Editing Ivanhoe (section)

===Historical accuracy===
The general political events depicted in the novel are fairly accurate; the novel tells of the period just after King Richard's imprisonment in Austria following the Crusade and of his return to England after a ransom is paid. Yet the story is also heavily fictionalised. Scott himself acknowledged that he had taken liberties with history in his "Dedicatory Epistle" to ''Ivanhoe''. Modern readers are cautioned to understand that Scott's aim was to create a compelling novel set in a historical period, not to provide a book of history.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MieMDgAAQBAJ&q=Ivanhoe.+not+history&pg=PA123|title=Medievalism: The Middle Ages in Modern England|last=Alexander|first=Michael|date=2017-04-04|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-22955-4|language=en}}</ref>

There has been criticism of Scott's portrayal of the bitter extent of the "enmity of Saxon and Norman, represented as persisting in the days of Richard" as "unsupported by the evidence of contemporary records that forms the basis of the story."<ref>"Ivanhoe", page 499. ''The Oxford Companion to English Literature'', 1989</ref> Historian [[Edward Augustus Freeman|E. A. Freeman]] criticised Scott's novel, stating its depiction of a Saxon–Norman conflict in late twelfth-century England was unhistorical. Freeman cited medieval writer [[Walter Map]], who claimed that tension between the Saxons and Normans had declined by the reign of [[Henry I of England|Henry I]].<ref name="eaf">Edward Augustus Freeman, ''History of the Norman conquest of England: Volume Five, The effects of the Norman Conquest''. Oxford, Clarendon Press,  1876. (pp. 825-6).</ref> Freeman also cited the late twelfth-century book ''[[Dialogus de Scaccario]]'' by [[Richard FitzNeal]]. This book claimed that the Saxons and Normans had so merged through [[Interethnic marriage|intermarriage]] and [[cultural assimilation]] that (outside the aristocracy) it was impossible to tell "one from the other."<ref name="eaf"/><ref name="aw">{{cite book |last=Williams |first=Ann |author-link=Ann Williams (historian) |title=The English and the Norman Conquest |location=Woodbridge, Suffolk |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |year=1997 |isbn=978-0851157085 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/englishnormancon0000will/page/1 1-3] |url=https://archive.org/details/englishnormancon0000will/page/1 }}</ref> Finally, Freeman ended his critique of Scott by saying that by the end of the twelfth century, the descendants of both Saxons and Normans in England referred to themselves as "English", not "Saxon" or "Norman".<ref name="eaf"/><ref name="aw"/><ref>{{cite book |last=Kumar |first=Krishan |author-link=Krishan Kumar (sociologist) |title=The Making of English National Identity |url=https://archive.org/details/makingenglishnat00kuma |url-access=limited |location=Cambridge |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2003 |isbn=978-0521777360 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/makingenglishnat00kuma/page/n61 48]-49 }}</ref>

However, Scott may have intended to suggest parallels between the [[Norman Conquest]], which takes place roughly 130 years before the setting of ''Ivanhoe'', and Scott's native Scotland, which had [[Acts of Union 1707|united with England in 1707]] roughly the same length of time ago, and witnessed a resurgence in [[Scottish nationalism]] evidenced by the emergence of [[Robert Burns]], the famous poet who deliberately chose to work in Scots vernacular though he was an educated man and spoke modern English eloquently.<ref>{{cite news |last=Linklater |first=Andro |url=http://www.spectator.co.uk/books/3275251/freedom-and-houghmagandie.thtml |title=Freedom and Haughmagandie |department=Book Review |newspaper=The Spectator |date=24 January 2009 |access-date=18 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101203125513/http://www.spectator.co.uk/books/3275251/freedom-and-houghmagandie.thtml |archive-date=3 December 2010 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}</ref> Some experts suggest that Scott deliberately used ''Ivanhoe'' to illustrate his own combination of Scottish patriotism and [[Unionism in Scotland|unionism]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/aug/16/walter-scott-edinburgh-book-festival |title=Scotland's image-maker Sir Walter Scott 'invented English legends' |last=Higgins |first=Charlotte |newspaper=The Guardian |date=16 August 2010 |access-date=18 August 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Kelly |first=Stuart |title=Scott-land: The Man who Invented a Nation |year=2010 |publisher=Polygon |isbn=978-1846971792 }}</ref>

The novel generated a new name in English—[[Cedric]]. The original Saxon name had been ''[[Cerdic]]'' but Scott misspelled it—an example of [[Metathesis (linguistics)|metathesis]]. "It is not a name but a misspelling" said satirist [[H. H. Munro]].{{Citation needed|date=February 2025}}

In England in 1194, it would have been anachronistic for Rebecca, a Jewish woman, to be charged with [[witchcraft]]. In medieval witch trials, it was usually the belief in witchcraft that was prosecuted as a heresy, a charge a non-Christian woman would not have been subject to. Death did not become the usual penalty until the 15th century and even then, the form of execution used for witches in England was hanging, not [[burned at the stake|burning]]. The conductor of the trial, the Grand Master Of The Templars, is referred to as Lucas de Beaumanoir, whereas the historically real Master during that time was [[Gilbert Horal]]. There are other various minor errors, e.g. the description of the tournament at Ashby owes more to the 14th century, most of the coins mentioned by Scott are exotic, [[William II of England|William Rufus]] is said to have been John Lackland's grandfather, but he was actually his great-great-uncle, and Wamba (disguised as a monk) says "I am a poor brother of the Order of St Francis", but [[St. Francis of Assisi]] only began his preaching ten years after the death of Richard I. Also, in Chapter 43, Bois-Guilbert commences the fight being mounted on his horse named Zamor, which he claimed that he had won from the "Soldan of Trebizond". This is anachronistic, as the Comnenids founded the rump [[Byzantine]] [[Empire of Trebizond]] only in 1204, just by the end of the [[Fourth Crusade]]. Lastly, in the novel's ultimate chapter, Rebecca and her father move to Granada to spend the rest of their lives under Mohammed Boabdil. In fact, the real [[Muhammad XII of Granada]], popularly known to the Western world as Boabdil, was not even born before 1460, and the [[Emirate of Granada]] established before 1230.

Despite this fancifulness, ''Ivanhoe'' does make some prescient historical points. The novel is occasionally critical of King Richard, "who seems to love adventure more than he loves the well-being of his subjects"—in contrast to the idealised, romantic view of Richard popular at the time, but rather echoes the way King Richard is often judged by historians today.<ref>{{cite web |publisher=SparkNotes |url=http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/ivanhoe/section11.rhtml |title=Analytical overview: Ivanhoe |access-date=18 August 2010 }}</ref>