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.