John of Trevisa, a Cornishman (1326–1402), was the most assiduous of medieval translators into English. He was a Fellow first of Exeter College, Oxford, and then of Queen's, from which he was expelled in 1379 with the Provost and some others. By 1387, at least, we find him as Vicar of Berkeley and chaplain to Lord de Berkeley, for whom his translations were done. His translation of Higden's Polychronicon was thrice printed before 1527, and his Bartholomew twice; his “Descrypcion of Englonde,” from Higden, went through five separate editions in those early years.

Ralph Higden (1299?–1363?) was a monk of St Werburgh's, Chester. A doubtful story makes him the author of the Chester Miracle Plays. His Polychronicon is a world-history, with a geographical introduction, compiled with great diligence from the standard authors then accessible; it was deservedly popular throughout the rest of the Middle Ages, since it exactly appealed to the average medieval mind. The following extracts are very much abbreviated from Higden, and I have omitted the references to authorities (Bede, Giraldus, Solinus, etc.) from whom he draws.

Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden, vol. II.