{{Short description|English Benedictine chronicler}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} '''John de Taxster''', '''Taxter''', or '''Tayster'''{{sfnp|Liebermann|1888}} ({{lang|la|Johannes de Taxster}} or {{lang|la|Tayster}}; died {{c.|1265}}), sometimes erroneously called '''Taxston''',{{sfnp|Burton|1913}} was a 13th-century English chronicler and monk at Bury St Edmunds Abbey. Nothing is known of his life apart from what is reported in or understood from his work on the 13th and 14th-century Bury Chronicle.
{{anchor|Biography|History}} ==Life== [[File:Abbey Garden Ruins (2615188195).jpg|thumb|right|250px|The ruins of Bury St Edmunds Abbey.]] Nothing is known of John de Taxster except what is recorded in or understood from his own work.{{sfnp|Burton|1913}} His surname{{mdash}}given as Taxster in one manuscript<ref>BL Cotton Julius MS A 1.</ref> and Tayster in another<ref>Coll. Arm. Arundel MS 6.</ref>{{sfnp|Luard|1859|p=[https://archive.org/details/bartholomidecot00bartgoog/page/n70/mode/2up liii]}}{{mdash}}may be a variant of {{lang|enm|textor}}, a weaver.{{sfnp|Gransden|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ELAyCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA243 243]}}
He noted in his section of the Bury Chronicle that he was professed as a Benedictine monk at Bury St Edmunds Abbey in Suffolk, England, on 20 November 1244{{sfnp|Burton|1913}}{{sfnp|Gransden|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ELAyCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA243 243]}} or 1255.{{sfnp|Gransden|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ELAyCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA254 254]}} He does not seem to have held any notable position at the abbey{{sfnp|Gransden|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ELAyCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA243 243]}} and is remembered for his contribution to the Bury Chronicle, where he seems to have written the section from the Creation to 1265{{sfnp|Bruce|2002|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=S6nrAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA47 47]}} during the early 1260s.{{sfnp|Gransden|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ELAyCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA243 243]}} It is possible that the version of the chronicle in British Library Cotton Julius MS A 1 was Taxster's own holograph.{{sfnp|Gransden|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ELAyCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA253 253]}} If so, he wrote a cursive book hand in black ink with important passages marked in red.{{sfnp|Gransden|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ELAyCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA254 254]}}
Taxster's chronicle is an important early source on the aftermath of King John's 1215 granting of the Magna Carta and a contemporary source for the 1264–1267 Second Barons' War that upheld its place in English law.{{sfnp|Gransden|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ELAyCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA25 25]}} Overall, Taxster himself seems to have supported the baronial party, criticizing the severity and foreignness of King Henry{{nbsp}}III and Queen Eleanor and noting the popular veneration of Simon de Montfort.{{sfnp|Gransden|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ELAyCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA25 25]}}
Taxster probably died around 1265, when his portion of the chronicle ends.{{sfnp|Burton|1913}} His notice of the miracles credited to Simon de Montfort's relics appear to have been scratched from the Cotton Julius manuscript, probably around 1266 when Henry{{nbsp}}III returned to power.{{sfnp|Gransden|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ELAyCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA27 27]}}
==Works== {{main|Bury Chronicle}} Taxster's chronicle forms the first part of the Bury Chronicle, in which he seems to have been followed by two other writers. His section covers all of the time from the Creation to 1265 but nearly all of the early entries are simply copied from John of Worcester and other sources.{{sfnp|Tout|1898}}{{sfnp|Gransden|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ELAyCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA243 243]}} His original content is usually considered to begin with the entry for the year 1212,{{sfnp|Bruce|2002|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=S6nrAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA47 47]}} although it's a bit uncertain given that surviving manuscripts of the Annals are missing their final pages.{{sfnp|Gransden|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ELAyCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA243 243]}}
==See also== * John of Eversden, author of a chronicle at Bury St Edmunds continuing John de Taxster's work * Jocelyn de Brakelond, author of the ''Chronicle of the Abbey of St Edmunds'' {{c.|1173}}–1202 * Chronicle of John of Oxnead, another chronicle of the era written at St Benet's Abbey in Norfolk * Geoffrey de Runcey, a later chronicler from Bury St Edmunds
==References== ===Citations=== {{Reflist|30em}}
===Bibliography=== {{refbegin}} * {{citation |last=Bruce |first=Alexander M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S6nrAgAAQBAJ |title=Scyld & Scef: Expanding the Analogues |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |date=2002 |isbn=0-8153-3904-6 }}. * {{catholic|wstitle=John de Taxster |prescript= |noicon=1 |display-editors=0 |last=Burton |first=Edwin Hubert }} * {{citation |last=Gransden |first=Antonia Morland |author-link=Antonia Gransden |title=The Chronicle of Bury St. Edmunds, 1212{{ndash}}1301 |location=London |publisher=Thomas Nelson & Sons |date=1964 }}. * {{citation |last=Gransden |first=Antonia Morland |author-link=Antonia Gransden |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ELAyCgAAQBAJ |title=A History of the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds, 1257{{ndash}}1301: Simon of Luton and John of Northwold |location=Woodbridge |publisher=Boydell Press |date=2015 |isbn=978-1-78327-026-2 }}. * {{citation |editor-last=Liebermann |editor-first=Felix |editor-link=Felix Liebermann |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_monumenta-germaniae-historica_1888_28/mode/2up |title=Monumenta Germaniae Historica... |language=la |trans-title=Historical Monuments of Germany... |series=''Scriptorum'', Vol. XXVIII: ''Ex Rerum Anglicarum Scriptoribus Saeculi XIII.'' [''Authors'', Vol. XXVIII: ''Excerpts from English Authors of the 13th Century''] |date=1888 |location=Hanover |publisher=Hahn |contribution-url=https://archive.org/details/sim_monumenta-germaniae-historica_1888_28/page/584/mode/2up |contribution=Ex Iohannis de Tayster Annalibus |trans-contribution=From the Annals of John of Tayster |pages=[https://archive.org/details/sim_monumenta-germaniae-historica_1888_28/page/584/mode/2up 584–598] }}. * {{citation |editor-last=Luard |editor-first=Henry Richards |editor-link=Henry Richards Luard |url=https://archive.org/details/bartholomidecot00bartgoog/page/n70/mode/2up |author-last=Cotton |author-first=Bartholomew |author-link=Bartholomew Cotton |display-authors=0 |title=Bartholomaei de Cotton Monachi Norwicensis Historia Anglicana (A.D. 449{{ndash}}1298.) necnon Ejusdem Liber de Archiepiscopis et Episcopis Angliae |language=Latin |trans-title=The English History (AD 449{{ndash}}1298) of Bartholomew Cotton Monk of Norwich along with The Book of the Archbishops and Bishops of England |location=London |date=1859 |publisher=Longman, Green, Longman, & Roberts |ref={{harvid|Luard|1859}} }}. *{{cite DNB |wstitle=Taxster, John de |last=Tout|first=Thomas Frederick |authorlink=Thomas Frederick Tout|volume=55|year=1898}} {{refend}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Taxster, John de}} Category:13th-century English historians Category:English Benedictines Category:1260s deaths John de Taxster Category:Year of birth unknown Category:English male non-fiction writers