Note 300 — Book VIII.

This and a similar passage, in the following chapter, afford strong data, from whence to ascertain the year, when the present work was written. Admitted as it is, on all hands, that it was composed in the Reign of Henry the Second, and it being a strong presumption from the passages in question, that it could not have been written antecedent to the 33d year of such Reign, it merely remains for us to chuse between the 33d, 34th, and 35th years; for on the latter year the Reign terminated. If we follow Sir Henry Spelman’s plan, and divide the intermediate period, we should infer that the present work was written in the 34th year of Henry the Second, in other words, in 1187. Dr. Robertson, though without alleging any reason, says, it was composed about the year 1181. (Hist. Charles. V. vol. 1. p. 296.) Blair’s chronology uses precisely the same assertion.