Aelred explores the past as a guide for the present and assurance of the future. Drawing on the Bible, the Fathers of the Church, classical writers like Cicero, and medieval historians such as the Venerable Bede and Symeon of Durham, he insists on the importance of history for guiding human action. Aelred's four works included here are - the Lament for David, King of the Scots, The Genealogy of the Kings of the English, The Life of Saint Edward King and Confessor, and the Battle of the Standard