The Historia Regum ("History of the Kings") is a historical compilation attributed to Symeon of Durham, which presents material going from the death of Bede until 1129. It survives only in one manuscript compiled in Yorkshire in the mid-to-late 12th century, though the material is earlier. It is an often-used source for medieval English and Northumbrian history. The first five sections are now attributed to Byrhtferth of Ramsey.
It is a "historical compilation" or a "historical collection" rather than a chronicle or anything else.[1] Antonia Gransden and David Rollason list its sources as follows:[2]
| folios[3] | pages[4] | Description | |
| 1. | 51v–54v | 3–13 | The Kentish Royal Legend, i.e. 7th- and 8th- century Kentish legends, including that of the martyr princes Æthelberht and Æthelred. |
| 2. | 54v–55r | 13–15 | An early list of Northumbrian rulers, from Ida of BerniciatoCeolwulf of Northumbria (d. 737), stylistically embellished and supplemented by two citations from Boethius. |
| 3. | 55r–58v | 15–30 | Material from Bede, including Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum and especially Historia abbatum. |
| 4. | 58v–68v | 28/30–68 | Lost Northumbrian annals covering 732–802. |
| 5. | 68v–75r | 69–91 | Annals covering 849–887, derived mainly from Asser's Life of King Alfred. |
| 6. | 75r–76r | 91–95 | A series of annals written after 1042 covering 888–957. |
| 7. | 76r–76v | 95–98 | Extracts taken from William of Malmesbury's Gesta Regum |
| 8. | 76v–123v | 98–258 | Material from the ChronicleofJohn of Worcester. supplemented by a now lost "Northern" recension of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle related to the extant D-recension, by the Libellus de Exordio, by the Historia NovorumofEadmer, by Dudo of St Quentin and by William of Jumièges. |
| 9. | 123v–129v | 258–283 | A chronicle covering the period 1119–1129. |
Much of the compiled material up until 887, i.e. the first five sections, was itself probably derived from an earlier compilation by Byrhtferth of Ramsey,[5] and probably some of it was compiled before the end of the 10th century.[6] The material covering 1119–1129 does appear to be original, and this part may have been authored by Symeon.[7]
The full text survives in one manuscript, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 139, at folios 51v–129v, written down in the late 12th century.[8] An abbreviated copy is also found in Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS nouv. acq. lat. 692.[9] Even though the Cambridge manuscript names Symeon as the author in an incipit and an explicit, Symeon's authorship of the work is often doubted by modern historians.[8] Besides not being an original historical work, reasons of internal evidence make it highly unlikely that the Historia Regum was written by the same author as the Libellus de exordio,[10] which is generally accepted to have been authored by Symeon.[11]
