Orderic Vitalis

(1075 - c. 1142)

Born in 1075 in Shropshire, England, Orderic Vitalis at the age of ten was sent away by his father to become a monk at Saint-Évroult in Normandy. “I crossed the English Channel and came into Normandy as an exile,” he wrote, “unknown to all, knowing no one.” Apart from a few trips to other monasteries, he passed the remainder of his life there, spending much of his time composing his well-known account of Anglo-Norman society, Ecclesiastical History.