Muriel of Wilton
Overview
Biography
The available facts about Muriel are few, but we do know that she was an accomplished poet in Latin, admired by three contemporary male poets, Baudri of Bourgeuil (abbot of Bourgeuil and archbishop of Dol), Hildebert of Lavardin (bishop of LeMans and archbishop of Tours), and Serlo, canon of Bayeux, who exchanged poems with her. And we know from the epistolary poems they sent her that she was an aristocrat, that she came to Wilton from abroad, most likely Normandy, where she was perhaps educated in the convent of LeRonceray, like Wilton a renowned center of women’s education and poetry. There were ties between the two houses, social as well as literary; the Eve for whom Goscelin wrote the Liber Confortatorius went from Wilton to a cell attached to Le Ronceray c.1080.1
Serlo called Wilton a city eloquent in poetry, “faecunda versibus urbs” (Tyler, 174). That Muriel was one of its distinguished figures is evident in the story told by Herman of Laon and Tournai (De Miraculis, PL 156, 983) of nine canons of Laon who traveled to southern England to raise money for the repair of their church in 1113. At the convent of Wilton, they were shown what was called a grave of the Venerable Bede (perhaps containing relics), near which “was buried an illustrious poetess, whose name was Muriel,” “prope quem sepulta est inclyta versificatrix, quae proprio nomine vocata est Murier.”2 Cited by JSP Tatlock, “Muriel: The Earliest English Poetess” (PMLA, 1933, v. 48.2, 317-21).]