Relatio de Standardo

Relatio de Standardo ("An Account of the [Battle of the] Standard"), or De bello standardii ("on the Battle of the Standard"), is a text composed probably in 1153 or 1154 by the Cistercian monk Ailred of Rievaulx, describing the Battle of the Standard, fought near Northallerton in 1138 between David I, King of Scotland, and a Norman army fighting in support of King Stephen of England.

It is notable for being Ailred's only fully historical work, the others being chiefly religious or eulogistic in focus.^[1] The work has no known patron, though it eulogises Walter Espec and Eustace fitzJohn, as well as giving a good account of King David, though is hostile towards William fitz Duncan.^[2]

It praises the English and Normans fighting on Stephen's behalf and is critical of the Scots and Galwegians. The work has been widely commented upon by modern historians for its vision of English and Norman unity against the alleged barbarism from the Scots and Galwegians.^[3]

According to Gransden it survives in only one manuscript, the famous Corpus Christi College Cambridge MS. 139.^[4]

In addition to the narrative of the battle, with the Norman forces fighting under the protection of the saints, this work also explores the nature and value of history and gives some extended attention to the founding of Rievaulx itself.

Notes

^ Gransden, Historical Writing, p. 215.
^ Gransden, Historical Writing, p. 215; Freeland and Dutton, Aelred of Rievaulx, pp. 27, 259—60.
^ Thomas, English and the Normans, p. 65, n. 44.
^ Gransden, Historical Writing, p. 214, n. 260; Marsha L. Dutton says, contrary to Gransden, that it exists in three manuscripts, the best of them a twelfth-century manuscript from Rievaulx (York Minster Archives XVI.I.8), see Freeland and Dutton, Aelred of Rievaulx, p. 24.

References

Dutton, Marsha L., ed. (1986), Aelred of Rievaulx: The Historical Works, Cistercian Fathers Series: Number Fifty-Six (3rd ed.), Kalamazoo, Michigan: Cistercian Publications, ISBN 0-87907-288-1

An English translation of this text is on pp. 245—69

Gransden, Antonia (1997), Historical Writing in England, 1, , c. 550—c.1307, London: Routledge, ISBN 0-415-15124-4
Howlett, Richard (ed.). "Relatio de Standardo", in Chronicles of the reigns of Stephen, Henry II and Richard I, 3, Rerum Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores, 82, (1886)

For the Latin text, see pp. 179-99

Thomas, Hugh M. (2003), English and the Normans: Ethnic Hostility, Assimilation, and Identity 1066-c.1220, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0199251231