The idea of Alfonso the Wise, simply and nobly expressed in the opening of his Chronicle, that he was desirous to leave for posterity a record of what Spain had been and had done in all past time,[256] was not without influence upon the nation, even in the state in which it then was, and in which, for above a century afterwards, it continued. But, as in the case of that great king’s project for a uniform administration of justice by a settled code, his example was too much in advance of his age to be immediately followed; though, as in that memorable case, when it was once adopted, its fruits became abundant. The two next kings, Sancho the Brave and Ferdinand the Fourth, took no measures, so far as we know, to keep up and publish the history of their reigns. But Alfonso the Eleventh, the same monarch, it should be remembered, under whom the “Partidas” became the law of the land, recurred to the example of his wise ancestor, and ordered the annals of the kingdom to be continued, from the time when those of the General Chronicle ceased down to his own; embracing, of course, the reigns of Alfonso the Wise, Sancho the Brave, and Ferdinand the Fourth, or the period from 1252 to 1312.[257] This is the first instance of the appointment of a royal chronicler, and may, therefore, be regarded as the creation of an office of consequence in all that regards the history of the country, and which, however much it may have been neglected in later times, furnished important documents down to the reign of Charles the Fifth, and was continued, in form at least, till the establishment of the Academy of History in the beginning of the eighteenth century. [256] It sounds much like the “Partidas,” beginning, “Los sabios antiguos que fueron en los tiempos primeros, y fallaron los saberes y las otras cosas, tovieron que menguarien en sus fechos y en su lealtad, si tambien no lo quisiessen para los otros que avien de venir, como para si mesmos o por los otros que eran en su tiempo,” etc. But such introductions are common in other early chronicles, and in other old Spanish books. [257] “Chrónica del muy Esclarecido Príncipe y Rey D. Alfonso, el que fue par de Emperador, y hizo el Libro de las Siete Partidas, y ansimismo al fin deste Libro va encorporada la Crónica del Rey D. Sancho el Bravo,” etc., Valladolid, 1554, folio; to which should be added “Crónica del muy Valeroso Rey D. Fernando, Visnieto del Santo Rey D. Fernando,” etc., Valladolid, 1554, folio.