Le Livere de Reis de Engleterre (LRE), an early fourteenth century Anglo-Norman prose chronicle, has been used by several historians as a valuable source of evidence about England in the three centuries following the Norman Conquest. Yet, aside from those who have examined LRE for its historical facts or for its evidence of Anglo-Norman linguistic change, most historians and literary scholars have ignored it, and even those who have drawn attention to it lament its derivative nature and cursory length. Such neglect is also related to the limited availability of modern editions of LRE. The work has been edited twice: first by John Glover in 1865, a thorough edition but out of date, and by Christian Foltys in 1962, but the latter can be difficult to obtain. The relative lack of interest in LRE is regrettable, because it was composed at a time that saw a flurry of historical writing in Anglo- Norman prose. This makes it a fruitful point of inquiry. Also, the text's influence can be seen in other medieval chronicles. As Heather Pagan suggests, it may have been a source for the Prose Brut, and Ruth Dean finds traces of it in the lesserknown Scottish Chronicle. Moreover, as this essay demonstrates, one of the three manuscripts of LRE – Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R.14.7 (hereafter Trinity) – offers us valuable insights into the interests of the chronicle and its readers, due in part to the unusually vast quantity of information we can gather about the manuscript's provenance. As we shall see, the readers of the Trinity text seem to have been drawn to LRE for its emphasis on events related to the history of the Benedictine order. This community may have used the text to validate its order on historical grounds. The chronicle's broader social function is harder to determine, but the text can be characterized as having particular interests in the Church, since it prioritizes ecclesiastical affairs over national ones.

LRE's emphasis on the religious community is significant, because it enriches our understanding of the use of Anglo-Norman prose for the writing of national history. Until recently, Anglo-Norman prose chronicles have been relatively neglected compared to English-language and Latin historical works, with the notable exception of the Anglo-Norman Prose Brut, which has escaped obscurity owing to its striking medieval popularity.