Short answers, pulled from the story.
Benoît de Sainte-Maure was a twelfth-century French poet who died in 1173. He most probably came from Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine, near Tours in France, and worked during the period of Plantagenet rule in that region.
Le Roman de Troie is a 40,000-line Old French poem written by Benoît de Sainte-Maure between 1155 and 1160. It is a medieval verse retelling of the Trojan War and is credited with inspiring a body of literature in the genre known as the roman antique, under the broader category the poet Jean Bodel called the Matter of Rome.
The Matter of Troy is the name given to the tradition of medieval literature centered on the Trojan War subject. Benoît de Sainte-Maure provided the impetus for this tradition through Le Roman de Troie, his 40,000-line poem completed between 1155 and 1160.
The Chronique des ducs de Normandie is a lengthy verse chronicle covering the Dukes of Normandy, attributed to a Benoît who is probably Benoît de Sainte-Maure. Its Tours manuscript, dating to 1180-1200, is likely the oldest surviving text in Old French transcribed on the Continent.
The standard edition was prepared by Carin Fahlin of Uppsala University and published in three volumes between 1951 and 1967. It is based on the Tours manuscript, with variant readings drawn from the British Library manuscript.
At the end of Wace's Roman de Rou, a poem on the subject of the Dukes of Normandy, Wace mentions Master Beneeit, stating that he spoke out because Beneeit had taken on the task at the king's direction. This passage suggests Benoît received a royal commission to continue the subject.