In the period which follows the accession of AEthelred we are still aided by these collections of royal Laws and Charters, and the English Chronicle becomes of great importance.  Its various copies indeed differ so much in tone and information from one another that they may to some extent be looked upon as distinct works, and “Florence of Worcester” is probably the translation of a valuable copy of the “Chronicle” which has disappeared.  The translation however was made in the twelfth century, and it is coloured by the revival of national feeling which was characteristic of the time.  Of Eadward the Confessor himself we have a contemporary biography (edited by Mr. Luard for the Master of the Rolls) which throws great light on the personal history of the King and on his relations to the house of Godwine.

The earlier Norman traditions are preserved by Dudo of St. Quentin, a verbose and confused writer, whose work was abridged and continued by William of Jumieges, a contemporary of the Conqueror.  William’s work in turn served as the basis of the “Roman de Rou” composed by Wace in the time of Henry the Second.  The primary authority for the Conqueror himself is the “Gesta Willelmi” of his chaplain and violent partizan, William of Poitiers.  For the period of the invasion, in which the English authorities are meagre, we have besides these the contemporary “Carmen de Bello Hastingensi,” by Guy, Bishop of Amiens, and the pictures in the Bayeux Tapestry.  Orderic, a writer of the twelfth century, gossipy and confused but honest and well-informed, tells us much of the religious movement in Normandy, and is particularly valuable and detailed in his account of the period after the battle of Senlac.  Among secondary authorities for the Norman Conquest, Simeon of Durham is useful for northern matters, and William of Malmesbury worthy of note for his remarkable combination of Norman and English feeling.  Domesday Book is of course invaluable for the Norman settlement.  The chief documents for the early history of Anjou have been collected in the “Chroniques d’Anjou” published by the Historical Society of France.  Those which are authentic are little more than a few scant annals of religious houses; but light is thrown on them by the contemporary French chronicles.  The “Gesta Consulum” is nothing but a compilation of the twelfth century, in which a mass of Angevin romance as to the early story of the Counts is dressed into historical shape by copious quotations from these French historians.

It is possible that fresh light may be thrown on our earlier history when historical criticism has done more than has yet been done for the materials given us by Ireland and Wales.  For Welsh history the “Brut y Tywysogion” and the “Annales Cambriae” are now accessible in the series published by the Master of the Rolls; the “Chronicle of Caradoc of Lancarvan” is translated by Powel; the Mabinogion, or Romantic Tales, have been published by Lady Charlotte Guest; and the Welsh Laws collected by the Record Commission.  The importance of these, as embodying a customary code of very early date, will probably be better appreciated when we possess the whole of the Brehon Laws, the customary laws of Ireland, which are now being issued by the Irish Laws Commission, and to which attention has justly been drawn by Sir Henry Maine ("Early History of Institutions”) as preserving Aryan usages of the remotest antiquity.