BOOK II.
ENGLAND UNDER FOREIGN KINGS 1071-1204 AUTHORITIES FOR BOOK II.
1071-1204 Among the Norman chroniclers Orderic becomes from this point particularly valuable and detailed.

The Chronicle and Florence of Worcester remain the primary English authorities, while Simeon of Durham gives much special information on northern matters.

For the reign of William the Red the chief source of information is Eadmer, a monk of Canterbury, in his "Historia Noverum" and "Life of Anselm." William of Malmesbury and Henry of Huntingdon are both contemporary authorities during that of Henry the First; the latter remains a brief but accurate annalist; the former is the leader of a new historic school, who treat English events as part of the history of the world, and emulate classic models by a more philosophical arrangement of their materials.

To these the opening of Stephen's reign adds the "Gesta Stephani," a record in great detail by one of the King's clerks, and the Hexham Chroniclers.
All this wealth of historical material however suddenly leaves us in the chaos of civil war.

Even the Chronicle dies out in the midst of Stephen's reign, and the close at the same time of the works we have noted leaves a blank in our historical literature which extends over the early years of Henry the Second.