Description

Between 1863 and 1876, the Rolls Series published several works from or about the abbey of St Albans, edited by Henry Thomas Riley (1816-78) under the rubric 'Chronica Monasterii S. Albani', several of them by Thomas Walsingham (c.1340-c.1422), who supervised the scriptorium at St Albans until 1394 and wrote in Latin on subjects including history, classics and music. This edition of Thomas' last historical work appeared in 1876. A digest of mainly English history from the ninth century to 1419, it contains a dedication to Henry V that emphasises his dynasty's Norman origins and his recent reconquest of Normandy, the 'Neustria' of the title. It contains records of sea and land battles, conspiracies and heresies, weather events and comets, and fascinating details including the appearance of a dolphin in the Thames in 1392 and a state visit to England by the Emperor of Constantinople.