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19-481: The first Flores Historiarum was created by St Albans writer, Roger of Wendover , who carried his chronology from the Creation up to 1235, the year before his death. Roger claims in his preface to have selected "from the books of catholic writers worthy of credit, just as flowers of various colours are gathered from various fields." Hence he also called his work Flores Historiarum . However, like most chronicles, it

38-480: A winter one". Roger of Wendover Roger of Wendover (died 6 May 1236), probably a native of Wendover in Buckinghamshire , was an English chronicler of the 13th century. At an uncertain date he became a monk at St Albans Abbey ; afterwards he was appointed prior of the cell of Belvoir , but he forfeited this dignity in the early years of Henry III , having been found guilty of wasting

57-416: Is also when the first manuscript of Matthew Paris's Chronica Majora concludes, with the end of the reign of Henry II, so an alternative view is that this may have been the chronicle book referred to, which may have been in the possession of a later Abbot John at the turn of the 14th century when the manuscript was written out. Considering the text itself, some of the earlier parts of the work draw heavily on

76-535: Is given by Luard, who in his running text also marks up the apparent source of each section. From 1201 and through the reign of King John it draws on a source common between it and the Annales Sancti Edmundi later also used by John de Taxster , and also some annals added to the St. Albans copy of Diceto. The date of creation of the earliest nucleus of the compilation has been disputed. The manuscript in

95-536: Is now valued not so much for what was culled from previous writers, as for its full and lively narrative of contemporary events from 1215 to 1235, including the signing of Magna Carta by King John at Runnymede . The book has survived in one thirteenth-century manuscript in the Bodleian Library (MS Douce 207), a mutilated 14th-century copy in the British Library ( Cotton MS Otho B V), and in

114-717: Is that of H. O. Coxe (four volumes, London, 1841–44); there is another (covering the material from 1154) in the Rolls Series by H. G. Hewlett (three volumes, 1886–89). Roger wrote on the Order of Assassins claiming they were situated in Tyre "in Phoenicia, around the bishopric of Antardus". It is presumed he got this information from travellers visiting St Albans or people returning from pilgrimage to Jerusalem . Tintern Abbey Too Many Requests If you report this error to

133-572: The Historia scholastica (ca. 1173) of Petrus Comestor , a copy of which was not introduced into the monastery until John of Wallingford's abbacy. (Though Luard elsewhere notes some differences between the treatment of Comestor and that of some other writers). The work of Diceto, which is used throughout the Flores but especially after 1066, was also not copied for the Abbey until 1204. In its final form

152-642: The 14th century to a long compilation by various hands. Begun at St Albans based upon the Chronicle of Matthew Paris , it was finally completed at Westminster continuing to the year 1326. The work was long ascribed to one " Matthew of Westminster ", but it is now known that no actual chronicler of that name ever existed. Roger's work, like that of most chroniclers, is, valued not so much for what he culled from previous writers as for its full and lively narrative of contemporary events, from 1216 to 1235, An example being his description of King John 's troops action in

171-534: The Bodleian Library, written out ca. 1300, contains a marginal note against the annal for 1188 that reads "up to here in Abbot John's chronicle book". Luard took this to mean that there had existed a core of the Flores going up to 1188, the creation of which had been supervised by John of Wallingford at some point during his tenure as abbot of St Albans between 1195 and 1214. On the other hand, 1188

190-544: The annal for 1179 contains a reference to the Lateran Council of 1215, and Vaughan finds that all of the extant manuscripts ultimately descend from a common ancestral exemplar that can be no earlier than 1228. However, Vaughan does not rule out the possibility that there might have been some earlier compilation used by Wendover, and finds some evidence for such a compilation, extending perhaps to 1066. The second and more widely distributed Flores Historiarum runs from

209-507: The compilation of John de Cella (also known as John of Wallingford ), who was abbot of St Albans from 1195 to 1214, although that is inconclusive. John's work started from the year 1188, and was revised and continued by Roger up to 1235, the year before his death. Roger claims in his preface to have selected "from the books of catholic writers worthy of credit, just as flowers of various colours are gathered from various fields." Hence he called his work Flores Historiarum —a title appropriated in

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228-597: The creation to 1326 (although some of the earlier manuscripts end at 1306). It was compiled by various persons and quickly acquired contemporary popularity, for it was continued by many hands in many manuscript traditions. Among twenty surviving manuscripts are those compiled at St Benet Holme , Norfolk, continued at Tintern Abbey (Royal Mss 14.c.6); at Norwich ( Cottonian Claudius E 8); Rochester ( Cottonian Nero D 2); St Paul's, London (Lambeth Mss 1106); St Mary's, Southwark ( Bodleian Library , Rawlinson Mss B 177); and at St Augustine's, Canterbury (Harley MS 641). It

247-490: The endowments. His latter years were passed at St Albans, where he died on 6 May 1236. Roger is the first in the series of important chroniclers who worked at St Albans. His best-known chronicle , called the Flores Historiarum ( Flowers of History ), is based in large part on material which already existed at St Albans. The actual nucleus of the early part of Roger's Flowers of History is supposed to have been

266-399: The gates of heaven; after which he awakes. Roger's work is known to us through one thirteenth-century manuscript in the Bodleian Library ( Douce manuscript 207), a mutilated 14th-century copy in the British Library ( Cotton manuscript Otho B. v.), and the edition prepared by Matthew Paris which forms the first part of that writer's Chronica Majora . The best edition of Roger's works

285-408: The north during the bitter war at the end of his reign: The whole land was covered with these limbs of the devil like locusts, who assembled to blot out every thing from the face of the earth: for, running about with drawn swords and knives, they ransacked towns, houses, cemeteries, and churches, robbing everyone, sparing neither women nor children. The Revelation of St Nicholas to a monk of Evesham

304-506: The version adapted by Matthew Paris which forms the first part of his Chronica Majora (ed. Henry Richards Luard , Rolls Series , seven volumes). The sources brought together in the Flores include Bede , Geoffrey of Monmouth , Sigebert of Gembloux , Florence of Worcester , Simeon of Durham , William of Malmesbury , Henry of Huntingdon , Robert de Monte , William of Tyre , Ralph de Diceto , Benedictus Abbas , Roger of Hoveden and Ralph of Coggeshall (to 1194). A detailed list

323-574: Was composed in 1196 but the author is unknown. In an abridged form, it is found in Roger of Wendover's Flores Historiarum under the year 1196. It is a curious religious allegory, treating the pilgrimage of a soul from death through purgatory and paradise to heaven. The monk, conducted by St Nicholas , is taken from place to place in purgatory, where he meets and converses with persons of various ranks, who relate their stories and their suffering. From purgatory he advances slowly to paradise, and finally reaches

342-455: Was for many years attributed to a " Matthew of Westminster ," who Henry Richards Luard demonstrated was actually Matthew Paris . The Flores Historiarum is markedly opposed to Robert the Bruce . According to the chronicle, after Bruce had had himself crowned king of Scots in the spring of 1306, Lady Elisabeth Bruce tells her husband: "I reckon that you are a summer king; perhaps you won't be

361-569: Was written originally at St Albans Abbey and later at Westminster Abbey . The earliest manuscript, the basis for all the various continuations, is conserved in Chetham's Library , Manchester. This manuscript was carried down to 1265, with brief notes and emendations in the hand of Matthew Paris . A continuation carried the chronicle down to 1306; the continuation from 1306 to 1325/26 was compiled at Westminster by Robert of Reading (d. 1325) and another Westminster monk. The second Flores Historiarum

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