François Villon

Born in Paris in 1431, François Villon became one of the most distinctive poets of the late Middle Ages. He studied at the University of Paris and wrote in forms such as ballades and testaments, bringing together learned technique, sharp wit, and a voice that could be playful, bitter, prayerful, or painfully direct.

His life has long been linked with poverty, crime, imprisonment, and exile, and those experiences echo through his poetry. Rather than writing in a distant courtly style, he often sounded startlingly human and immediate, speaking about fear, hunger, regret, love, and the passing of time.

Villon is best known for works including Le Lais and Le Testament. After the 1460s, the record of his life grows uncertain, and even the date of his death is unknown, but his reputation endured: he remains one of the great early poets in the French language, admired for giving medieval poetry a voice that still feels alive.