The St Albans Chronicle: The Chronica maiora of Thomas Walsingham: Volume II 1394-1422

Thomas Walsingham, a monk of St Albans, has been described as the last of the great medieval chroniclers. His major work, the Chronica maiora, covers the years 1376-1422, and is arguably the most important account of English history to be written in England at this time. Walsingham’s text has never been published as a continuous whole. It is found in no fewer than three separate publications in the Rolls Series, and was printed from manuscripts whose exact identity was not then clearly understood. The nature of the Rolls Series publications, and the different versions of the chronicle have raised questions concerning the relationship of the various manuscripts of the Chronica maiora, and also of Walsingham’s own involvement with the text. In this new edition these problems are considered and the Chronica maiora is shown to be predominantly the work of one man, Thomas Walsingham.