This two-volume work was published as part of the Rolls Series between 1889 and 1895. A history of England, it deals principally with the period from 1066 until the death of author Henry Knighton around 1396. An introductory section of material largely drawn from Ranulf Higden adds what Knighton describes as necessary context to the recounting of the Norman Conquest. Volume 1 covers the period up to 1336, just before the start of the Hundred Years' War. It begins with the last century of Anglo-Saxon rule - an age of murders, treachery and 'evil times' - and covers the Norman period and the Plantagenets, culminating in the murder of Edward II. As editor, Joseph Rawson Lumby (1831–95) has been criticised for oversights, errors and omissions. Nevertheless, his detailed contents and marginalia make the Latin text more accessible to the modern reader.