ABSTRACT
Gui de Warewic, an Anglo-Norman romance composed early in the thirteenth century, is the earliest written account of the legend. Several theories have been advanced about a specific occasion for the writing of Gui de Warewic to flatter the d’Oilly family and foster its Warwick connection. History seems to be imitating legend: Guy of Warwick gained his title through marriage to Felice, only heir to Earl Rohalt; William de Beauchamp IV, having become Earl in 1269 by succeeding his maternal uncle, named his heir Guy in 1298. The opening lines of Gui de Warewic, state that since God created, there have been many “aventures” from which men may take “esperemenz” because the adventures had truth, faith, loyalty. Gui de Warewic was written in a particular circumstance, and the baronial society that was its first audience makes Legge’s term “ancestral romance” a useful way of distinguishing Anglo-Norman narratives that tried to provide a sense of belonging.
