# John de Taxster

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{{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](/source/English_historians_in_the_Middle_Ages) and [monk](/source/Benedictine_monk) at [Bury St Edmunds Abbey](/source/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](/source/Bury_Chronicle).

{{anchor|Biography|History}}
==Life==
[[File:Abbey Garden Ruins (2615188195).jpg|thumb|right|250px|The ruins of [Bury St Edmunds Abbey](/source/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](/source/British_Library) [Cotton Julius](/source/Cotton_Julius) MS A 1.</ref> and Tayster in another<ref>[Coll. Arm.](/source/College_of_Arms) [Arundel MS](/source/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](/source/Bury_Chronicle) that he was [professed](/source/profession_(monk)) as a [Benedictine monk](/source/Benedictine_monk) at [Bury St Edmunds Abbey](/source/Bury_St_Edmunds_Abbey) in [Suffolk](/source/Suffolk), [England](/source/Kingdom_of_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](/source/Bury_Chronicle), where he seems to have written the section from the [Creation](/source/Creation_in_Christianity) 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](/source/British_Library) [Cotton Julius](/source/List_of_manuscripts_in_the_Cotton_library) MS A 1 was Taxster's own [holograph](/source/holograph).{{sfnp|Gransden|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ELAyCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA253 253]}} If so, he wrote a [cursive book hand](/source/cursiva_Anglicana) in black ink with important passages [marked in red](/source/rubric).{{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](/source/John_of_England)'s 1215 granting of the [Magna Carta](/source/Magna_Carta) and a contemporary source for the 1264–1267 [Second Barons' War](/source/Second_Barons'_War) that upheld its place in [English law](/source/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](/source/xenophobia) of [King Henry{{nbsp}}III](/source/Henry_III_of_England) and [Queen Eleanor](/source/Eleanor_of_Provence) and noting the popular [veneration](/source/veneration) of [Simon de Montfort](/source/Simon_de_Montfort%2C_6th_Earl_of_Leicester).{{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 [miracle](/source/miracle)s credited to Simon de Montfort's [relic](/source/relic)s 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](/source/Bury_Chronicle), in which he seems to have been followed by two other writers. His section covers all of the time from the [Creation](/source/Creation_in_Christianity) to 1265 but nearly all of the early entries are simply copied from [John of Worcester](/source/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](/source/John_of_Eversden), author of a chronicle at Bury St Edmunds continuing John de Taxster's work
* [Jocelyn de Brakelond](/source/Jocelyn_de_Brakelond), author of the ''[Chronicle of the Abbey of St Edmunds](/source/Chronicle_of_the_Abbey_of_St_Edmunds)'' {{c.|1173}}–1202
* [Chronicle of John of Oxnead](/source/Chronica_Johannis_de_Oxenedes), another chronicle of the era written at [St Benet's Abbey](/source/St_Benet's_Abbey) in Norfolk
* [Geoffrey de Runcey](/source/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}}

{{authority control}}

{{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

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [John de Taxster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_de_Taxster) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_de_Taxster?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.