Christopher Marlowe began the tradition of the chronicle play. What were the concerns of the chronicle plays?

Chronicle plays, or history plays as they're sometimes called, are a kind of drama based on themes taken from history. The chief purpose of such plays is didactic; that is to say, they're intended to teach a moral lesson.
In the days of Marlowe and Shakespeare, history was seen in just such terms, as a lengthy chronicle of events from which one derived an understanding of right and wrong. History at this time was not just a collection of facts or events or something to be studied in its own right; it was, rather, a huge cosmic drama in which good and evil battled it out for supremacy.
One can see why playwrights such as Marlowe were drawn to historical events as a source for their dramas. Edward II is probably Marlowe's most notable chronicle play, drawing as it does upon real-life historical events to warn us of the dangers of enervating luxury and political corruption.