RALPH OF COGGESHALL (d. after 1227)  , English chronicler, was at first a monk and afterwards sixth abbot (1207—1218) of Coggeshall, an Essex foundation of the Cistercian order . Ralph himself tells us these facts; and that his resignation of the abbacy was made against the wishes of the brethren, in consequence of his bad health . He took up and continued a Chronicon Anglicanum belonging to his house; the original work begins at 1066, his own share at 1187 . He hoped to reach the year 1227, but his autograph copy breaks off three years earlier . Ralph makes no pretensions to be a literary artist . Where he had' a written authority before him he was content to reproduce even the phraseology of his original . At other times he strings together in chronological order, without any links of connexion, the anecdotes which he gathered from chance visitors . Unlike " Benedictus " and Roger of Hoveden, he makes little use of documents; only three letters are quoted in his work . On the other hand, the corrections and erasures of the autograph show that he took pains to verify his details; and his inform-ants are sometimes worthy of exceptional confidence . Thus he vouches Richard's chaplain Anselm for the story of the king's capture by Leopold of Austria . The tone of the chronicle is usually dispassionate; but the original text contained some personal strictures upon Prince John, which are reproduced in Roger of Wendover . The admiration with which Ralph regarded Henry II. is attested by his edition of Ralph Niger's chronicle; here, under the year 1161, he replies to the in-temperate criticisms of the original author .

On Richard I. the abbot passes a judicious

verdict, admitting the great qualities of that king, but arguing that his character degenerated . Towards John alone Ralph is uniformly hostile; as a Cistercian and an adherent of the Mandeville family he could hardly be otherwise . Ralph refers in the Chronicon (s.a . 1091) to a book of visions and miracles which he had compiled, but this is no longer extant . He also wrote a continuation of Niger's chronicle, extending from 1162 to 1178 (printed in R . Anstruther's edition of Niger, London, 1851), and short annals from Io66 to 1223 . The autograph manuscript of the Chronicon Anglicanum is to be found in the British Museum (Cotton, Vespasian D . X ) . The same volume contains the continuation of Ralph Niger . The Chronicon Terrae Sanctae, formerly attributed to Ralph, Is by another hand; it was among the sources on which he drew for the Chronicon Anglicanum . The so-called Libellus de motibus anglicanis sub rege Johanne (printed by Martene and Durand, Ampl . Collectio, v. pp .

871–882) is merely an excerpt from the Chronicon Anglicanum . This latter work was edited for the Rolls

series in 1875 by J . Stevenson . (H . W . C .