Wace

Wace (wās), c.1100–1174, Norman-French poet of Jersey. King Henry II made him canon of Bayeux. His Roman de Brut (1155) is a long, rhymed chronicle of British history based on the Historia of Geoffrey of Monmouth. Wace's account is much more personal, vigorous, and dramatic than Geoffrey's. The Brut of Layamon is an English adaptation of Wace's chronicle; both were important in the development of the Arthurian legend. Wace's Roman de Rou is a chronicle of the dukes of Normandy and contains a famous description of the battle of Hastings.

---

Wace

(born c. 1100, Jersey, Channel Islands—died after 1174) Anglo-Norman poet. He is known for his two verse chronicles, the Roman de Brut (1155) and the Roman de Rou (1160–74), named respectively after the reputed founders of the Britons and Normans. The Brut is a romanticized account of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regum Britanniae, tracing the history of Britain from its founding by the legendary Brutus the Trojan. Its many fanciful additions (including the story of Arthur's Round Table) were important in the development of the Arthurian legend, and its literary style influenced later verse romances. The Rou, commissioned by Henry II of England, is a history of the Norman dukes (c. 911–1106).

---

Wace

Robert. born ?1100, Anglo-Norman poet; author of the Roman de Brut and Roman de Rou