William Audenlin and Matilda, in a Chronicle

This manuscript was owned by the 17th-century bibliophile, Robert Cotton, whose library became part of the British Library. Cotton often bound together unrelated manuscripts into one volume for the sake of convenience. This page comes from a manuscript that was at Rievaulx in the Middle Ages, but it is bound with others from Durham and Bury. The section from Rievaulx contains a copy of the poetry of Peter Abelard, an important 12th-century theologian, a history of ancient Greece and a kind of time-line history of Britain.

Fairly recent events are chronicled on this page. On it, the death of William Audelin, son of Henry I and the heir to the English throne, appears, and milestones in the life of his sister, Matilda--who was named heir upon William's death but was prevented from ever ruling as queen--are mentioned as well. Near the end of the second column, an entry relates an episcopal meeting at Twekesbury, of the bishops of Winchester, Hereford, Glamorgan, and Durham.