Pons (de) Santolh was a thirteenth-century troubadour, probably a member of the Centulli family, but whether of the Castelsarrasin or Toulouse branch remains a mystery. He was a brother of the wife of Guilhem de Montanhagol. He composed a planh , "Marritz com oms mal sabens ab frachura", on his brother-in-law's death.
Alfonso Jordan, also spelled Alfons Jordan or Alphonse Jourdain (1103–1148), was the Count of Tripoli (1105–09), Count of Rouergue (1109–48) and Count of Toulouse, Margrave of Provence and Duke of Narbonne (1112–48).
Aimeric or Aimery de Peguilhan, Peguillan, or Pégulhan was a troubadour born in Peguilhan, the son of a cloth merchant.
William IX, called the Troubador, was the Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony and Count of Poitou between 1086 and his death. He was also one of the leaders of the Crusade of 1101. Though his political and military achievements have a certain historical importance, he is best known as the earliest troubadour—a vernacular lyric poet in the Occitan language—whose work survives.
The Count of Toulouse was the ruler of Toulouse during the 8th to 13th centuries. Originating as vassals of the Frankish kings, the hereditary counts ruled the city of Toulouse and its surrounding county from the late 9th century until 1270. The counts and other family members were also at various times counts of Quercy, Rouergue, Albi, and Nîmes, and sometimes margraves of Septimania and Provence. Count Raymond IV founded the Crusader state of Tripoli, and his descendants were also counts there. They reached the zenith of their power during the 11th and 12th centuries, but after the Albigensian Crusade the county fell to the kingdom of France, nominally in 1229 and de facto in 1271.
Bernart de Ventadorn was a prominent troubadour of the classical age of troubadour poetry. Now thought of as "the Master Singer" he developed the cançons into a more formalized style which allowed for sudden turns. He is remembered for his mastery as well as popularisation of the trobar leu style, and for his prolific cançons, which helped define the genre and establish the "classical" form of courtly love poetry, to be imitated and reproduced throughout the remaining century and a half of troubadour activity.
Arnaut de Mareuil was a troubadour, composing lyric poetry in the Occitan language. Twenty-five, perhaps twenty-nine, of his songs, all cansos, survive, six with music. According to Hermann Oelsner's contribution to the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Arnaut de Mareuil surpassed his more famous contemporary Arnaut Daniel in "elegant simplicity of form and delicacy of sentiment". This runs against the consensus of both past and modern scholars: Dante, Petrarch, Pound and Eliot, who were familiar with both authors and consistently proclaim Daniel's supremacy
William IV of Toulouse was Count of Toulouse, Margrave of Provence, and Duke of Narbonne from 1061 to 1094. He was the son of Pons of Toulouse and Almodis de la Marche. He was married to Emma of Mortain, daughter of Robert, Count of Mortain, who gave him one daughter, Philippa.
Folquet de Marselha, alternatively Folquet de Marseille, Foulques de Toulouse, Fulk of Toulouse came from a Genoese merchant family who lived in Marseille. He is known as a trobadour, and then as a fiercely anti-Cathar bishop of Toulouse.
Peire Cardenal was a troubadour known for his satirical sirventes and his dislike of the clergy. Ninety-six pieces of his remain, a number rarely matched by other poets of the age.
Peire Vidal was an Old Occitan troubadour. Forty-five of his songs are extant. The twelve that still have melodies bear testament to the deserved nature of his musical reputation.
Gui Guerrejat was the fifth son of William VI of Montpellier. When still a boy, in 1146, he inherited the castles of Paulhan and le Pouget from his father.
Alfred Jeanroy was a French linguist.
Bertran d'Alamanon, also spelled de Lamanon or d'Alamano, was a Provençal knight and troubadour, and an official, diplomat, and ambassador of the court of the Count of Provence. Twenty-two of his works survive, mainly provocative tensos and sirventes, many dealing with Crusading themes.
Peire Raimon de Tolosa was a troubadour from the merchant class of Toulouse. He is variously referred to as lo Viellz and lo Gros, though these are thought by some to refer to two different persons. On the other hand, lo Viellz could refer to his being of an early generation of troubadours. Eighteen of Peire Ramon's poems survive, one canso with a melody.
A Siege of Toulouse occurred from 22 September 1217 to 25 July 1218 during the Albigensian Crusade. It was third of a series of sieges of the city during the height of Crusader efforts to put down Catharism. It ended in the repulsion of the Crusaders and the death of their leader, Simon IV de Montfort.
The Consistori del Gay Saber was a poetic academy founded at Toulouse in 1323 to revive and perpetuate the lyric poetry of the troubadours.
Arnaut de Cumenges was a Gascon nobleman, the brother of Count Bernard IV of Comminges. He took part in the war against Albigensian Crusade, participating in the defence of Toulouse in 1218. He was also a troubadour, who wrote a sirventes beginning Be·m plai us usatges. He was still living in 1246.
Constance of France was a French princess of the House of Capet, the only daughter of Louis VI of France and his second wife Adélaide de Maurienne. Amongst her siblings was Louis VII, who succeeded their father in 1137.
Guillem de Berguedà, or Guilhem de Berguedan in Occitan, was a Catalan troubadour and viscount of Berguedà. He was the most prolific Catalan poet of the twelfth century, though he composed in Occitan, and thirty-one of his poems survive. Most are sirventes, "typically violent and obscene, reflecting his character and turbulent life," but there are a few cansos. Most of what is known about him derives from his vida and his songs.
Eleanor of Aragon, Countess of Tolouse (1182–1226) was a daughter of King Alfonso II of Aragon and Sancha of Castile, Queen of Aragon. She married Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse.