He was sent on a
mission to the Benedictine monastery at Trondhjem in 1248, attended the
royal court at Winchester in 1251, and was present at the marriage of
Henry's daughter to the Scottish King, Alexander II. When Henry III.
spent a week at St. Albans in 1257, he admitted Matthew to his table and
treated him with great confidence, communicating many facts and details
of his life to him. Matthew afterwards exerted his influence with the
King in behalf of the University of Oxford, when its privileges were in
danger from the encroachments of the Bishop of Lincoln. His great work
was the "Historia Major." This professes to give the outlines of human
history from the Creation up to 1259. The work up to 1189 seems to have
been compiled by John de Cella, from 1189 to 1235 by Roger of Wendover.
Matthew of Paris transcribed and edited the work of his two
predecessors, and continued the history from 1235 to 1259. He shows
himself in it a warm advocate of English rights and liberties, and an
opponent of papal and regal tyranny. It is the best early history we
have of our own country up to the beginning of the Barons' War, and is
also an authority on Continental affairs.
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