was a special list that was supposed to name the people who came with William the Conqueror when he invaded England in 1066. This list was believed to have been put up at Battle Abbey, a monastery built by Duke William himself. He built the abbey on the very spot where King Harold was killed during the famous Battle of Hastings. Sadly, the original list has been lost for hundreds of years, since at least the 1500s.

What We Know About the Roll

Today, historians only know about the Battle Abbey Roll from copies made in the 1500s. These copies were published by people like Leland, Holinshed, and Duchesne. However, these copies are not perfect and have many mistakes. Holinshed's list is the longest, with 629 names, but some names are repeated. The lists by Leland and Duchesne are shorter, but they each have names not found in the others.

Many names on these lists are questioned by experts. Some historians, like Camden, believed that monks at the abbey added names over time to benefit themselves. Later, other writers were even more critical. Sir Egerton Brydges called the roll a "disgusting forgery," meaning he thought it was completely fake. E. A. Freeman simply called it "a transparent fiction," meaning it was obviously made up.

Duchess of Cleveland's Research

In 1889, Wilhelmina, Duchess of Cleveland (1819–1901) wrote a three-volume book called The Battle Abbey Roll with some Account of the Norman Lineages. In her work, she tried to prove that an original roll did exist. Her book shares short histories and discussions about hundreds of English families who were thought to be of Norman origin. These families were linked to names found in Holinshed's list, even though that list was considered the most unreliable.

Despite the doubts about Holinshed's list, the Duchess of Cleveland's family histories were praised by a careful genealogist named Horace Round in 1895. He said her "elaborate work" contained "much excellent genealogy," meaning her family research was very good.

Where to Find Her Work

If you want to look at her books, they are available online:

• Volume 1, London, 1889
• Volume 2, London, 1889
• Volume 3, London, 1889

The Auchinleck Manuscript Roll

Interestingly, there is a copy of the Battle Abbey Roll that is much older than Leland's copy. It was not known to the Victorian historians who studied the roll. This older copy is part of a manuscript from the mid-1300s called the Auchinleck manuscript. It is a very important treasure kept at the National Library of Scotland. This manuscript was made in London in the 1330s. It got its name from its first known owner, Alexander Boswell, Lord Auchinleck, who found it in 1740. He then gave it to the library in 1744.

A researcher named Bliss compared the names from 55 different lists of William the Conqueror's companions. He concluded that all these lists came from just three original lists. The Auchinleck manuscript was the oldest surviving version of one of these original lists. Another researcher, Foord, has also compared several lists, including the Auchinleck one.

What Historians Think Today

It seems that the Battle Abbey Roll might have been misunderstood for a long time. It was probably not a list of individual people, but rather a list of family surnames. It was likely created around the 1300s to show which families claimed to have "come over with the Conqueror."

Even though heraldry (the use of coats of arms) wasn't widespread until much later than 1066, this roll might have been an early version of a roll of arms. These rolls were common in the 1200s and 1300s. For example, the Roll of Caerlaverock was made in 1300 to record the knights present during King Edward I's siege of Caerlaverock Castle in Scotland.

The person who put together the Battle Abbey Roll seems to have been influenced by how French names sounded. They also included many families who actually came to England much later. For instance, the family of Grandson didn't arrive from Savoy until two centuries after the Norman Conquest.

The roll itself wasn't really talked about before or after the 1500s. However, other similar lists were around as early as the 1400s. The Duchess of Cleveland mentioned in her book that the 1426 Chronicle of John Brompton, an abbot from Jervaulx Abbey, planned to list those who came with the Conqueror from an "old French verse."

Modern Lists of Companions

In 1866, a new list of William the Conqueror's followers was created by Léopold Delisle. This list was put together using reliable records like the Domesday Book. It was set up in the church of Dives-sur-Mer in Normandy and is also found in the Duchess of Cleveland's work. This modern list helps show that the Battle Abbey Roll is not a very trustworthy historical source.

The truth is, we can only be certain about the names of about 15 people who fought at Hastings in 1066. This number comes from a famous historical book called The Complete Peerage. Later scholars, like D. C. Douglas in 1943, have expanded this list to 21 individuals based on other clues.