ABSTRACT
In the first half of Henry II's reign few people wrote history. There were John of Hexham, John of Salisbury, and Wace. Only John of Hexham wrote a national history in chronicle form. As he was a member of a religious order he will be considered in the next chapter. John of Salisbury's Historia Pontificalis (Memoirs of the Papal Court), probably written in about 1164, is a papal history (from 1148 to 1152), only touching on English affairs where relevant.1 Between 1160 and 1170 Wace, a clerk of Caen, wrote a verse romance, the Roman de Rou, at Henry II's command.2 But this is of little value for English history. It gives an account of the Norman dukes and Anglo-Norman kings (derived mainly from Dudo of St Quentin, William of Jumièges and William of Poitiers) until the death of Henry I: its few additions to its sources are not to be relied on.
