Thibaut de Champagne

(1201–1253)

   One of the most popular and prolific of the TROUVÈRES, Thibaut IV, count of Champagne and Brie, wrote more than 60 poems that are extant—the largest number of any of the trouvères.He was the grandson of MARIE DE CHAMPAGNE and thus the great-grandson of ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE and King Louis VII.

   Thibaut was born in Troyes in 1201. His father, Thibaut III, had died before he was born, and in order to gain the favor of King Philip II Augustus, his mother Blanche of Navarre made the king guardian of the child. Still, because of the circumstances of his birth, Thibaut’s claim to the lordship of Champagne was challenged twice before he secured his position.

   In support of Louis VIII, Thibaut fought the English at La Rochelle in 1224. He also supported the king in the Crusade against the Albigensians, though he abruptly left the king’s service in 1226 and returned to Champagne. Three months later Louis died, and his wife, Blanche of Castile, became regent during the minority of her son.

   Thibaut at first joined a group of powerful nobles opposed to Blanche’s regency, but later switched allegiance and became one of the queen’s chief supporters during her regency of 1228–32. His vacillation, however, angered his former allies, who attacked Champagne and were forced to retreat only when the queen threatened to intervene. Thibaut’s relationship with Queen Blanche has been the subject of a good deal of controversy. He was accused of being the queen’s lover, and even of poisoning Louis VIII to advance his own love. The fact that many of his love poems were dedicated to the queen only served to lend weight to these accusations, but they appear to be pure fabrication. Thibaut became king of Navarre in May of 1234 after the death of his uncle, Sancho VII, called “Sancho the Strong.” Thibaut seems not to have concerned himself much with the administration of Navarre, however, simply letting his deputies run the country. He was unpopular in Navarre, and was criticized by the TROUBADOUR SORDELLO in his lament for Blacatz. In 1239, he was one of the leaders of the crusade organized by Pope Gregory IX. His army was unsuccessful in several battles, and Thibaut returned to Champagne the following year, either because of his lack of success or, according to some sources, his disillusionment with the bickering among the other leaders of the crusade.

   Back in France Thibaut joined the French in renewed battles against the English in 1242 and, in 1244, was defeated in Gascony by the English commander Nicolas de Molis. In 1248, Thibaut made a pilgrimage to Rome to be released from an interdiction he had suffered because of ill relations with the clergy. Beyond that not much is known about Thibaut’s later years.When he died in 1253, he was one of the most admired poets of northern France. Thibaut’s poems are in the COURTLY LOVE vein of the Provençal troubadours, and often depict the paradoxical nature of love as joy and suffering. One of the distinguishing marks of Thibaut’s verse is his use of extended metaphors: the lover as a pelican, for example, or as the prisoner of love. In the following passage from one of his best-known poems, he borrows the figure of the unicorn as a metaphor for the lover:

   I am like the unicorn

   astonished as he gazes,

   beholding the virgin.

   He is so rejoiced by his chagrin,

   he falls in a faint in her lap;

   then they kill him, in treachery.

   Now Love and my lady

   have killed me just that way:

   they have my heart, I cannot get it back.

   (Goldin 1973, 467, ll. 1–9)

   Thibaut is also known for his versatility: His extant lyrics include at least 36 chansons (or CANSOS), some 14 jeux-partis (or debate poems; see TENSO), eight serventois (or SIRVENTES), a few PASTOURELLES, and four crusading songs, written to raise support for the crusade. One begins:

   Lords, be sure of this: whoever does not now depart

   for that land where God died and lived,

   and does not take the cross of the Holy Land,

   will hardly go to Paradise.

   (Goldin 1973, 477–479, ll. 1–4)

   Regarded as one of the most important lyric poets of the 13th century, Thibaut is praised by DANTE in his De VULGARI ELOQUENTIA, where he is ranked with Guido GUINIZELLI and the troubadour GIRAUT DE BORNELH.

   Bibliography

   ■ Brahney, Kathleen J. The Lyrics of Tibet de Champagne. New York: Garland, 1989.

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

   ■ Pensom, Roger. “Thibaut de Champagne and the Art of the Trouvère,”Medium Aevum 57 (1988): 1–26.

   ■ Tischler, Hans, ed. Trouvère Lyrics with Melodies: Complete Comparative Edition. Neuhausen: Hänssler-Verlag, 1997.

   ■ van der Werf, Hendrik. The Chansons of the Troubadours and Trouvères: A Study of the Melodies and Their Relation to the Poems. Utrecht, Netherlands: A. Oosthoek, 1972.