Audefroi le Bastart (modern French Bâtard) was a

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

trouvère ''Trouvère'' (, ), sometimes spelled ''trouveur'' (, ), is the Northern French (''langue d'oïl'') form of the ''langue d'oc'' (Occitan) word ''trobador'', the precursor of the modern French word ''troubadour''. ''Trouvère'' refers to poet- ...

from

Artois Artois ( ; ; nl, Artesië; English adjective: ''Artesian'') is a region of northern France. Its territory covers an area of about 4,000 km2 and it has a population of about one million. Its principal cities are Arras (Dutch: ''Atrecht'') ...

, who flourished in the early thirteenth century. Of his life nothing is known, though he is certainly the illegitimate child of a noble or upper-class bourgeoisie family, but his family is not to be identified with the noble family Arras or with the bourgeoisie family of Louchart, also from Arras; Audefroi himself is not to be identified with

Gautier d'Arras Gautier d'Arras (died c. 1185, Arras) was a Flemish or French ''trouvère''. He is called ''Galterus attrebatensis'' or ''Walterus de Altrebat'' in many contemporary Latin documents, the first of which dates from 1160, where he is mentioned as a p ...

. The Seigneur de Nesles, to whom some of his songs are addressed, is probably the

Châtelain Châtelain (from la, castellanus, derived from ''castellum''; pertaining to a castle, fortress. Middle English: '' castellan'' from Anglo-Norman: ''castellain'' and Old French: ''castelain'') was originally the French title for the keeper of a c ...

Bruges Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the countr ...

who joined the

Fourth Crusade The Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) was a Latin Christian armed expedition called by Pope Innocent III. The stated intent of the expedition was to recapture the Muslim-controlled city of Jerusalem, by first defeating the powerful Egyptian Ayyubid S ...

. Audefroi was the author of ten chansons d'amour and five chansons de toile: "Argentine," "Belle Idoine," "Belle Isabeau," "Belle Emmelos," and "Biatrix." These five follow older

chanson A (, , french: chanson française, link=no, ; ) is generally any lyric-driven French song, though it most often refers to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval and Renaissance music. The genre had origins in the monophonic s ...

s in subject, but the smoothness of the verse and beauty of detail readily compensate for the spontaneity of the shorter form.

References

12th-century French writers French poets Medieval French literature Trouvères 13th-century French poets French male poets Male classical composers {{France-poet-stub