the latter.

Matthew has left a parallel but shorter account of the time in his
"Historia Anglorum" (from the Conquest to 1253). He is the last of the
great chroniclers of his house; for the chronicles of Rishanger, his
successor at St. Albans, and of the obscurer annalists who worked on at
that Abbey till the Wars of the Roses are little save scant and lifeless
jottings of events which become more and more local as time goes on. The
annals of the abbeys of Waverley, Dunstable, and Burton, which have been
published in the "Annales Monastici" of the Rolls series, add important
details for the reigns of John and Henry III. Those of Melrose, Osney,
and Lanercost help us in the close of the latter reign, where help is
especially welcome. For the Barons' war we have besides these the
royalist chronicle of Wykes, Rishanger's fragment published by the Camden
Society, and a chronicle of Bartholomew de Cotton, which is contemporary
from 1264 to 1298. Where the chronicles fail however the public documents
of the realm become of high importance. The "Royal Letters" (1216-1272)
which have been printed from the Patent Rolls by Professor Shirley (Rolls
Series) throw great light on Henry's politics.

Our municipal history during this period is fully represented by that of
London. For the general history of the capital the Rolls series has given
us its "Liber Albus" and "Liber Custumarum," while a vivid account of its
communal revolution is to be found in the "Liber de Antiquis Legibus"
published by the Camden Society. A store of documents will be found in
the Charter Rolls published by the Record Commission, in Brady's work on
"English Boroughs," and in the "Ordinances of English Gilds," published
with a remarkable preface from the pen of Dr. Brentano by the Early
English Text Society. For our religious and intellectual history
materials now become abundant. Grosseteste's Letters throw light on the
state of the Church and its relations with Rome; those of Adam Marsh give
us interesting details of Earl Simon's relation to the religious movement
of his day; and Eceleston's tract on the arrival of the Friars is
embodied in the "Monumenta Franciscana." For the Universities we have the
collection of materials edited by Mr. Anstey under the name of "Munimenta
Academica."

With the close of Henry's reign our directly historic materials become
scantier and scantier. The monastic annals we have before mentioned are
supplemented by the jejune