New Troy: Fantasies of Empire in the Late Middle Ages

Late medieval England was obsessed with the myth and legend of Troy, something which is readily reflected in the poetry and prose of the period. Although kings and emperors had frequently lain claim to be the descendants of Troy, Federico argues that in medieval England Trojanism was `vital to authorial, regnal, and national identity formation'. Here, she examines how and why people fantasised about Troy and to what end, looking in particular at the works of such writers as Chaucer, the Gawain -poet, John Gower and John Lydgate. Her book `affords significant insight into the workings of the medieval historical imagination'.