It is astonishing that this is the first English translation of these Chronicles , as they are undoubtably amongst the finest produced in the Middle Ages and treat an important episode in the Hundred Years War. Lopes' mastery of dramatic narrative and picturesque description, so ably captured in this translation, found a fit subject in the foreign interventions and the revolutionary changes that took place in the second half of the 14th century in Portugal. What makes Lopes virtually unique as an historian of that date is his insistence on the use of documentary sources as he explains in his prologue to The Chronicle of Dom Joao , something that he as the keeper of the Royal archives was able to practice so effectively. It seems fitting that Fernao Lopes' great work should appear in a dual language edition as a tribute to the six hundred years alliance, whose beginning he so vividly recalls between the English and Portuguese peoples.