BATTLE ABBEY ROLL. This is popularly supposed to have been a list of William the Conqueror's companions preserved at Battle Abbey, on the site of his victory over Harold. It is known to us only from 16th century versions of it published by Leland, Holinshed, and Duchesne, all more or less imperfect and corrupt. Holinshed's is much the fullest, but of its 629 names several are duplicates. The versions of Leland and Duchesne each contain many names not found elsewhere. It was so obvious that several names had no right on the roll that Camden held them to have been interpolated by the monks, "not without their own advan tage." Modern writers have gone further, Sir Egerton Brydges denouncing the roll as "a disgusting forgery," and E. A. Freeman dismissing it as "a transparent fiction." An attempt to vindicate the roll was made by the last duchess of Cleveland, whose Battle Abbey Roll is the best guide to its contents.
It is probable that the character of the roll has been quite mis understood. It is not a list of individuals, but only of family sur 'This is the same word as "scrimmage," and is derived from the Ang.—Fr. eskrimir, modern escrimer, properly to fight behind cover, now to fence. The origin of this is the O.H.G. scirman, to fight behind a shield, scirm, M.G. Schirm.
names, and it seems to have been intended to show which families had "come over with the Conqueror," and to have been compiled about the 14th century. The compiler appears to have been in fluenced by the French sound of names, and to have included many families of later settlement, such as that of Grandson, which did not come to England from Savoy till two centuries after the Con quest.The roll itself appears to be unheard-of before and of ter the 16th century, but other lists were current at least as early as the 15th century, as the duchess of Cleveland has shown.
See Leland, Collectanea; Holinshed, Chronicles of England; Du chesne, Historia Norm. Scriptores; Brydges, Censura Literaria; Thierry, Conquete de l'Angleterre, vol. ii. (1829) ; Burke, The Roll of Battle Abbey (annotated, 1848) ; Planche, The Conqueror and His Companions (1874) ; duchess of Cleveland, The Battle Abbey Roll (1889) ; Round, "The Companions of the Conqueror" (Monthly Review, 1901, iii. pp. 91-111). (J. H. R.) a cleaving weapon for hand-fighting. Its use as a weapon of war dates from the bronze age. According to Homer, Agamemnon was atta.:ked by Peisander with such a weapon. In the 11th century the Danish battle-axe was a regular part of the equipment of fighting men in England and under the Statute of Winchester of 1285 certain classes were required to maintain these weapons. In the 14th century the classic example of its effective employment was when Robert the Bruce felled Sir Henry de Bohun with a single blow the day before the battle of Bannockburn (June 23, 1314). It was sometimes the custom to secure the axe to the wrist by a chain to ensure its retention. The oldest body-guard of the English sovereigns, the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms, introduced battle-axes into its equipment in 1526 and for centuries all their duties were ordered to be carried out "with their axes" or "with their pole-axes." At the funeral of a sovereign the axe was carried in the left hand, reversed and draped. In 1520 "The Battle-Axe Guard of Ire land" came into existence with duties similar to those of the Yeomen of the Guard. It was disbanded in 1833. There is in the Royal Artillery a battery known as "The Battle-Axe Company" which is the descendant of the Artillery Company which distin guished itself at the capture of Martinique in 1809 and was granted a battle-axe in commemoration of the service. The original axe is now in the possession of the 25th Medium Battery, Royal Artil lery, the "Battle-Axe Company."