He was appointed Royal historian in 1584 and received a prelature at Ribe to support himself, and undertook the task of continuing the Danish chronicle in that year. However, he overreached himself in his attempt to do so. He planned an ambitious work in twenty-two books dealing with both language and topography as well as with history. However other tasks, lack of help from secretaries, his own slowness and carefulness—and perhaps also a general underestimation of the demands of this work—led to very modest results. In 1594, after the death of chancellor Niels Kaas, the task was given to Niels Krag, under Vedel's protestations. He got a one-year reprieve, but could not produce satisfactory results, after which he turned his work over to Niels Krag. Much of what he had written was lost at the fire of Copenhagen in 1728.