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Updated: June 24, 2025
His jokes had a bite in them, as when he said of Bertran that the best proof of the excellence of his verses was that he had undoubtedly made them himself; or of Averrhoes, the Arabian physician and infidel philosopher, that the man equalised his harms by poisoning with his drugs the bodies of those whose minds had been tainted by his heresies.
In 1179 Bertran married one Raimonde, of whom nothing is known, except that she bore him at least two sons. In 1192 he lost this first wife, and again married a certain Philippe.
Averrhoes was often at his court; so were Guillem of Cabestaing and Peire Vidal. He knew and went so far as to love Bertran de Born. Perhaps he was not too good a Christian, certainly he was a very hungry one; and kings, with the rest of the world, are to be judged by their necessities, not their professions. So much will suffice, I hope, concerning Don Sancho the Wise.
Bertran, gnashing his teeth, took up the service of the man he loathed; gnashing his teeth, he let Richard kiss him in the lists and shower favours upon him. When presents of stallions came from Navarre he began to see what Don Sancho was about. Any meeting of Richard and that profound schemer would have been Bertran's ruin. So when Richard was King, he judged it time to be off.
'By my head, said the Count, 'if I sleep under the stars I sleep at Autafort this night. But hear me charm this plotter. He called at the top of his voice, 'Ha, Bertran! Come you down, man. The surrounding hills echoed his cries, the jackdaws wheeled about the turrets; but presently came one and put his eye to the grille. Richard saw him. 'Is that you, then, Bertran? he shouted.
The family was ancient and honourable; from the cartulary Bertran appears to have been born about 1140; we find him, with his brother Constantin, in possession of the castle of Hautefort, which seems to have been a strong fortress; the lands belonging to the family were of no great extent, and the income accruing from them was but scanty.
The land is in flames, the women have streaked faces, far and wide travels the torch of war. 'I am sorry to hear it, says King Sancho, 'and trust that you have not brought one of those torches with you. Bertran shook his head; interruptions worried him, for he lived maddeningly, like a man that has a drumming in his ear.
Dante placed Bertran de Born in hell, as a sower of strife between father and son, and there is no need to describe his picture of the troubadour "Who held the severed member lanternwise And said, Ah me!" The genius of Dante, and the poetical fame of Bertran himself, have given him a more important position in history than is, perhaps, entirely his due.
The narrative is unhistorical; Henry II. was not present in person at the siege of Hautefort; but the fact is certain that he regarded Bertran as the chief sower of discord in his family. Mention must now be made of certain troubadours who were less important than the three last mentioned, but are of interest for various reasons.
'Dot next day Bertran came to my house to help me make some wood cases for der specimens, und he tell me dot he haf left his wife a liddle while mit Bimi in der garden. Den I finish my cases quick, und I say, "Let us go to your houses und get a trink." He laugh and say, "Come along, dry mans." 'His wife was not in der garden, und Bimi did not come when Bertran called.
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