Marie de France was an influential medieval poet who lived and wrote in England during the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Though likely born in France, she spent much of her literary career associated with an unknown court, and her work was almost certainly known to the royal court of King Henry II. Despite her lasting literary legacy, virtually nothing is known about her personal life; her identity is reconstructed primarily from her surviving manuscripts, which establish her as the first woman known to write verse in a francophone language.
Writing in Old French—specifically the Anglo-Norman dialect—Marie was a highly educated multilingual scholar. She possessed a strong command of Latin, Middle English, and potentially Breton, which allowed her to translate and adapt diverse source materials. Her most celebrated work, the Lais of Marie de France, significantly shaped the development of the romance and heroic literature genres.
In addition to her famous lais, Marie translated Aesop's Fables from Middle English into Anglo-Norman French and authored the Espurgatoire seint Patriz (The Legend of the Purgatory of St. Patrick), based on a Latin text. She has also been tentatively credited with writing a hagiography titled The Life of Saint Audrey. Her innovative narrative poems continue to be studied for their courtly themes and literary artistry.
