Volume 1

This ballad chronicle, published in two volumes in 1887, is attributed to Robert of Gloucester (fl. c.1260-c.1300), both because it is written in the Gloucestershire dialect, which makes it a valuable source for students of Middle English, and because the writer was probably an eyewitness to the contemporary events he mentions in the text, such as the siege of Gloucester Castle and the Battle of Evesham during the so-called Second Barons' War (1264-7). These are by far the most interesting portions of the poem, since much of the preceding historical narrative is derived second-hand from earlier Latin chroniclers. Volume 1, edited by the scholar William Aldis Wright (1831-1914), contains the first half of the chronicle. The poem is accompanied by exhaustive footnotes of variant readings and is prefaced by a lengthy introduction.

These two Latin chronicles are principally concerned with the events of the mid-fourteenth century, and are particularly interesting for their accounts of the French campaigns of Edward III in the 1340s and 1350s. The chronicle of Adam Murimuth (c.1275-1347), which the writer designed to be a continuation of earlier works, begins in 1303 and extends to 1347. Although it is meagre at first, its latter parts are much fuller as Murimuth was able to draw on contemporary accounts. The chronicle of the deeds of Edward III by Robert of Avesbury (d.1359) is a military history of his reign up to the year 1356. It makes use of important documents that are not reproduced elsewhere. Published in 1889, this edition by Edward Maunde Thompson (1840-1929) includes an introduction providing historical background and relating what little is known of each chronicler. The Latin texts are accompanied by English side-notes.