Chapter XXXIX: Appendix: On Authorities (1)

(1216-1377.)

Our two main sources of knowledge for medieval history are records and chronicles. Chronicles are more accessible, easier to study, more continuous, readable, and coloured than records can generally be. Yet the record far excels the chronicle in scope, authority, and objectivity, and a prime characteristic of modern research is the increasing reliance on the record rather than the chronicle as the sounder basis of historical investigation. The medieval archives of England, now mainly collected in the Public Record Office, are unrivalled by those of any other country. From the accession of Henry III. several of the more important classes of records have become copious and continuous, while in the course of the reign nearly all the chief groups of documents have made a beginning. The whole of the period 1216 to 1377 can therefore be well studied in them.

A large proportion of our archives is taken up with common forms, technicalities, and petty detail. It will never be either possible or desirable to print the mass of them _in extenso_, and most of the efforts made to render them accessible have taken the form of calendars, catalogues, and inventories. Such attempts began with the costly and unsatisfactory labours of the Record Commission (dissolved in 1836); and in recent years the work has again been taken up and pursued on better lines. The folio volumes of the Record Commission only remain so far of value as they have not been superseded by the more scholarly octavo calendars which are now being issued under the direction of the deputy-keeper of the records. These latter are all accompanied by copious indices which, though not always to be trusted implicitly, immensely facilitate the use of them. The records were preserved by the various royal courts. Of special importance for the political historian are the records of the Chancery and Exchequer.

Prominent among the Chancery records are the PATENT ROLLS, strips of parchment sewn together continuously for each regnal year, whereon are inscribed copies of the letters patent of the sovereign, so called because they were sent out open, with the great seal pendent. Beginning in 1200, they present a continuous series throughout all our period, except for 23 and 24 Henry III. The publication of the complete Latin text of the _Patent Rolls of Henry III._ is now in progress, and two volumes have been issued, including respectively the years 1216-1225 and 1225-1232. From the accession of Edward I. onwards the bulk of the rolls renders the method of a calendar in English more desirable. The _Calendars of the Patent Rolls_ are now complete from 1272 to 1324 and from 1327 to 1348 (Edward I., 4 vols.; Edward II., 4 vols.; Edward III., 7 vols.). For the years not thus yet dealt with the unsatisfactory _Calendarium Rotulorum Patentium_ (1802, fol.) may still sometimes be of service.

The letters close, or sealed letters addressed to individuals, usually of inferior public interest to the letters patent are preserved in the CLOSE ROLLS, compiled in the same fashion as the Patent Rolls. The whole extant rolls from 1204 to 1227 are printed in _Rotuli Literarum Clausarum_ (2 vols. fol., 1833 and 1844, Rec. corn.), and it is proposed to continue the integral publication of the text for the rest of Henry III.'s reign on the same plan as that of the Patent Rolls. One volume of this continuation, 1227-1231 (8vo, 1902), has been issued. For the subsequent periods a calendar in English is being prepared similar in type to the _Calendar of Patent Rolls_. The periods at present covered by the _Calendar of Close Rolls_ (1892-1905) are, Edward I., 1272-1296 (3 vols.): Edward II., the whole of the reign (4 vols.), and Edward III., 1327-1349 (8 vols.).

A third series of records preserved by the Chancery officials is the ROLLS OF PARLIAMENT, including the petitions, pleas, and other parliamentary proceedings. None of these are extant before 1278, and the series for the succeeding century is often interrupted. Many of them are printed in the first two folios (vol. i., Edward I. and II.; vol. ii., Edward III.) of _Rotuli Parliamentorum_ (1767-1777). A copious index volume was issued in 1832. A specimen of what may still be looked for is to be found in Professor Maitland's edition of one of the earliest rolls of parliament in _Memoranda de Parliamento_ (1305) (Rolls series, 1893) with an admirable introduction. For the reigns of Edward I. and II. the deficiencies of the published rolls are supplemented by SIR F. PALGRAVE'S _Parliamentary Writs and Writs of Military Service_ (vol. i., 1827, Edward I.; vol. ii., 1834, Edward II., fol., Rec. Corn.) with alphabetical digests and indices.

Formal grants under the great seal called _Charters_, characterised by a "salutation" clause, the names of attesting witnesses, and, under Henry III. after 1227, by the final formula _data per manum nostram apud_, etc., and implying normally the presence of the king, are contained in the CHARTER ROLLS, extant from the reign of John onwards. They are roughly analysed in the _Calendarium Rotulorum Chartarum_ (1803, Rec. Com.); and the _Rotuli Chartarum_ (fol., 1837, Rec. Corn.) contains the rolls _in extenso_ up to 1216, Vol. i., 1226-1257, of an English _Calendar of Charter Rolls_, printing some of the documents in full, was published in 1903.

The documents formerly known as ESCHEAT ROLLS, or INQUISITIONES POST MORTEM, are concerned with the inquiries made by the Crown on the death of every landholder as to the extent and character of his holding. Some of the information contained in these inquests was made accessible in the _Calendarium Inquisitionum sive Eschætarum_ (vol. i., Henry III., Edward I. and II., 1806; vol. ii., Edward III., 1808, fol., Rec. Corn.). The errors and omissions of these volumes were partially remedied for the reigns of Henry III. and Edward I. by C. ROBERTS'S _Calendarium Genealogicum_ (2 vols. 8vo, 1865). A scholarly guide to all this class of documents has been begun in the new _Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem and other Analogous Documents_, of which vol. i. (Henry III.) was issued in 1904. The first volume of a separate list of the analogous inquisitions _Ad pod damnum_ is also announced.

Of the FINE ROLLS containing the records of fines[1] made with the Crown for licence to alienate, exemption from service, wardships, pardons, etc., those of Henry III. have been made accessible in C. ROBERTS'S _Excerpta e Rotulis Finium_, 1216-1272 (1835-36, 8vo). Other rolls such as the LIBERATE ROLLS have not yet been published for the reigns here treated.

[1] A _fine_ in this technical sense is an agreement arrived at
by a money transaction.

Of special or local rolls, preserved in the Chancery, the most important for our period are the GASCON ROLLS. The earlier documents called by this name are not exclusively concerned with the affairs of Gascony; they are miscellaneous documents enrolled for convenience in common parchments by reason of the presence of the king in his Aquitanian dominions. Of these are F. MICHEL'S _Roles Gascons_, vol. i., published in the French government series of _Documents Inédits sur l'Histoire de France_ (1885), including a "fragmentum rotuli Vasconiæ," 1242-1243, and "patentes littere facte in Wasconia," 1253-1254, years in which Henry III. was actually in Gascony. This publication was resumed in 1896 by M. CHARLES BÉMONT'S _Supplément_ to Michel's imperfect volume, containing innumerable corrections, an index, introduction, and some additional rolls of 1254 and 1259-1260. The later of these, the roll of Edward's delegated administration, is the first exclusively devoted to the concerns of Gascony. "Gascon Rolls" in this later sense begin with Edward I.'s accession, and M. Bémont has undertaken their publication for the whole of Edward's reign from photographs of the records supplied by the English to the French government. In 1900 vol. ii. of the _Roles Gascons,_ containing the years 1273-1290, was issued. Other classes of Chancery Rolls accessible in print are _Rotuli Scotiæ,_ 1291-1516 (2 vols., 1814-1819, Rec. Corn.), and _Rotuli Walliæ_, 5-9 Edward I., privately printed by Sir Thomas Phillipps (1865). Among isolated Chancery records the _Rotuli Hundredorum_ (Rec. Corn., 2 vols. fol., 1812-1818), containing the very important inquests made by Edward I.'s commissioners into the franchises of the barons, may specially be noticed here.

Of not less importance than the Chancery records are those handed down from the Court of Exchequer. The most famous of these, the PIPE ROLLS, which, unlike the Chancery Enrolments, were "filed" or sewn skin by skin, are decreasingly important from the thirteenth century onwards as compared with their value for the twelfth. For this reason the Pipe Roll Society, founded in 1883, only undertook their publication up to 1200. Fragments of Pipe Rolls for our period can be seen in print in various local histories and transactions, as e.g., "Pipe Rolls of Northumberland" up to 1272 in HODGSON-HINDE'S History of Northumberland, pt. iii., vol. iii., and 1273-1284, ed. Dickson (Newcastle, 1854-60), and of Notts and Derby (translated extracts) in YEATMAN's _History of Derby_ (1886). The only gap in our series is for Henry III. Of other Exchequer records we may mention: (i) the ORIGINALIA ROLLS, containing the estreats or documents from the Chancery informing the Exchequer of moneys due to it, beginning in 20 Henry III., a summary of which is published in _Rotulorum Originalium_ in Curia _Scaccarii Abbreviatio,_ 20 Henry III,-51 Edward III (2 vols. fol., Rec. Corn., 1805-1810); (2) the MEMORANDA ROLLS, containing records of charges upon the Exchequer, etc., are complete for this period. They were kept by the king's and the treasurer's remembrancer, and are illustrated in print by extracts from the Memoranda Rolls, 1297, in _Transactions of the Royal Hist. Soc.,_ new series, iii., 281-291(1886), and by the roll of 3 Henry III. in COOPER'S _Proceedings of the Record Commissioners_ (1833); (3) MINISTERS ACCOUNTS, i.e., accounts of royal bailiffs, etc., for royal manors, etc., not included in the sheriffs' accounts, beginning with Edward I., of which a list is given in the _P.R.O. Lists and Indexes_, Nos. v. and viii.; (4) of the PELL RECORDS, recording issues and payments, samples given in DEVON'S _Issues of the Exchequer_ (Rec. Corn., 8vo, 1837), DEVON'S _Issue Roll of Thomas of Brantingham in_ 1370 (Rec. Corn., 8vo, 1835). The pells of receipt were entered on the (5) RECEIPT ROLLS, specimens of which, along with the corresponding issues, are to be found in SIR JAMES RAMSAY'S abstracts of issue and receipt rolls for certain years of Edward III. in the _Antiquary_(1880-1888); (6) SUBSIDY ROLLS of various types, illustrated by _Nonarum Inquisitiones tempore Edwardi ZZZ._ (Rec. Corn., 1807), the record of a subsidy of a ninth collected by Edward III. in 1340-1341; (7) WARDROBE and HOUSEHOLD ACCOUNTS containing for the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries information on national as well as private royal finance; specimens in print include the important _Liber Quotidianus Contra-rotulatoris Garderobæ_, 28 _Ed. I._(1299-1300), (1787, Soc. Antiq.).

From the Exchequer records come also the following: (1) _Testa de Neville sive Liber Feodorum temp. Hen. ZZZ. et Edw. I._ (Rec. Corn., fol., 1807), a miscellaneous and ill-digested but valuable collection of thirteenth century inquisitions; (2) _Nomina Villarum, g_ Ed. II., published in PALGRAVE'S _Parl. Writs_, ii., iii., 301-416; (3) _Kirkby's Quest, a_ survey made by Bishop Kirkby, the treasurer, in 1284-85, of which the Yorkshire portion has been printed by the Surtees Soc., ea. Skaife (1867), and other portions elsewhere; (4) _Taxatio Ecclesiastica Angliæ et Walliæ_, 1291 (Rec. Corn., 1802), the taxation of benefices by Nicholas IV. by which assessments of papal and ecclesiastical taxes were long made. A very useful compilation, recently undertaken under the direction of the deputy-keeper, is _Inquisitions and Assessments relating to Feudal Aids_, 1284-1431, of which three volumes, dealing in alphabetical order with the shires from Bedford to Norfolk, are published Cheshire and Durham are entirely omitted and Lancashire very scantily dealt with as exceptional jurisdictions. The work is based upon the various lay records enumerated above and other analogous inquests. Ancient compilations of miscellaneous documents by officials of the Exchequer are exemplified in _Liber Niger Scaccarii_ (ed. Hearne, 2 vols., 1774), and in the _Red Book of the Exchequer_ (ed. H. Hall, 3 vols., Rolls ser., 1896).

The records of the common law courts, the King's Bench and the Court of Common Pleas, are of less direct historical value than those of the Chancery and the Exchequer. Extraordinarily bulky, they require a good deal of sifting to sort the wheat from the chaff. As yet a very small proportion of them has been printed, and few have even been calendared. A brief index of them has been compiled in the useful _List of Plea Rolls_ (1894, _P.R.O. Lists and Indexes_, No. iv.). Of the various types of these records the FEET OF FINES have been largely used by the topographer and genealogist, and the feet of fines for many counties during this period have been calendared, summarised, excerpted, and printed, wholly or in part, by local archaeological societies, as for example, W. FARRER'S _Lancashire Final Concords till 1307_ (Rec. Soc. for Lancashire and Cheshire, 1899), and many others. The PLEA ROLLS are of wider importance. For the days of Henry III. _Placita Coram Rege_ (_i.e._, of the King's Bench) and the _Placita de Banco_ (_i.e._, of the Common Pleas in later phrase) are classified as _Rotuli Curiæ Regis_, while the rolls of the local eyres for the same period are called _Assize Rolls_. Separate series for each court begin with Edward I. Specimens of most of these types have been printed. _Placitorum Abbreviatio Ric. I.--Edw. II._ (Rec. Com., fol., 1811) is a careless seventeenth century abstract. _Placita de Quo Warranto_, Edward I. to Edward III. (Rec. Com., fol., 1818), is a record of local eyres of particular importance for the reign of Edward I. as the corollary of the Hundred Rolls and the attack on the local franchises. HUNTER'S _Rotuli Selecti_ (Rec. Com., 1834) contains pleas of the reign of Henry III. A typical year's pleadings of the King's Bench for 1297 is given in full in PHILLIMORE's _Placita coram rege_, 25 Edward I. (1898, British Rec. Soc.). Selections from the proceedings of the commission appointed by Edward I. in 1289 to hear complaints against judges and officials will shortly be published by Miss Hilda Johnstone and myself for the Royal Historical Society. Of special importance are the plea rolls issued by the Selden Society, which include for our period F.W. MAITLAND'S _Select Pleas of the Crown_, 1200-1225; BAILDON'S _Select Chancery Pleas_, 1364-1471; J.M. RIGG'S _Select Pleas of the Jewish Exchequer_; and G.J. TURNER'S _Select Pleas of the Forest_; all have translations and introductions, of which those of Professor Maitland are of exceptional value.

To these types must be added the records of the local courts, now largely also in the Public Record Office, though vast numbers of court rolls and manorial documents are still in private hands, and among the archives of ecclesiastical and secular corporations. The Selden Society has done excellent work in publishing such muniments; as in particular, MAITLAND'S _Select Pleas in Manorial Courts_, vol. i., Henry III. and Edward I., illustrating the social and legal life of a medieval village; MAITLAND and BAILDON'S _Court Baron_; HUNTER' s _Leet Jurisdiction of Norwich_; C. GROSS's _Select Cases from the Coroners' Rolls_, 1265-1413. The records of the Bishopric of Durham, the County Palatine of Chester, the Principality of Wales, and the Duchy of Lancaster are deposited in the Public Record Office, and calendars and lists scattered over the _Deputy-Keeper of the Records' Reports_ throw some light on their contents. Unluckily these records of franchise are incompletely preserved and often in bad condition. The best preserved for our period are the Durham records, described in LAPSLEY'S County _Palatine of Durham_, pp. 327-337 (Harvard Historical Studies); some of the most important are printed in _Registrum Palatinum Dunelmense_, ed. Hardy (Rolls Series, 4 vols.), which is also an Episcopal register. Welsh records may be illustrated by the _Record of Carnarvon_ (Rec. Corn., fol., 1838). Academic records are illustrated by the Oxford _Munimenta Academica_ (ed. Anstey), Rolls Series. Municipal records are very numerous and important; full particulars as to them can be found in C. Gross's _Bibliography of British Municipal History_ (Harvard Hist. Studies). Admirably edited examples of our wealth of municipal records for this period are to be found in _Records of the Borough of Nottingham_ (ed. W.H. Stevenson), vol. i. (1882); _Records of the Borough of Leicester_ (ed. Mary Bateson), vols. i. and ii. (1899 and 1901); and _Munimenta Gildhallæ Londoniensis_ (ed. H.T. Riley), Rolls Series. The _Reports of the Historical Manuscripts Commission_ afford much information as to every type of document in private or local custody. Ireland and Scotland have archives of their own; but there are no systematic records in the Register House at Edinburgh before the War of Independence. Among the enterprises now abandoned of the Public Record Office were _Calendars of Documents relating to Scotland and Ireland_. The Scottish series covers all this period (vols. i.-iv.), the Irish was stopped at 1307. They are derived, by a rather arbitrary selection, from various classes of English records, but contain much valuable material. JOSEPH STEVENSON'S _Documents illustrating the History of Scotland_ (1286-1306) (Scot. Rec. Publications, 1870), and PALGRAVE'S Documents _and Records illustrating the History of Scotland_ (Rec. Corn., 1837), are useful for the reign of Edward I. as are for limited periods of it the _Wallace Papers_ (Maitland Club, 1841) and _Scotland in 1298_ (ed. Gough, 1888).

A new class of records begins in the thirteenth century with BISHOPS' REGISTERS. These, so far as they survive, are preserved in the diocesan registries. Of printed registers for this period the most important is MARTIN'S _Registrum Epistolarum J. Peckham_ (3 vols., Rolls Series, 1882-1886), the earliest surviving Canterbury register. Other registers printed or calendared are HINGESTON-RANDOLPH'S _Exeter Registers_, 1257-1291, 1307-1326, and 1327-1369 (5 vols., 1889, etc.); excerpts, particularly from the York registers, in RAINE'S _Letters from the Northern Registers,_ Rolls Series; the two oldest York _Registers_ of ARCHBISHOPS WALTER GREY (1215-1255) and WALTER GIFFARD (1266-1279), both in Surtees Society; the Wells _Registers_ of BPS. DROKENSFORD, 1309-1329, and RALPH OF SHREWSBURY, 1329-1363 (Somerset Record Society); the Worcester _Register_ of BP. GIFFARD, 1268-1302 (Worcester Historical Society); the Winchester _Registers_ of BISHOPS SANDALE and RIGAUD, 1316-1323, and WYKEHAM, 1366-1404 (Hampshire Record Society). A society called the Canterbury and York Society has recently been started to set forth episcopal registers systematically in print. It has begun to publish the earliest Lincoln _Register_ extant, that of Hugh of Wells, bishop of Lincoln, 1209-1235, whose _Liber Antiquus de Ordinatione Vicariorum_ was printed in 1888. Analogous documents are LUARD'S _Rob. Grosseteste Epistola_ (Roll Series, 1861), and the like.

Monastic CARTULARIES are less important for general history in this than in previous periods; large masses of monastic records of this age have survived, not a tithe of which is to be found in DUGDALE'S _Monasticon_. Some monastic records illustrate the domestic economy or religious life of the house as KIRK'S _Accounts of the Obedientiaries of Abingdon,_ 1322-1479 (Camden Soc.); J.W. CLARK's _Observances in use at Barnwell Priory,_ 1295-1296(1897), and the like.

For this period by far the most important series of foreign records is the magnificent collections of the papacy. A summary of many of these is to be found in BLISS, JOHNSON, and TWEMLOW's _Calendars of Papal Registers illustrating the History of Great Britain and Ireland; Papal Letters_ (vols. i.-iv., 1198-1404), and _Petitions to the Pope_ (vol. i., 1342-1419), of special importance for the fourteenth century. These useful calendars, however, do not always dispense us from consulting the grand series of papal records published or analysed under the care of the French School of Rome, which has not yet sufficiently been studied in this country. This enterprise is divided into two sections. In the first the _Registers from Gregory IX. to Benedict XI._ are in course of publication; in the second the letters of the Avignon popes relating to France are printed or analysed. Portions of the letters of John XXII, Benedict XII, and Clement VI, are already issued. PRESSUTI has published one volume of the _Registers of Honorius III_ (1888). From the Vatican archives also comes THEINER'S _Vetera Monumenta Hib. et Scot. Historiam illustrantia_ (1864), beginning in 1216.

Extracts from various archives are found in such collections as RYMER's _Foedera_ of which the Record Commission's edition in folio reaches just beyond the end of this period; WILKINS'S _Concilia_ (1737), containing many extracts from episcopal registers and canons of councils; HADDAN and STUBBS'S _Councils_, vol. i. (for the thirteenth century Welsh Church); CHAMPOLLION-FIGEAC'S _Lettres des Rois et des Reines d'Angleterre_ (2 vols., 1847, _Doc. Inédits_); STUBBS'S _Select Charters_ (Henry III. and Edward I.), and BÉMONT'S excellent _Chartes des Libertés anglaises_ in the _Collection de Textes pour l'Étude et l'Enseignement de l'Histoire_. Equally useful is COSNEAU'S _Grands Traités de la Guerre de Cent Ans_ also in the same _Collection de Textes_. The _Statutes of the Realm_ (vol. i., fol., 1810) contains the text of the laws and of the great charters of this period.

Chronicles, with all their deficiencies, must ever be largely used as sources of continuous historical narrative. For the thirteenth century our chief reliance must still be placed upon the annals drawn up in various monasteries, some based upon little more than gossip or hearsay, others showing real efforts to acquire authentic information. The greatest centre of historical composition in thirteenth-century England was the Abbey of St. Alban's, whose chronicles form so important a series that they may appropriately be considered as a whole, before the other chroniclers are dealt with in approximately chronological order. The fame of St. Alban's as a school of history had its origin in the order of Abbot Simon (d. 1183) that the house should always appoint a special historiographer. The first of these whose work is now extant is ROGER OF WENDOVER (d. 1236), whose _Flores Historiarum_ (ed. H.O. Coxe, Engl. Hist. Soc., 1842, or ed. Hewlett, Rolls Series, 1886-89--this latter edition is unscholarly) becomes original in 1216 and remains a chief source, copious and interesting, if not always precise, until 1235. On Wendover's death, MATTHEW PARIS, who took the monastic habit in 1217, became the official St. Alban's chronicler. His great work, the _Chronica Majora_, is, up to 1235, little more than an expansion and embellishment of Wendover. He re-edited Wendover's work with a patriotic and anti-curialist bias quite alien to the spirit of the earlier writer, whose version should preferably be followed. Paris's book is a first-hand source from 1235 to 1259. The narrative of the years 1254-1259 is considerably later in composition to the history of the period 1235-1253, since on reaching 1253 Paris devoted himself to an abridgment of what he had already written, called the _Historia Minor_. On completing this he resumed his earlier book, and carried it on to the eve of his death in 1259, though he did not live to complete its final revision; that was the work of another monk who added a picture of his death-bed. The _Chronica Majora_ has been excellently edited by Dr. H.R. Luard in seven volumes for the Rolls Series, with elaborate introductions tracing the literary history of the work and a magnificent index. The _Historia Minor_ has been published in three volumes by Sir F. Madden in the Rolls Series. Paris also wrote the lives of the abbots of his house up to 1255, a work not now extant, and the basis of the later _Gesta Abbatum S. Albani_, compiled by Thomas Walsingham (d. 1422?) and likewise issued in the Rolls Series. The thirteenth century biographies have some original value. Paris's _Life_ of _Stephen Langton_ is printed in LIEBERMANN'S _Ungedruckte Anglo-Normannische Geschichtsquellen_ (1870).

Paris, perhaps the greatest historian of the Middle Ages, has literary skill, a vivid though prolix style, a keen eye for the picturesque, bold and independent judgment, wonderful breadth and range, and an insatiable curiosity. He was a man of the world, a courtier and a scholar; he took immense pains to collect his facts from documents and eye-witnesses, and had great advantages in this respect through the intimate relations between his house and the court. Henry III himself contributed many items of information to him. His details are extraordinarily full, and he tells us almost as much about continental affairs as about those of his own country. He wrote with too flowing a pen to be careful about precision, and had too much love of the picturesque to resist the temptation of embellishing a good story. His narrative of continental transactions is in particular extremely inexact. But the chief cause of his offending also gives special value to his work; he was a man of strong views and his sympathies and prejudices colour every line he wrote. His standpoint is that of a patriotic Englishman, indignant at the alien invasions, at the misgovernment of the king, the greed of the curialists and the Poitevins, and with a professional bias against the mendicants. His writings make his age live.

The falling off in the St. Alban's work of the next generation is characteristic of the decay of colour and detail which makes the chroniclers of the age of Edward I. inferior to those of his father's reign. The years after 1259 were briefly chronicled by uninspired continuators of Matthew Paris, and the reputation of St. Alban's as a school of history led to the frequent transference of their annals to other religious houses, where they were written up by local pens. This led to the dissemination of the series of jejune compilations which in the ages of Edward I. and II. were widely spread under the name of _Flores Historiarum_. Dr. Luard has published a critical edition of these _Flores_ in three volumes of the Rolls Series, which range from the creation to 1326, with an introduction determining their complicated relations to each other. They are of no real value before 1259, and for the next sixty-seven years are only important by reason of the defects of our other sources. No unity or colour can be expected in books handed from house to house and kept up to date by jottings by different hands. The ascription of these _Flores_ to a conjectural Matthew of Westminster by earlier editors is groundless. Dr. C. Horstmann, _Nova Legenda Anglie_, i., pp. xlix. _seq._(1901), maintains that John of Tynemouth's _Historia Aurea_, still in manuscript, is the official St. Alban's history from 1327 to 1377.

In the reign of Edward I. the credit of the school of St. Alban's was revived to some extent by WILLIAM RISHANGER, who made his profession in 1271 and died early in the reign of Edward II. To him is assigned a chronicle ranging from 1259 to 1306 published by H.T. Riley in the volume _Willelmi Rishanger et Anonymorum Chronica et Annales_ (Rolls Series). Rishanger's authorship of the portion 1259-1272 is more probable than that of the section 1272-1306, which, not compiled before 1327, is almost certainly by another hand, and the attribution of even the earlier section to Rishanger is doubted by so competent an authority as M. Bémont. The compilation is frigid and unequal. Of the miscellaneous contents of Mr. Riley's volume, the short _Gesta Edwardi I._ (pp. 411-423), of no great value, is clearly Rishanger's work. We may also ascribe to Rishanger the _Narratio de Bellis apud Lewes et Evesham_ (ed. Halliwell, Camden Soc., 1840), which tells the story of the Barons' Wars with vigour, detail, and insight. Written by a true inheritor of the prejudices of Matthew Paris, this chronicle is a eulogy of Montfort. It was put together not before 1312.

Another volume of _Chroniclers of St. Alban's_ was edited by Mr. Riley for the Rolls Series in 1860. Three of its chronicles concern our period. These are: (1) _Opus Chronicorum_, 1259-1296, a source of "Rishanger's" chronicle; (2) J. DE TROKELOWE'S _Annales_, 1307-1322; (3) H. DE BLANEFORDE'S _Chronica_ (1323). These last two are important for Edward II.'s reign. After these works, historical writing further declined at St. Alban's. At the end of our period, however, another true disciple of Matthew Paris was found in the St. Alban's monk who added to a jejune compilation for the years 1328 to 1370 a vivid and personal narrative of the years 1376-1388, our chief source for the history of the last year of Edward III.'s reign. In his bitter prejudice against John of Gaunt and his clerical allies, such as Wychffe and the mendicants, the monk is so outspoken that his book was suppressed, and most manuscripts leave out the more offensive passages. It has been edited by Sir E. Maunde Thompson as _Chronicon Angliæ_, 1328-1388 (Rolls Series). Before that its contents, like that of other St. Alban's annals, were partially known through the fifteenth century compilation under the name of a St. Alban's monk, THOMAS OF WALSINGHAM, whose _Historia Anglicana_ (2 vols., Rolls Series, ed. Riley) is not an authority for our period.

For the early years of Henry III. we have besides Wendover's _Flores_: (i) The CANON OF BARNWELL'S continuation of Howden published in STUBBS'S _Memoriale Fratris Walteri de Coventria_ (Rolls Series), written in 1227 and copious for the years 1216-1225. (2) RALPH OF COGGESHALL's _Chronicon Anglicanum_ (ed. Stevenson, Rolls Series), ending at 1227 and important for its last twelve years. (3) The _Histoire des Ducs de Normandie et des Rois d'Angleterre_, which, published by F. Michel in 1840 (Soc. de l'histoire de France), was first appreciated at its full value by M. Petit-Dutaillis in the _Revue Historique_. tome 2 (1892). (4) The _Chronique de l'Anonyme de Béthune_ printed in 1904 in vol. xxiv. of the _Recueil des Historiens de la France_. (5) A French rhyming chronicle, the _Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal_, discovered and edited by P. Meyer for the Soc. de l'histoire de France. Written by a minstrel of the younger Marshal from materials supplied by the regent's favourite squire, it is, though poetry and panegyric, an important source for Marshal's regency.

St. Alban's was not the only religious house that concerned itself with the production of chronicles. Other _Annales Monastici_ have been edited in five volumes (Rolls Series, vol. v. is the index) by Dr. Luard. They are of special importance for the reign of Henry III. In vol. i. the meagre annals of the Glamorganshire abbey of Margam only extend to 1232. The _Annals of Tewkesbury_ are useful from 1200 to 1263, and specially for the history of the Clares, the patrons of that house. The Annals of Burton-upon-Trent illustrate the years 1211 to 1261 with somewhat intermittent light, and are of unique value for the period of the Provisions of Oxford, containing many official documents. Vol. ii. includes the _Annals_ of _Winchester_ and _Waverley_. The former, extending to 1277, though mainly concerned with local affairs are useful for certain parts of the reign of Henry III., and particularly for the years 1267-1277. The annals of the Cistercian house of Waverley, near Farnham, go down to 1291. From 1259 to 1266 the narrative is contemporary and valuable; from 1266 to 1275, and partly from 1275 to 1277 it is borrowed from the Winchester Annals; from 1277 to its abrupt end it is again of importance. The _Annals of Bermondsey_ in vol. iii. are a fifteenth century compilation. The _Annals_ of the Austin canons of _Dunstable_ are of great value, especially from the year 1201, when they become original, down to 1242. This section is written by RICHARD DE MORINS, prior of Dunstable from 1202 to 1242. After his death the annals become more local, though they give a clear narrative of the puzzling period 1258-1267. They stop in 1297. The chief contents of vol. iv, are the parallel _Annals of Oseney_ and the _Chronicle_ of THOMAS WYKES, a canon of that house, who took the religious habit in 1282. To 1258 the two histories are very similar, that of Wykes being slightly fuller. They then remain distinct until 1278, and again from 1280 to 1284 and 1285-1289. In the latter year Wykes stops, while Oseney goes on with independent value until 1293, and as a useless compilation till 1346. Wykes is of unique interest for the Barons' Wars, as he is the only competent chronicler who takes the royalist side. The Oseney writer, much less full and interesting, represents the ordinary baronial standpoint. Wykes is occasionally useful for the first years of Edward I.; after 1288 his importance becomes small. The _Annals of Worcester_ are largely a compilation from the Winchester Annals and the _Flores_; the local insertions have some value for the period 1216-1258, and more for the latter part of the reign of Edward I., at whose death they end.

Other monastic chronicles of the thirteenth century, of small importance, enumerated by Dr. Luard (_Ann. Mon._, iv., liii.) are not yet printed in full. Extracts from many are given in PERTZ'S _Monumenta Germaniæ Hist. Scriptores_, vols. xxvii. and xxviii. The _Annales Cestrienses_ (to 1297) have been edited by R.C. Christie (Record Soc. of Lancashire and Cheshire); EDMUND OF HADENHAM'S _Chronicle_ (down to 1307) is given in part in WHARTON'S _Anglia Sacra_, and M. Bémont publishes in an appendix to his _Simon de Montfort_ (pp. 373-380) a valuable fragment of a _Chronicle_ of _Battle Abbey_ on the Barons' Wars, 1258-1265. For the latter part of that period we have some useful notices in HENRY OF SILEGRAVE's brief _Chronicle_ (ed. Hook, Caxton Soc., 1849), whose close relationship to the _Battle Chronicle_ M. Bémont has first indicated. To these may be added the _Annals of Stanley Abbey_ (1202-1271) in vol. ii. of _Chronicles of Stephen, Henry II. and Richard I._ (ed. Hewlett, Rolls Series, 1885), and the _Chronicle_ of the Bury monk, JOHN OF TAXSTER or TAYSTER, which becomes copious from the middle of the thirteenth century and ends in 1265; it was partly printed in 1849 by Benjamin Thorpe as a continuation of Florence of Worcester (English Historical Society), and the years 1258-1262 are best read in Luard's edition of Bartholomew Cotton (Rolls Series). Taxster's work became the basis of several later compilations of the eastern counties, including: (i) JOHN OF EVERSDEN, another Bury monk, independent from 1265 to 1301, also printed without his name by Thorpe, up to 1295, as a further continuation of Florence. (2) JOHN OF OXNEAD, a monk of St. Benet's, Hulme, a reputed continuator of Taxster and Eversden up to 1280, who adds a good deal of his own for the years 1280-1293, edited somewhat carelessly by Sir Henry Ellis as _Chronica J. de Oxenedes_ (Rolls Series). (3) BARTHOLOMEW COTTON, a monk of Norwich, whose _Historia Anglicana_, original from 1291 to 1298, and specially important from 1285 to 1291, is edited by Luard (Rolls Series). Some thirteenth and early fourteenth century Bury chronicles are also in _Memorials_ of _St. Edmund's Abbey_, ed. T. Arnold (vols. ii. and iii., Rolls Series). The _Chronicon de Mailros_ (Bannatyne Club), from the Cistercian abbey of Melrose, goes to 1270; though utterly untrustworthy, it may be noticed as almost the only Scottish chronicle before the war of independence, and as containing a curious record of the miracles of Simon de Montfort.

Among the historians of Edward I.'s reign is WALTER OF HEMINGBURGH, Canon of Guisborough in Cleveland (ed. H.C. Hamilton, 2 vols., Engl. Hist. Soc.). His account of Henry III.'s reign is worthless, but from 1272 to 1312 his work is of great value, though never precise and full of gaps. It contains many documents and is remarkable for its stirring battle pictures. Hemingburgh probably laid down his pen when the narrative ceases early in the reign of Edward II. Another writer, identified by Horstmann with John of Tynemouth, carries the story from 1326 to 1346.

In striking contrast to the flowing periods of Hemingburgh is the well-written and chronologically digested _Annals_ of the Dominican friar NICHOLAS TREVET or TRIVET, the son of a judge of Henry III.'s reign (ed. Hog, Engl. Hist. Soc.). Beginning in 1138, his work assumes independent value for the latter years of Henry III. and is of first-rate importance for the reign of Edward I., at whose death it concludes, though Trevet was certainly alive in 1324. It was largely used by the later St. Alban's chroniclers.

Franciscan historiography begins earlier than Dominican with the remarkable tract of THOMAS OF ECCLESTON, written about 1260, _De Adventu Fratrum Minorum in Anglia_, published with other Minorite documents (including Adam Marsh's letters) in BREWER'S _Monumenta Franciscana_ (Rolls Series, continued in a second volume by R. Hewlett). The first important Franciscan chronicle, called the _Chronicon de Lanercost_ (ed. J. Stevenson, Bannatyne Club, 2 vols.), really comes from the Minorite convent of Carlisle. It covers the years 1201 to 1346. The early part is derived from the valueless chronicle of Melrose, and its incoherent cult of the memory of Montfort does not save it from the grossest errors in dealing with his history. It becomes important for northern affairs from Edward I. onwards, giving full details with a strong anti-Scottish bias. Another north-country chronicle is Sir T. GREY'S _Scalacronica_ (ed. Stevenson, Maitland Club, 1836), useful for the Scottish wars and for Edward III.'s reign up to 1362.

A sign of the times is the beginning of civic chronicles. The London series alone is important for English history. It begins with the _Liber de Antiquis Legibus_, or _Chronica Majorum et Vicecomitum Londoniarum_ (1188-1274, ed. T. Stapleton, Camden Soc.). The work of ARNOLD FITZTHEDMAR, alderman of the German merchants in London, it is copious for the years 1236 to 1274, and is, with Wykes, the only chronicle of the Barons' Wars written with a royalist bias. Fourteenth century civic chronicles, based upon _Flores Historiarum_, and continued independently, form the main contents of the two volumes of _Chronicles of the Reigns of Edward I. and II._ (ed. by Dr. Stubbs for the Rolls Series). These are: (1) _Annales Londonienses_, perhaps written by ANDREW HORN, chamberlain of London, and compiler of the _Liber Horn_; they have much general value for the period 1301 to 1316, and deal more narrowly with London history from 1316 to 1330, when they conclude. (2) _Annales Paulini_, 1307-1341, compiled by one of the clergy of St. Paul's, but not by Adam Murimuth. These take up Dr. Stubbs's first volume. The second contains: (1) JOHN OF LONDON'S _Commendatio Lamentabilis in Transitu magni Regis Edwardi quarti_, a funeral eulogy containing the most elaborate contemporary analysis of Edward's character. (2) The CANON OF BRIDLINGTON'S _Gesta Edwardi de Carnarvon_, with a continuation down to the death of Edward III., of little value after 1339. It has frequent reference to the vaticinations of the local prophet, John of Bridlington, and was not put in its present shape before 1377. Its first part is based on earlier sources, and it is, for lack of better, a prime authority for north-country history and Anglo-Scottish relations; the continuation contains the best account of Edward Balliol's attempts on the Scottish throne. (3) _Vita Edwardi II._, from 1307 to 1325, attributed by Hearne on slight grounds to a MONK OF MALMESBURY, with many notices of the history of Gloucestershire and Bristol, of which the famous rising is described at length. The writer is the most human of the annalists of the reign, prolix, self-conscious, moralising, and somewhat incoherent. He is the most outspoken of all the fourteenth century critics of the Roman curia, and has more insight than most of his contemporaries.

The following are of primary importance for the early years of Edward III.; it is significant that they are nearly all secular, not monastic, in origin. (1) _Continuatio Chronicorum_, 1303-1347, by ADAM MURIMUTH, a canon of St. Paul's much employed by Edward III. (ed. E.M. Thompson in Rolls Series), a mere continuation of the _Flores_ until 1325, thence enlarged from personal sources, but still meagre until 1337, when it becomes a first-rate authority to 1346. Murimuth's adoption of Michaelmas day as the beginning of the year has often confused those who have imitated him. Chief among these is (2) GEOFFREY LE BAKER of Swinbrooke, an Oxfordshire man, and like Murimuth, a secular clerk, whose _Chronicon_ (ed. E.M. Thompson), beginning in 1303 on the basis of Murimuth, has independent value after 1324, and is noteworthy for its touching details of Edward II.'s fall and death. It ends in 1356 with an excellent account of the battle of Poitiers. The early part of Baker's chronicle, widely circulated as _Vita et Mors Edwardi II._, was previously assigned to Sir Thomas de la Moor, and was so edited by Stubbs, but Sir E.M. Thompson showed clearly that this Oxfordshire knight was Baker's patron and not the writer of a chronicle. With many defects, Baker can tell a story picturesquely. (3) ROBERT OF AVESBURY, a canon lawyer, wrote _De mirabilibus Gestis Edwardi III._, of special importance for the war from 1339 to 1356, and containing many state documents. It is edited by E.M. Thompson in the same volume as Murimuth. (4) HENRY KNIGHTON, Canon of Leicester, wrote a _Chronicle_ about 1366 which is valuable for the period 1336-1366 and includes the best contemporary account of the Black Death. The latest edition by Lumby in the Rolls Series is not a scholarly work. (5) _Eulogium Historiarum_ (ed. Haydon, Rolls Series) is contemporary and valuable for 1356-1366 only. There is a great dearth of English chronicles for the latter years of Edward III. The signal exception is the important St. Alban's _Chronicon Angliæ_ already mentioned.

In the age of Edward III. the _Flores Historiarum_ were superseded by the _Polychronicon_ (often called the "Brute" after WACE'S _Brut d'Angleterre_), the voluminous compilation (to 1352) of RANDOLPH HIGDEN, a monk of Chester (edited by Babington and Lumby, Rolls Series). ROBERT OF GLOUCESTER, PETER LANGTOFT, and ROBERT MANNYNG have been referred to elsewhere. The first is of some original value for the Barons' Wars and Edward I., while Langtoft, a Yorkshire canon specially interested in the Scottish wars, is a contemporary for all Edward I.'s reign. Among rhyming chronicles, French in tongue but English in origin, may be mentioned _Le Siège de Carlaverock_, 1300 (ed. Nicolas, 1828), of value for heraldry, and CHANDOS HERALD'S _Prince Noir_ (ed. H.O. Coxe, whose edition was pillaged by F. Michel for his more accessible version of 1883). _L'Histoire de Foulques Fitz Warin_ (d. 1260?), a picturesque marcher hero, a prose romance of the end of the thirteenth century, can be read in Stevenson's edition of COGGESHALL (Rolls Series), or Englished by A. Kemp-Welch (1904).

No contemporary Scottish chronicles of importance deal with the War of Independence, though fairly full Scottish versions of it exist in later books. The earliest of these is the _Bruce_ of JOHN BARBOUR, Archdeacon of Aberdeen. Written in 1375 at the instigation of Robert II., Barbour's spirited verses are inspired by patriotic rather than historic motives. His details are minute, but impossible to control by other sources, and he is more valuable as the epic poet of Scottish liberty than as an historical authority. He is edited by Skeat (Early English Text Soc.), Jamieson, and Innes. The earliest prose Scottish chronicle, that of JOHN FORDUN, who died about 1384 (ed. Skene, in _Historians of Scotland_), is of value for the fourteenth century. ANDREW WYNTONN'S _Originale_, a metrical history written in the fifteenth century, has next to no authority until the end of this period (ed. Laing, in _Historians of Scotland_), BLIND HARRY'S _Wallace_, written in 1488, is romance not history.

Wales is more fortunate than Scotland in preserving contemporary thirteenth century annals, of which a Latin chronicle, _Annales Cambriæ_, extending to 1288, and a Welsh one, _Brut y Tywysogion_ (i.e., _Chronicle of the Princes_), down to 1278, are edited by J. Williams in the Rolls Series, the latter with an English translation. A more critical version of the Welsh text of the _Brut_ is that of J. RHYS and J.G. EVANS' _Red Book of Hergest_, vol. ii. (1890).

The close relations between England and France for the whole of this period render the French chronicles by far the most important of foreign sources for English history. They are enumerated in detail by Auguste Molinier in vols. iii. (up to 1328) and iv. (after 1328) of the first part of _Les Sources de l'Histoire de France (Manuels de Bibliographie historique_). The chief French chronicles of the period 1226-1328 are collected in vols. xx.-xxiv. of the _Recueil des Historiens de la France_ begun by Dom Bouquet. Some of them are of special importance for English history. For Anglo-Netherlandish relations under Edward I. see _Annales Gandenses_ (1296-1310), "la chronique la plus remarquable de la fin du xiiie siècle," the French _Chronique Artésienne_ (1295-1304), and the _Chronique Tournaisienne_ (1296-1314), all edited by F. Funck-Brentano in the already mentioned _Collection de Textes_. For the Hundred Years' War the French chroniclers are indispensable, especially for military history. The most famous of these writers, JEAN FROISSART, has been characterised in my text (p. 419). He can best be studied in Luce and Raynouart's excellent edition for the Soc. de l'Histoire de France (tomes i.-viii., 1869-1888) which completes the story up to Edward III.'s death. Luce's careful "sommaire et commentaire critique" often affords means of checking Froissart by other sources. The magnificent volumes of indexes of Kervyn de Lettenhove's complete edition (vols. XX.-XXV.) are still of immense use, though his text and comments are inferior to those of Luce, Froissart's spirit may well be caught in Lord Berners's racy English translation (Tudor Translations), or in G.C. Macaulay's useful abridgment. The three redactions of Froissart's first book (from 1327 to 1373-1377), which is all that concerns our period, have been clearly distinguished by Luce. (1) The first edition, written about 1373, at the request of Count Robert of Namur, is inspired by an English bias. Up to 1360 it is largely derived from the chronicle of JEAN LE BEL, Canon of St. Lambert of Liège; after that date it is original. (2) The second edition, only represented by two MSS., of which one is incomplete, is a modification of the first with a French bias. The earlier part is more independent of Jean le Bel. (3) The third edition, preserved in a single MS., ends with the death of Philip VI in 1350, and, written after 1400, is even more hostile to England than the second. The best edition of Jean le Bel is by Polain for the Académie royale de Belgique.

A few of the more important French chronicles after 1328 may be mentioned shortly. (1) _Grands Chroniques de France_ (ed. Paulin Paris). Original from 1350 to 1377, a work of first-rate importance, where, if truth is altered, it is altered deliberately from political motives. (2) JEAN DE VENETTE, 1340-1368, written with a popular bias, and partly favourable to Charles of Navarre (edited as a supplement to Géraud's edition of Guillaume de Nangis, ii., 178-378, Soc. de l'Hist. de France). (3) _Chronique Normande du xiv'e siècle_, 1337-1372 (ed. Molinier, Soc. de l'Hist. de France, 1882), exact and very important for the wars 1337 to 1372. (4) _Chronique des quatre premiers Valois_ (Soc. de l'Hist. de France). (5) CUVELIER'S poetical _Vie de Bertrand du Guesclin_ (2 vols., _Doc. inédits_). Further details can be found in Molinier's bibliography. Netherlandish sources for the Hundred Years' War are summarised in PIRENNE'S _Bibliographie de l'Histoire de Belgique_ (1895). Of special importance is JAN VAN KLERK'S _Van den Derden Edewaert Rym Kronyk_. (1840), useful for 1337-1341, and written with an English bias.

The unofficial legal literature of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries is of exceptional variety and value. Many lawyers' treatises throw light on matters far beyond legal technicalities. HENRY OF BRACTON or BRATTON'S _De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliæ_ illustrates the union of English and Roman juridical ideas characteristic of the age of Henry III. It has been edited badly by Sir T. Twiss in six volumes (Rolls Series), and some portions well by Professor Maitland in his _Select passages from Bracton and Azo_ (Selden Soc.). Maitland's _Bracton's Note Book_ includes extracts from plea rolls seemingly made by Bracton. Bracton's book on the laws was translated, condensed, and rearranged by a writer of the next generation called Britton. It may be studied in a modern edition in NICHOLLS'S _Britton on the laws of England_, while _Fleta_, an almost contemporary Latin law book, must be read in Selden's seventeenth century edition. Another thirteenth century law-book, _Le Mirroir des Justices_, has been edited by Maitland and W.J. Whittaker for the Selden Society. From Edward I.'s time onwards unofficial reports of trials called YEAR BOOKS, written in French, become valuable for their vividness and detail, and for the light which they throw on the more technical records of the plea rolls. Many of them are printed in unsatisfactory seventeenth century editions, but the Year Books of five of Edward I.'s regnal years, between 1292 to 1307, together with the Year Book of 11-12 Edward III., are accessible in A.J. Horwood's editions in the Rolls Series. L.O. Pike has also edited in the Rolls Series the _Year books of Edward III._ from 1338 to 1345, and Maitland's _Year books of Edward II._ for the Selden Society are the first two instalments of a scheme for publishing the Year Books of the reign. Besides their legal value, the Year Books are an almost unworked mine for social and economic, and often even political and ecclesiastical, history.

Of literary aids to history T. WRIGHT'S _Political Songs_ (Camden Soc.) illustrate this period to the reign of Edward II. One of Wright's pieces has been more elaborately edited in C.L. KINGSFORD'S Song of _Lewes_ (1890), and C. Hardwick published a _Poem on the Times OF Edward II._ for the Percy Soc. (1849). With Edward III. such literature becomes copious. Of special importance are T. Wright's _Political POEMS and SONGS FROM the accession of Edward III._, vol. i. (Rolls Series, 1859), J. Hall's _Poems of_ LAURENCE MINOT, Skeat's editions of CHAUCER and LANGLAND, and G.C. Macaulay's edition of GOWER. The Latin works of Wycliffe, published by the Wycliffe Society, mainly belong to the succeeding period, but _De Dominio Divino_ and _De Civili Dominio_, as well as some tracts printed in the appendix to LEWIS'S _Life of Wiclif_ and in Shirley's edition of _Fasciculi Zizanioram_ (Rolls Series), were written before 1377.