Marie de France is the main character in the novel. She is based on a real person, a late-12th-century poet about whom little is known other than that she used the name Marie. It is believed that she was a noblewoman, was born in Normandy, and belonged to the court of Henry IV (“Marie de France,” Larousse Dictionnaire Mondial des Littératures 2012). The Lais of Marie de France is a series of 12 short narrative poems attributed to her.

In Matrix, Groff elaborates on these uncertain origins by making Marie de France a complicated character with divided loyalties. She is noble but is also an outsider due to the scandal of her parentage: She is the product of rape, and her father is a Plantagenet, which makes her a distant relation to Eleanor of Aquitaine. She takes part in the rituals of her time, such as joining the crusades as a child, and is enamored, like others around her, of Eleanor of Aquitaine and the pageantry of her court. At the same time, her relationship to this pomp and ritual is unconventional, and she does not fit in. Her all-female family is considered overly aggressive and too fond of battle, even if they do fight in the crusades.