The Metrical Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester

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.