Local chronicles, mainly to record the local human geography and customs and stories and other content, China has long had the emergence of local chronicles, the records of various places are not a few, such as "Nanxun Zhi", "Lingyin Temple Zhi" are local records. The English Chronicle of Places was first compiled in the 16th century, named after William W. Bush. Lambard's Chronicle of Kent is marked by it. From the late 17th century onwards, the main body of local chronicles was dominated by well-educated English gentry. The compilation of local chronicles by the squires reflects their sorting out of national feelings and love for the country during the formation of the British nation, as well as their strong identification with the localities.
Zonal map of the United Kingdom
The local history of Britain gradually evolved from a single content, such as Bede's "History of the Church in England", although it tells the spread of Catholicism in Britain, it also indirectly records the humanistic style of the place. From the 15th century onwards, geomorphology entered the writing range of place chronicles, under the influence of the scholar Robert E. Lee. Talbo's Travel Guide describes a series of British period customs and topography; Warchester also made an important contribution to the development of British local history, and the history he wrote during his travels contained a wide range of contents, and he is known as the founder of British geology.
A History of the Church in England by Bede
John. Leland pioneered the local history of the county as a unit, and the subsequent method of compiling local history continued in a sequential manner, and he was also known as the father of British topography, but on the whole, the local history that appeared in this period did not form a systematic and separate monograph of local history literature.
The Chronicle of Kent, published by William Lambard in 1576, is considered to be the beginning of the compilation of English local chronicles. Compared with the indirect single description of the predecessors, the content covered by the "Chronicle of Kent" has been greatly increased, and it systematically introduces the history, geography, administration and cultural features of Kent county in detail. For example, the description of the Western Saxon and Messiahian laws and the Danish law, the exposition of the origin of kent place names, the description of the division of the administrative regions of Kent, and the description of the hierarchy and components of the social population, etc., all mark the initial formation of the principles and concepts of modern local history.
The publication of the Kent Chronicle has received great praise and high praise from all walks of life, and the book is also considered to be one of the important starting points for the study of local history. At the same time, after this, other squires continued and added other contents according to the way of the book, from the seventeenth century to the eighteenth century, there were different "Kent Chronicles", which shows that the Kent Local Chronicles, which were formed in the sixteenth century, were continuously improved and developed by the gentry in the later period.
In the seventeenth century, the core of the compilation of English local history was William W. Bush. Burton, his book "Leicestershire Chronicle" became a model for others to study local history, under his guidance and influence, NorthamptonShire, WarchesterShire, etc. began to compile their own local chronicles, "Leicestershire Chronicle" can be regarded as the most comprehensive and comprehensive county chronicle in England at that time. There's also William of Warwickshire. Dagdale's Chronicle of The Tenrikshire, which took 25 years to publish, cites numerous sources that provide a detailed description of the humanities and history of Warwickshire, and is one of the two finest local chronicles of the seventeenth century in England.
Chronicle of Kent
When we observe local history, there is a very important point that is worth noting, such as the group of people who write local history, what is their cultural level? What is the structure of thinking? What class do they belong to in society? Their life values, etc., these subjective consciousnesses all determine the characteristics of the times presented by the content of local history. Here, we can borrow phrases like "collective local chronicles" to reveal the deep content behind the authors.
So how do you divide group local chronicles? What do they mean?
Since it is collective, it must be aimed at a type of person, including their type of ideas and institutions.
Systematic observations of the historical materials and humanistic biographies involved in the types of people need to be made.
Corroborate the conclusions expressed by the group from individual members of the group, or corroborate each other.
Through the ideas and writings of such groups we can find different concepts and patterns expressed in other history books.
In view of this, we can see that the local chroniclers of causality and modern times have some common characteristics: for example, they are all the gentry of the region, most of them are well educated, they have their own academic circles, or professionals in a certain field.
For example, william, the author of the Devonshire Chronicles, said that he would like to write a book on the subject. Pearl was also a former sheriff of Devonshire, and the author of the Chronicle of Kent, William P. Pearl, was also a former sheriff of Devonshire. Lambard, who had served as a Member of the City Council of London, returned to Kent to settle down after the death of his father, and william Wilbury, author of the Warwickshire Chronicles, said he would not have been able to settle down in Kent. Dagdale was also from a family of squires and was once knighted. Other local chronicle writers such as Thomas. Nash, Anthony. Wood and others also belonged to the gentry class in the county.
In terms of education, the gentry believed that not only to learn classical culture, but also to understand the national history of their own country, so in addition to entering regular universities, they also entered schools and bar associations, because in this way they could be exposed to more knowledge besides classical literature: geography, hydraulics, navigation, calligraphy, etc., as long as you can afford to pay, you can learn almost anything. Among them, the bar association gradually became an important place for the squires to study law and socialize, and used this as a base to become a springboard for contact with the upper class.
Chronicles of the City of London by John A. Thompson. Stowe
Chronicles of the City of London by John A. Thompson. Stowe once described that the young people who entered the guild hall to study were either gentlemen, the sons of gentlemen, or other rich people.
James I: For a man who does not have gentleman's blood we forbid him to enter the bar.
The editors of local chronicles, on the other hand, basically all had the experience of studying at the bar and university. For example, william Camden also served as headmaster of the Westminster School in London after graduating from Oxford University. William Burton obtained his bacienc at Oxford University and was also admitted as a solicitor. William Lambard also studied at Cambridge University and studied law. It can be seen from this that before doing professional local history compilation, the squires have experienced very professional learning, and the accumulation of these cultural histories has played a very huge role in promoting the compilation of local history.
In addition to the literary literacy of the squires themselves contributed to the prosperity of British local history, in the process of compiling the works, the local history academic circles of the squires also helped a lot. When William Lambard wrote the Chronicle of Kent, he was not in a hurry to publish it, but decided to give it to one of his friends, Thomas the County of Kent. Wharten looked at it because the book was written during the writing process by Thomas. Wharten had given him a lot of advice. Thomas. Wescott's Chronicle of Devonshire was also helped by other squires, and his book was influenced by Richard Scott. Influence of Carlu's Cornwall Chronicles.
In addition to the circle of friends of local history, an academic organization called "Elizabeth Paleontology Society" was also very important, and there were many local scholars in this group at that time, who collected and sorted out a lot of ancient documents and local genealogies and other historical materials while studying paleontology, which had a very great role in promoting the compilation and development of local history. We can see that the local history academic circle of the squires is actually helping the squires to sublimate and refine the content of the books, and when they get together to learn from each other and summarize each other's local history, they undoubtedly promote the collision and exchange of ideas, and this excellent tradition has accompanied a long period of time.
Chronicle of Kent by William Lambard
The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were a critical period of awakening national consciousness and the formation of the state in Britain, and due to the impact of the commodity economy, the traditional feudal monarchy relationship gradually disintegrated, such as knights who could replace them with money if they did not want to serve. After the devastation of the Hundred Years' War, most of Britain's old nobles died on the battlefield, which also laid the foundation for Britain to establish a centralized power of feudal kings. At the same time, due to the darkness and faintness of the Holy See, coupled with the challenge of the Protestant state to the authority of the Holy See, the society was in turmoil and war. In the face of this period of historical transition, the reconstruction of the national history of the country is a very important topic for local history scholars, and the cultivation of local history during this period also reflects their love for the country and their attachment to national feelings.
In order to meet Spain, the British government opened all the lighthouses on the coast to facilitate the transmission of enemy information. In the book "Kentshire Chronicle", these lighthouses were introduced, and many people did not understand this at the time, thinking that doing so would expose the military facilities of the country, but the author explained: even if you do not mark them, in fact, the enemy can be detected by a very easy method, and the purpose of marking them is to remind the people where there are lighthouses, and to quickly pass on the news when the enemy is found. The description of this content, on the one hand, is the author's concern for the national war, on the other hand, the recognition of the country and the nation, which is actually one of the driving forces of the author to write a local history, which contains the author's feelings for Kent, the king and the nation, and the country.
Naval battles between Great Britain and Spain
The compilation of local history by the British modern squire was a cultural advancement phenomenon that existed in Britain at that time, he was an indispensable link in the history of the development of British literature, and also reflected the contribution of the British squire to British civilization, especially local civilization, while the development of local history and the development of other disciplines were not disconnected, but connected into a whole, for example, in the "Elizabeth Paleontological Society" mentioned above, there were paleontologists and local historists to share information and resources. Academically, they will inevitably discuss and consult with each other, and for scholars of different disciplines to carry out literary works, their respective ways of thinking and value systems will be borrowed and developed by both sides, which is of great historical significance for the diversified development of English literature.
At the same time, through the content description of the local history, we can also see that British scholars have re-recognized the national and national consciousness, and have new thinking and development of class cognition in the period of social transformation, under the influence of this, the connection between the state and the nation and the nation and the individual is not a single progress, but a vivid integration, becoming close and inseparable. On this basis, a new national ideology was formed, and it can be said that the writers of local history are not only the compilers of the history of local development, but also the witnesses of the birth of the country and the nation, and they write the brilliance and glory of the history of English literature with their hard work.