Publisher's Synopsis
A former prior of Belvoir, Roger of Wendover (d.1236) established himself as a chronicler at St Albans. This three-volume work, edited by Henry G. Hewlett (1832-97) and published between 1886 and 1889, comprises the latter part of the larger Flores opus and the part of the Latin text for which Wendover can claim direct responsibility. The volumes cover the period from the start of Henry II's reign in 1154 to the year 1235. Hewlett is critical of Wendover's indiscriminate appetite for miracles and readiness to accept rumour as fact, but commends his candour, where it is not clouded by ecclesiastical bias. His true importance, however, is as a key influence on his historiographical successor, Matthew Paris, whose political outlook and interests he helped to shape.
