Guilhem Ademar (; also spelled Guillem, Adamar, or Azemar; fl. 1190/1195–1217) was a

troubadour A troubadour (, ; ) was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word ''troubadour'' is etymologically masculine, a female equivalent is usually called a ''trobairitz''. The tr ...

from the

Gévaudan Gévaudan (; ) is a historical area of France in Lozère ''département''. It took its name from the Gabali, a Gallic tribe. History After the conquest of Gaul, the Romans preserved the capital city of the Gabali, ''Anderitum'', which they ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. He travelled between the courts of

Albi Albi (; ) is a commune in France, commune in southern France. It is the prefecture of the Tarn (department), Tarn Departments of France, department, on the river Tarn (river), Tarn, 85 km northeast of Toulouse. Its inhabitants are called ...

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

Narbonne Narbonne ( , , ; ; ; Late Latin:) is a commune in Southern France in the Occitanie region. It lies from Paris in the Aude department, of which it is a sub-prefecture. It is located about from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and was ...

, and

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. He achieved fame enough during his life to be satirised by the nobleman and monk,

Monge de Montaudon The (Lo) Monge de Montaudon (meaning "monk of Montaudon") (fl. 1193–1210Gaunt and Kay, Appendix I, 287.), born Pèire de Vic, was a nobleman, monk, and troubadour from the Auvergne, born at the castle of Vic-sur-Cère near Aurillac, where he ...

. Guilhem entered

holy orders In certain Christian denominations, holy orders are the ordination, ordained ministries of bishop, priest (presbyter), and deacon, and the sacrament or rite by which candidates are ordained to those orders. Churches recognizing these orders inclu ...

towards the end of his life. Sixteen poems—fourteen ''

cansos The ''canso'' or ''canson'' or ''canzo'' () was a song style used by the troubadours. It was, by far, the most common genre used, especially by early troubadours, and only in the second half of the 13th century was its dominance challenged by a ...

'', a ''

sirventes The ''sirventes'' or ''serventes'' (), sometimes translated as "service song", was a genre of Old Occitan lyric poetry practiced by the troubadours. The name comes from ''sirvent'' ('serviceman'), from whose perspective the song is allegedly wr ...

'', and a ''

partimen The ''partimen'' (; ; also known as ''partia'' or ''joc partit'') is a cognate form of the French jeu-parti (plural ''jeux-partis''). It is a genre of Occitan lyric poetry composed between two troubadours, a subgenre of the ''tenso'' or ''cobla'' ...

'' with

Eble d'Ussel Eble or Ebles d'Ussel (also ''d'Ussèl'' or ''d'Uisel''; fl. c. 1200) was a Limousin troubadour, the eldest of three brothers, castellans of the castle of Ussel-sur-Sarzonne, northeast of Ventadorn. His younger brothers were Peire and Gui and he ...

—form his surviving corpus. His ''cansos'' are his most famous pieces. Usually humorous, several mock the poetry of Ademar's more illustrious contemporary

Arnaut Daniel Arnaut Daniel (; floruit, fl. 1180–1200) was an Occitans, Occitan troubadour of the 12th century, praised by Dante Alighieri, Dante as "the best smith" (''miglior fabbro'') and called a "grand master of love" (''gran maestro d'amore'') by Petra ...

. One ''canso'' survives with a tune. __NOTOC__

Life

According to his ''

vida Vida means “life” in Spanish and Portuguese. It may refer to: Geography * Vida (Gradačac), village in Bosnia and Herzegovina * Lake Vida, Victoria Valley, Antarctica * U.S. settled places: ** Vida, Montana ** Vida, Oregon ** Vida, Missour ...

'', Guilhem was the son of a poor knight from

Meyrueis Meyrueis (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Lozère Departments of France, department in southern France. Geography The town of Meyrueis is located between the foothills of Mont Aigoual to the south and the Causse Méjean to the nort ...

(''Maruois''), the lord of which castle created him a knight. He was an eloquent man who "knew well how to invent (''trobaire'') poetry."Egan, 46. When he was no longer able to support himself as a knight he took to

minstrel A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. The term originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist enter ...

sy and "was greatly honoured by all the high society." Towards the end of his life he joined the

Order of Grandmont Grandmontines were the monks of the Order of Grandmont, a religious order founded by Saint Stephen of Thiers, towards the end of the 11th century. The order was named after its motherhouse, Grandmont Abbey in the eponymous village, now part of th ...

(''Granmon''). Guilhem Ademar's career can be dated from a reference in a poetic satire of contemporary troubadours by the

around 1195. The Monge playfully insults Guilhem as a "bad ''

joglar A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. The term originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist enterta ...

''" who always wears old clothes and whose lady has thirty lovers. The earliest reference to a ''W. Ademars'', a petty noble of the Gévaudan, occurs in 1192, though this figure, who (variously as ''Ademars'' or ''Azemars'') appears in documents until 1217, cannot be definitively identified with the troubadour.Aubrey, 20.

Works

One of Guilhem's more famous pieces is ''Non pot esser sofert ni atendut'', a sensuous ''canso'' of

courtly love Courtly love ( ; ) was a medieval European literary conception of love that emphasized nobility and chivalry. Medieval literature is filled with examples of knights setting out on adventures and performing various deeds or services for ladies b ...

wherein he is wishing that his lady's husband would go far away. It has presented a riddle for its dating through references to two Spanish kings: a ''rey Ferrans'' ("king Ferdinand") and ''reis N'Amfos, cui dopton li masmut / e.l mieiller coms de la crestiantat'' ("king Don Alfonso, whom the

Almohads The Almohad Caliphate (; or or from ) or Almohad Empire was a North African Berber Muslim empire founded in the 12th century. At its height, it controlled much of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus) and North Africa (the Maghreb). The Almohad ...

fear / and the greatest count in

Christendom The terms Christendom or Christian world commonly refer to the global Christian community, Christian states, Christian-majority countries or countries in which Christianity is dominant or prevails.SeMerriam-Webster.com : dictionary, "Christen ...

"). Ferrans may be either

Ferdinand II of León Ferdinand II ( 1137 – 22 January 1188), was a member of the Castilian House of Burgundy, Castilian cadet branch of the House of Ivrea and List of Leonese monarchs, King of León and kingdom of Galicia, Galicia from 1157 until his death. Life ...

(died 1188) or

Ferdinand III of Castile Ferdinand III (; 1199/120130 May 1252), called the Saint (''el Santo''), was King of Castile from 1217 and King of León from 1230 as well as King of Galicia from 1231. He was the son of Alfonso IX of León and Berengaria of Castile. Through his ...

(began reigning in 1217), both of whom present difficulties because their reigns lie outside the usual dating of Guilhem's career. The Alfonso could be

Alfonso II of Aragon Alfonso II (1–25 March 1157Benito Vicente de Cuéllar (1995)«Los "condes-reyes" de Barcelona y la "adquisición" del reino de Aragón por la dinastía bellónida» p. 630-631; in ''Hidalguía''. XLIII (252) pp. 619–632."Alfonso II el Casto, h ...

(contemporary with Ferdinand II), who was also the

Count of Barcelona The count of Barcelona (, , , ) was the ruler of the County of Barcelona and also, by extension and according with the Usages of Barcelona, Usages and Catalan constitutions, of the Principality of Catalonia as Prince#Prince as generic for ruler, p ...

. It could also be

Alfonso IX of León Alfonso IX (15 August 117123 or 24 September 1230) was King of León from the death of his father Ferdinand II in 1188 until his own death. He took steps towards modernizing and democratizing his dominion and founded the University of Salaman ...

, Ferdinand II's successor, whose kingdom lay about as far away as Guilhem could possibly hope to send his lover's husband; or

Alfonso VIII of Castile Alfonso VIII (11 November 11555 October 1214), called the Noble (El Noble) or the one of Las Navas (el de las Navas), was King of Castile from 1158 to his death and King of Toledo. After having suffered a great defeat with his own army at Alarc ...

, whose exploits against the Almohads culminated in the definitive victory at Las Navas in 1212. Since Guilhem wrote a poem sometime between 1215 and 1217 in which he referred to

Raymond VI of Toulouse Raymond VI (; 27 October 1156 – 2 August 1222) was Count of Toulouse and Marquis of Provence from 1194 to 1222. He was also Count of Melgueil (as Raymond IV) from 1173 to 1190. Early life Raymond was born at Saint-Gilles, Gard, the son of ...

as ''En Raimon, mon seigner'' ("Lord Raymond, my lord"), it has also be posited that the ''mieiller coms'' referred to in the previous work is Raymond, who was with Alfonso at Las Navas in 1212. Guilhem may thus have had in mind the events of Las Navas and been writing at a time after Ferdinand III's succession. Guilhem may have even been at Las Navas with Raymond. Guilhem's poetry is in general

light Light, visible light, or visible radiation is electromagnetic radiation that can be visual perception, perceived by the human eye. Visible light spans the visible spectrum and is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400– ...

, easy-going, and characterised by

irony Irony, in its broadest sense, is the juxtaposition of what, on the surface, appears to be the case with what is actually or expected to be the case. Originally a rhetorical device and literary technique, in modernity, modern times irony has a ...

. Like Peire Raimon, his contemporary at the court of Raymond VI of Toulouse, he seems to have been influenced by (and perhaps had an influence on) Arnaut Daniel. Guilhem's lone surviving piece of music is

neumatic A neume (; sometimes spelled neum) is the basic element of Western and some Eastern systems of musical notation prior to the invention of five-line staff notation. The earliest neumes were inflective marks that indicated the general shape but n ...

in texture and

motivic In music, a motif () or motive is a short musical idea, a salient recurring figure, musical fragment or succession of notes that has some special importance in or is characteristic of a composition. The motif is the smallest structural unit ...

in phrasing.Aubrey, 229. In his primary love songs, Guilhem praises two ladies, one from

(''Na Bona Nasques'', a pet name) and another from

(''Beatriz'', perhaps her real name). Despite this, Guilhem has been accused of

misogyny Misogyny () is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against Woman, women or girls. It is a form of sexism that can keep women at a lower social status than Man, men, thus maintaining the social roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been wide ...

for his poem ''El temps d'estui, qan par la flors el bruoill''. His love song ''Ben for'oimais sazos e locs'' is written as a message to his lover to be delivered by her

porter Porter may refer to: Companies * Porter Airlines, Canadian airline based in Toronto * Porter Chemical Company, a defunct U.S. toy manufacturer of chemistry sets * Porter Motor Company, defunct U.S. car manufacturer * H.K. Porter, Inc., a locom ...

, who is strictly warned to follow through. In his only ''sirventes'', ''Ieu ai ja vista manhta rey'', Guilhem moralises in a slightly

Marcabru Marcabru (; fl. 1130–1150) is one of the earliest troubadours whose poems are known. There is no certain information about him; the two '' vidas'' attached to his poems tell different stories, and both are evidently built on hints in the poems; ...

nian fashion on how loyal and generous suitors are rejected in favour "fools and misers".

Notes

Sources

*Aubrey, Elizabeth. ''The Music of the Troubadours''. Indiana University Press, 1996. . *Egan, Margarita, ed. and trans. ''The Vidas of the Troubadours''. New York: Garland, 1984. . * Riquer, Martín de. ''Los trovadores: historia literaria y textos''. 3 vol. Barcelona: Planeta, 1975. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ademar, Guilhem 13th-century French troubadours 12th-century French troubadours Reconquista 12th-century births 13th-century deaths French male poets Medieval male composers