This chapter is concerned with the so-called 'Matter of England’-romances. As opposed to much previous criticism that tended to rate these romances’ literary quality low and focused primarily on political and thematic issues, this contribution seeks also to provide an outline of the specific aesthetic choices that shape the texts. Using Horn, Havelok, and Guy of Warwick as principal examples, the chapter examines the romances’ central structural and rhetorical characteristics, touches briefly on their perspective on history, and highlights aspects such as their feigned orality, their capacity for fabliau-like humour, and their generic flexibility. Among other things, this chapter argues that (some of) these romances cultivate a deliberately anti-courtly stance and exploit their seemingly naïve traditionalism for meta-poetic purposes.