Chretien de Troyes begins writing at Champagne

1160

At the court of Marie, Eleanor's daughter, a cleric whose name means Christian of Troyes began composing French verse romances that would invent the love triangle of Lancelot and Guinevere, introduce the Holy Grail, and give European vernacular literature its first sustained fictional arc. Chretien's romances established the conventions of courtly love and chivalric quest that would dominate European storytelling for the next three centuries.