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Historia Regum


The Historia Regum ("History of the Kings") is a historical compilation attributed to Symeon of Durham, which presents material going from the death of Bede until 1129. It survives only in one manuscript compiled in Yorkshire in the mid-to-late 12th century, though the material is earlier. It is an often-used source for medieval English and Northumbrian history.

It is a "historical compilation" or a "historical collection" rather than a chronicle or anything else. Antonia Gransden and David Rollason list its sources as follows:

Much of the compiled material up until 887, i.e. the first five sections, was itself probably derived from an earlier compilation by Byrhtferth of Ramsey, and probably some of it was compiled before the end of the 10th century. The material covering 1119—1129 does appear to be original, and this part may have been authored by Symeon.

The text survives in one manuscript, Corpus Christi College Cambridge, MS 139, folios 51v-129v, written down in the late 12th century. Even though this manuscript names Symeon as the author in an incipit and an explicit, Symeon's authorship of the work is nevertheless doubted or thought to be spurious by modern historians. Besides not being an original historical work, reasons of internal evidence make it highly unlikely that the Historia Regum was written by the same author as the Libellus de Exordio, and the latter is thought by its latest editor to have been authored by Symeon.


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