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 from Artois, 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 ''Seigneur'' is an originally feudal title in France before the Revolution, in New France and British North America until 1854, and in the Channel Islands to this day. A seigneur refers to the person or collective who owned a ''seigneurie'' (o ...

, to whom some of his songs are addressed, is probably the Châtelain of Bruges 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 The ''grand chant'' (''courtois'') or, in modern French, (''grande'') ''chanson courtoise'' or ''chanson d'amour'', was a genre of Old French lyric poetry devised by the trouvères. It was adopted from the Occitan ''canso'' of the troubadours, bu ...

and five

chansons de toile The ''Chanson de toile'' (also called ''chanson d'histoire'') was a genre of narrative Old French lyric poetry devised by the trouvères which flourished in the late twelfth and early thirteenth century. Some fifteen of them remain; five were writt ...

: "Argentine," "Belle Idoine," "Belle Isabeau," "Belle Emmelos," and "Biatrix." These five follow older chansons 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