Hue de Rotelande was an important Cambro-Norman

Cambro-Norman

Cambro-Norman is a term used for Norman knights who settled in southern Wales after the Norman conquest of England in 1066. Some historians suggest that the term is to be preferred to Anglo-Norman for the Normans who invaded Ireland after 1170 — many of whom originated in Wales. However, the term...

 poet writing in Old French

Old French

Old French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories that span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from the 9th century to the 14th century...

 at the end of the 12th century.

Life

He was a cleric and a native of Rhuddlan

Rhuddlan

Rhuddlan is a town and community in the county of Denbighshire , in north Wales. It is situated to the south of the coastal town of Rhyl and overlooks the River Clwyd. The town gave its name to the Welsh district of Rhuddlan from 1974 to 1996...

. He wrote in Credenhill

Credenhill

Credenhill is a village and civil parish in Herefordshire, England,Near Credenhill is the site of the former Royal Air Force station RAF Hereford, which is now the headquarters of 22 Special Air Service Regiment.-Notable residents:...

, Herefordshire

Herefordshire

Herefordshire is a historic and ceremonial county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire" NUTS 2 region. It also forms a unitary district known as the...

. Gilbert de Monmouth Fitz Baderon, a grandson of Gilbert Fitz Richard

Gilbert Fitz Richard

Gilbert Fitz Richard was son and eventual heir of Richard Fitz Gilbert of Clare and heiress Rohese Giffard. He succeeded to his father's possessions in England in 1091; his brother, Roger Fitz Richard, inherited his father's lands in Normandy. Gilbert's inheritance made him one of the wealthiest...

, was his patron.

Works

His works are Ipomedon and Protheselaus, two long metrical romances from the 1180s of over 10,000 lines, in octosyllable

Octosyllable

The octosyllable or octosyllabic verse is a line of verse with eight syllables. It is equivalent to tetrameter verse in iambs or trochees in languages with a stress accent. It is often used in French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese poetry...

s. The names, at least, were from the mid-century Le Roman de Thèbes; the romances are set in Italy.

Several Middle English

Middle English

Middle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....

 translations (Ipomadon

Ipomadon

A tale of the Old French romance hero Ipomedon in Middle English survives in three separate versions, a long poem Ipomadon composed in tail-rhyme verse, possibly in the last decade of the fourteenth century, a shorter poem The Lyfe of Ipomydon, dating to the fifteenth century and a prose version,...

, cited as Ippomedon in Thomas Warton

Thomas Warton

Thomas Warton was an English literary historian, critic, and poet. From 1785 to 1790 he was the Poet Laureate of England...

, The History of English Poetry) were made

A sixteenth century translation The Life of Ipomydon was made by Robert Copland

Robert Copland

Robert Copland , English printer and author, is said to have been a servant of William Caxton, and certainly worked for Wynkyn de Worde. The first book to which his name is affixed as a printer is The Boke of Justices of Peace , at the sign of the Rose Garland, in Fleet Street, London...

 and printed by Wynkyn de Worde

Wynkyn de Worde

Wynkyn de Worde was a printer and publisher in London known for his work with William Caxton, and is recognized as the first to popularize the products of the printing press in England....

.