Turpines Story is a unique English version of the Pseudo-Turpin Chronicle, a legendary account of Charlemagne's wars in Spain, and one of the most popular texts of the Middle Ages. This recently discovered fifteenth-century translation is one of the earliest prose romances written in English, and it testifies to a distinct and flourishing insular literary tradition concerning Charlemagne. Identification of the original owner of the sole surviving manuscript locates the text both in the national politics of the Wars of the Roses, and in the regional litigation of the 'Great Berkeley Lawsuit'. It has not been published before.

Stephen H. A. Shepherd is Associate Professor in the Department of English, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas.