Ponç de la Guàrdia (or Pons de la Guardia; fl. 1154–1188) was a Catalan

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 ...

of the family of Saguàrdia, lords of the

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

Ripoll Ripoll () is the capital of the ''comarca'' of Ripollès, in the province of Girona, Catalonia, Spain. It is located on confluence of the Ter River and its tributary Freser, next to the Pyrenees near the French border. The population was 11,05 ...

. He was not a professional

jongleur A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. It originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist entertainer who ...

, but a

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 ''trobairit ...

who wrote songs for amusement which were much celebrated, so we are told, by

Occitan Occitan may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania territory in parts of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain. * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania administrative region of France. * Occitan language Occitan (; o ...

women. Ponç participated in the Siege of Conca (1177) on the side of

Alfonso II of Aragon Alfonso II (1–25 March 1157Benito Vicente de Cuéllar (1995)«Los "condes-reyes" de Barcelona y la "adquisición" del reino de Aragón por la dinastía bellónida» p. 630-631; in ''Hidalguía''. XLIII (252) pp. 619–632."Alfonso II el Casto, hi ...

and a little later in the campaign to bring

Raymond V of Toulouse Raymond V ( oc, Ramon; c. 1134 – c. 1194) was Count of Toulouse from 1148 until his death in 1194. He was the son of Alphonse I of Toulouse and Faydida of Provence. Alphonse took his son with him on the Second Crusade in 1147. When Alpho ...

to heel. He wrote four amorous compositions which form a small cycle dedicated to an anonymous lady called "On-tot-mi-platz". It has been suggested by one editor of his works, that nine of his songs form a cycle with the plot of a ''roman d'amour'', but the ordering of these cycles is not the same in the different manuscripts, one of which considers them anonymous.Bossy, 277. Ponç is one of the few troubadours suspected of anthologising his own works. Though his work is all in Occitan, some

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

words make appearances.

Sources

*Bossy, Michel-André
"Cyclical Composition in Guiraut Riquier's Book of Poems."
'' Speculum'', Vol. 66, No. 2. (Apr., 1991), pp 277–293.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Guardia, Ponc De La People from Catalonia 12th-century Spanish troubadours