Love and War: Troubadour Songs As Propaganda, Protest, and Politics in the Albigensian Crusade
Love and War: Troubadour Songs as Propaganda, Protest, and Politics in the Albigensian Crusade By Leslee Wood B.A., University of Utah, 2003 Submitted to the graduate degree program in Music and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music. _________________________________________ Chair: Roberta Schwartz, PhD _________________________________________ Paul Laird, PhD _________________________________________ Bryan Kip Haaheim, DMA Date Defended: May 25, 2017 The thesis committee for Leslee Wood certifies that this is the approved version of the following thesis: Love and War: Troubadour Songs as Propaganda, Protest, and Politics in the Albigensian Crusade ___________________________________________ Chair: Roberta Schwartz, PhD Date approved: May 25, 2017 ii Abstract: From the eleventh through the thirteenth century, the troubadours flourished in the Occitan courts of southern France. As the artistic and political voices of their culture, these men and women were educated, creative, and well-placed to envoice the cultural and political events of their time. In 1208, Pope Innocent III launched the Albigensian Crusade against the pervasive Cathar sect, which had attracted followers from every stratum of Occitan society, including believers from the most important ruling families. For twenty years, the crusade decimated the region and destroyed the socio-political apparatus which had long supported, and been given voice by, the troubadours and trobairises. By the end of the war in 1229, the Occitan nobility were largely disinherited and disempowered, unable to support the kind of courtly estates to which they had been accustomed and in which the art de trobar had flourished. Many troubadours were involved both politically and militarily in the crusade and their lyric reactions include astute political commentaries, vigorous calls-to-arms, invectives against the corruption of the Catholic clergy and the French invaders, and laments for the loss of both individuals and institutions.
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