Wace

Related Category: English Literature to 1499: Biographies

(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.