ABSTRACT
The beleaguered position of St Albans abbey had two interrelated results: it made the friendship of influential people necessary; and it increased the abbey’s burden of debt. Abbot Hugh de Eversden’s lack of learning was compensated for, according to Thomas Walsingham, by his sociability which enabled him to make friends in high places. It can, therefore, be seen that at least in certain respects Walsingham revived the historiographical tradition established at St Albans by Matthew Paris. Walsingham’s interests were by no means narrow, and yet they were not as wide as Matthew Paris’. Walsingham was clearly intrigued by his colourful account of foreign lands. A copy of the Travels made some time before 1400 was bound with a copy of one of Walsingham’s chronicles, and it has been suggested that the translation of the work from French into Latin in the late fourteenth century was done in the abbey.
