WILLIAM, Count of Poitou and Duke of Aquitaine here sang of his grief at leaving ‘the lordship of Poitou’ (‘Lo departirs m'es aitan grieus/ Del seignoratge de Peitieus’, lines 9–10), of fear for his son who was still ‘young and feeble’ (‘iov' e mesqui’, line 20) and exposed to war and threats from enemies. His short lyric certainly does not resemble a conventional biographical text of this time, but is entirely biographical – indeed autobiographical – in character. The poet sang of war and the danger of being attacked: he also rejoiced that he had been a man of ‘prowess and joy’ (‘De proeza e de joi fui’, line 25), of ‘joy and delight’ (‘joi et deport’, line 39) and recalled the furs (‘E vair et gris e sembeli’, line 41) which symbolised the luxury of his secular existence. He now has to renounce everything that he has loved – ‘chivalry and pride’ – and prays to God to receive him among his ‘own people’:

This poet was born in the year 1071 into one of the most illustrious aristocratic families of the Capetian kingdom of France.