Robert Wace (~1115-~1183) was a poet, whose Roman de Brut (c. 1155) was based on the work of Geoffrey of Monmouth. It cannot be regarded as a history in any modern sense; Wace was the first to mention the legend of King Arthur's Round Table. The Roman de Brut became the basis, in turn, for Layamon's Brut, an alliterative Middle English poem.
Wace was born in Jersey and brought up in France, ending his career as Canon of Bayeux; he wrote in Anglo-Norman, a dialect of Old French. His later work, the Roman de Rou, a verse history of the Dukes of Normandy, was commissioned by King Henry II of England. Other works, also in verse, include lives of St. Margaret and St. Nicholas.
