Robert De Reading (d. 1325)
Born: circa 1270 presumably at Reading, Berkshire
Historian
Died: 1325 at Westminster, Middlesex

Robert de Reading was a monk of Westminster. His name occurs with that of John of London, who, like Robert, is connected with the 'Flores Historiarum,' in the infirmary accounts of the abbey in 1294 and 1298, and again in the list of monks tried on a charge of having plundered the Royal treasury in 1303. He died in 1325. He was the author of the portion of the 'Flores Historiarum' from 1307 to 1325, which is contained in Chetham MS. 0712, and of which there is a copy in Cotton. MS. Cleopatra, A. 16. Dr. Luard says this history "must rank of equal authority with the other chronicles of the time. It appears to me independent of them all. The feeling, on the whole, is against the King; the writer is strongly opposed to Gaveston, strongly in favour of Thomas of Lancaster." Robert's style is inferior to that of his predecessors, being wordy and bombastic, with occasional insertions of foreign words, Greek, French or English. This history was printed for the first time in Dr. Luard's edition of the 'Flores Historiarum'.

Edited from Leslie Stephens & Sidney Lee's "Dictionary of National Biography" (1891).