It was written by John of Fordun, a priest of the diocese of St. Andrews and chaplain of the church of Aberdeen.
Before his death, he had finished the first five books down to the reign of David I (1124–53) and had arranged his remaining materials, the last of which was dated 1385.
[1] Andrew of Wyntoun, a canon regular of St Andrews and prior to the St Serf's Inch Priory in Loch Leven, wrote a chronicle of Scotland between 1420 and 1424, but his work shows no familiarity with Fordun's.
Though the names of Patrick Russell, a Carthusian monk of the monastery of Charterhouse in Perth, and Magnus MacCulloch, secretary to the archbishop of St Andrews, are attached to some of these copies, they remain in essence Walter Bower's compilations.
[3] According to historian William F. Skene, the key features of Fordun's history of early Scotland include the following:[4]