54 THE ANNALS OF BURTON ABBEY 
The number of years covered by the Annals is 258, and there are 
330 pages in the copy of the Annals in the Rolls series. The first 
155 years from 1004 to 1159 is dismissed in six pages, and the 
reigns of Richard I and Jolin are disposed of by an extract from 
Roger of Hoveden of 21 pages. Then comes the original description 
of the interview between King John and the Papal Legate and this is 
followed by extracts from Roger of Wendover. The reign of Henry 
III oceupies the bulk of the space; no less than 287 pages being 
devoted to it. 
That kings did not always work smoothly inside the Abbey is 
seen by the fact that one Abbot was expelled. The fact is stated 
without comment and other events even the great ones are treated 
with a similar impartiality, for example the whole of the First Crusade 
is dismissed with the item. “‘1097 Jerusalem is captured by the Franks.” 
You are not given the reason for the expulsion of the Abbot, but 
from other sources we find that he had disposed of some of the 
Abbey lands and that he was afterwards re-appointed. You hear 
more of Earl Ferrars of Tutbury from Matthew Paris,a monk of St. 
Albans, than you do from the monk of Burton. From the Burton 
Annals you get such meagre items as that William Ferrars, Earl of 
Derby was at “ the Fair’”’ of Lincoln (when the castle was attacked), 
and at the Coronation of Henry III. His name and that of Robert 
de Gresley appear as witnesses to the confirmation of Magna Charta 
in 1225, full copy of the Charter and the names of the witnesses 
(about 64 in all, 31 being bishops and abbots) being contained in 
the Annals. Later on in the reign of Henry Ili, we are told in one 
of the documents which relate to the Provisions of Oxford and are 
written in Norman French that Sir Thomas de Gresley, justice of the 
forest, is to take Nicholas de Ramsey and three knights from each 
county to inquire into the state of the Forests as to vert and to 
venison and as to bad usages in pleas of the Forest, ete. ‘The 
chronicler is a diarist pure and simple and he reminds me of my one 
and only attempt to write a diary when I was avery small boy. Here 
is our special correspondent’s account of one of the French wars of 
Henry III. 
1230 Coming of King Henry into Brittany. 
1231 Henry returned from Brittany. 
His account of the King’s expedition into Gascony in 1242 is 
described in the very same way. 
