Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Blaneforde, Henry
BLANEFORDE, HENRY (fl. 1330), chronicler, was a monk of St. Albans. A fragment of his chronicle has been preserved. Beginning with the year 1323 he possibly intended to continue the work of Trokelowe, which ends at 1330. What we have of his chronicle, however, ends in 1324, though it contains a reference to an event of 1326. The only manuscript of Blaneforde now known to exist is in the British Museum (Cotton MSS. Claudius, D. vi.) In this Blaneforde's chronicle follows the 'Annals of Trokelowe' without break. From this manuscript Hearne printed the work in his 'Annales Edwardi II,' Oxford, 1729 ; it has been edited by H. T. Riley in the ' Chronica Monasterii S. Albani,' Rolls Ser. From a reference to this writer as Blankforde in Walsingham's 'History,' i. 170, Mr. Riley believes that he took his name from Blanquefort, near Bordeaux, called Blanckeforde in the 'Annals of Waverley,' p. 404. Blaneforde's name is mentioned in a notice of the historians of St. Albans in a fragment printed in the Rolls edition of the 'Annals of John Amundesham.' For a Blaneford, evidently in Somerset, see a charter of Edward II in Dugdale's 'Monasticon,' vi. 415.
[Chron. Monas. S. Albani, Trokelowe, Blaneforde, 131-162 (Rolls Ser.), see Preface; Walsingham's Historia Anglorum, i. 170 (Rolls Ser.); Joh. Amundesham Ann. 303 (Rolls Ser.); Annales Monastici, ii. 404 (Rolls Ser.); Descriptive Catalogue of Hist. MSS. iii. 886 (Hardy).]