THE FLOWEES OF HI STOEY ESPECIALLY SUCH AS BELATE .TO THE AFFAIRS OF BRITAIN. FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD TO THE YEAR 1307. COLLECTED BT MATTHEW OF WESTMINSTER. PREFACE. WE have thought fit to set forth the chief accidents of the times, and the series of events from the beginning of the world to the present hour, and also the successions of certain kingdoms and monarcha, for the instruction of future ages ; in order that an attentive reader may, from our brief notices, be led to gather a fuller knowledge of the facts related. But what are we to say in reply to certain dull auditors, who, in a spirit of detraction, say, " What occasion is there, to commit to writing the lives and deaths of men, and different events which happen to mankind ? Why perpetuate by written records the recollection of prodigies in heaven and earth, or those which affect the other elements ?" Let them know -that the good lives and virtuous manners of men of old time, are recorded to serve as patterns for the imitation of subsequent ages ; and that the examples of the wicked are set forth, not that they may be imitated, but that they may be shunned. ''But prodigies and portents, in past time, threaten the faithful TOL. ι. Β