Bertran de Born (; 1179 – 1233), called lo Filhs (, "the Son"), was a

Limousin Limousin (; oc, Lemosin ) is a former administrative region of southwest-central France. On 1 January 2016, it became part of the new administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. It comprised three departments: Corrèze, Creuse, and Haute-Vienn ...

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

and

troubadour A troubadour (, ; oc, trobador ) was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word ''troubadour'' is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a ''trobairi ...

. He wrote two ''

sirventes The ''sirventes'' or ''serventes'' (), sometimes translated as "service song", was a genre of Old Occitan lyric poetry practiced by the troubadours. The name comes from ''sirvent'' ('serviceman'), from whose perspective the song is allegedly wr ...

'' and has three other works attributed to him. He participated in the wars of

John Lackland John (24 December 1166 – 19 October 1216) was King of England from 1199 until his death in 1216. He lost the Duchy of Normandy and most of his other French lands to King Philip II of France, resulting in the collapse of the Angevin Empi ...

in France. He was a son of the famous troubadour Bertran de Born and his first wife, Raimonda, born shortly after their marriage in 1179. His full brother was Itier and his half brothers were Bertran and Constantin, sons of his father's second marriage, to Felipa, in 1192. Since the younger Bertran would have only been fourteen at the time of the troubadour's activity, the ''filhs'' of the '' chansonniers'' must be the eldest son. Bertran and his brother Itier were dubbed sometime before 1192. The ''sirventes'' "Quan voi lo temps renovelar", written in 1206 in the style of his father, is attributed to "Bertran de Born" in the ''chansonniers,'' but since the elder Bertran had retired to the monastery of Dalon in 1197, this reference must be to his son. The ''sirventes'' is preceded by a long ''

razo A ''razo'' (, literally "cause", "reason") was a short piece of Occitan prose detailing the circumstances of a troubadour composition. A ''razo'' normally introduced an individual poem, acting as a prose preface and explanation; it might, however ...

'' explaining the misfortunes of John Lackland and his evil, which is the subject of the poet's vitriol. An interesting cultural cross-reference occurs in the work when Bertran mentions the ''

chanson de geste The ''chanson de geste'' (, from Latin 'deeds, actions accomplished') is a medieval narrative, a type of epic poem that appears at the dawn of French literature. The earliest known poems of this genre date from the late 11th and early 12th c ...

'' called the '' Siège d'Orange''. Bertran's second ''sirventes'', "Un sirventes voil obrar d'alegratge", was a personal love poem to his lady, ''Flor de Lis'' (unknown by name). The other three works sometimes attributed to Bertran, but not definitively, are: *"Gen part nostre reis liuranda" *"Guerr'e pantais vei et afan" *"Un sirventes farai novel plazen" There is also a medieval attribution that is certainly in error: *"A tornar m'er enquer al primer us" (actually by

Guilhem Rainol d'At Guilhem Rainol d'At (also ''Guillem''; fl. 1209) was a minor Provençal troubadour from Apt in the Vaucluse. Guilhem Rainol was probably the ''Guilelmus Ranoli'' who witnessed a document of Alfonso II of Provence in 1209. In the north Italian tr ...

)

References

*''The Vidas of the Troubadours''. Margarita Egan, trans. New York: Garland, 1984. . *

Martín de Riquer Martin may refer to: Places * Martin City (disambiguation) * Martin County (disambiguation) * Martin Township (disambiguation) Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Austr ...

. ''Los trovadores: historia literaria y textos''. 3 vol. Barcelona: Planeta, 1975. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bertran De Born Lo Filhs 1170s births 1233 deaths 13th-century French troubadours Year of birth uncertain 12th-century French troubadours People from Dordogne