Geoffroi de Villehardouin (1160 - c. 1212) was a knight and historian who chronicled the Fourth Crusade. He was considered to be one of the most important historians of his time. His is the earliest prose writing to have survived in France. Villehardouin was the ambassador to Venice assigned to procuring ships for the voyage to the crusades. In 1207 he began to write his chronicle of the Crusade, On the Conquest of Constantinople. This work was memorable in part because it was written originally in French as opposed to in Latin.

Be it known to you that eleven hundred and ninety-seven years after the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the time of Innocent Pope of Rome, and Philip King of France, and Richard King of England, there was in France a holy man named Fulk of Neuilly - which Neuilly is between Lagni-sur-Marne and Paris - and he was a priest and held the cure of the village. And this said Fulk began to speak of God throughout the Isle-de-France, and the other countries round about; and you must know that by him the Lord wrought many miracles.