Fernão Lopes

Fernão Lopes (c. 1385–after 1459) was Portugal's first royal chronicler and a founder of documentary historiography. Probably of humble Alentejo origins and self-educated, he was appointed head of the royal archives by John I in 1418, and in 1434 King Edward named him the realm's first cronista-mor, commissioning histories of the Portuguese kings.

His surviving chronicles cover the reigns of Peter I, Ferdinand I and John I, drawing on official documents rather than rhetoric. He completed the first two parts of John I's reign, leaving the third to his successor, and died sometime after 1459.