Editing Matthew Paris (section)

==Paris as a historian==
From 1235, the point at which [[Roger of Wendover|Wendover]] dropped his pen, Paris continued the history on the plan which his predecessors had followed. He derived much of his information from the letters of important people, which he sometimes inserts, but much more from conversations with the eyewitnesses of events. Among his informants were [[Richard, Earl of Cornwall]], and King [[Henry III of England|Henry III]], with whom he appears to have been on intimate terms.

The king knew that Paris was writing a history, and wanted it to be as exact as possible. In 1257, in the course of a week's visit to St Albans, Henry kept the chronicler beside him night and day, "and guided my pen," says Paris, "with much goodwill and diligence." It is curious that the {{Lang|la|Chronica Majora}} gives so unfavourable an account of the king's policy. [[Henry Richards Luard]] supposes that Paris never intended his work to be read in its present form. Many passages of the autograph have written next to them, the ''note offendiculum'', which shows that the writer understood the danger which he ran. On the other hand, unexpurgated copies were made in Paris's lifetime. Although the offending passages are duly omitted or softened in his abridgement of his longer work, the ''Historia Anglorum'' (written about 1253), Paris's real feelings must have been an open secret. There is no ground for the old theory{{Citation needed|date=November 2016}} that he was an official historiographer.

Naturalists have praised his descriptions of the English wildlife of his time, despite their often being brief; in particular his valuable description of the first recorded [[bird migration|irruption]] of [[common crossbill]]s into England in 1254.<ref>Perry, Richard. ''Wildlife in Britain and Ireland''. London: Croom Helm Ltd, 1978, p. 134.</ref>