An anonymous chronicler whose work is printed in the 22nd volume of the “Archaeologia” has given us the story of the Good Parliament, another account is preserved in the “Chronica Angliae from 1328 to 1388,” published in the Rolls Series, and fresh light has been recently thrown on the time by the publication of a Chronicle by Adam of Usk which extends from 1377 to 1404.  Fortunately the scantiness of historical narrative is compensated by the growing fulness and abundance of our State papers.  Rymer’s Foedera is rich in diplomatic and other documents for this period, and from this time we have a storehouse of political and social information in the Parliamentary Rolls.

For the French war itself our primary authority is the Chronicle of Jehan le Bel, a canon of the church of St. Lambert of Liege, who himself served in Edward’s campaign against the Scots and spent the rest of his life at the court of John of Hainault.  Up to the Treaty of Bretigny, where it closes, Froissart has done little more than copy this work, making however large additions from his own enquiries, especially in the Flemish and Breton campaigns and in the account of Crecy.  Froissart was himself a Hainaulter of Valenciennes; he held a post in Queen Philippa’s household from 1361 to 1369, and under this influence produced in 1373 the first edition of his well-known Chronicle.  A later edition is far less English in tone, and a third version, begun by him in his old age after long absence from England, is distinctly French in its sympathies.  Froissart’s vivacity and picturesqueness blind us to the inaccuracy of his details; as an historical authority he is of little value.  The “Fasciculi Zizaniorum” in the Rolls Series with the documents appended to it is a work of primary authority for the history of Wyclif and his followers:  a selection from his English tracts has been made by Mr. T. Arnold for the University of Oxford, which has also published his “Trias.”  The version of the Bible that bears his name has been edited with a valuable preface by the Rev. J. Forshall and Sir F. Madden.  William Langland’s poem, “The Complaint of Piers the Ploughman” (edited by Mr. Skeat for the Early English Text Society), throws a flood of light on the social state of England after the Treaty of Bretigny.

The “Annals of Richard the Second and Henry the Fourth,” now published by the Master of the Rolls, are our main authority for the period which follows Edward’s death.  They serve as the basis of the St. Albans compilation which bears the name of Walsingham, and from which the “Life of Richard” by a monk of Evesham is for the most part derived.  The same violent Lancastrian sympathy runs through Walsingham and the fifth book of Knyghton’s Chronicle.  The French authorities on the other hand are vehemently on Richard’s side.  Froissart, who ends at this time, is supplemented by the metrical history of Creton ("Archaeologia,” vol. xx.), and by the “Chronique de la Traison