Bonifaci VI de Castellana or Castelhana (french: Boniface de Castellane; fl. 1244–1265) was a

Provençal Provençal may refer to: *Of Provence, a region of France * Provençal dialect, a dialect of the Occitan language, spoken in the southeast of France *''Provençal'', meaning the whole Occitan language *Franco-Provençal language, a distinct Roman ...

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

lord Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or ar ...

, one of the last of the great independent seigneurs of the land before the reign of Charles of Anjou (1246). He is first mentioned in 1244 and succeeded his father as lord of Castellana on 13 June 1249. He was a bellicose

Ghibelline The Guelphs and Ghibellines (, , ; it, guelfi e ghibellini ) were factions supporting the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, respectively, in the Italian city-states of Central Italy and Northern Italy. During the 12th and 13th centuries, rival ...

. In 1248, Bonifaci and Barral of Baux led a rebellion against Charles of Anjou, who was gone on the Seventh Crusade. Charles suppressed the uprising after he returned in 1250. Bonifaci's turbulent political career can be traced through his three surviving ''

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 ...

'', lyric poetic works on political themes in the

Occitan language Occitan (; oc, occitan, link=no ), also known as ''lenga d'òc'' (; french: langue d'oc) by its native speakers, and sometimes also referred to as ''Provençal'', is a Romance languages, Romance language spoken in Southern France, Monaco, Ital ...

, each written at different points in his conflict with Charles of Anjou. In the latter half of 1252 he wrote ''Era, pueis yverns es e.l fil'', an attack on clerics (the

Papacy The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

supported Charles),

Henry III of England Henry III (1 October 1207 – 16 November 1272), also known as Henry of Winchester, was King of England, Lord of Ireland, and Duke of Aquitaine from 1216 until his death in 1272. The son of King John and Isabella of Angoulême, Henry a ...

(relative of Charles by marriage), and even James I of Aragon (he did not avenge his father Peter II's murder at

Muret Muret (; in Gascon Occitan ''Murèth'') is a commune in the Haute-Garonne department, of which it is a subprefecture, in the Occitanie region of southwestern France. Its inhabitants are called ''Muretains''. It is an outer suburb of the city o ...

). The pact between Charles and several cities of

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

in 1260 provoked another violent poem in the style of

Bertran de Born Bertran de Born (; 1140s – by 1215) was a baron from the Limousin in France, and one of the major Occitan troubadours of the 12th-13th century. He composed love songs (cansos) but was better known for his political songs (sirventes). He wa ...

, ''Gerra e trebailh e brega.m plaz''. Early in 1262, Bonifaci led another revolt in the city of

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

against Charles' rule. This time Barral of Baux remained loyal to Charles, but his cousin Hugh of Baux joined Bonifaci. In response, Charles destroyed Castellana and forced Bonifaci into exile. He fled to the court of James I at

Montpellier Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of ...

. There he penned ''Sitot no m'es fort gaya la sazos'', identical in metre and rhyme scheme with ''Humils e francs e fis soplei ves vos'' by Pons de Capduelh. From Montpellier he continued into Spain, where he was at Huesca in February 1265, at the court of the '' infante''

Peter the Great Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from t ...

, arranging an alliance against Charles. He was at

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

in July, but after that he disappears from the sources and probably died soon after.

References

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bonifaci 06 De Castellana 13th-century French troubadours People from Alpes-de-Haute-Provence