Description

This history of England in Anglo-Norman verse was extremely popular during the first half of the fourteenth century. Composed by Pierre de Langtoft (died c.1305), an English chronicler and Augustinian Canon, it was intended for the French-reading aristocracy. Part of the Rolls Series of publications of historical documents, the work was edited by Thomas Wright (1810-77), an antiquarian and historian with a special interest in Old English, Middle English and Anglo-Norman. Wright was also a member of many learned societies, including the Society of Antiquaries and the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres of Paris. This work, published in two volumes in 1866-8, begins with the legendary Brutus, covers the reigns of the Saxon and Norman kings, and ends with Edward I and the Scottish Wars of Independence.