John of Wallingford
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John of Wallingford, also known as John de Cella, was abbot of St Albans Abbey, Hertfordshire, England from 1195 to his death in 1214. He was previously prior of Holy Trinity Priory at Wallingford, a cell of St Albans. He studied in Paris, and was considered a great grammarian, poet and physicist. His document "flod at London brigge" predicted the high water mark of the Thames, and is credited as the first of its type. His 'Chronica Joannis Wallingford' covers events from 449 to 1036, including the St. Brice's Day massacre of the Danes in 1002, during the reign of Ethelred the Unready. He notes that "the Danes, thanks to their habit of combing their hair every day, of bathing every Saturday and regularly changing their clothes, were able to undermine the virtue of married women and even seduce the daughters of nobles to be their mistresses." The chronicles, completed after his death, also include a picture and a description of the elephant presented to the King of England in 1255, the first elephant seen in that country. There is some confusion with John of Wallingford, infirmarius at St Albans, who died in 1258, as his chronicles appear in the same manuscript Cotton MS.Juius D viii, and chronicler Matthew Paris adapted the work of the abbot and was a friend of the infirmarius.
