Maria de Ventadorn was a patron of 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....

 poetry at the end of the 12th century.

Maria was one of las tres de Torena, "the three of Turenne", the three daughters of viscount Raymond II of Turenne and of Elise de Séverac. These three, according to Bertran de Born

Bertran de Born

Bertran de Born was a baron from the Limousin in France, and one of the major Occitan troubadours of the twelfth century.-Life and works:...

, possessed tota beltat terrena, "all earthly beauty". Her date of birth is uncertain; she possibly died in 1222. Her name is variously recorded as Marie de Turenne and Marguerite de Turenne. She married viscount Eble V

Eble V of Ventadorn

Eble V of Ventadorn was viscount of Ventadour . He was the son of Eble IV and of Sybille de la Faye...

 of Ventadour (Corrèze

Corrèze

Corrèze is a department in south central France, named after the Corrèze River.The inhabitants of the department are called Corréziens or Corréziennes according to gender.-History:...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

); they had a son, Eble (VI), who married Dauphine de la Tour d'Auvergne, and a daughter, Alix or Alasia. Alix married Robert d'Auvergne, count of Clermont, a great-grandson of the long-lived Dauphin d'Auvergne.

Maria's husband was the grandson of Eble III

Eble III of Ventadorn

Eble III of Ventadorn was viscount of Ventadour . He was the son of Eble II, known as Eble le chanteur , and of Agnes de Montluçon...

 (patron of the important early troubadour Bernart de Ventadorn

Bernart de Ventadorn

Bernart de Ventadorn , also known as Bernard de Ventadour or Bernat del Ventadorn, was a prominent troubador of the classical age of troubadour poetry. Now thought of as "the Master Singer" he developed the cançons into a more formalized style which allowed for sudden turns...

), and the great-grandson of Eble le chanteur

Eble II of Ventadorn

Eble II of Ventadorn was viscount of Ventadour . He was born at some date after 1086, the son of Eble I and of Almodis de Montberon....

, believed to have been among the creators of the genre. Maria is addressed, or at least mentioned, in the work of several troubadours including Gaucelm Faidit

Gaucelm Faidit

Gaucelm Faidit was a troubadour, born in Uzerche, in the Limousin, from a family of knights in service of the count of Turenne. He travelled widely in France, Spain, and Hungary...

, the Monk of Montaudon, Gausbert de Puicibot, Pons de Capduelh

Pons de Capduelh

Pons de Capduelh, Capduell, Capdveyll, Capdveill, Capduoill, Capdoill, Capdolh, or Chapteuil was a troubadour. His songs were known for their great gaiety...

, Guiraut de Calanso

Guiraut de Calanso

Giraut or Guiraut de Calanso or Calanson was a Gascon troubadour in the Occitan language. Of his lyric works that remain five are cansos, two descorts, a congé, a planh, and a vers . He also wrote a mock ensenhamen entitled Fadet juglar.Guiraut's hometown cannot be located...

, Bertran de Born and Gui d'Ussel

Gui d'Ussel

Gui d'Ussel, d'Ussèl, or d'Uisel was a turn-of-the-thirteenth-century troubadour of the Limousin. Twenty of his poems survive: eight cansos, two pastorelas, two coblas, and eight tensos, several with his relatives and including a partimen with Maria de Ventadorn...

. According to a poetic commentary included in the Biographies des Troubadours, Hugh IX of Lusignan

Hugh IX of Lusignan

Hugh IX the Brown of Lusignan was the grandson of Hugh VIII. His father, also Hugh , was the co-seigneur of Lusignan from 1164, marrying a woman named Orengarde before 1162 or about 1167 and dying in 1169...

 was Maria's "knight" (era sos cavalliers).

Maria de Ventadorn is listed as a trobairitz

Trobairitz

The trobairitz were Occitan female troubadours of the 12th and 13th centuries, active from around 1170 to approximately 1260. The word trobairitz was first used in the 13th-century romance Flamenca. It comes from the Provençal word trobar, the literal meaning of which is "to find", and the...

 in her own right on the strength of a single tensó

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...

or poetic debate (dated c. 1197), of which alternate verses were apparently composed by her and by Gui d'Ussel. The question at issue in the debate was this: once a man has succeeded in his plea to be accepted as a lady's lover, does he thereafter become her equal, or does he remain her servant? Maria takes the latter view.

Sources and bibliography

• Biographies des troubadours ed. J. Boutière, A.-H. Schutz (Paris: Nizet, 1964) pp. 170-179, 208-214, 314-320.
• Pierre Bec, Chants d'amour des femmes-troubadours: trobairitz et chansons de femme (Paris: Stock, 1995) pp. 164-171: Occitan text and French translation of the tensó.
• Jean Mouzat, Les poèmes de Gaucelm Faidit. Paris: Nizet, 1965.