1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Gautier d'Arras

GAUTIER D’ARRAS, French trouvère, flourished in the second half of the 12th century. Nothing is known of his biography except what may be gleaned from his works. He dedicated his romance of Éracle to Theobald V., count of Blois (d. 1191); among his other patrons were Marie, countess of Champagne, daughter of Louis VII. and Eleanor of Guienne and Baldwin IV., count of Hainaut. Éracle, the hero of which becomes emperor of Constantinople as Heraclius, is purely a roman d’aventures and enjoyed great popularity. His second romance, Ille et Galeron, dedicated to Beatrix, the second wife of Frederick Barbarossa, treats of a similar situation to that outlined in the lay of “Eliduc” by Marie de France.

See the Œuvres de Gautier d’Arras, ed. E. Löseth (2 vols., Paris, 1890); Hist. litt. de la France, vol. xxii. (1852); A. Dinaux, Les Trouvères (1833–1843), vol. iii.