Bertran d'Alamanon
Encyclopedia
Bertran d'Alamanon, also spelled de Lamanon or d'Alamano (fl.
1229–1266), was a Provençal
knight
and troubadour
, and an official, diplomat, and ambassador of the court of the Count of Provence. Twenty-two of his works survive, mainly provocative tenso
s and sirventes
, many dealing with Crusading themes.
is one of the shortest of the troubadours' at only twenty-seven words in one manuscript:
Among the reliable points in this short biography is that he was from Lamanon
, in modern Eyguières
. He is described as the son of a lord of Brugières, which could refer to localities in Castres
, Uzès
, or Toulouse
.
Bertran appears with some frequency in documents of the period, however, so his scant vida is not a major handicap. He is first attested serving Raymond Berengar IV of Provence in 1235. He continued to serve his successor, Charles I, until at least 1260, when he last appears in documents. He is sometimes assumed to have accompanied Charles in 1265 when the latter conquered the Kingdom of Sicily
.
On 5 June 1241 at Montpellier
he signed the act of divorce of Raymond VII of Toulouse
and Sancha, daughter of Alfonso II of Aragon
. He was also signatory to the peace treaty
of 1262 between Charles I and the city of Marseille
. In the same collection of documents that contains the latter is one which shows Bertran and his brother Pons recognising the right of the Bishop of Avignon to land in Beauvezer
, for which they owed two oboe
s or two partridges annually.
and Khwarezmians instead of dealing with Provence. In an undatable work Bertran expresses frustration with his lady and would rather be imprisoned by the "Masmutz" (Muslims) than by her.
In one sirventes, Bertran complains about life in the Provençal capital of Aix-en-Provence
: "I have to think about lawsuits and lawyers in order to draw up notarial acts; then I look out along the road to see if any courier is coming ... And then they tell me 'Get on your horse, you're required in court; you will be fined and you won't be pardoned if the hearing can't go ahead because of you'." In Pos anc nous valc amors, seigner Bertran, Bertran eagerly awaits the arrival of the Antichrist
, in order that he may possess a lady who is resisting him.
In D'un sirventes mi ven gran voluntate, written after the death of the Emperor Frederick II in 1250 and before 1265, Bertran lambastes the Papacy for intentionally keeping the throne of the Holy Roman Empire
vacant in order to extort money from imperial candidates: as if he owned the Empire. Bertran suggests that the candidates ought to go to battle, for the Church would surely support the stronger—at least until his power began to wan. But all the candidates could do better if they just went on a Crusade to the Holy Land
, then the Pope would grant them indulgences, but certainly none of his cash.
One of Bertran's last works was written between the Seventh
and Eighth Crusade
s (1260–1265) and bewails the decline of Christendom in Outremer
. Bertran's most famous work is probably Us cavaliers si jazia ("Once a gentleman was lying"), which has been translated into English. Among the other troubadours with whom Bertran composed tensos were Guigon de Cabanas (Vist hai, Bertran, pos no-us uiron mei oill and Amicx Guigo, be.m asaut de ton sen) and Sordello
(Bertrans, lo joy de dompnas e d'amia and Mout m'es greu d'En Sordel, car l'es faillitz sos senz). Against Sordello, Bertran believed that the heart should be given only to the noblest ladies and not divided amongst cowards. Nonetheless, he was following Sordello when he composed a hybrid of a sirventes and a planh
.
Floruit
Floruit , abbreviated fl. , is a Latin verb meaning "flourished", denoting the period of time during which something was active...
1229–1266), was a Provençal
Provence
Provence ; Provençal: Provença in classical norm or Prouvènço in Mistralian norm) is a region of south eastern France on the Mediterranean adjacent to Italy. It is part of the administrative région of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur...
knight
Knight
A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....
and troubadour
Troubadour
A troubadour was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages . Since the word "troubadour" is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a trobairitz....
, and an official, diplomat, and ambassador of the court of the Count of Provence. Twenty-two of his works survive, mainly provocative tenso
Tenso
A tenso is a style of Occitan song favoured by the troubadours. It takes the form of a debate in which each voice defends a position on a topic relating to love or ethics. Closely related genres include the partimen and the cobla exchange...
s and sirventes
Sirventes
The sirventes or serventes is a genre of Occitan lyric poetry used by the troubadours. In early Catalan it became a sirventesch and was imported into that language in the fourteenth century, where it developed into a unique didactic/moralistic type...
, many dealing with Crusading themes.
Life
Bertran's vidaVida (Occitan literary form)
Vida is the usual term for a brief prose biography, written in Old Occitan, of a troubadour or trobairitz.The word vida means "life" in Occitan languages. In the chansonniers, the manuscript collections of medieval troubadour poetry, the works of a particular author are often accompanied by a...
is one of the shortest of the troubadours' at only twenty-seven words in one manuscript:
Bertran de Lamanon si fo de Proensa, fill d'en Pons de Brugeiras. Cortes cavalliers fo e gens parlans, e fetz bonas coblas de solatz e sirventes |
Bertran d'Alamanon was from Provence, the son of Lord Pons de Brugières. He was a courtly knight and an eloquent speaker. And he composed good tensos and sirventes. |
Among the reliable points in this short biography is that he was from Lamanon
Lamanon
Lamanon is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in southern France.North of the village the archaeological site of Grottes de Calès represent a cave dwelling from prehistoric to medieval times.-Population:-References:*...
, in modern Eyguières
Eyguières
Eyguières is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in southern France.-Population:-External links:*...
. He is described as the son of a lord of Brugières, which could refer to localities in Castres
Castres
Castres is a commune, and arrondissement capital in the Tarn department and Midi-Pyrénées region in southern France. It lies in the former French province of Languedoc....
, Uzès
Uzès
Uzès is a commune in the Gard department in southern France.It lies about 25 km north-northeast of Nîmes.-History:Originally Ucetia, Uzès was a small Gallo-Roman oppidum, or administrative settlement. The town lies at the source of the Eure, from where a Roman aqueduct was built in the first...
, or Toulouse
Toulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...
.
Bertran appears with some frequency in documents of the period, however, so his scant vida is not a major handicap. He is first attested serving Raymond Berengar IV of Provence in 1235. He continued to serve his successor, Charles I, until at least 1260, when he last appears in documents. He is sometimes assumed to have accompanied Charles in 1265 when the latter conquered the Kingdom of Sicily
Kingdom of Sicily
The Kingdom of Sicily was a state that existed in the south of Italy from its founding by Roger II in 1130 until 1816. It was a successor state of the County of Sicily, which had been founded in 1071 during the Norman conquest of southern Italy...
.
On 5 June 1241 at Montpellier
Montpellier
-Neighbourhoods:Since 2001, Montpellier has been divided into seven official neighbourhoods, themselves divided into sub-neighbourhoods. Each of them possesses a neighbourhood council....
he signed the act of divorce of Raymond VII of Toulouse
Raymond VII of Toulouse
Raymond VII of Saint-Gilles was Count of Toulouse, Duke of Narbonne and Marquis of Provence from 1222 until his death. He was the son of Raymond VI of Toulouse and Joan of England...
and Sancha, daughter of Alfonso II of Aragon
Alfonso II of Aragon
Alfonso II or Alfons I ; Huesca, 1-25 March 1157 – 25 April 1196), called the Chaste or the Troubadour, was the King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona from 1164 until his death. He was the son of Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona and Petronilla of Aragon and the first King of Aragon who was...
. He was also signatory to the peace treaty
Peace treaty
A peace treaty is an agreement between two or more hostile parties, usually countries or governments, that formally ends a state of war between the parties...
of 1262 between Charles I and the city of Marseille
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
. In the same collection of documents that contains the latter is one which shows Bertran and his brother Pons recognising the right of the Bishop of Avignon to land in Beauvezer
Beauvezer
Beauvezer is a commune in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department in southeastern France.-Population:-References:*...
, for which they owed two oboe
Oboe
The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
s or two partridges annually.
Poetry
In an early work of 1233, Bertran criticises the oppressive behaviour of Raymond Berengar towards his Provençal subjects when he has made Crusader vows. In a work of 1247, Charles comes in for criticism for planning to go on Crusade when he ought to be making good his claim on Provence. A similar theme appears in another poem, which criticises Charles for planning to fight TurksTurkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
and Khwarezmians instead of dealing with Provence. In an undatable work Bertran expresses frustration with his lady and would rather be imprisoned by the "Masmutz" (Muslims) than by her.
In one sirventes, Bertran complains about life in the Provençal capital of Aix-en-Provence
Aix-en-Provence
Aix , or Aix-en-Provence to distinguish it from other cities built over hot springs, is a city-commune in southern France, some north of Marseille. It is in the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, in the département of Bouches-du-Rhône, of which it is a subprefecture. The population of Aix is...
: "I have to think about lawsuits and lawyers in order to draw up notarial acts; then I look out along the road to see if any courier is coming ... And then they tell me 'Get on your horse, you're required in court; you will be fined and you won't be pardoned if the hearing can't go ahead because of you'." In Pos anc nous valc amors, seigner Bertran, Bertran eagerly awaits the arrival of the Antichrist
Antichrist
The term or title antichrist, in Christian theology, refers to a leader who fulfills Biblical prophecies concerning an adversary of Christ, while resembling him in a deceptive manner...
, in order that he may possess a lady who is resisting him.
In D'un sirventes mi ven gran voluntate, written after the death of the Emperor Frederick II in 1250 and before 1265, Bertran lambastes the Papacy for intentionally keeping the throne of the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
vacant in order to extort money from imperial candidates: as if he owned the Empire. Bertran suggests that the candidates ought to go to battle, for the Church would surely support the stronger—at least until his power began to wan. But all the candidates could do better if they just went on a Crusade to the Holy Land
Holy Land
The Holy Land is a term which in Judaism refers to the Kingdom of Israel as defined in the Tanakh. For Jews, the Land's identifiction of being Holy is defined in Judaism by its differentiation from other lands by virtue of the practice of Judaism often possible only in the Land of Israel...
, then the Pope would grant them indulgences, but certainly none of his cash.
One of Bertran's last works was written between the Seventh
Seventh Crusade
The Seventh Crusade was a crusade led by Louis IX of France from 1248 to 1254. Approximately 800,000 bezants were paid in ransom for King Louis who, along with thousands of his troops, was captured and defeated by the Egyptian army led by the Ayyubid Sultan Turanshah supported by the Bahariyya...
and Eighth Crusade
Eighth Crusade
The Eighth Crusade was a crusade launched by Louis IX, King of France, in 1270. The Eighth Crusade is sometimes counted as the Seventh, if the Fifth and Sixth Crusades of Frederick II are counted as a single crusade...
s (1260–1265) and bewails the decline of Christendom in Outremer
Outremer
Outremer, French for "overseas", was a general name given to the Crusader states established after the First Crusade: the County of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch, the County of Tripoli and especially the Kingdom of Jerusalem...
. Bertran's most famous work is probably Us cavaliers si jazia ("Once a gentleman was lying"), which has been translated into English. Among the other troubadours with whom Bertran composed tensos were Guigon de Cabanas (Vist hai, Bertran, pos no-us uiron mei oill and Amicx Guigo, be.m asaut de ton sen) and Sordello
Sordello
Sordello da Goito or Sordel de Goit was a 13th-century Lombard troubadour, born in the municipality of Goito in the province of Mantua...
(Bertrans, lo joy de dompnas e d'amia and Mout m'es greu d'En Sordel, car l'es faillitz sos senz). Against Sordello, Bertran believed that the heart should be given only to the noblest ladies and not divided amongst cowards. Nonetheless, he was following Sordello when he composed a hybrid of a sirventes and a planh
Planh
The planh or plaing is a funeral lament used by the troubadours, modeled on the medieval Latin planctus. It differed from the planctus in that it was intended for a secular audience...
.
List of works
- Un sirventes farai ses alegratge
- Qi qe s'esmai ni.s desconort
- De l'arciuesque mi sa bon
- Ja de chantar nulh temps no serai mutz
- Pueis chanson far no m'agensa
- Lo segle m'es camiatz
- De la sal de Proenza.m doill
- D'un sirventes mi ven gran voluntatc
- L'escurgazhar a me fa tan gran feresa
- Tut nos cuzauam ses faillia
- Vist hai, Bertran, pos no-us uiron mei oill
- Amicx Guigo, be.m asaut de ton sen
- Bertrans, lo joy de dompnas e d'amia
- Doas domnas aman dos cavalliers
- Mout m'es greu d'En Sordel, car l'es faillitz sos senz
- Seigner coms, eu.s prec que.m diiatz
- Pos anc no.us ualc amors, senh'en Bertran
- De uos mi rancur, compaire
- Una chanzon dimeia ai talan
- Nuls hom non deu eser meraveilaz
- S'ieu agues uirat l'escut
External links
- Betran d'Alamano: Complete Works. at Trobar.org
- Bertran d'Alamanon (1230–1266).
- Once a gentleman was lying... trans. James H. Donalson
- Lyric allusions to the crusades and the Holy Land.