ROBERT OF GLOUCESTER, English chronicler, is known only through his connection with the work which bears his name. This is a vernacular history of England, from the days of the legendary Brut to the year 1270, and is written in rhymed couplets. The lines are of 14 syllables, with a break after the eighth syllable. He probably wrote about the year 1300. The earlier part of his chronicle (up to 1135) may be from another hand, since it occurs in some manuscripts in a shorter form, and with an exceedingly brief continuation by an anonymous versi fier. The authorities employed for the earlier part were Geoffrey of Monmouth, Henry of Huntingdon, William of Malmesbury, the English chronicles, and some minor sources; Robert, in mak ing his recension of it, also used the Brut of Layamon. From 1135 to 1256 Robert is still a compiler, although references to oral tradition become more frequent as he approaches his own time. From 1256 to 1270 he has the value of a contemporary authority.
But he is more important to the philologist than to the historian. His chronicle is one of the last works written in Old English.
Robert's chronicle was first edited by T. Hearne (2 vols., Oxford, 1724) ; but this text is now superseded by that of W. Aldis Wright (2 vols., Rolls Series, 1887). Minor works attributed to the author are: a Life of St. Alban in verse (ms. Ashmole 43) ; a Life of St. Patrick, also in verse (ms. Tanner 17) ; a Life of St. Bridget (ms. C.C.C. Cambridge, 145) ; and a Life of St. Alphege (ms. Cott., Julius D. ix.). A Martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket and a Life of St. Brendan, both attributed to Robert, were printed by the Percy Society in 1845.
See T. D. Hardy's Descriptive Catalogue of mss. i. 25, 68, iii. 181-9, 623; K. Brossman, Ober die Quellen der Chronik des R. von Gloucester (Striegau, 1887) ; W. Ellmer in Anglia (1888), x. 1-37, 291-322 ; H. Strohmeyer, Der Stil der Reimchronik R. von Gloucester (1891).