Troubadour (25 page)

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HISTORICAL NOTE

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Troubadours and Cathars

There was a period of a few decades in the thirteenth century in Southern France when noble women were regarded as almost equal to men under the law. They could inherit property from fathers or husbands and received a bride price, rather than having to pay a dowry on marriage.

This coincided with the middle period of the troubadours, aristocratic songwriter-poets, who composed (mainly) platonic love poetry and songs, dedicated to the wives of their liege lords. (They are not to be confused with
joglar
s, or minstrels, usually of a lower social rank, who were performers of songs and other types of entertainment. Their female equivalents were
joglaresa
s.)

And at this time some aristocratic women, highly articulate and educated, wrote their own love songs and debate poems. These women were
trobairitz
, or female troubadours. However, they did not idealise men in the way that the troubadours idealised women and they wrote some pretty straightforward verse about the pains and pleasures of love.

Some of this took place in the south of France, in the area today known as Languedoc, where many of the noble families were Cathars, that is to say they were dualists, who believed in the separation of good and evil forces and did not believe in the Incarnation of God as Jesus Christ. They did not call themselves ‘Cathars’ but Credentes (Believers) or True Christians. The most advanced of them (those who became monks and nuns or preachers) were known as Perfects or
bons hommes
and
bonnes femmes
– ‘good men and women.’ Even ordinary Believers aspired to become Perfects at their deaths.

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The Albigensian Crusade

The inciting incident for the whole Albigensian Crusade, as the war against the Cathars was called, was the murder of the Legate, Pierre of Castelnau, but it is my invention that the crime was witnessed by a troubadour. (And that the same troubadour was witness to many other terrible things recorded in the course of this book.)

From 1209 to 1229 the Cathars were ruthlessly persecuted by the Pope, who promised their lands to any Northern Frenchman who would fight forty days in the crusade against them. This was a lot easier than travelling to the Middle East to gain land and fortune. Many thousands of Cathars and non-Cathars alike were slaughtered in the rush to cash in and take their lands and wealth. They showed little resistance, being pacifists. Later, some were offered the opportunity to renounce their beliefs and become good Catholics but in the beginning there was no mercy.

What happened at Béziers I have recounted truly. The Abbot wrote to the Pope,
‘Today, Your Holiness, twenty thousand citizens were put to the sword, regardless of rank.’
It was a thriving and prosperous fortified city run efficiently by Viscount Trencavel, who lived in the bigger city of Carcassonne to the west.

Raimon-Roger Trencavel was a remarkable young man. He had inherited his title when he was only nine and had managed to hold on to it at a time when it was difficult for minors to grow to manhood, let alone retain their lands. He had been hoping for a peaceful future, with his wife Agnes and their little son. Bertran was bringing news that would lead to the break-up of that dream. Trencavel was only twenty-four when he died in the dungeon at Carcassonne.

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The Count of Toulouse

Raimon VI, Count of Toulouse, was an extraordinary character. He was married six times. His first wife, Ermessinde, died childless after four years of marriage. The second was Beatrice Trencavel, who bore Raimon a daughter but later became a Perfect. It was not difficult to get the Pope to grant him a divorce from her since she was a declared heretic.

Wife number three, Bourgogne of Cyprus, lasted a year before Raimon divorced her. Then there was Joan of England, sister of Richard the Lionheart. She gave the Count his only heir, another Raimon, who would be the seventh count of that name. Joan left the Count and took refuge in a convent, but a respectable one of the Church, at Fontevrault. She had been carrying another child. They both died, from the results of Joan’s having to be sliced open to release the baby.

And once he had his son and heir, who grew and thrived, Raimon had been able to please himself about a fifth wife, another Beatrice, but this marriage also ended in divorce, in 1202. His sixth and last wife was a good dynastic choice. She was Eleanor (Leonora) of Aragon, King Pedro II’s sister.

Raimon VI was therefore uncle to Raimon-Roger Trencavel twice over, being his mother’s brother and the ex-husband of Trencavel’s Beatrice – though that marriage was not referred to during the crusade, because of her being a heretic.

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The Feudal System

It is perfectly possible for a lord to have vassals and yet himself be a vassal to another lord of higher rank or to a king. Hence Bertran is vassal of Lanval, who is vassal of Trencavel, who is vassal of Toulouse, who is vassal of King Pedro! The only figure to whom Aragon is vassal is the Pope.

King Pedro is suzerain (= overlord) to Toulouse and all those below him.

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The Languedoc and the Langue d’Oc.

The region of southern France that we know as the Languedoc got its name from the language spoken there. This was the ‘Langue d’Oc’, the language of Oc where ‘
Oc
’ meant ‘yes’. In northern France they spoke the ‘Langue d’Oïl’ the language of Oïl, where ‘
Oïl
’ meant ‘yes’ (= modern day French ‘
oui
’).

This language has been called Provençal in the past but this is misleading, because it was not limited to Provence; the preferred term used now is ‘Occitan’ and I have provided a glossary of Occitan words used in
Troubadour
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After the Crusade

During the crusade troubadours became distrusted – some were forbidden to compose – and many fled from Occitania into Northern Italy or Spain.

Most of the characters in Troubadour are fictional but I have made even the historical ones do some fictional things. I could find out virtually nothing about the Papal Legate who was Bishop of Couserans, for example, so felt no compunction in having him interrogate Bertran de Miramont. Or in making Simon de Montfort the leader who suggested betraying Raimon-Roger Trencavel. Someone did it and why not Montfort the wolf? It is perfectly in character.

Only Jean-Charles-Léonard Sismondi, in the mid-nineteenth century, has the detail that some citizens of Carcassonne escaped through a series of caverns to Cabardes, but it was suggested first in 1645 and was too good an idea to resist.

There is no historical record of the ‘Nightingale of Carcassonne’ or that a couple of
joglar
s were, for good and ill, at Béziers. I have shamelessly stolen the words of William of Tudela for Huguet’s
planh
at Termes.

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Fate of Historical Characters

Simon de Montfort was made to yield up the child of Maria and King Pedro in 1214 and the proposed marriage with his daughter never took place. The boy was already an orphan because his father had been killed at Muret in 1213 and his mother, Maria, had died some months before. But little Jacques/Jaime was raised by the Templars and eventually became King of Aragon, a strong and well-made man, known as James the Conqueror.

The Abbot of Cîteaux never got his hands on Toulouse. He became Archbishop of Narbonne and was dead before the end of the crusade.

Pope Innocent died in 1216 and was replaced by Honorius III.

Guglielmo, Marchese of Monferrato, died in 1226 when about to set off to defend his father’s conquests in Greece. His Marchesa, Berta, had already died in 1224.

Raimon of Toulouse lived another four years after Simon de Montfort’s death. He was excommunicated at the time of his death and his body was not allowed to be buried in hallowed ground. He and his son, Raimon VII, managed to recapture much of their territories before the crusade ended in 1229. But when Raimon VII died, twenty years later, the County of Toulouse passed to the French King of the time, Louis IX (later Saint Louis). That marked the end of Occitania as a separate entity from France.

Pierre of Castelnau never did become a saint. The man whose murder set off the whole crusade remains merely ‘Blessed Pierre’.

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LIST OF CHARACTERS

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Aimeric de Sévignan,
a knight

Alessandro da Selva

Alys
de
Sévignan

*
Arnaut-Aimery,
Abbot of Cîteaux and Papal Legate

Azalais de Tarascon,
a
trobairitz

Berenger,
Lord of Digne

Bernardina,
a
joglaresa

*
Berta,
Marchesa of Monferrato

Bertran de Miramont,
a troubadour

Blandina le Viguier

Borel,
ferryman between Arles and Saint-Gilles

Clara de Sévignan

Elinor de Sévignan

*
Ermengaud,
Bishop of Béziers 1205–8

*
Folquet de Marseille,
Bishop of Toulouse, formerly a troubadour

Garsenda,
servant of the Lady Iseut

*
Guglielmo VI,
Marchese of Monferrato

Gui le Viguier,
a knight, foster son of Lord Lanval

Hugo,
the cook

Huguet,
a
joglar

Iseut de Saint-Jacques,
widow of Jaufre, a
trobairitz

*
Innocent III,
Pope (1198–1216)

Lanval de Sévignan

Lucatz,
a troubadour

Maria,
a
joglaresa

*
Maria de Montpellier,
the Lady of that city

*
Milo, Papal Legate,
a Cistercian monk

Miqela,
an old servant in Sévignan, formerly a wet nurse

Nahum,
a Jewish spice trader of Béziers

*
Bishop of Couserans,
a Papal legate

*
Otto IV of Brunswick,
Holy Roman Emperor

*
Pedro II,
King of Aragon

Peire,
a child orphaned at Béziers

Pelegrina,
a Catalan
joglaresa

Perrin,
a
joglar

Philippe-Auguste,
King of France 1180–1223

*
Pierre of Castelnau,
Papal Legate, murdered in 1208

*
Peire-Roger,
Lord of Cabaret

*
Raimon VI,
Count of Toulouse

*
Raimon-Roger Trencavel,
Viscount of Béziers, Albi, Rezés

and Carcassonne

*
Raimon,
Lord of Termes

*
Renaut de Montpeyroux,
Bishop of Béziers, 1208–11

*
Simon de Montfort,
one of the most ferocious leaders of the crusade

Thibaut le Viguier,
a nobleman

Victor,
a jailer at Saint-Gilles

* = a historical character

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GLOSSARY OF OCCITAN WORDS

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Amic
Friend

Amistat
Friendship

Canso
Love song

Canso de gesta
Song about heroic deeds

Cortesia
Courtly behaviour

Domna
Lady

Donzela
Young girl

Dolcment
Gently

Dolor
Sadness, grief

Estampida
Vigorous dance

Familha
Family

Fin’amor
Courtly love

Joglar
Minstrel

Joglaresa
Female minstrel

Joi
Joy

Joven
Young boy

Noiretz
Foster-son

Oc
Yes

Planh
Lament

Ribaut
A ruffian (literally ‘ploughman’)

Senescal
Senior male servant in a castle

Senhor
Lord of a bastide, castle or city

Senhoria
The position and authority of a feudal lord

Tenso
Debate poem

Trobairitz
Female troubadour