Marie de France (c. 1150–1215)

French poet. She is thought to have been the half-sister of Henry II of England, and abbess of Shaftesbury 1181–1215. Her surviving works, all in octosyllabic verse, are 12 Lais written before 1189 (verse tales that dealt with Celtic and Arthurian themes); Ysopet, a collection of 103 fables translated from English and dedicated to a certain Count William; and the Espurgatoire Saint Patrice/St Patrick's Purgatory written after 1189, faithfully following a Latin account of a knight's visit to St Patrick's Purgatory in Ireland.

Marie claimed that the Lais were based on old Breton lays of Celtic origin; they show particular technical skill and may have influenced those lays sung by the trouvères (poets of northern France).