Chrétien de Troyes
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"The Court of Champagne was familiar with the love poetry of the troubadours; and among other works well known to Chretien and his circle were certain free adaptations of classical poetry, which in the love passages were already steeped in the sentiment and casuistry of l'amour courtois." --The History of the English Novel (1924 - 1939) by Ernest Albert Baker |
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Chrétien de Troyes was a French poet and trouvère who flourished in the late 12th century.
Little is known of his life, but he seems to have been from Troyes, or at least intimately connected with it, and between 1160 and 1172 he served at the court of his patroness Countess Marie de Champagne, daughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine, perhaps as herald-at-arms (as Gaston Paris speculated).
His work on Arthurian subjects represents some of the best of medieval literature.