Guillaume d'Aquitaine (1071 - 1126)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The success of the First Crusade inspired many in Europe, including Guillaume IX d'Aquitaine, to join the next one. Born in 1071, Guillaume had become Duke of Aquitaine at the age of 15, and at the age of 23, married the daughter of the Count of Toulouse. When the First Crusade began in 1096, Guillaume stayed behind, raised an army, and captured Toulouse for himself. Faced with excommunication over these actions, and his confidence boosted by the success of the Crusaders, Guillaume sold Toulouse to his wife's cousin and used the money to lead an army into Anatolia. There, the Turks defeated him several times, he lost his entire army, and escaped to Antioch with just six men.

He returned to Europe and began composing songs in Occitan, a Romance language related to French. These songs are called troubadour songs, from the Occitan word for "composer." Guillaume's songs are written in plain language, often vulgar or even obscene tales of his deceptions and exploits. In one song, he compares two women to a pair of horses; in another, he describes how he once pretended to be deaf and mute to take advantage of women's charity.

Guillaume was finally excommunicated twice, once for overtaxing the Church in his lands and threatening the local bishop to forgive him at swordpoint, and again for having an extended affair with a viscountess he abducted. After this and several other public infidelities, his wife Philippa left him to join a convent. Guillaume attempted to make up for this by raising an army to help the Christian kingdoms of Aragon and Castile fight against Islamic powers in Spain.

Guillaume took ill and died in 1126. The genre he pioneered, however, gradually became more refined and chivalrous as subsequent generations of composers emulated his style, if not his content. Troubadours and trouvères (who wrote in French instead of Occitan) like Bernart de Ventadorn (1140 - 1200), Chrétien de Troyes (late 12th century), and Adam de la Halle (13th century), elevated and promoted the genre, focusing on themes of chivalry and unrequited courtly love.