Paris, Matthew (1200?-1259), was an English monk and historian. He entered the monastery of St. Albans in 1217, and from 1235 until his death continued the Chronica Maiora (Greater Chronicle), which the English monk Roger of Wendover had begun. The Chronica Maiora is an important sourcebook on the early history of England. The information that Paris gives about England in his own time often came from the firsthand accounts of the many nobles and scholars who visited St. Albans. Paris’s acquaintance with King Henry III gives added interest to his record of affairs of state in England during the mid-1200’s.
