Adam from Asuka , or Adam from Usk ( eng.Adam of Usk , Wall. Adda o Frynbuga , 1352 - after 1430 ) - Welsh priest, chronicler, legal scholar , one of the chroniclers of the Hundred Years War and the uprising of Owain Glindur .
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Content
Biography
Born around 1352 [2] in Asuka ( Wall. Brynbuga ), County of Monmouthshire ( Wall. Syr Fynwy ), in southeast Wales . From a young age he enjoyed the patronage of Edmund Mortimer , 3rd Earl of March [3] , who received Ask as a dowry for his wife, Philippe.
In 1368 he was sent as a count to study at Oxford , where he received a doctorate in canon law [4] . After he taught law at the University of Oxford , where in 1388-1389 he was involved in an armed struggle between the "northerners" and "southerners", including the Welsh .
After leaving Oxford , for 7 years (1390-1397) he was a lawyer for the Archbishop's court in Canterbury , drawing close to Archbishop Thomas Arundel , an adversary of King Richard II . In September 1397, together with the archbishop, he participated in a parliamentary meeting that decided to expel the latter from England.
In the summer of 1399 he accompanied the army of the future king Henry IV and Archbishop Arundel on a campaign from Bristol to Chester [5] . He played a significant role in the overthrow of Richard II, whom he personally met in the Tower and which he later depicted in his chronicle in black colors.
As a reward for participating in the removal from power, Richard received from the new king of benefice in several dioceses , including in Kemsing and Siale in Kent , and then - prebend in Bangor , also receiving income from law practice.
In 1399, due to the prebenda wall. Llandygwydd in Keredigion , Adam came into conflict with Walter Jakes, nicknamed Empney, who ended in assault in Westminster in November 1400, after which his opponent received the right to income.
In February 1402 , after complaining about him from the injured Jakes, and possibly due to the support of the Welsh uprising of Owain Glindur , he lost his royal favor and was forced to leave England and go to Rome . Boniface IX (1389-1404) and Innocent VII (1404-1406), who offered him a bishopric in the dioceses of Hereford and St. Davids [6], entered into confidence in the popes. He also received an appointment from Lignaff ( Wall. Llandaff ) from the Avignon antipope Benedict XIII , but he could not take over all these benefits.
In 1406 he was forced to leave Rome because of the anti-papal riots that broke out there and moved to Bruges . He resumed legal practice in Flanders , drawing close to one of the conspirators, Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland , who was preparing an invasion of England, but who died in 1408 in a battle with the royal troops at Bram-Moore .
Only in March 1411 he managed to receive a royal pardon and return to his homeland. However, in 1414 his patron Thomas Arundel died, and Adam was forced to abandon his church career and live the rest of his days in obscurity.
In 1423 he was mentioned as rector of the church of St. Kibi in Llangibi ( Monmouthshire ), not far from the place of his birth.
He died in 1430 and was buried in the Priory Church of St. Mary in Asuk , where his poetic epitaph in Welsh is preserved in the Cywydd metric .
His testament was also preserved, which mentions the inheritance in the Priory of Llanduff , contributions to Newport and Cardiff monasteries, as well as individuals with Welsh names. Edward ap Adam, in particular, bequeathed to one of his relatives a hand-made copy of the Universal Chronicle ( Polychronicon ) of Ranulf Higden (1347).
He was a follower of the cult of St. Theilo , the center of which was the cathedral in Llanduff , and the cult of the Apostle Thomas of India , which the Dominicans preached in Asia.
Compositions
Traveling during the years of his exile in France, Italy, Germany and Flanders, Adam from Asuk met with many statesmen and church figures, and also worked in the monastery libraries, collecting a lot of historical material.
Since 1401, he composed in Latin his own chronicle ( English Chronicon ), completed around 1421 and covering the events of 1377-1421.
It contains a lot of valuable details about the events in England, Wales and Europe, in particular, about the peasant uprising of Wat Tyler (1381) and one of the latter’s comrades-in-arms, Jack Straw , about the overthrow of Richard II and the rise to power of Henry IV (1399), about the Christmas visit of the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleolog to the latter in search of protection from the Turks (1400), about the Hundred Years War , about the Great Schism in the Catholic Church, etc.
Of particular interest are the reports of the Welsh uprising of Owain Glindur , in particular, the burning of Asuk by the latter, the description of the battles at Grosmont, and at Pull Melin , at Bramam-Moore et al. [7] .
By the nature of its presentation, the work of Adam from Asuk resembles not a chronicle, but a diary [8] . An educated and observant chronicler does not miss even such details as the beauty of Lake Lucerne , the quality of wine from Bon (France) or the behavior of Roman street dogs
The chronicle has been preserved in the only manuscript stored in the British Library (Add. MS 10104) and lacking the final part, which was discovered in 1885 in the collection of Beaver Castle Castle .
The commented edition and translation of the chronicle under the title Chronicon Adæ de Usk was carried out in 1876 by the historian and paleographer Edward M. Thompson for the Royal Literary Society [9] , and then reprinted in 1904, 1980, 1990 and 1997 [10] .
See also
- Girald Cumbrian
- Galfrid of Monmouth
- Owain Glindur
Notes
- ↑ Dictionary of Welsh Biography - 1997. - 319 p. - ISBN 978-0-900439-86-5
- ↑ Kalmykova E.V. Images of war in historical representations of the British of the late Middle Ages. - M.: Quadriga, 2010 .-- C. 460.
- ↑ C. Given-Wilson. Usk, Adam // Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. - Oxford University Press, 2004.
- ↑ Thompson EM Adam of Usk // Dictionary of National Biography. - Vol. 1. - L., 1885. - p. 83.
- ↑ Walsh Thomas . Adam of Usk // Catholic Encyclopedia . - Vol. 1 - New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1913.
- ↑ Thompson EM Adam of Usk // Dictionary of National Biography. - p. 84.
- ↑ Battles and Campaigns from The Chronicle of Adam of Usk . Deremilitari.org. Archived on September 1, 2013.
- ↑ Kalmykova E.V. Decree op. - C. 461.
- ↑ Edward Maunde Thompson, ed. Chronicon Adæ de Usk, AD 1377-1421. - London: J. Murray, 1876.
- ↑ Chronicon Adæ de Usk, AD 1377-1421. - London: H. Frowde, 1904; New York: AMS Press, 1980; Felinfach, Lampeter, Dyfed: Llanerch Enterprises, 1990; The Chronicle of Adam Usk, 1377-1421 . - Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
Bibliography
- Kalmykova E.V. Images of war in historical representations of the British of the late Middle Ages. - M.: Quadriga, 2010 .-- 684 p. - (Historical research). - ISBN 978-5-91791-012-3 .
- Edward Maunde Thompson. Adam of Usk // Dictionary of National Biography. - Volume 1. - London: Smith, Elder & Co, 1885. - pp. 83-84.
- Steven Justice. Adam Usk's Secret . - Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015 .-- 224 p.