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. Bemont. 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
decline