Help for a history essay? Marie de France?

Marie de France was a major poet of the 12th century. her identity remains a mystery, but the consensus among historians today is that she was closely associated with the court of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Speculation as to her possible identity still runs rampant with no conclusive evidence. In any case Marie's own work reveals the excellence of her education and clearly she wrote for sophisticated people in positions of power. Howard Bloch suggests Marie's translation of Saint Patrick's Purgatory served as propoganda for the political aims of Henry II in stopping warfare and uniting England. Bloch also establishes Marie's association with the Cistercians who moved back and forth between France and Britain and established the ecclesiastical reform of Ireland. As for her identity, we know her name because she mentions it in every work. The Lais of Marie de France were translated into nearly every European language in her time - Old Norse, Middle english, Middle High German, Italian and Latin. JHer popularity has continued unabated to the present day. She wrote in Anglo-Norman literary French using the octosyllable couplet as her verse form. Two of her works are translations from older works, but Marie changed and adapted her sources to tell the stories that suited her own message. I think your teacher's question is unsuitable to refer to Marie de France. it is evident that her works were greatly admired in her own day, since they were translated into so many different languages. Remember that in those days books had to be written out by hand, and were extremely expensive, so nobody would have bothered to write them if there had not been a great demand for them. There is no evidence whatsoever that her works were not fully recognised in her own time, and plenty of evidence that they were fully recognised. In my opinion, your teacher has no business asking such a loaded question.