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The Role of Female Troubadours and Trobairitz in the Middle Ages

Janis E. Kenderdine © 2004-2025

Who were the Troubadours?

Troubadours were musicians and poets who idealized the concept of courtly love and speaking langue d’oc. The height of the Troubadour era was generally during the period of 1100 to 1300, and most common in Southern France.i Although the word “troubadour” often brings to mind an image of poor ruffian musicians, playing lute under a balcony and trying to woo a lady to win her hand, this was far from the historical truth. In this paper, I hope to show that the troubadours were much more than simply lovesick musicians and poets, and in fact played an interesting role in society that, although not commonly expressed, included that of Trobairitz (female troubadours).

Origins of the Troubadour Tradition

Some theories speculate that the troubadour tradition and idea of “courtly love” originated in the middle east, bringing their ideas to the region of Occitania, bordering the Mediterranean and adjacent to the Moorish-influenced Spain. The word “troubadour” even means literally “to find” or “to invent” in Arabic.ii The south of France was much warmer and had more freedom from the domains of the King of France in the north. The division between rich peasants and nobles was far less noticeable, as well as the urban and rural bourgeoisie. Also, the Catholic Church was less involved with the noble families in the south as it was in the north. In general, the south was much more tolerant.iii

Troubadours traveled widely in Europe, influencing the development of Italian, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Hungarian and English courtly literature. iv, v It is also notable that women’s love songs have been part of cultures for thousands of years in such societies as China and Egypt.vi

The ideals of “Courtly Love”

The ideas of courtly love are the foundations of modern day romance. It was a given that most marriages of the medieval times were arranged out of convenience or duty, and it was understood by most that man and wife rarely even liked each other. The troubadour tradition, however, put a woman on a pedestal, and spoke to her heart and mind, and rarely factored in something as superficial as external beauty. Unlike the unmarried fair maidens we think of, when imagining wooing a lady, oftentimes (in fact most times) the woman was married to someone else. The physical act of adultery rarely took place, as it was more an act of winning the lady’s heart, rather than her bed.

The troubadour sensibility actually seems a corrective reaction to the then dominant wider culture, a wider culture that actually was extremely dismissive and chauvinistic towards women—a culture where women were routinely beaten by their husbands—wife abuse was more common then than child abuse—and at this time women commonly feared their husbands, even when they loved them. And this is one more reason, among many, that in the troubadour tradition real love was seen as something that existed outside of marriage...vii

Love was to be romantic but inaccessible with anyone one might desire among his or her peers. “The troubadour and minstrel were to remind them constantly in poetry and song of their duty and honour, and how nobles should behave towards each other.”v

Some troubadours have been justly accused of flattering women of high birth to advance their careers, but there were also others (including trobairitz) who wrote love songs of timeless beauty and honesty.viii However, with all the pretenses of courtly love and entertainment, however, it is often easy to forget what was going on in the world around these individuals.

Their times were filled with plague, famine, inquisition, war and bloody crusades. It is sadly ironic that in such a dark period in history, these composers reached deep within themselves to create songs of exquisite beauty, full of jocularity and the love of life.ii

The Class and Social Status of a Troubadour

Many of the troubadours and trobairitz were highborn and of noble backgrounds. The upper class frequently sent their boys to Catholic monastic schools where they learned proper grammar and sacred music as part of their basic education. After concluding their formal education, many of these individuals went home to apply these arts in a more secular setting.ii

There were several types of troubadours. Evidence from thirteenth-century writings suggests that four ranks existed. The jongleurs were part-time musicians, and principally entertained using acrobatics, animals and props. Jongleurs (or clowns) were called “Gleemen” and typically worked in partnership with a “glee-maiden” who would work on her own or work as an assistant to the male burlesquing his skill. This glee-maiden was a female clown who was a skilled musician, dancer and acrobat in her own right.ix

Minstrels were full-time musicians, but were subordinates to the troubadour because their repertoire mainly consisted of other people’s works and compositions. There are several miniatures and literary texts that confirm harps and vïelles were used in performances.

In a literary reference one finds that “she sang with a jongleur on the vielle this new chansonnette: she began to sing as the jongleur played it on the vielle. (Parker)ii

In addition to informal musical participation, however, women were also active as menestrelles and jongleuresses. Performers themselves, they traveled as part of small groups of entertainers, and were often wives or daughters to male minstrels. In some instances, however, women had independent roles; they were granted permission to participate in the Guild of Minstrels in Paris from 1321 to the seventeenth century.x

Troubadours of lower rank were composers of music and poetry, and oftentimes performed their own music, but the highest ranked troubadours rarely performed. They would instead let other lower-ranking minstrels and troubadours perform their compositions for a fee.ii The higher ranking Troubadours, however, could be independently wealthy, and would most likely have more name recognition and a bigger place in history, however.xi

Guilhem (William) VII, Count of Poitiers and IX Duke of Aquitaine (1071-1127) was one of these “famous” troubadours from the earlier periods. His granddaughter Eleanor of Aquitaine, however, is more accountable for the active role women took in the troubadour and trobairitz circles.ii, xii

Women as Goddesses and Saints

Troubadours often raised their beloved ladies to “supernatural heights” and idealisms, which gave them a mystic appeal.xiii The beliefs advocated by the troubadours — an idea that women were to be idealized and should be “more nearly perfect than man,” — opened the doors to women Trobairitz who would join their ranks of their male predecessors and “sing the praises of love in all its divinations.”xiv This view often contradicts the usual image of the meek and sub-status women of the Middle Ages.

Another aspect of the idolization of women by men can be seen in the worship of the Virgin Mary. Some say the emergence of the trobairitz was a result of these idolizations and was a way in which they could communicate who and what women really were in response to the image of supposedly saintly women the Church and troubadours would have you believe existed.xv

Voice of the Trobairitz

Since their work shows much of the same characteristics of the male troubadours, trobairitz are usually considered the female counterparts to male Troubadours.xvi The trobairitz were usually high-ranking ladies of the court who lived and worked in Southern France. Most of these women were actually the muses of the very men who would idealize them.xv

Sparked by such medievalist scholars as Paul Zumthor and Brian Stock, Bruckner continues the research and characterization of women in the Middle Ages as poets/troubadours with an individual voice, rather than “slaves of tradition” simply adhering to accepted forms and codes. In fact, these trobairitz manipulated the male-dominated system to invent their distinctive and unique female voice.xvii

Troubadours often wrote from the woman’s viewpoint,v yet the works of the trobairitz often brought a much more personal view of themselves into their lyrics. Again, since these women were the very objects of this glorification, they could have tried combating it with their more “down to earth” approach to who a woman is (really).

Maybe because what you are naturally closer to, and more in touch with in a daily way, you then don’t tend to idealize. The women troubadours wrote closer to the bone, and called a spade a spade — “this is what happened, and how I feel about it” — and in this way their responses to their relationships feel more down to earth, more contemporary, less sentimentalized, more calibrated to what was going on at the personal level...xviii

The poetry of women Trobairitz seems quite progressive for the times of both then and now. Aside from being more personal and straightforward than their male counterparts, one woman (Bieiris de Romans) even addressed love poetry to another woman!xix Most of the poetic themes, however, actually have a very familiar tone to them touching on age-old problems and situations of ordinary women throughout history.

In fact, some of the lines of the trobairitz are almost shockingly progressive. One element that could be expected, given the expectations of this male-dominated era, would be an adoration of men; however, these poems do not shy away from criticizing men, and the women do anything but submit to them. For example, Castelozza, a trobairitz from the early 13th century, openly condemned the object of her affection and wrote, “I’m angry if you refuse me any joy, and if you let me die you’ll commit a sin. I’ll be in torment, and you’ll be vilely blamed.” She openly explains that her love will be at fault and deems that he is anything but perfect.xv

Often these Trobairitz speak their minds, and don’t always act properly, and portray a woman who acts as she pleases. Castelloza, for example states she should not be speaking in such an inappropriate manner, but immediately says she doesn’t care about such things, and she’ll do what she pleases.

Na Castelosa (Lady Castelloza) - Vida: “Lady Castelosa was from Auvergne, of noble family, married to Turc de Meyronne.She loved lord Armand de Bréon and composed her songs for him. She was a gay lady, well-educated and very beautiful.”xviii

Another such progressive trobairitz is the Comtessa de Dia. Four of her poems are known, and she shows emotion and desire that most certainly don’t portray her as a subservient or meek woman! She is not afraid to speak of sexual exploits, even if at the time they might be considered forbidden.

“Be sure I’d feel a strong desire to have you in my husband’s place provided you had promised me to do everything I wished.” — Comtessa de Dia

Other poetry from Comtessa de Dia show that she holds herself in very high regard and has a somewhat high opinion of herself, knowing her power and self worth are sometimes more important than beauty. She acknowledges her best assets, and then says that she does not deserve bad treatment, and is better than to be “wronged.”xix

One of the reasons these women in Southern France were able to take part in this form are due to a new sort of political power and social status possessed by women of nobility.xv

Eleanor of Aquitaine — Patron and Trobairitz

Because she was the granddaughter of the famous troubadour Duke Guilhem (William) VII, Eleanor of Aquitaine was brought up in the courts of the troubadours, listening to the music and poetry of courtly love and speaking langue d’oc.xiv Having been accustomed to such acts of romance, her first husband (Louis II) couldn’t live up to her ideals, and they divorced. She then married Prince Henry of England, who was 10 years her junior and much better versed in the ways of courtly love. Eleanor became queen shortly after both her marriages, and in this position, music, literature and the arts in general flourished.xvi, xix

With her daughter Marie de Champagne, Eleanor always welcomed troubadours and often supported this new type of music financially, as well.xv, xix Under her influence, Tristram and Ysolt, Wace’s Brut and the romance of Troy were written. Traveling musicians flourished, as she also made it fashionable for nobles all over Western Europe to receive these traveling musicians in every city. In fact, many times the performers couldn’t keep up with the demand from willing patrons!xv Marie commissioned Cretien de Troyes’ Knight of the Cart, and three of Eleanor’s sons were patrons of literature and kept the troubadour tradition alive.xvi

Genres in which Women Wrote

Women generally wrote in two styles of poetry — “canso” (love poem) and “tenso” (debate poem). Though some had specific rhyme schemes or meter and even story guidelines, this was not always the case.

The canso needed to start with the lowly poet, who sought the love of his or her unresponsive love, and through the composition of some song or poem, would be acknowledged with the gift of “joi.” These songs tended to revolve around the central theme of “pure or perfect love,” similar to their male counterparts. However, their stories are much less fictitious speculation, and more personal reflection.xx, xxi

Tenso had a much freer story line and was much more creative on the part of the author.xxii The debate form of “tenso” also usually had alternating stanzas by the speakers.

Some scholars have speculated that songs “in a women’s voice,” that is, songs in which the speaker is identified as a woman, may reflect women’s contributions to the lyric repertory. At the very least, these songs reflect sentiments and musical styles that seemed to their contemporaries to be appropriate for a woman.x

Troubadours, Trobairitz and the Church

As noted before, one of the reasons troubadours flourished in the south of France was the lack of Church influence in the region, attributing to a much freer lifestyle, and equality among men and women. However, as the troubadour tradition spread through Europe, “The Church thought the troubadours were subversive, and sought to excommunicate them and the story tellers who were singing and reciting romantic stories, as agents of the Devil!”vii Trobairitz such as La Comptesse de Die and Marie de Ventadour didn’t help matters when they declared their rights to producing poetry as a type of emancipation and “The Equality of Sexes in Love.”

One fact more: the ladies attention towards the troubadours and the jongleurs created the situation of “open society” - the poets and the singers were accepted in the feudal milieu as equals. The emancipation of the art was obtained through the woman emancipation is a higher degree of early democratization.xxii

The Trobairitz has been referred to as “a common whore, a woman possessed by the devil, a termagant driven by hatred, and so on and so forth.” All this social unrest eventually caused Pope Innocent and the French kings to launch a crusade against the Cathars in Southern France, putting an end to women’s poetry in the 13th century.

Survival of the Trobairitz texts and music

The writings of French women increased through the ages as education became more available to women of all classes. However, although the trobairitz were poets and musicians like the troubadours, very little of their actual music has survived.xi Almost the only evidence left, is in the poems these women wrote. However, it is speculated that much of the music was recycled among troubadours and trobairitz with the emphasis being on new poetry.

Out of about 10,000 troubadour poems, 128 extant troubadour melodies and some 1,000 trobairitz poems, fragments of melodies and anonymous songs which may (or may not) be by female troubadours, currently, there is only one song (A chantar m’er de so q’ieu no voldria), that is undisputed and survives with both the complete text and music in tact, by the Comtessa de Dia.xv, xxv

The trobairitz epitomizes freethinking women, and “the fact that we have any written work from them all, shows that they must have had some kind of freedom and status to be able to offer up their voices and reveal their artistic creativity.”xv

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