Quick Facts
Biography
Friar Albert of Stade, O.F.M., was a 13th-century chronicler, born before the end of the 12th century, most likely about 1187.
Biography
Albert became the abbot of the Benedictine St. John's Friary in Stade, near Hamburg, in 1232. When in 1236 he failed to change the rule in his abbey from the regular Benedictine observance to that of the Cistercian reform, he determined to leave the monastic life. By 1240 he had joined the community of Franciscan friars in the city.
That same year, he began writing his chronicle, which begins at creation and ends in 1256. He is also possibly the author of the continuations to 1265. The early portions appear to have been based on Bede's Libellus de Sex Aetatibus Mundi and Ekkehard's Chronicle. As he approaches his own time, Albert becomes, like most medieval chroniclers, both fuller and more reliable.
Albert is also credited with the authorship of a work called Troilus, a Latin epic in 5,320 lines about the Trojan War.