SOURCE: “Humphrey de Bohun and William of Palerne,” Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, Vol. LXXV, No. 2, 1974, pp. 250-52.

In the following essay, Turville-Petre maintains that William of Palerne likely was composed prior to 1361 at the command of Humphrey de Bohun for members of his retinue, who resided at two neighboring manors.

That Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Essex, commissioned the alliterative poem William of Palerne at some date before 1361 is one of the few ascertainable facts about the social background of the poems of the Alliterative Revival.¹ Since, as a result, so much importance is accorded to this one nugget of information, the position is worth investigating a little more closely.

The earl's estates, like those of most great lords of his time, were scattered over a wide area, from the Welsh marches to Essex,² but it is on his estates in the South West Midlands that we should...