The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Famelies of Lancaster and York. . . by Edward Hall
This month’s featured text is The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Famelies of Lancastre and York. . . by Edward Hall (c.1497-1547). Edward Hall was educated at Eton College, King's College, Cambridge, and by 1521 entered Gray's Inn (an early law school). Hall was a well known lawyer and member of Parliament between 1529 and 1542. He also served as autumn reader at Gray's Inn, common serjeant and, at King Henry VIII's request, undersheriff of London. He is, however, best known as the author of the Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Famelies. . . . better known as Hall's Chronicle which he wrote around 1532 but did not finish, and in his will bequeathed the draft of the Chronicle to the publisher and historian Richard Grafton. Grafton made a first edition in 1547 and then completed it to the end of Henry VIII's reign and published that edition in 1548. It went through two more editions before Queen Mary I banned the book in 1555 (for anti-Catholic propaganda). It was again published in 1560 in defiance of Mary's proclamation by John Kingston.

Hall's Chronicle serves is an important work in many respects. First, it is an important example of English historical writing. Hall had many examples to follow including Polydore Virgil's Anglia Historia, humanist philosophical tracts, and the tradition of London chroniclers like John Stow. Hall showed a particular interest in not only providing chronologies of events, but also critically evaluating his sources and providing political rather than divine explanations for many events. Hall also tried to make his Chronicle part of tradition for historical writing in England. It was one of the first histories written in English rather than in Latin and was meant for a common audience. It is also notable for its skepticism and critical evaluation of Henry VIII's reign. Hall believed that deposition of a monarch done lawfully and by act of Parliament could be justified (his examples was the deposition of Richard III). Hall was also critical of much of Henry VIII's chivalric play-acting. Thus, Hall's Chronicle is reflective of intellectual ideas among many lawyers during the early modern period and it helps to understand how later beliefs developed and Parliament did in fact depose a king in the seventeenth century.

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