Wikipedia:Today's featured article/November 11, 2005

The opening page of the Laud Manuscript

The Peterborough Chronicle is one of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles that contains unique information about the history of England after the Norman Conquest. According to philologist J.A.W. Bennett, it is the only prose history in English between the Conquest and the later 14th century. When William the Conqueror took England and Anglo-Norman became the official language, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles generally ceased. The monks of Peterborough Abbey, however, continued to compile events in theirs. While the Peterborough Chronicle is not professional history, it is one of the few first-hand accounts of the period 1070 to 1154 in England written in English and from a non-courtly point of view. It is also a valuable source of information about the early Middle English language itself. The linguistic innovations recorded in its second continuation are plentiful, and at least one innovation, the feminine pronoun "she", is first recorded in the Peterborough Chronicle.

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