& 



56 THE KING'S MIRROR 



rulers as well, since a discussion of this sort might tend 

 to renew ill feeling and stir up strife. Consequently the 

 author may have thought it wiser to remain anony- 

 mous. 



Earlier students of the Speculum Regale have believed 

 that the author was some local chieftain, who had spent 

 his more active days at the royal court, but who had 

 later retired to his estates and was spending his declin- 

 ing years in literary pursuits. Various efforts have been 

 made to find this chieftain,* but with no success; there 

 is no evidence that the lords or crusaders who have been 

 suggested as probable authors had any literary interests 

 or abilities. There can be no doubt that the author was 

 at one time a prominent member of the royal retinue; 

 he asserts in several places that such was the case.f He 

 is, furthermore, tori thorough Jy famiJmr 



rvf f 



3ional -g*i ytifr .."merely. At the same time it is not likely 

 that he was a secular lord ; it SPPT^IS impnssihlp that h^ 

 could have been anything but a churchman. He knows 



/the Latin language; he is well acquainted with sacred 

 history; he has read a considerable number of medieval 



^ books. It is quite unlikely that the various types of 

 learning that are reflected in the chapters of the King's 

 Mirror could be found in the thirteenth century in any 

 scholar outside the clerical profession. He could not 

 have been one of the higher ecclesiastics, as the prelates 

 belonged to the faction of the Croziermen. The Specu- 

 lum Regale was evidently written by a member of the 



* See the Soro edition, xxiii;|Munch, Del norske Folks Historic, III, 399, note. 

 t Cc. ii, iii, xxx. 



