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Marie de France

Type Figure Region England Time c. 1160–1215 Also known as Marie of France、Marie de France the poet

Marie de France (c. 1160–1215) was a female poet writing in Old French (Anglo-Norman) in the 12th century, one of the earliest known women to write p…

Timeline

  1. 1181–1189Westminster · Angevin EmpireMarie composed twelve lais drawing on Breton legends, dedicated to a "noble king," whom most scholars identify as Henry II. Around 1180 Denis Piramus, in his Life of King St. Edmund, noted that Marie's lais were widely popular among the nobility, indicating her literary influence between the English and French courts in the 1180s.
  2. 1189–1190England · EnglandAround 1190 Marie translated H. de Saltrey's Latin Tractatus de Purgatorio Sancti Patricii into French as Espurgatoire seint Patriz, presenting the narrative of the knight Owein's descent into purgatory for lay readers, marking a shift in her work from courtly love poetry to religious subject matter.

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