Background
He was born in 1274 or 1275 and studied civil law at the University of Oxford.
He was born in 1274 or 1275 and studied civil law at the University of Oxford.
Between 1312 and 1318 he practised in the papal curia at Avignon. King Edward II of England and Archbishop Robert Winchelsey were among his clients, and his legal services secured for him canonries at Hereford and Street Paul"s, and the precentorship of Exeter Cathedral. In 1331 he retired to country living (in Wraysbury, Buckinghamshire), and devoted himself to writing the history of his own times.
