Jacques Bretel

Who is Jacques Bretel?

Jacques Bretel or Jacques Bretex was a French language trouvère, best known for having written le Tournoi de Chauvency.

His only known work, signed and dated, le Tournoi de Chauvency, is a long poem of about 4,500 verses recounting the events of a tournament held during six days of feasting given by Louis V, Count of Chiny in October 1285 at Chauvency-le-Château. It is without doubt a masterpiece of French Middle Ages literature and, in any case, one of the best digests of courtly art of the period.

Le Tournoi de Chauvency is kept in a manuscript at the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford.