Romantic Story of Famous Troubadour

In the late XII century, Arnaut de Mareuil, was less famous troubadour, than his contemporary Arnaut Daniel. Yet, contemporary sources claim that he surpassed Daniel in elegant simplicity of form and delicacy of sentiment. And in terms of his heritage he is definitely luckier, because from twenty-five to twenty-nine of his songs survived and six of them with music!

One of medieval romanticized biographies tells us that he had been a clerk from a poor family, who eventually became a jongleur. He created his talented songs at the courts of Toulouse and then Béziers. He was deeply in love with the countess Azalais of Toulouse and proudly considered himself to be her best friend. His surviving poems contain lyric cycle telling of his love to Azalais. However, king Alfonso II of Aragon, who competed with Arnaut for her love, won in this love triangle. Jealous king persuaded Azalais to break off her friendship with Arnaut. Saving his life, Arnaut fled to Montpelier, where he settled at the court of William VIII, who became his patron and protector.