f Wace. It was composed at the request of Henry II.
about 1170, and takes us as far as the year 1135 (ed. by Francisque
Michel, 1836-1844, _Collection de documents inedits,_ 3 vols.). The
43,000 lines which it contains are of but little interest to the
historian; they are too evidently the work of a _romancier courtois,_
who takes pleasure in recounting love-adventures such as those he has
described in his romance of Troy. Other works, however, give us more
trustworthy information, for example, the anonymous poem on Henry
II.'s _Conquest of Ireland_ in 1172 (ed. Francisque Michel, London,
1837), which, together with the _Expugnatio hibernica_ of Giraud de
Barri, constitutes our chief authority on this subject. The _Conquest
of Ireland_ was republished in 1892 by Goddard Henry Orpen, under the
title of _The Song of Dermot and the Earl_ (Oxford, Clarendon Press).
Similarly, Jourdain Fantosme, who was in the north of England in 1174,
wrote an account of the wars between Henry II., his sons, William the
Lion of Scotland and Louis VII., in 1173 and 1174 (_Chronicle of the
reigns of Stephen_ ... III., ed. by Joseph Stevenson and Fr. Michel,
London, 1886, pp. 202-307). Not one of these histories, however, is to
be compared in value with _The History of William the Marshal, Count
of Striguil and Pembroke,_ regent of England from 1216-1219, which was
found and subsequently edited by Paul Meyer (_Societe de l'histoire de
France,_ 3 vols., 1891-1901). This masterpiece of historiography
was composed in 1225 or 1226 by a professional poet of talent at the
request of William, son of the marshal. It was compiled from the notes
of the marshal's squire, John d'Early ([+] 1230 or 1231), who shared
all the vicissitudes of his master's life and was one of the executors
of his will. This work is of great value for the history of the period
1186-1219, as the information furnished by John d'Early is either
personal or obtained at first hand. In the part which deals with the
period before 1186, it is true, there are various mistakes, due to the
author's ignorance of contemporary history, but these slight blemishes
are amply atoned for by the literary value of the work. The style
is concise, the anecdotes are well told, the descriptions short and
picturesque; the whole constitutes one of the most living pictures
of medieval society. Very pale by the side of this work appear the
_Chronique_ of Peter of Langtoft, written between 1311 and 1320, and