Biographical information on Knighton mainly comes from
his chronicle, in the first three books of which his name is shown as HENRICVS CNITTON. It is thought his name indicates that he came from
Knighton. He was a canon at the "St Mary of the Meadows" abbey before 1363, since he was recorded as being present during a visit from
King Edward III. The Augustinian abbey, where Henry Knighton was made a canon, was one of the wealthiest in England and stood on the northern edge of Leicester, in what is now
Abbey Park. although historian Louisa D. Duls labels Knighton as a member of the "Lancastrian Detractors of Richard" school. Knighton calls five of
King Richard II's trusted advisors –
Robert de Vere,
Alexander Neville (Archbishop of York), Sir
Michael de la Pole, 1st Earl of Suffolk (lord chancellor), Sir
Robert Tresilian (chief justice of the King's Bench), and Sir
Nicholas Brembre – the
five evil seducers of the king ("quinque nephandi seductores regis") . Knighton lived during the same time period as
John Wycliffe and had personal knowledge of him as he went to Oxford when Wycliffe was a master there. However he was neither directly associated with Wycliffe or nor with the
Lollards ("Wycliffites", followers of Wycliffe's philosophies). Knighton has been called the first historian of
Lollardy. He writes that those voicing Church complaints and echoing the principles of Wycliffe in 1382, hence being associated with the principles of the Lollards, were every second man in the
Kingdom of England. Knighton did not care for Wycliffe's church reform doctrines or the Lollards as they threatened his monastic way of life or his personal safety. He respected Wycliffe as an academic scholar, however, writing that he was a famous and important ecclesiastic and philosopher of the time. == See also ==