Willem IX van Aquitanië

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Willem IX van Aquitanië · William IX of Aquitaine, in Occitan Guilhèm de Peitieus, was born in 1071 and was Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony and Count of Poitou from 1086 until his death in 1126. He inherited the duchy from his father at the age of fifteen. His life was full of conflict: he was excommunicated twice, the second time because he abducted the viscountess Dangereuse and had her live in his castle in Poitiers. In 1101 he took part in a crusade, which ended badly for him: his army was destroyed and he himself escaped with a handful of men. Between 1120 and 1123 he fought in Spain, together with Castile and León.

Music and breakthrough

His lasting significance lies in poetry. William IX is the earliest troubadour whose work has survived: a poet who wrote in Occitan, the vernacular of southern France. Eleven songs are known. They deal with love, sex, women, his own prowess and feudal politics. A medieval biography calls him one of the most courtly men in the world and a great seducer. The songs have a frank, comic tone and shocked and charmed at the same time.

Influence

The song Pos de chantar m'es pres talenz is a meditation on mortality, possibly written around the time of his first excommunication. The epithet the Troubadour was only given to him in the nineteenth century. His granddaughter Eleanor of Aquitaine inherited his court. As the first love poet in the vernacular, William IX opened a tradition that later led to Dante, Petrarch and Villon, and even reached poets such as Ezra Pound.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 2003Las Cansos del Coms de Peitieus