he acted as one of the clerks* or secretaries of that king ; and, probably in such capacity, was employed in visiting monasteries on the death of the abbats or priors, for the purpose of receiving such portions of the revenues thereof as accrued to the crown. This fact will account for the great number of letters, charters, papal rescripts, bulls, and other matters relative to the Ecclesiastical history of his time, which are to be found in his work ; while his connection, through the place of his birth, with the sees of York and Durham, will explain why the affairs of those sees are so abundantly treated of. Hoveden has been charged byLeland with surreptitiously borro wing from Simeon of Durham, the great Chronicler of North-umbria ; but it is not improbable that he enjoyed opportunities of free access to the materials from which Simeon compiled his Chronicles, and, as Archbishop Nicolson remarks,f if he did copy anything from him, he has greatly improved his narrative by carefully identifying the chronology of many matters confusedly related by that author. That in some instances he has closely followed Simeon of Durham and other preceding Chroniclers, cannot, however, be questioned ; but the evident universality of the practice among the Annalists of his times, 6hews that the censure of Leland is misplaced, and that Hoveden was actuated by no sordid, moti ve, or wish to assume the credit of the labours of his predecessors. The exact periods of his birth and death are unknown ; but , Tanner, following Leland, thinks that he did not commence life, and subsequently entered the Church. He informs us that Walter of Coventry states in his Annals that Hoveden was in the number of the domestics of Henry II. ; that he was sent to Norwich by that king, on a visit to the abbey there, for the purpose of auditing the expenditure of the monks, and of superintending the election of a new abbat ; and that his duties of a similar nature extended to other places. * Benedictus Abbas mentions him as " Unus de clericis regis." t Engl. Hist. Library, pp. 59, 60. PREFACE. V