Chronicler, became a monk in the monastery at Malmesbury, and in due time librarian and precentor. He took part in the council at Winchester against Stephen in 1141. His “Gesta Regum Anglorum” gives the history of the kings of England from the Saxon invasion to 1128; the “Historia Novella” brings down the narrative to 1142 (both ed. by Hardy, 1840; trans. by Sharpe, 1847). The “Gesta Pontificum” gives an account of the bishops and chief monasteries of England to 1123 (ed. by Hamilton, 1870). Other works are an account of the church at Glastonbury and a Life of St. Dunstan.

  William, quitting his own name of Summerset, assumed that of Malmesbury, because there he had (if not born) his best Preferment. Indeed he was a Duallist in that Convent (and if a Pluralist no ingenious person would have envied him), being Canter of that Church, and Library-Keeper therein. Let me adde, and Library-Maker too, for so may we call his “History of the Saxon Kings and Bishops” before the Conquest, and after it untill his own time; an History to be honoured, both for the Truth and Method thereof. If any Fustiness be found in his Writings, it comes not from the Grape, but from the Cask. The smack of Superstition in his books is not to be imputed to his person, but to the Age wherein he lived and dyed, viz. anno Domini 1142, and was buried in Malmesbury.

  William of Malmsbury must be acknowledged both for style and judgment, to be by far the best writer of them all.

  One of the best of the old English historians…. A judicious man.

  Well entitled to stand at the head of our historians of the twelfth century.

  Of his acquirements as a scholar it is indeed difficult to speak in terms of sufficient commendation. That he had accurately studied nearly all the Roman authors, will be readily allowed by the classical reader of his works. From these he either quotes or inserts so appositely, as to show how thoroughly he had imbibed their sense and spirit. His adaptations are ever ready and appropriate; they incorporate with his narrative with such exactness that they appear only to occupy their legitimate place. His knowledge of Greek is not equally apparent; at least his references to the writers of Greece are not so frequent, and even these might probably be obtained from translations: from this, however, no conclusion can be drawn that he did not understand the language. With respect to writers subsequent to those deemed classics, his range was so extensive that it is no easy matter to point out many books which he had not seen, and certainly he had perused several which we do not now possess.

  The modest, faithful, and erudite historian of the twelfth century.

  William of Malmesbury deserves to be considered as one of the most remarkable writers of the twelfth century…. The first English writer after the time of Bede who attempted successfully to raise history above the dry and undigested details of a chronicle…. Next to the Saxon Chronicle, he is the most valuable authority for Anglo-Saxon history. In his annals of the Norman period, and of his own time, he is judicious, and, as far as could be expected, unprejudiced.

  The classical reader will probably lament with me that our early historians should have used a style so cumbersome and uninviting. To this general censure Malmesbury is certainly no exception. His Latinity is rude and repulsive, and the true value of his writings arises from the fidelity with which he has recorded facts, which he had either himself witnessed or had obtained from eye-witnesses.

  William of Malmesbury enjoys the reputation of being a more learned historian, and of endeavouring to invest the dry form of the Old Chronicle with a more attractive style; but his researches are often by no means correct, and his errors cannot be forgotten.

  William of Malmesbury, on Roman affairs no high authority.

  His Histories are throughout original works, and, in their degree, artistic compositions. He has evidently taken great pains with the manner as well as with the matter of them. But he also evinces throughout a love of truth as the first quality of historical writing, and far more of critical faculty in separating the probable from the improbable than any other of his monkish brethren of that age who have set up for historians, notwithstanding his fondness for prodigies and ecclesiastical miracles, in which of course he had the ready and all-digestive belief which was universal in his time.

  We may see the tendency of English literature at the close of the Norman period in William of Malmesbury. In himself, as in his work, he marks the fusion of the conquerors and the conquered, for he was of both English and Norman parentage, and his sympathies were as divided as his blood. In the form and style of his writings he shows the influence of those classical studies which were now reviving throughout Christendom. Monk as he is, he discards the older ecclesiastical models and the annalistic form. Events are grouped together with no strict reference to time, while the lively narrative flows rapidly and loosely along, with constant breaks of digression, over the general history of Europe and the Church.

  In William of Malmesbury we cannot fail to see the familiarity of the true scholar with the books which he had really mastered.

  Though the single existing manuscript has reached us in a defective condition, some parts being altogether wanting, while the end is lost, the work is valuable from its graphic description of many of the incidents of the civil war, and the picture it supplies of the prevalent anarchy and suffering.

  A man of great reading, unbounded industry, very forward scholarship, and of thoughtful research in many regions of learning.

  He was a man of sound judgment and cultured taste, and in consequence shows great love for delineation of character. He has considerable power of tracing the tendencies of important events and the development of political institutions. He is wonderfully broadminded and free from party-feeling, in sympathy with Normans and English alike, while his work is made bright by humour and sharply pointed remarks.

  Sprung from a Norman father and an English mother, he represents the growing fusion of the two races; though his sympathies are manifestly on the Norman side. He is a good specimen of a Benedictine scholar. By general consent he takes the foremost place among the authorities for the Anglo-Norman period. He may be designated the English Herodotus; in the sense of being the Father of its History. His industry in collecting materials, and his skill and judgment in arranging them, were marvellous for that age; considering his opportunities and the means at his command.