Writing History for the King is at once a reassessment of the reign of Henry II of England (1133 1189) and an original contribution to our understanding of the rise of vernacular historiography in the high Middle Ages. Charity Urbanski focuses on two dynastic histories commissioned by Henry: Wace's Roman de Rou (c. 1160 1174) and Benoit de Sainte-Maure s Chronique des ducs de Normandie (c. 1174 1189). In both cases, Henry adopted the new genre of vernacular historical writing in Old French verse in an effort to disseminate a royalist version of the past that...