{"id":18400,"date":"2025-09-01T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/?p=18400"},"modified":"2025-08-19T12:35:59","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T11:35:59","slug":"chronica-maiora","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/2025\/09\/01\/chronica-maiora\/","title":{"rendered":"Did they believe in portents? Severe weather and other extreme natural phenomena in Walsingham\u2019s Chronica Maiora and other late-medieval monastic chronicles"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dr Simon Payling<\/a>, of our\u00a0Commons 1461-1504 section<\/a>, explores the theme of extreme weather in medieval chronicles. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a familiar theme in medieval chronicles, whether monkish or secular, that extreme weather, natural disaster or even just unusual events were, or, at least, could be interpreted as, manifestations of divine interaction with the temporal world. At the most extreme, they were seen as expressions of God\u2019s displeasure, as punishment for some recent transgression. The chronicle of Henry Knighton (d.c.1396), a monk in Augustinian abbey of St. Mary, Leicester, provides a diverting and unsubtle example. He writes, with strong disapproval, of a recent and remarkable development. In the late 1340s troops of women, sometimes as many as 50, had taken to travelling to tournaments, riding on fine horses and \u2018dressed in men\u2019s clothes of striking richness and variety\u2019. These women, disparagingly described as, \u2018hardly of the kingdom\u2019s better sort\u2019, \u2018wantonly with disgraceful lubricity displayed their bodies\u2019.\u00a0 From Knighton\u2019s point of view, however, the story had a happy ending: God \u2018had a marvellous remedy to dispel their wantonness\u2019, visiting great storms upon them (Knighton\u2019s Chronicle<\/em>, ed. G.H. Martin, p. 93).\u00a0 Such specific connexions were, however, rarely drawn. Much more commonly, extreme events were seen as portent rather than punishment, as predictors of some upcoming misfortune in human affairs. Curiously, one of these concerns Parliament. The Monk of Westminster relates that, on 1 February 1388 near Abingdon, the bed of the Thames was empty of water for the length of a bowshot and remained so for an hour, \u2018conveying a striking omen of events that were to follow\u2019.\u00a0 He then, although without making the connexion explicit, describes in detail the violent and disturbing events of the \u2018Merciless Parliament\u2019 that began two days later (Westminster Chronicle<\/em>, ed. L.C. Hector and B.F. Harvey, p.234).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Colour<\/a>
\u201cThe Thames from Abingdon Bridge<\/a>\u201d ,\u00a0\u00a9 Cycling Man, Flickr<\/a>,\u00a0CC BY-NC-ND 2.0<\/a>.

The Thames is said to have dried up on 1 February 1388. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Such examples could be multiplied, but it is worth asking whether the chroniclers were as credulous and unthinking as they appear to the modern observer.\u00a0 One may doubt whether the Monk of Westminster really believed that a lack of water in the Thames was a predictor of grave parliamentary events, the juxtaposition looks more like a literary device to relate human to natural events.\u00a0 He was usually content simply to describe the most extreme natural phenomena free of the overt implication that they were omens. He was not moved to speculate even on the meaning of the \u2018amazing marvels\u2019 seen in Cheshire on 1 August 1388 when \u2018the heavens were seen to open and angels carrying lights to flit about in the air\u2019. This far-from sinister apparition encapsulates a difficulty chroniclers had in interpreting omens.\u00a0 Imaginatively, within the thought processes of the time, it was just about coherent to see some grave natural disasters as a harbinger of some more general crisis in human affairs; it was less easy (or at least chroniclers were less ready) to see some positive natural event, like the apparent appearance of angels, as portending some happy one. Thomas Walsingham, the most sophisticated of the monastic chroniclers of the late-medieval period, overcame this difficulty by offering both positive and negative interpretations.\u00a0 His account of two major political events shows his interpretative ingenuity. He reports that, as Anne of Bohemia arrived at Dover in December 1381 (for her marriage to Richard II), a sudden \u2018disturbance of the sea\u2019 caused the ship she had come in to be dashed to pieces, just after its passengers had safely alighted. Not surprisingly, perhaps, some thought this a forecast of future misfortune; others, however, took the view that it \u2018showed the favour of God and presaged future happiness for the land\u2019. Walsingham concluded that, \u2018Subsequent events will show why it was a dark, perplexing omen of doubtful meaning\u2019 (Chronica Maiora<\/em>, ed. D. Preest, pp. 170-1). The same duality is apparent in his account of another event.\u00a0 Although Henry V\u2019s coronation took place in the spring, Walsingham reports that, to everyone\u2019s surprise, there was a great fall of show.\u00a0 Some feared that this harsh weather presaged an unhappy fate, for the new King \u2018would be a man of cold deeds and severe in his management of the kingdom\u2019; but others believed it to be the \u2018best of omens\u2019, predicting that the new King \u2018would cause to fall upon the land snowstorms which would freeze vice and allow the fair fruits of virtue to spring up\u2019 (p.389).<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
The coronation of Richard II and Anne of Bohemia, in the Liber Regalis<\/em>, 14th century. Accessed via Wikimedia Commons<\/a>.

Walsingham reports that the ship on which Anne arrived in England in December 1381 was, immediately after his disembarkation, dashed to pieces by a sudden and great ‘disturbance of the sea’. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

On this evidence, one must wonder whether these monastic chroniclers believed that portents, as manifestations of divine intervention in the real world, could be meaningfully discerned. Although Knighton seems to have thought that God was ready to punish female jousters by visiting storms upon them, this was an isolated expression of a belief in God\u2019s active intervention.\u00a0 Like the Monk of Westminster, he was generally content to report extreme natural events, like a fatal heatwave in Calais in August 1347, without seeking to draw any lessons from them. Walsingham, although clearly ready to believe in portents, was so playful in his interpretation of them as to reduce them almost to meaninglessness. Characteristically, he could also employ them as expressions of his own prejudices. He was hostile to the Welsh rebel leader, Owain Glyndwr, and was thus happy to report the \u2018dreadful omens\u2019 that were said to have attended his birth, namely that his father\u2019s stables became flooded with blood. Prejudice of a different sort probably informed Knighton\u2019s story of the female jousters.\u00a0 He did not really believe that they were punished by God; he was rather claiming divine endorsement for the sexual and social prejudices of the cloister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

S.J.P. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr Simon Payling, of our\u00a0Commons 1461-1504 section, explores the theme of extreme weather in medieval chronicles. It is a familiar theme in medieval chronicles, whether monkish or secular, that extreme weather, natural disaster or even just unusual events were, or, at least, could be interpreted as, manifestations of divine interaction with the temporal world. At the most extreme, they were seen as expressions of God\u2019s … Continue reading Did they believe in portents? Severe weather and other extreme natural phenomena in Walsingham\u2019s Chronica Maiora and other late-medieval monastic chronicles<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":255143695,"featured_media":18405,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[83191285,3737,48731,774275648,375808],"tags":[11558273,35890,14832749,4494],"class_list":["post-18400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-14th-century-history","category-material-culture","category-religious-history","category-richard-ii","category-social-history","tag-anne-of-bohemia","tag-featured","tag-thomas-walsingham","tag-weather"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/image.png?fit=350%2C529&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QYNW-4MM","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12988,"url":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/2024\/05\/23\/thomas-walsinghams-chronica-maiora-and-the-parliaments-of-1376-to-1410\/","url_meta":{"origin":18400,"position":0},"title":"A Medieval Monk\u2019s View of Parliament: Thomas Walsingham\u2019s Chronica Maiora and the Parliaments of 1376 to 1410","author":"Simon Payling","date":"May 23, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Thomas Walsingham is best known for his role as a chronicler of his own religious life, but he was also privy to many of the events that took place in Parliament in the late 14th century. 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No series of blogs to mark the coronation of TM King Charles III and Queen Camilla would be complete without some\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Medieval"","block_context":{"text":"Medieval","link":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/category\/periods\/medieval-history\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/henry_v_miniature.jpg?fit=440%2C593&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1995,"url":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/2017\/11\/13\/reporting-parliament-in-the-later-middle-ages\/","url_meta":{"origin":18400,"position":2},"title":"Reporting Parliament in the Later Middle Ages","author":"Hannes Kleineke","date":"November 13, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Today\u2019s post is the first in our special series of blogs for this year\u2019s Parliament Week: Reporting Parliament throughout the ages. 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