Crusade Against the Grail - Rennes-le-Chateau Research and ...

34 PART ONE
Where all delights are buried, Giralda rests, covered with
stones.
LENAU, THE ALBIGENSES
Guyot de Provins was a trobere from the north of France who wandered
through Europe, visiting the most important courts of France, Germany,
Aquitania, and Occitania. 30 We can place him in Maguncia on Whitsunday 1184,
enjoying a festival for knights organized by Frederick Barbarossa. At the
beginning of the thirteenth century, already very elderly, he compiled his "Bible,"
a satire on the different feudal estates of his time. In it, Guyot named his protectors
for us:
The Emperor Fredrick Barbarossa, Vetnpereres Ferris.
Louis VII, King of France, li rois Loeis de France.
Henry II, King of England, li riches rois Henris.
Richard the Lionheart, li rois Richarz.
Henry, the "young king" of England, li jones rois.
Alfonso II of Aragon, li rois d'Arragon.
Raimundo V, Count of Toulouse, li cuens Remons de Toulouse.
Guyot followed the procession of troubadours to Toulouse. From this center
of the world of courteous poetry, there were two ways to reach the residence of his
Maecenas, Alfonso de Aragon: one, by returning to Foix, the home of Raimon
Drut, and following the Ariege, later crossing the Sabarthes to reach the border of
Aragon through the pass at Puymorens; the other, which was easier, by passing
through Carcassonne and Perpignan in the Roussillon, hugging the coastline until
Barcelona, and from there to Saragossa. It is possible that he used one road when
he left, and the other when he returned. Whether in Carcassonne or Foix,
troubadours felt at home. In Foix, he could have met with Raimon Drut and his
sister Esclarmonde and celebrated her beauty.
Esclarmonde's aunt Adelaide, the daughter of Raimundo V of Toulouse and
Constance of France, reigned in Carcassonne. After the death of her husband
Roger Taillefer in 1193, all the possessions of the Trencavel family came under
her indulgent scepter.