The plays categorized by Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo as ‘Crónicas y leyendas dramáticas de España’ [Dramatic Chronicles and Legends of Spain] collocate history and myth, chronicity and tradition, historical narrative and national drama. They are indebted to oral and literary forms which were the creative currency of the Middle Ages: chronicle, epic, and ballad. Spain has a lengthy and colourful ballad tradition which sets it apart from its European neighbours. Spanish ballads, collectively known as the Romancero, are preserved as poetic texts from manuscripts set down in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and later printed texts, but, in essence, they are a traditional oral literary form belonging, in their earliest examples, to the zenith of Spain's Middle Ages. The ballad tradition cannot be discussed in isolation from that of the medieval Spanish epic, which represents a distinct but profoundly influential category of oral literature. Epic is heroic narrative in verse, which might be the product of oral or written composition, and destined for popular or learned audiences. Through the recounting of exemplary deeds of heroes, the medieval Iberian epic tradition sought to entertain and inspire, as well as to inform and to unify the people. Spain's chronicle tradition is also interwoven with those of epic and ballad through an intricate history of mutual influence. Spain's chronicles are not, by and large, dry historical artefacts, but literary works which often novelize history or represent it with a particular spin for the edification and unification of the people.

These vibrant forms of medieval literature inspired Early Modern dramatists, who were quick to recognize the theatrical potential of local and national history. In 1575, Jerónimo Bermúdez dramatized the story of Inés de Castro in Nise lastimosa [Nise Piteous] and Nise laureada [Nise Triumphant], whilst in 1579 Juan de la Cueva staged a version of the epic legend of the siege of Zamora entitled Comedia de la muerte del rey don Sancho[‘Comedia’ of the Death of King Sancho] followed, in the same year, by two more plays based on Iberian epic material: Tragedia de los siete infantes de Lara [Tragedy of the Seven Princes of Lara] and Comedia de la libertad de España por Bernardo del Carpio [‘Comedia’of the Liberation of Spain by Bernardo del Carpio].