In this paper I shall consider two anonymous twelfth-century Angevin chronicles, the Chronica de gestis consulum Andegauorum and the Gesta Ambaziensium dominorum. My prime concern will be to identify new sources in these texts, through close reading of some relevant passages which will, I hope, shed light on various aspects of both the texts and their sources. One question raised will be the influence exerted by sources in the vernacular – the romance of my title – as well, as we shall see, as that exercised by Latin epic. This latter question will lead in a surprising direction, to an (as far as I am aware) unexpected source. One of my aims is in part to set out for future students, and indeed editors, of the two texts the use made of this source by the Angevin chroniclers. Along the way I shall also consider evidence for the particular manuscript tradition of the source text employed by the chronicles. However, my chief purpose is historiographical: to explore what recognition of embedded borrowings can do for our understanding of the chronicles, of their authors' intentions and, indeed, of audience response. Above all, I hope to share the enjoyment of reading these chronicles as texts.

Chronica

Let us begin, appropriately enough for the papers of the Battle Conference, with a spirited battle passage. At one point in its account of Geoffrey Greymantle, count of Anjou 960–87, the Chronica de gestis consulum Andegauorum (hereafter Chronica) describes a (quite unhistorical) battle which Geoffrey and Hugh Capet supposedly fought near Soissons against a joint force of Northmen (note that the chronicler rather anachronistically calls the Normans Dani) and Flemings.