The History of the Dukes of Normandy by Benoit de Sainte-More is based on the work of 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 mainly of interest for the period 1294-1307 (ed. by T. Wright, London, 1866-1868); the Chronique of Nicholas Trevet (1258?-1328?), dedicated to Princess Mary, daughter of Edward I. (Duffus Hardy, Descr.  Catal. III., 349-350); the Scala Chronica compiled by Thomas Gray of Heaton ([+] c. 1369), which carries us to the year 1362-1363 (ed. by J. Stevenson, Maitland Club, Edinburgh, 1836); the Black