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 inde