Gace Brulé ( 1160 – after 1213) was a French nobleman and

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 po ...

from

Champagne Champagne (; ) is a sparkling wine originated and produced in the Champagne wine region of France under the rules of the appellation, which demand specific vineyard practices, sourcing of grapes exclusively from designated places within it, spe ...

. His name is simply a description of his

blazon In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct an accurate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The visual d ...

ry. He owned land in Groslière and had dealings with the

Knights Templar The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, mainly known as the Knights Templar, was a Military order (religious society), military order of the Catholic Church, Catholic faith, and one of the most important military ord ...

, and received a gift from the future Louis VIII. These facts are known from documents from the time. The rest of his history has been extracted from his poetry. It has generally been asserted that he taught

Theobald IV of Champagne Theobald I (, ; 30 May 1201 – 8 July 1253), also called the Troubadour and the Posthumous, was Count of Champagne (as Theobald IV) from birth and King of Navarre from 1234. He initiated the Barons' Crusade, was famous as a trouvère, and was ...

the art of verse, an assumption which is based on a statement in the ''Chroniques de Saint-Denis'': "Si l'est entre lui heobaldet Gace Brulé les plus belles chançons et les plus delitables et melodieuses qui onque fussent ales." This has been taken as evidence of collaboration between the two poets. The passage will bear the interpretation that with those of Gace the songs of Thibaut were the best hitherto known. Paulin Paris, in the '' Histoire littéraire de la France'' (vol. xxiii.), quotes a number of facts that fix an earlier date for Gace's songs. Some scholars believe that Gace is the author of the earliest known ''

jeu parti The ''jeu-parti'' (plural ''jeux-partis'', also known as ''parture'') is a genre of French lyric poetry composed between two ''trouvères''. It is a cognate of the Occitan partimen (also known as ''partia'' or ''joc partit''). In the classic typ ...

,'' although the early twentieth-century editor of the ''jeux partis'', Arthur Langfors, considered this to be a misattribution, based on discrepancies between manuscripts.A. Långfors, A. Jeanroy and L. Brandin, eds. Recueil général des jeux-partis français, (Paris: Champion, 1926), vol 1. p.7 The interlocutors are Gace and a count of Brittany who is identified with Geoffrey of Brittany, son of

Henry II of England Henry II () was King of England The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the form of government used by the United Kingdom by which a hereditary monarch reigns as the head of state, with the ...

. Gace appears to have been banished from Champagne and to have found refuge in

Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

. A deed dated 1212 attests a contract between Gatho Bruslé (Gace Ernie) and the Templars for a piece of land in

Dreux Dreux () is a Communes of France, commune in the Eure-et-Loir Departments of France, department in northern France. Geography Dreux lies on the small river Blaise (river), Blaise, a tributary of the Eure (river), Eure, about 35 km north of Cha ...

. It seems most probable that Gace died before 1220, at the latest in 1225. See Gédéon Busken Huet, ''Chansons de Gace Brulé'', edited for the Société des anciens textes français (1902), with an exhaustive introduction.

Dante Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

quotes a song by Gace, ''Ire d'amor qui en mon over repaire'', which he attributes erroneously to Thibaut of Champagne (''

De vulgari eloquentia ''De vulgari eloquentia'' (, ; "On eloquence in the vernacular") is the title of a Latin essay by Dante Alighieri. Although meant to consist of four books, it abruptly terminates in the middle of the second book. It was probably composed shortly ...

'', p. 151, ed. P Rajna, Florence, 1895).

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brule, Gace 1160s births 13th-century deaths French poets Trouvères People from Champagne (province) French male poets French male classical composers