Brut - a legendary descendant of the Aenaes known in medieval British legend as the eponymous founder and first king of Britain. Aenaes - legendary founder of Rome, Brutus - legendary founder of Britain.
Boethius - (480-524 or 525 AD) - a philosopher of the early 6th century. Boethius entered public life at a young age and was already a senator by the age of 25. Boethius suspected of conspiring with the Eastern Roman Empire and killed. While jailed, Boethius composed his Consolation of Philosophy. It became one of the most popular and influential works of the Middle Ages.
Saint Columba - (521 - 597) - was a Gaelic Irish missionary monk who propagated Christianity among the Picts during the Early Medieval Period. He was one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland.
Pope Gregory I - (540 - 604) - well known for his writings, which were more prolific than those of any of his predecessors as pope. Throughout the Middle Ages he was known as `the Father of Christian Worship'. He wrote Dialogues. He was the first of the popes to come from a monastic background. Gregory is a Doctor of the Church and one of the Latin Fathers.
Augustine of Canterbury - a Benedictine monk who became the first Archbishop of Canterbury. He is considered the `Apostle to the English' and a founder of the English Church. Augustine led a mission to Christianize King Ethelbert and his Kingdom of Kent from their native Anglo-Saxon paganism.
Cædmon - is the earliest English poet whose name is known, he later became a zealous monk and an accomplished and inspirational Christian poet. His only known surviving work is Cædmon's Hymn.
Aldhelm - (639 - 709) - Abbot of Malmesbury Abbey, Bishop of Sherborne, Latin poet and scholar of Anglo-Saxon literature. Aldhelm wrote in elaborate and grandiloquent and very difficult Latin His works became standard school texts in monastic schools, until his influence declined around the time of the Conquest.
Bede - (672/673 - 735) - also known as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede, an English monk at. He is well known as an author and scholar, and his most famous work, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum gained him the title The Father of English History. Bede was moreover a skilled linguist and translator.
Alcuin of York - (730s or 740s - 804) - an English scholar, ecclesiastic, poet and. He was a student of Archbishop Egbert at York. At the invitation of Charlemagne, he became a leading scholar and teacher at the Carolingian court. He wrote many theological and dogmatic treatises, as well as a few grammatical works and a number of poems. He is considered among the most important architects of the Carolingian Renaissance.
Alfred the Great - (849 - 899) - was King of Wessex from 871 to 899. Alfred successfully defended his kingdom against the Viking attempt at conquest, and by the time of his death had become the dominant ruler in England. Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to style himself `King of the Anglo-Saxons'. He was a learned and merciful man who encouraged education and improved his kingdom's legal system and military structure.
Geoffrey of Monmouth - (1100 -1155) - was a cleric and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur. He is best known for his chronicle “History of the kings of Britain” -> was basis for Layman`s Brut.
Wace - (1110 - after 1174) - Anglo-Norman poet, works: `Roman de Brut'- based on the “History of the Kings of Britain”, `Roman de Rou'.
Eleanor of Aquitaine - (1122-1204) - one of the wealthiest & most powerful women in Western Europe during the High Middle Ages, She was the patroness of such literary figure as Wace. Wife of Henry II. She was both queen of France and queen of England. (Mother of Richard the Lionhearted). She is called grandmother of Europe.
Andreas Capellanus - 12th century author of a treatise commonly known as `De amore' and often known in English, somewhat misleadingly, as The Art of Courtly Love, though its realistic, somewhat cynical tone suggests that it is in some measure an antidote to courtly love. Little is known of Andreas Capellanus's life, but he is presumed to have been a courtier of Marie of Troyes, and probably of French origin.
Marie de France - was a medieval poet who was probably born in France and lived in England during the late 12th century. She lived and wrote at an undisclosed court, but was almost certainly at least known about at the royal court of King Henry II of England. Virtually nothing is known of her life; both her given name and its geographical specification come from her manuscripts, though one contemporary reference to her work and popularity remains. An unknown poetess, composed lais, narrative poems based on Celtic folklore and legends from Brittany, - Laustic
Layamon - a poet of the early 13th century and author of Brut, a notable English poem of the 12th century that was the first English language work to discuss the legends of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. The first work on Arthur in English and one of the first major works in English after the Norman Conquest.
Giovanni Boccaccio - (1313 - 1375) - an Italian author and poet, a friend, student, an important Renaissance Humanist and the author of a number of notable works including the Decameron and his poetry in the Italian vernacular. Was inspiration for Chaucer.
John Wycliff - (1320 - 1384) - an English scholastic theologian, lay preacher, translator, reformer and university teacher in England, who was known as an early dissident in the Roman Catholic Church during the 14th century. His followers were known as Lollards, a somewhat rebellious movement, which preached anticlerical and biblically-centred reforms. He was one of the earliest opponents of papal authority influencing secular power. Wycliff was also an early advocate for translation of the Bible into the common language, `Wycliff's Bible'.
Geoffrey Chaucer - (1340 - 1400) - cosmopolitan, author, philosopher, alchemist and astronomer and well-off, known as the Father of English Literature, widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet`s Corner of Westminster Abbey. Chaucer also maintained an active career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier and diplomat. Among his many works, which include `The Book of the Duchess', `The House of Fame', `The Legend of Good Women' and `Troilus and Criseyde', he is best known today for `The Canterbury Tales'.
The "Pearl Poet", or the "Gawain Poet" - the name given to the author of `Pearl', an alliterative poem written in 14th-century Middle English. Its author appears also to have written the poems `Sir Gawain and the Green Knight', `Patience', and `Cleanness'. The Pearl Poet remains unidentified.
William Caxton- (1415~1422 - 1492) was an English merchant, diplomat, writer & printer. He is thought to be the first English person to work as a printer and the first to introduce a printing press into England.
Ethelred the Unready - (968 - 1016) - king of England, son of king Edgar & queen Elfthryth. Ethelred ordered a massacre of Danish settlers which led to invasion by Danes.
Canute the Great - (985 - 1035) - king of Denmark, England, Norway and parts of Sweden, he's said to be `the most effective king in Anglo-Saxon history'
Edward the Confessor - (1000 - 1066) - one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England and is usually regarded as the last king of the House of Wessex.
William the Conqueror - (1028 - 1087) - first Norman King of England, descended from Viking raiders, before Duke of Normandy. He was the one to order a compilation of a survey of the English landholdings - Doomsday Book.