Guillaume IX

(William IX, duke of Aquitaine, seventh count of Poitiers)

(1071–1127)

   At the age of 15 Guillaume IX ruled an area greater than that of the king of France.He was excommunicated for his promiscuous personal life, and was defeated soundly in his crusading adventures, but he was also the author of the earliest vernacular love poems in the European Middle Ages. This colorful figure is known as the first Provençal TROUBADOUR, and his 11 extant poems contain motifs that became conventional in the COURTLY LOVE tradition that came ultimately to dominate the European literary scene in the later Middle Ages.

   Guillaume succeeded his father as the seventh count of Poitiers and the ninth duke of Aquitaine in 1086. At the age of 15, he ruled a huge realm, mainly through advisers until his twenties. He married Phillipa, niece of Guillaume’s neighbor Raymond, the lord of Toulouse.When Pope Urban II proclaimed the First Crusade in 1095,Guillaume did not respond, but Raymond of Toulouse did, and in 1097, citing his wife’s claims, Guillaume marched into Toulouse and annexed the territory of the absent Raymond.

   After the success of the First Crusade, Guillaume decided to join the Crusade of Stephen of Blois in 1101. He raised a huge army from Aquitaine and Gascony and set off for the Middle East, but was crushed by the Turkish army at Heraclea (in modern-day Turkey). His army was massacred, and he was lucky to escape with his life. But by October of 1102, he was back in his court in Poitiers, entertaining both clergy and courtiers with stories and songs of his exploits.

   In Poitiers Guillaume established a dazzling court and patronized poets and singers, of which he was himself the premier representative. Contemporary accounts attest to his personal charm, his wit, his flouting of ecclesiastical authority, and his licentious behavior, which he celebrates openly and with great delight in his poetry. His bestknown adulterous affair was with the Vicomtesse Aimeric of Châtellerault, with whom he consorted openly after moving his wife Phillipa to a separate castle. The story goes that when a bald papal legate told him he must end this affair, Guillaume responded “the hair on your head will curl before I give up the Vicomtesse.”

   Guillaume was excommunicated in 1114, partly for his earlier annexation of Toulouse but largely, as well, for his profligate lifestyle. The censure does not seem to have had much effect on the duke, though after it was lifted in 1117, Guillaume did take part in another crusade, joining King Alfonso of Aragon (called “the Battler”) in a successful war against the Spanish Moors in 1120.

   In 1121, in one of his more outrageous acts, Guillaume married his son (the future Guillaume X, b. 1099) by his wife, Phillipa, to Anor, the daughter by her previous marriage of his mistress, the Vicomtesse. Out of this unlikely union was born ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE. Guillaume died on February 10, 1126, at the age of 54.

   There is a fascinating variety of tone among Guillaume’s 11 extant songs. Six of them might be called burlesque poems, and they reflect the character of Duke Guillaume, the reprobate. One of these songs, “Farai un vers, pos mi somelh” (“I shall make a vers, since I am sleeping”), recounts a FABLIAU-like encounter with two highly promiscuous noblewomen.Another, “Companho, tant ai agutz d’avols conres” (“My companions, I have had so much miserable fare”), underscores his disdain for the church, as it includes a blasphemous prayer asking God why He did not destroy the first man who guarded his wife’s chastity. In other poems Guillaume creates the persona of the courtly lover who becomes the servant of the lady he desires, though she is difficult to attain. These and other motifs, like the springtime opening or REVERDIE, the extolling of joy and youth, and the inherent nobility of one who truly understands love, all become conventional in the later poetry of courtly love. The metrical forms Guillaume used also influenced the music of the later troubadours; many of these Guillaume seems to have borrowed from the music of the church, and this may have been an aspect of his flaunting of church convention as well. In any case it is impossible to overestimate Guillaume IX’s influence on the later development of secular, vernacular lyric poetry in Europe.

   Bibliography

   ■ Bond, Gerald A., ed. and trans. The Poetry of William VII, Count of Poitiers, IX Duke of Aquitane. New York: Garland, 1982.

   ■ Goldin, Frederick, ed. and trans. Lyrics of the Troubadours and Trouvères: An Anthology and a History. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor, 1973.

   ■ Jensen, Frede. Provençal Philology and the Poetry of Guillaume of Poitiers. Odense, Denmark: Odense University Press, 1983.

   ■ Wilhelm, James J. Seven Troubadours: The Creators of Modern Verse. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1970.