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'. William Rishanger was a monk at the abbey in the second half of the thirteenth century, but the canon of his writings is still not definitively established as the manuscripts were rebound several times, and much of his output was reworked in later medieval texts. Several items attributed to him in this 1865 publication are preserved, uniquely, in MS. Cotton. Claudius D. vi. The texts record events from Henry III's peace treaty with France in 1259 to the coronation of Robert the Bruce and the English invasion of Scotland in 1306. They include fascinating details about political alliances, ecclesiastical promotions, and the Templars. The Latin texts are accompanied by English side-notes, an introduction, a glossary and an index.
