In his description of Richard II's royal entry into London in 1392, Richard Maidstone, in his Concordia, lavishes praise upon the youthful king's handsomeness and sex-appeal by likening him to Troilus:

This literary allusion raises the obvious question of what Maidstone implied when comparing the English king with the Trojan prince.

The name Troilus did not enjoy wide currency in England before Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde began circulating among metropolitan readers during the mid-1380s, although the semantic implications of Troilus as the nickname “Little Troy” would have gained resonance amid contemporary discussions celebrating London as the “New Troy.” St. Erkenwald made this comparison explicit – “Now that London is neuenyd hatte the New Troie” – and Maidstone himself reiterated this claim near the beginning of his Concordia: “bona felici sunt, Nova Troia, tibi!” – “blessings are yours, O happy New Troy.” John Gower's Mirour de l'Omme (c. 1377) made one of the earliest references to “the story of Troilus and fair Criseyde,” perhaps as a work-in-progress.