The original authority is that of the writer formerly described as “Benedictus abbas,” but now virtually known to have been Richard ‘Fitz Nigel,’[423] who was not only a contemporary writer, but, as the king’s Treasurer, would probably have been an actual spectator of the ceremony he describes. His account is repeated by Hoveden,[424] who was also a contemporary, and possibly present, but “adds only matter of extremely small importance.”[425] We then come to Matthew Paris, writing some two generations later, who gives, says Dr. Stubbs—
a similar account of the coronation, more closely resembling that of Benedict ... in the few and unimportant places where the two differ. He indicates the common source of information, the Rolls (ed. Wats, p. 154) or Consuetudines (Abbreviatio, Ed. Madden, iii. 209) of the Exchequer.[426]
This view was accepted by Dr. Luard (1874), who says of the narrative given by Matthew in his Chronica Majora (ii. 348–350):
This account is taken from Benedict. The original source (the Consuetudines Scaccarii) is referred to in the Hist. Angl., ii. p. 8, and the Abbreviatio Chronicorum, iii. 209. See Madden’s note, iii. 209.[427]
We are thus referred to Sir Frederic Madden, who, as keeper of the MSS. at the British Museum, possessed special knowledge, and who wrote thus (1869):
The details of Richard’s coronation do not appear either in the Red or Black Books of the Exchequer, but they are given by Benedict Abbas, pp. 557–560, and copied by Hoveden, from whom Wendover somewhat abridges them, and thence repeated in the greater Chronicle of Matt. Paris, ed. Wats, p. 153, and Hist. Ang., ii. 6.[428]
This, it will be seen, hardly commits the writer to the view that some Exchequer record was, as alleged above, the original authority. But such, no doubt, might be the inference from this comment on the text. As important inferences have now been drawn from this error, as I venture to deem it, we must glance at the actual passage on which the theory is based.
Unconnected with the narrative of the coronation, which is complete without it, there is found, in the ‘Historia Anglorum’ (ii. 9) this marginal note:
Officia prelatorum et magnatum quæ ab antiquo jure et consuetudine in regum coronationibus sibi vindicant et facere debent, in rotulis Scaccarii poterunt reperiri.
This obviously refers, not to the narrative in the text, which is that of the coronation ceremony alone, but to the services performed “by ancient right and custom” in the king’s house on that occasion. Of these there is no description in the text. In another work ascribed, but doubtfully, to Matthew Paris, the so-called “Abbreviatio,” the coronation is mentioned, but not described; and there is added a similar note;