Bernart de Rovenac

Who is Bernart de Rovenac?

Bernart de Rovenac, Rovenhac, or Roenach was a Languedocian troubadour. Four of his sirventes have been preserved. The attitude ubiquitous in his poetry is perhaps best expressed by these lines: Aital guerra m'agrada mas que platz, / non tals treguas ont om si'enganatz.

Bernart hailed from Rovenac in the modern Aude. He is first attested in early 1242, when he composed a poem, Ja no vuelh do mi esnenda, concerning a local uprising against King Louis IX in Languedoc. In it he attacks both James I of Aragon and Henry III of England for not coming to the aid of their vassals and makes a play on James' Occitan name, Jacme: Jacme quar trop vol jazer, meaning that it is appropriate his name is "James, because he wants to lie down too much." This piece was written in Limós near Rovenac, as a line of the tornada indicates.

In a slightly later poem, D'un sirventes m'es gran voluntatz preza, Bernart attacks amdos los reis for neglecting lor fieus that the rei que conquer Suria has possessed. The two kings are James and Henry and "the king who conquered Syria" is a mocking reference to Louis, whose Seventh Crusade ended in defeat and capture at the Battle of Mansurah. Louis was still captive in Syria when Bernart wrote in hopes that the two kings would take advantage of the French monarch's absence.