Centuries-long in its composition, the fourteenth-century Middle English crusading poem Richard Coer de Lyon recounts in verse the exploits, both historical and fanciful, of Richard I, king of England. While the poem centers on Richard’s participation in the Third Crusade, presenting these events with historically traceable details and geographic specificity, it also diverges from the accounts of chronicle sources and the conventions of chansons de geste with a number of fabulous interpolations and anachronistic reinterpretations of the past. Despite its immense popularity to medieval audiences, the poem suffered a long period of neglect, even disparagement, in past scholarly assessments of the work; this new edition of Richard Coer de Lyon, accompanied by a substantial introduction and comprehensive explanatory and textual notes, signally contributes to the reappraisal and understanding of this “most medieval” of English popular romances.
