Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence

Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence, also known as Garnier, was a 12th-century French scribe and one of the ten contemporary biographers Shortly after Thomas Becket's death in 1170 Guernes set out to compose a vernacular-French, biographical poem of Becket's life. He completed his first draft in 1172, working on the continent, but it was stolen before he could correct it. In 1977, Ian Short examined a fragment of the first draft which was assumed lost and noted that the second draft was far less influenced by Grim. It is written in vernacular French, slightly affected by Picard and Anglo-Norman. The Picardism comes from Pont-Sainte-Maxence's close proximity to Picardy, which Guernes downplays by highlighting that Pont-Sainte-Maxence is within France's boundaries, therefore his language is good. The poem is further coloured with hints of Anglo-Norman because it was copied by Anglo-Norman scribes. Modern critics have obscured the hagiographical elements through their general approval of its historicity.