And this battle-song was the bold manifesto of Norman poetry invading England.

It found an echo wherever William triumphed on English soil, and played an important part in the formation of the English language and English literature.

New scenes and new victories created new inspiration in the poets; monarchs like Henry I., called from his scholarship _Beauclerc_, practised and cherished the poetic art, and thus it happened that the Norman poets in England produced works of sweeter minstrelsy and greater historical value than the _fabliaux_, _Romans_, and _Chansons de gestes_ of their brethren on the continent.

The conquest itself became a grand theme for their muse.
RICHARD WACE .-- First among the Anglo-Norman poets stands Richard Wace, called Maistre Wace, reading clerk, (clerc lisant,) born in the island of Jersey, about 1112, died in 1184.

His works are especially to be noted for the direct and indirect history they contain.