ry Scottish chronicles of importance deal with the War of
Independence, though fairly full Scottish versions of it exist in later
books. The earliest of these is the _Bruce_ of JOHN BARBOUR, Archdeacon
of Aberdeen. Written in 1375 at the instigation of Robert II.,
Barbour's spirited verses are inspired by patriotic rather than
historic motives. His details are minute, but impossible to control by
other sources, and he is more valuable as the epic poet of Scottish
liberty than as an historical authority. He is edited by Skeat (Early
English Text Soc.), Jamieson, and Innes. The earliest prose Scottish
chronicle, that of JOHN FORDUN, who died about 1384 (ed. Skene, in
_Historians of Scotland_), is of value for the fourteenth century.
ANDREW WYNTONN'S _Originale_, a metrical history written in the
fifteenth century, has next to no authority until the end of this
period (ed. Laing, in _Historians of Scotland_), BLIND HARRY'S
_Wallace_, written in 1488, is romance not history.

Wales is more fortunate than Scotland in preserving contemporary
thirteenth century annals, of which a Latin chronicle, _Annales
Cambriae_, extending to 1288, and a Welsh one, _Brut y Tywysogion_
(i.e., _Chronicle of the Princes_), down to 1278, are edited by J.
Williams in the Rolls Series, the latter with an English translation. A
more critical version of the Welsh text of the _Brut_ is that of J.
RHYS and J.G. EVANS' _Red Book of Hergest_, vol. ii. (1890).

The close relations between England and France for the whole of this
period render the French chronicles by far the most important of
foreign sources for English history. They are enumerated in detail by
Auguste Molinier in vols. iii. (up to 1328) and iv. (after 1328) of the
first part of _Les Sources de l'Histoire de France (Manuels de
Bibliographie historique_). The chief French chronicles of the period
1226-1328 are collected in vols. xx.-xxiv. of the _Recueil des
Historiens de la France_ begun by Dom Bouquet. Some of them are of
special importance for English history. For Anglo-Netherlandish
relations under Edward I. see _Annales Gandenses_ (1296-1310), "la
chronique la plus remarquable de la fin du xiiie siecle," the French
_Chronique Artesienne_ (1295-1304), and the _Chronique Tournaisienne_
(1296-1314), all edited by F. Funck-Brentano in the already mentioned
_Collection de Textes_. For the Hundred Years' War the French
chroniclers are indispensable, especially for military history. The