Largely based upon, or directly translated from, pre-existing chronicles, the Estoire des Engleis documents English history from the 495 landing of Cerdic of Wessex to the death of King William Rufus in 1100.
The original chronicle opened with England's mythical Trojan beginnings, but all portions which document the period before Cerdic have been lost.
[3] Scholars have varying opinions concerning the date of the chronicle's writing, with commonly accepted ranges including March 1136 – April 1137 and 1135–1140.
[3] Ian Short, an emeritus professor of French at Birkbeck, University of London,[4] stated that the chronicle was written "to provide a vast panorama of the Celto-British, Anglo-Saxon, and Anglo-Norman dynasties in the British Isles from Trojan times until the death of William Rufus.
[3] The present-day copy begins with the 495 landing of Cerdic of Wessex in England, and ends with William II's death in 1100.