Benoit de Sainte-Maure (lived c. 1155–75)

French poet. His Roman de Troie/Romance of Troy, a poem of 30,000 octosyllabic lines, is important both in the history of courtly romance and for its part in popularizing the story of Troy during the Middle Ages.

It begins with the Argonaut expedition and ends with the Greek heroes' return after the sack of Troy. Among its episodes is the story of Troilus and Cressida. Benoit wrote an even longer poem, the Chronique des ducs de Normandie/Chronicle of the Dukes of Normandy, for Henry II of England.