Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/11

1922 he terms 'the Colchester Chronicle'. In a recently issued treatise he claims that 'the reliability of this Chronicle', when first attacked, 'was at once defended by' himself, 'no answer appearing to' his 'defence'. This article, it seems, was 'printed in 1871'. It may not have occurred to Mr. Rye that historians have a better use for their time than writing replies to what he imagines to be convincing arguments. I can only hope that, as I happen to have a special knowledge of the period and the subject with which this 'Chronicle' is concerned, I may be doing a service to the cause of English history by disposing once for all of Mr. Rye's pretensions. The mischief caused by these obstinate attempts to bolster up, in Freeman's words, 'a document which, in all points bearing on general history, is highly mythical' … 'wholly mythical', amply justifies plain speaking by those who have at heart the cause of historical truth.

Mr. Rye's later onslaught on the 'attackers', as he terms them, of the 'Chronicle' appears in the form of an 'Appendix' to his treatise on Norwich Castle, which is headed in the 'Contents' 'The reliability of the Colchester Chronicle and justified [sic] from the criticism of Freeman and Round'. The cause of his wrath, I gather from his list of governors, &c., of the castle, is that Eudo's brother, 'Hubert de Rye', was placed in charge of the castle, according to the 'Chronicle' (in 1074), and that the evidence of the 'Chronicle' is not here accepted. Mr. Rye, of course, has a right to his own opinion, but it is perfectly intolerable that he should bring a baseless charge of mala fides against those who do not share it.

All that he can urge as proof is that:—

"There is nothing unlikely on the face of it of [sic] the appointment and the fact [sic] of the existence of a charter dated before 1162 [sic], by which Hubert's son Henry granted the Constableship to Hubert de Bavent is the strongest possible evidence of its correctness."

No such charter exists. All that Mr. Rye can urge is that 'in 1330' Thomas de Bavent alleged the existence of a charter by which 'before the year 1196 [sic] Henry de Rye, son of Hubert