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Chrétien de Troyes d.c.1183
French poet and troubadour

Born in Troyes, he was author of the earliest romances dealing with the King Arthur legend. The greatest of the French medieval poets, he was a member of the court of the Countess Marie de Champagne, daughter of Louis VII, to whom he dedicated his metrical romance of courtly love, Yvain et Lancelot. His other romances were Érec et Énide (c.1160), Cligès (c.1164), and the unfinished Perceval, ou le Conte du Graal (c.1180, 'Percival, or the Story of the Holy Grail'). His works were popular throughout medieval Europe.

Bibliography: U T Holmes, Chrétien de Troyes (1970)