<研究ノート>バトル修道院年代記にみられる証書の利用

Abstract

Battle Abbey was founded by William the Conqueror on the very site of the Battle of Hastings as a memorial of that epoch-making battle. The Chronicle of Battle Abbey, written at the end of 12th century, is famous not only for its vivid account of Henry II's court but also for numerous surviving charters directly related to the content of The Chronicle itself. Researchers have also taken an interest in the fact that many of the charters are suspected of being forgeries. Against the accepted theory of Eleanor Searle, Nicholas Vincent has argued in his recent study that even more charters of Battle Abbey are forgeries and therefore the story of The Chronicle grounded on these forged charters cannot be trusted as historically accurate. This paper tries on the other hand to examine how charters worked in the context of The Chronicle, whether or not the charters were genuine or forged. Even if the account based on forgeries cannot be accepted as reality, The Chronicle may still tell us how charters were expected to function. Recent studies on the documents of Medieval Europe, strongly influenced by the current study of historical literacy, have paid more and more attention to the historical context in which documents were used. The Chronicle of Battle Abbey may serve as an interesting example showing how charters were (to be) used and how they were expected to function in 12th-century England. The Chronicle often states importance and great authority of charters. In 4 of the 5 conflicts taken from the narrative, charters were presented as an important tool in each argument. Nevertheless, most of the conflicts came to an end regardless of whether the charters were genuine or forged. In one case, the charters presented by Battle Abbey in the chronicle were, according to the modern research, in fact forgeries, while The Chronicle itself plamed the charter presented by the opponents for being forged. Does this indicate The Chronicle is untrustworthy? It can be interpreted, as this paper argues, that a charter was 'genuine' if its content was accepted at the time, regardless of the fact that it is, in the modern sense, a forgery. Careful reading of The Chronicle also shows there were many other activity concerned with charters that ensured consent and approval, such as oath-taking, creating consensus at gatherings and putting seals on the charters. The Chronicle of Battle Abbey demonstrates a confidence in charters that differs from our own. This was the faith of an age in which written documents were increasingly being produced and in which reliance on written words was only gradually being formed.