In 1220 Thibaut married Gertrude of Lorraine, the daughter of the Count of Metz, whom he repudiated two years later, marrying again in 1223. This time his bride was Agnès de Beaujeu, a cousin of Louis VIII of France whose reign commenced that very year.

Attacked by his erstwhile allies, who felt betrayed and whose army penetrated into the count’s lands, the royal army had to save him on at least two occasions. The Grandes Chroniques de France refer to this episode in the following terms:

Queen Blanche took part in that agreement, in which she said: ‘For God’s sake, Count Thibaut, you shouldn’t be our enemy! You must remember that the king did you a favour, my son, coming to your aid to save your country and your lands from all the feudal powers of France who wanted to burn them and turn them into coal’. The Count looked at the Queen, who was so prudent and beautiful that he was overwhelmed [...].

He left very pensively and often recalled the Queen’s sweet look and her beautiful composure. Then a sweet and amorous thought penetrated his heart. But when he remembered that she was such an important lady and from such well-to-do and pure circles that she could never be his, his sweet amorous thoughts were transformed into great despair.

And given that profound thoughts breed melancholy, some wise men advised him to apply himself to the beautiful sounds of the vielle and to sweet and delightful songs. This is how he composed [...] the most beautiful, delightful and melodious songs that were ever sung or played on the vielle. And he wrote them in his salons in Provins and Troyes, and they are known as The Songs of the King of Navarre.

Count of Champagne and King of Navarre

Specialist critics see no reason to believe that Blanche de Castille was the lady to whom Thibaut’s songs were directed, considering that he had already been cultivating the troubadour art for some time when the act of reconciliation with the royal house took place. It is more likely that this passage from the Chroniques was tinged with mythical overtones, especially in relation to the reasons that led Thibaut to become a trouvère, comparable to those of many of the troubadours who appeared in the well-known Lives. Yet, the fact remains that Thibaut had at least some of his songs reproduced on the walls of the castle of Provins, which were still visible in 1750 according to an eyewitness.

After becoming a widower in 1231, the following year the Count married Marguerite, the daughter of Archibald of Bourbon, the regent’s vassal, instead of marrying the daughter of the Duke of Brittany. This was the cause of further disputes with the feudal powers, who found a way to provoke him by propitiating a trip to France by his cousin Alix, Queen of Cyprus, who made certain claims on the county of Champagne. The problem was solved by the payment of a large sum of money, which Thibaut obtained by selling his sovereignty rights over Blois, Chartres, Sancerre and Châteaudun to the King of France. The matter was barely settled when he became King of Navarre in 1234, succeeding his maternal uncle, Sanche VII el Fuerte. Seeing that he was once again in a healthy financial situation Thibaut tried to buy back the rights to his lands, but he was unsuccessful. Defeated and humiliated, he withdrew to Pamplona (Navarre), where he remained for two years.

In a planctus composed following the death of Blacatz (1236), the troubadour Sordel alludes to this episode, offering Thibaut a piece of the deceased’s heart in order to encourage him:

et apres vuelh del cor don hom al rey navar,
que valia mais coms que reys, so aug comtar;
totz, es quan Dieus fai home en gran ricor poiar,
pus sofracha de cor lo fai de pretz bayssar.

[... and then I want you to give part of your heart to the king of Navarre,
who, so I have heard, is a better count than king;
it’s a shame that when God gives a man great power,
heartlessness later leads him to lose merit.]

In 1238, after leading the Sixth Crusade, Thibaut moved to Bayonne, where he prepared the army that was to lead him and other French feudal powers to Saint Jean d’Acre. The precipitation of some of them and the lack of clear leadership led to their defeat in Gaza. Following this setback, Thibaut returned to France in 1240, but not without previously visiting Jerusalem.

He later assisted Louis IX in the battles of Taillebourg and Saintes against the English, and was defeated in Gascony in 1244 by the English King’s seneschal. Some years later, in 1249-50, he embarked on a pilgrimage of penance to Rome, which some historians put down to his differences with the clergy of Navarre. Thibaut died in Pamplona on 8 July 1253, leaving his son Thibaut V, fruit of his third marriage and just a few years old, as heir to the throne and the counties of Champagne y Brie.

The manuscripts

There are a total of 32 manuscripts containing the poetic and musical output of Thibaut, Count of Champagne and Brie and King of Navarre, of which only 14 contain music. The most important of these is the well-known Chansonnier du roi de Navarre, which forms part of the Manuscrit du Roi (París. Bibl. Nationale, fonds fr. 844 fols. 13 and 59-78), which pertained to Charles of Anjou, King of Sicily (1266-82). Of Thibaut’s 60 extant musical-poetical compositions, this songbook, the copy considered closest to a hypothetical original, contains 56 compositions with music and another two without; thus, only two of his works are missing.

There are a total of 32 manuscripts containing the poetic and musical output of Thibaut, Count of Champagne and Brie and King of Navarre, of which only 14 contain music. The most important of these is the well-known Chansonnier du roi de Navarre

This source is followed in importance by a set of four manuscripts that seem to derive from the same source: Paris. Bibl. del Arsenal, 5198, containing 56 compositions by Thibaut, all with music; Paris. Bibl. Nationale, fonds fr. 845, with 28 compositions, of which 26 contain music; Paris. Bibl. Nationale, fonds fr. 847, with 5 compositions set to music, and Paris. Bibl. Nationale, 1050 (Chansonnier Clairambault), with 56 compositions, all with music. In contrast to the Chansonnier du roi de Navarre, in which the repertory is given as anonymous, in these four manuscripts all the pieces are headed by the composer’s name or ‘Li rois de Navarre’. Another feature of these manuscripts, which is also characteristic of most manuscripts containing Thibaut’s repertory, is that his works are copied at the beginning of them. This is not surprising considering the fact that manuscripts containing pieces from the trouvère repertory usually group them by composer. These are then ordered from the highest to the lowest ranking composer. Given that the only French trouvère to attain the rank of royalty was Thibaut, there is nothing special about his compositions normally being copied first.

Other manuscripts to transmit Thibaut’s works with music include the Chansonnier Cangé (Paris. Bibl. Nationale, fonds fr. 846), one of the last trouvère songbooks -now in mensural notation which is thought to derive from various sources. Ordered alphabetically, Thibaut’s compositions, which number 59 in total, 57 of which contain music, are always the first compositions of every new letter. As with the four manuscripts mentioned above, all the pieces are attributed to the ‘Roy de Navarre’.

Although there are differences between the various sources of Thibaut’s musical repertory, meaning that a melody was rarely transmitted identically in two different sources, these differences are not significant enough to prevent a standard melody from being established. In general two groups or families of manuscripts can be established, taking note of both melodic and textual variants. Both the Chansonnier du roi de Navarre and the Manuscrit du Roi, which contain four of his compositions, pertain to one of these groups, while the Arsenal manuscript and the Chansonnier Cangé, constitute part of the other.

Troubadours and trouvères

Thibaut’s repertory consists of 36 chansons d’amour, 14 jeux-partis, three chansons dedicated to the Virgin, another three crusade songs, two pastourelles, a serventois and a devotional lai. His output forms part of the art of the trouvères, among the most illustrious of whom were Gace Brulé, Colin Muset and Thibaut himself. Like their immediate predecessors the troubadours, trouvères were both exquisite poets and musicians who were active during the latter part of the twelfth century until the end of the thirteenth century. For many scholars, the last of the trouvères -who numbered over 200 in total- was Adam de la Halle (d. 1288), who spent part of his career in Arras, one of the most important centres of late trouvère activity. The most important centre of early trouvère activity was the court of Troyes, in Champagne, as a result of the patronage of Thibaut’s paternal grandparents, Count Henry the Liberal and especially his wife Marie, the daughter of Louis VII of France and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Following the example of her mother, Eleanor surrounded herself with such illustrious literary figures as Chrétien de Troyes, Gautier d’Arras and Gace Brulé, among others.

The transformation of the art of the troubadours, active throughout the southern courts of France, into trouvères seems to have taken place at the court of Champagne. The trouvères moved through the courts of northern France and Flanders, although this probably had a lot to do with the numerous connections, both commercial and cultural, with northern and southern France, as well as travel and the pilgrim routes, especially that leading to Santiago de Compostela. Whatever the case, the poetry and music of the trouvères must clearly be considered as a direct consequence of the activity of the troubadours, although the latter expressed themselves in the langue d’oc and the trouvères in the langue d’oil, the predecessor of modern French. Both groups were made up of people from low social backgrounds, whose talent and the opportunity to receive an education allowed them to make their way into the noble class (in exchange for their art they were given protection and sustenance) as well as members of the nobility with a gift for music and poetry. While there was even a king among the trouvères, Thibaut of Navarre, William (Guilhem) IX, Duke of Aquitaine (d. 1127), is said to be the first known troubadour.

While a large proportion of troubadour poetry was based on the concept of fin’amors, ‘refined love’ as the maximum expression of civilised man’s feelings, a large part of trouvère poetry, consisting of no less than 2.400 poems, of which around 1.700 are preserved with music, deals with fine amour. The canso is the troubadour genre par excellence, equivalent to the trouvère grand chant, which was perhaps not as fresh as the canso considering that both in this and other genres the French model kept to the tradition of the Occitan model. However, its richness and interest lies in the many subtle variations obtained from a theme that was inexhaustible itself.

The King´s songs

Like all those pertaining to this genre, Thibaut’s chansons d’amour or grands chants generally consist of five or six stanzas made up of eight or ten syllable lines, which repeat the same music, always in one part, for each stanza. They are usually followed by an envoi, which was equivalent to the troubadour tornada, a final reprise consisting of two or more lines with the same rhyme as the last lines of each stanza and, as one would expect, the same melody. There are two frequently used musical forms: the first is the so-called oda continua, or through-composed song, in which all the lines of the one stanza are set to different melodies; the other, AAB form, that is the first part is followed by a musically identical second part frons concluding with a different part (cauda). Both forms usually end with a textual and musical refrain, which does not form part of the songs of the troubadours.

One of Thibaut’s best-known songs with a repetitive form is Chançon ferai, an example of a grand chant courtois, though with refrains. These vary each stanza, borrowed from popular sources, with typical syllabic musical phrases at the beginning that tend to conclude with delicate melismas. The first stanza is given below (the first four verses correspond to the first two musical sections and the rest to the third):

Chançon ferai, car talent m’en est pris,
de la meilleur qui soit en tout le mont.
De la meilleur? Je cuit qu j’ai mespris.
S’ele fust tex, se Dex joie me dont,
de moi le fust aucune pitié prise
qui sui touz siens et sui a sa devise.
Pitiex de cuer, Dex, que ne s’est assise
en sa biauté? Dame, qui merci proi,
je sent les max d’amer por vos,
sentez les vos por moi?

[I will compose a song, since desire has taken hold of me
about the finest woman in the whole world.
The finest? I think I have made a mistake,
If she were (God grant me that joy!),
some slight pity would have taken hold of her,
for I am all hers and at her command.
Why, God, is no heartfelt pity to be found
in her beauty? Lady whom I beg for mercy,
I feel the pangs of love for you,
do you feel them for me?]

Although musically very simple, the Navarrese monarch’s most famous song Ausi conme unicorne, is one of the most exquisite examples of medieval lyric poetry. It is based on the legend of the unicorn, which irresistibly drawn to a virgin is captured and killed, evoking the mortal fascination the beloved exerts over the lover. It consists of five stanzas and an envoi and its musical form is the oda continua.

Ausi conme unicorne sui
qui s’esbahist en regardant
quant la pucele va mirant.
Tant est liee de son ennui,
pasmee chiet en son giron;
lors l’ocit on en traïson.
Et moi ont mort d’autel senblant
Amors et ma dame, por voir:
mon cuer ont, n’en puis point avoir.

[I am like the unicorn
whom contemplation stuns
as he gazes at the maiden.
He is so elated and unnerved
that he falls fainting in her lap;
then he is traitorously slain.
I have been killed in the same way,
truly, by love and my lady;
they have my heart, and I can’t have it back.]

Paul Zumthor defined the jeu-parti as a debate of a dilemmatic question between two trouvères, who take turns in singing stanzas of identical lengths. The number of stanzas usually coincides with those of the song, ending with an envoi that is directed at a judge or expert in disputes over love. Derived from the troubadours’ partimen, in the jeu-parti the poet opening the intellectual debate poses a question normally concerning amorous behaviour and puts forth two possible solutions, allowing his opponent to defend one of them while he defends the other. Inspired by the exercise of scholastic dialectics, the jeu-parti was practised as a social game in which the capacity to defend an argument using an artistic medium such as poetry was put to the test.

Of the 14 compositions of this type composed by Thibaut only nine are true jeux-partis (two are conserved without music). The other five are tensons, which differ from the former in that instead of debating different solutions to a problem each contender debates the ideas put forth by his opponent. In one tenson Thibaut’s partenaire is a trouvère called Robert, in two a lady and in another two a friend, Philippe de Nanteuil; one of the latter, Phelipe, je vous demant: qu’est devenue amors?, is noteworthy in that it is a contrafactum or adaptation of Lo clar tems vei brunezir by the troubadour Raimon Jordan and for having served as a model for Vierge pucele roiaus by the trouvère Guillaume le Viniers. The date of composition of these debates is very difficult to pinpoint, although Thibaut is known to have cultivated this genre both before and after having been named King of Navarre, since in some cases his opponents refer to him as Count while in others they call him King.

By contrast, it is easy to surmise that the date of composition of his three crusade songs, Seigneurs, sachiez, qui or ne s’en ira, Dame, ensi est qu’il m’en couvient aler and Au tens plain de felonnie, coincided with his period of preparation for the Sixth Crusade. Another piece composed around this period is the sacred sirventes Dex est ensi conme li pellicanz, whose tone is not very different from these kinds of songs.

The serventois of the trouvères is a poetic genre usually containing a moral or political theme with a very satirical tone. In Dex est ensi Thibaut alludes to the dispute between Pope Gregory XI and the German Emperor Frederick II regarding the destination of the Crusade through the use of similes and metaphors. While the Emperor sustained that they should head towards Palestine, the Pope believed it was better they went to Constantinople. Thibaut, who shared the Emperor’s opinion, calls the Pope and his allies 'evil birds who have poison in their beaks' (line 54), while taking advantage of the occasion to put forth a view of the world in which evil triumphs over good.

The work is an oda continua consisting of 10 simple musical phrases corresponding to each of the decasyllable lines of its five stanzas, concluding with a four-line envoi. According to the scholastic theologian Hugh of Saint Victor (d. 1141), it is probable that in Thibaut’s composition the number 10 (the number of lines making up each stanza as well as the syllables of each line) symbolises the firmness of faith, and that 100, the total number of syllables of each stanza, the greatness of charity. The first stanza of this very remarkable sirventes, depicted in one of the reliefs adorning the refectory of the cathedral of Pamplona, goes as follows:

Dex est ensi conme li pellicanz
qui fet son nif el plus haut arbre sus,
et li mauvès oisiax, qui vient de jus,
ses oisellons ocit, tant est puanz.
Li peres vient, destroiz et angoisseus
du bec s’ocit, de son sanc dolereus
vivre refet tantost ses oisellons.
Dex fist autel, quant fu sa passions:
de son douz sanc racheta ses enfanz
du Deable, qui mult estoit puissanz.

[God is like the pelican,
which builds his nest up in the tallest tree.
And the evil bird which comes from below
kills the little pelicans, because it is so wicked.
The worried and distressed father arrives,
and kills himself with his beak,
and immediately revives his little ones
with his blood and suffering.
God did the same thing by his passion:
with his sweet blood he redeemed his children
from the Devil, who was so powerful.]

Another genre used by Thibaut was the pastourelle, which is always based on a dialogue between a shepherdess and a nobleman who tries to win her over. The origins of this genre go back to at least the eleventh century, although the first known pastourelle set to music was the popular work by the troubadour Marcabru L’autrier jost’ una sebissa ('The other day beside a hedge'). It would later be used for centuries in both classical and popular music.

Thibaut’s two pastourelles, J’aloie l’autrier errant and L’autrier par la matinee, are very simple works in the form AAB. The second, whose first stanza is given below, is susceptible to being performed rhythmically, as it occurs in approximately 20 of the melodies attributed to the King of Navarre. The interpretation of the rhythm of the rest of his songs, where there is a rhythm, is ambiguous.

L'autrier par la matinee,
entre un bois et un vergier,
une pastore ai trouvee
chantant por soi envoisier.
Et disoit un son premier:
'Ci me tient li max d’amors'.
Tantost cele part me tor,
que je l’oï desresnier;
si li dis sanz delaier:
'Bele, Dex vos dont bon jor'.

[The other day in the morning,
between the woods and an orchard,
I came across a shepherdess
singing for her pleasure;
her first song went,
'I’m overcome by the pain of love.'
At once I turned toward
where I heard her trilling,
and didn’t wait to say,
'God give you a good day, dear girl!']