In the thirteenth century the historical literature of England is almost wholly confined to the monasteries. Secular clerics, like Geoffrey of Monmouth, Henry of Huntingdon, Giraldus Cambrensis, Hoveden, and Diceto, are no longer prominent among the chroniclers. In the fourteenth century, however, the monastic chroniclers decrease in value, and some of the best histories are written by secular clerks, like Robert of Avesbury, Geoffrey le Baker, Adam of Murimuth, Adam of Usk, and the author of the Annales Paulini (Nos. 1697, 1716, 1717, 1822, 1853). The annals composed in the medieval cloisters are of three kinds : those dealing mainly or wholly with the history of the writer's monastery, which are examined in § 57; those dealing partly with local monastic history and partly with general history; and those dealing mainly with general history. The annals of the second kind are of great importance in the thirteenth century; some of the best of them have been printed in Luard's Annales Monastici (No. 1664), and some of the shorter ones in Liebermann's Geschichtsquellen (No. 586). To the third group belong the writers of the St. Albans school of history, a school which produced Wendover, Wallingford, and Paris in the thirteenth century, Rishanger, Trokelowe, Blaneford, the Chronicon Angliæ, the Annales Ricardi II. et Henrici IV., Walsingham, Amundesham, and the Register of Whethamstede in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. This series of annals, written in large part by official chroniclers of the abbey, furnishes us with the fullest account of the general history of England from about 1200 to 1422, and also gives some information concerning the period 1423-61. Matthew Paris is the greatest writer of the St. Albans school and the most eminent chronicler of the thirteenth century. The pre-eminence of St. Albans in the historiography of England, which is much greater than that of St. Denis in the historiography of France, was due partly to its proximity to London and to its position on one of the great highways of England. On the St. Albans school, see James Gairdner, Early Chroniclers of England, ch. vi. ; T.D. Hardy, Catalogue of Materials, vol. iii. preface; and Augustus Jessopp, Studies by a Recluse, ch. i. Many other abbeys, such as those of Bury St. Edmunds, Canterbury, Durham, Malmesbury, Peterborough, Westminster, Winchester, and Worcester, were also more or less active in the production of chronicles during the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries; and, like St. Albans, most of them were old Benedictine houses. The Cluniacs, Cistercians, Carthusians, and other reformed orders

did not accomplish much in England: the most eminent of the Cistercian writers was Ralph of Coggeshall; among the friars the only prominent chroniclers were Capgrave, Trevet, and Eccleston (Nos. 1731, 1849, 2201). The best historians of the fourteenth century, those of the St. Albans school, like Rishanger and Trokelowe, or such writers as Hemingburgh, Murimuth, and Knighton, are distinctly inferior to the best historians of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. On the other hand, the number of chronicles multiplied so fast that many of the smaller ones still remain unpublished. Among those which have recently appeared are the town chronicles edited by Kingsford and Flenley (Nos. 1665a, 1671a), and the chronicles of John of Reading and an anonymous writer of Canterbury, of the reign of Edward III., edited by James Tait (No. 1832a).

In the fifteenth century there was a still further decline in historical literature. Walsingham (d. circa 1422) is the most eminent chronicler of this period, and with the completion of his work the regular series of St. Albans chronicles closes. There was also a dearth of literary activity in other monasteries. The only valuable monastic chronicle in the second half of the fifteenth century is the Crowland continuation of Ingulf' (No. 1798). Laymen in the cities, men like William of Worcester, Hardyng, and Fabyan, were displacing the monks; and in the last quarter of the century the scriptorium was beginning to make way for the printing-press the first chronicle was printed by Caxton in 1480 (No. 1733). Among these city histories there is an interesting group of mayors' chronicles, the extant medieval examples of which, with the exception of Ricart's Bristol Calendar (No. 2375) and the meagre chronicle of Lynn (No. 1671a), relate only to London. The oldest are Fitz-Thedmar's Chronica Majorum, compiled in 1274; the Annales Londonienses, compiled in the first half of the fourteenth century; the French Croniques de London, compiled not far from the middle of the fourteenth century; and the English Chronicle of London, compiled about 1442 Nos. 1690, 1739, 1763, 1773. These chronicles contain the names of the chief civic officers, together with notices of the municipal and national events which occurred during each mayoralty. Owing to the important part that London played in the history of the kingdom, the civic annalists were not inclined to ignore national affairs. On this subject, see the excellent introduction to Flenley's Six Town Chronicles (No. 1671a); and Gross's Bibliography of Municipal History, pp. xviii.-xxiii. On

the literature of this century, see G. G. Smith, The Transition Period, Edinburgh, etc., 1900; and C. L. Kingsford, English Historical Literature in the Fifteenth Century, Oxford, 1913.

For information concerning the lives and works of the chroniclers of the period 1066-1485, see the literature in § 2, especially Hardy's Catalogue of Materials, vols. ii.-iii., Potthast's Bibliotheca, Gairdner's Early Chroniclers of England, and the Cambridge History of English Literature, vols. i.-ii.; the Dictionary of National Biography (No. 305); the prefaces or introductions to the editions in the Rolls Series and in Pertz's Scriptores (No. 594); and the appendixes on authorities in the Political History of England (No. 632a). For the French chroniclers of this period, and for English chroniclers who treat of French affairs, see Molinier, Les Sources de l'Histoire de France (No. 30a). The texts of the chief French chronicles for the period are in Bouquet's Recueil des Historiens de la France (No. 575). For a chronological table of the chronicles, see below, app. D. The following regnal table gives the names of the principal chroniclers, or primary authorities, for each reign, an account of whose works will, with a few exceptions, be found in the alphabetical table, § 486, under the names here briefly listed; the dates refer to the more valuable portions of the works.