SOURCE: Blacker-Knight, Jean. “Wace's Craft and His Audience: Historical Truth, Bias, and Patronage in the Roman de Rou.” Kentucky Romance Quarterly 31, no. 4 (1984): 355-62.

In the following essay, Blacker-Knight argues that Henry II was displeased with the Roman de Rou because in it Wace's loyalty was to recounting history as he understood it rather than to slanting his narrative in the King's favor.

Wace's Roman de Rou, although not written in the Anglo-Norman dialect, was directed to an audience closely connected with the far-reaching Anglo-Norman regnum.¹ Written by a Norman cleric for Henry Plantagenet, king of England, duke of Normandy, and count of Anjou, the Rou was intended to be read at Henry's court, whether the king were in England or Normandy. It was meant to appeal to the Anglo-Norman aristocracy, eager to learn of its Norman ancestors and their dealings with the English, the Bretons, the Angevines, and...