The Annals of Ireland by Friar John Clyn (review)

Historians of late medieval Ireland make frequent reference to the annals of the Kilkenny Franciscan, John Clyn, in their work and will be delighted to have this new edition at their disposal. Not only is it supported by a parallel English translation, copious footnotes, and a helpful bibliography, but it also boasts an introduction that encompasses one-third of the entire volume, and that suggests many interesting lines of future research. The same historians will be pleased to know that the editor, Bernadette Williams, is now engaged in producing an edition of the other main medieval Irish annal of settler English provenance, the Pembridge or Dublin annals. Making key texts such as these accessible is essential if study of this period, which has withered in Irish universities in recent years, is to be pursued at a scholarly level by future generations.

Dr Williams' intense familiarity with the text allows her to make persuasive arguments about its manuscript tradition, the career of its compiler, and the nature of the chronicle itself, though it is unfortunate that more is not said about where Clyn's annals sit in the contemporary milieu of Franciscan chronicle writing in the British Isles as a whole. Such contextualization is, by contrast, a particularly strong feature of her discussion of some of the ways in which the text can be used by historians: issues such as feud, reputation, loyalty and betrayal, and knighthood are commonplace in discussions of political society in fourteenth-century Britain and France, but have yet to be fully explored in Ireland. There is less excuse for such conservatism with this edition of Clyn now in hand.

It is unfortunate in a work of such importance that so many mistakes are included in its pages. Robin Frame is thanked for having read an early draft, but one can be certain that that careful scholar was not involved at the proofing stage. Typographical errors, words and passages omitted or repeated, and poor syntax are all too common, as for instance at pages 66, 70, 89, 103 (repeated at 180), 105, and 107. Clyn's arithmetical failings with regard to the date of Richard Marshal's death (p. 156) go uncorrected, and the editor herself misdates the death of Edward II to 1328 at p. 188, n. 74. Poor Roger Mortimer, first earl of March, fares particularly badly, appearing in the translation—but not the original—as Richard on p. 200 and Robert on p. 228.

Individually these are minor matters, but the cumulative effect is to leave the reader less sure than he would like to be of the reliability of much of what is before him. This is a great pity, because despite these problems, this is a very good edition of a very important text.