John of Trokelowe was an English Benedictine

Benedictine

Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...

  of the fourteenth century. He was a monk of St Albans Abbey

St Albans Cathedral

St Albans Cathedral is a Church of England cathedral church at St Albans, England. At , its nave is the longest of any cathedral in England...

, who in 1294 was living in the dependent priory of Tynemouth

Tynemouth

Tynemouth is a town and a historic borough in Tyne and Wear, England, at the mouth of the River Tyne, between North Shields and Cullercoats . It is administered as part of the borough of North Tyneside, but until 1974 was an independent county borough in its own right...

, Northumberland

Northumberland

Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...

. Once he was thought to be a significant chronicler, on the basis of internal evidence, it is now considered very possible that he was merely the scribe for William Rishanger

William Rishanger

William Rishanger , nicknamed "Chronigraphus", was an English annalist and Benedictine monk of St. Albans.-Writings:Rishanger quite likely wrote the Opus Chronicorum, a continuation from 1259 of Matthew Paris's Chronicle. In effect it is a history of his own times from 1259 to 1307, a spirited and...

.

The prior

Prior

Prior is an ecclesiastical title, derived from the Latin adjective for 'earlier, first', with several notable uses.-Monastic superiors:A Prior is a monastic superior, usually lower in rank than an Abbot. In the Rule of St...

 and monks endeavoured to sever connection with St Albans and to obtain independence by presenting the advowson

Advowson

Advowson is the right in English law of a patron to present or appoint a nominee to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice or church living, a process known as presentation. In effect this means the right to nominate a person to hold a church office in a parish...

 to the king; but abbot John of Berkamsted resisted this arrangement, visited Tynemouth, and sent Trokelowe with other monks as prisoners back to St Albans. There Trokelowe wrote his Annales including the period 1259 to 1296 and a useful account of the reign of Edward II of England

Edward II of England

Edward II , called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed by his wife Isabella in January 1327. He was the sixth Plantagenet king, in a line that began with the reign of Henry II...

, from 1307 to 1323, after which date his chronicle was continued by Henry de Blaneford. A reference made by Trokelowe to the execution of Roger Mortimer

Roger Mortimer

Roger Mortimer was the name of several Marcher lords:* Roger Mortimer of Wigmore , married Isabel de Ferriers and became Lord of Maelienydd...

shows that he was writing after 1330.