False traitors or worthy knights? Treason and rebellion against Edward II in the Scalacronica and the Anglo-Norman prose Brut chronicles

Abstract

This article examines three vernacular chronicles written from contrasting view-points: the Scalacronica of Sir Thomas Gray, whose father was linked with Edward II's court, and the 'Long' and 'Short' continuations of the prose Brut, both markedly sympathetic towards Thomas of Lancaster, leader of the opposition to the king. This is a period which saw a sea change in the crown's attitude towards rebellion, but the accounts of these chronicles suggest that a significant part of the political community did not accept the crown's new definition of treason.