ABSTRACT
No other chronicler in the reign of Richard II produced a corpus of works comparable with Thomas Walsingham’s. Nevertheless, more chronicles were written under Richard II than under Edward III. A number of chronicles on Richard II’s reign were by clerks who had connections either with the central government or with a magnate. Preoccupation with the Peasants’ Revolt, Richard’s deposition and Lollardy eclipsed interest in warfare which had dominated the minds of chroniclers in Edward Ill’s reign. The principal reason for the revival of historical writing in England in Richard’s reign was undoubtedly the occurrence of two traumatic events—the Peasants’ Revolt and the deposition of Richard II. The chroniclers, who themselves heard sermons, and no doubt read contemporary poems, shared the same attitudes. The chroniclers all wrote about the Peasants’ Revolt from the point of view of the established order.
