By whom this office was first filled does not appear; but the Chronicle itself seems to have been prepared about the year 1320. Formerly it was attributed to Fernan Sanchez de Tovar; but Fernan Sanchez was a personage of great consideration and power in the state, practised in public affairs, and familiar with their history, so that we can hardly attribute to him the mistakes with which this Chronicle abounds, especially in the part relating to Alfonso the Wise.[258] But, whoever may have been its author, the Chronicle, which, it may be noticed, is so distinctly divided into the three reigns, that it is rather three chronicles than one, has little value as a composition. Its narrative is given with a rude and dry formality, and whatever interest it awakens depends, not upon its style and manner, but upon the character of the events recorded, which sometimes have an air of adventure about them belonging to the elder times, and, like them, are picturesque. [258] All this may be found abundantly discussed in the “Memorias de Alfonso el Sabio,” by the Marques de Mondejar, pp. 569-635. Clemencin, however, still attributes the Chronicle to Fernan Sanchez de Tovar. Mem. de la Acad. de Historia, Tom. VI. p. 451. The example of regular chronicling, having now been fairly set at the court of Castile, was followed by Henry the Second, who commanded his Chancellor and Chief-Justiciary, Juan Nuñez de Villaizan, to prepare, as we are told in the Preface, in imitation of the ancients, an account of his father’s reign. In this way, the series goes on unbroken, and now gives us the “Chronicle of Alfonso the Eleventh,”[259] beginning with his birth and education, of which the notices are slight, but relating amply the events from the time he came to the throne, in 1312, till his death in 1350. How much of it was actually written by the chancellor of the kingdom cannot be ascertained.[260] From different passages, it seems that an older chronicle was used freely in its composition;[261] and the whole should, therefore, probably be regarded as a compilation made under the responsibility of the highest personages of the realm. Its opening will show at once the grave and measured tone it takes, and the accuracy it claims for its dates and statements. [259] There is an edition of this Chronicle (Valladolid, 1551, folio) better than the old editions of such Spanish books commonly are; but the best is that of Madrid, 1787, 4to, edited by Cerdá y Rico, and published under the auspices of the Spanish Academy of History. [260] The phrase is, “Mandó á Juan Nuñez de Villaizan, Alguacil de la su Casa, que la ficiese trasladar en Pergaminos, e fizola trasladar, et escribióla Ruy Martinez de Medina de Rioseco,” etc. See Preface. [261] In Cap. 340 and elsewhere.