Les historiens anglais de la première moitié du XIIe siècle et la redéfinition de l’identité nationale

Abstract

This article focuses on the new national histories written in the first half of the twelfth century in England, mainly those by William of Malmesbury, John of Worcester, Henry of Huntingdon, Geoffrey of Monmouth, Geoffrey Gaimar and AElred of Rievaulx, and the way they helped reshape English identity in this crucial period influenced by the aftermath of the Norman conquest and the great political crisis of 1135-1154. They managed to do so especially by stressing political and territorial continuity instead of racial unity in order to transcend ethnic diversity. And, more than one century later, the first Anglo-Norman prose versions of English history, the Brut and the genealogical rolls of the kings of England, were still greatly influenced by this vision of the nation’s past.