BERTRADE DE MONTFORT
(fl. late 11th-early 12th c.). Queen of France. The daughter of Simon I, lord of Montfort,
Bertrade was first the wife of Foulques IV le Rechin, count of Anjou. Her son, Foulques
V, count of Anjou (1109–29), became king of Jerusalem (1131–43).
In 1092, Bertrade left Foulques IV for Philip I, the king of France (r. 1060–1108),
whom she bore two sons and a daughter. Because their marriage was regarded as
bigamous, she and Philip faced repeated excommunications between 1094 and 1104, and
the kingdom was for a time under interdict. Bertrade influenced royal policy, shared in
the profits of simony, and was much feared. Reportedly behind the death of her stepson
Geoffroi d’Anjou in 1106, she plotted against Philip’s heir, the future Louis VI, whom
she was said to have tried to poison.
In spite of Philip’s repeated promises to live apart from her, and his reconciliation with
the church in 1104, Bertrade signed documents as queen until the end of the reign. After
Philip’s death, she retired to Fontevrault and was still alive in 1115.
R.Thomas McDonald
[See also: LOUIS VI THE FAT; PHILIP I]
Facinger, Marion F. “A Study of Medieval Queenship: Capetian France, 987–1237.” Studies in
Medieval and Renaisssance History 5(1968):3–47.
BERTRAN DE BORN
(ca. 1150–1215). The feudal lord of Hautefort in the Périgord is remembered as the
warmongering troubadour because of Dante’s presentation of him in Inferno 18. 118–23
and his own political satires, or sirventes, in praise of discord and strife. In his lyrics,
Bertran claimed that the active life is lived fully only on the battlefield. But this stance
was in part literary pose. Though he cut a quarrelsome figure in the personal and political
struggles of his time, the historical Bertran de Born was throughout his long life a
benefactor of the church, and he was, like Bernart de Ventadorn, a Cistercian monk at
Dalon for his last twenty years.
Bertran’s latest editors accept some forty-seven of the songs attributed to him (forty-
three certain; four doubtful). Throughout, he upholds the virtues of war, particularly
courage and generosity. This martial worldview is expressed through moral aphorisms or
direct language sometimes seconded by violent imagery. Even in his few love lyrics,
Bertran voices his disapproval of an imperfect, unheroic society. As both lover and
warrior, the poet’s persona embodies the knightly values whose absence all around him
he satirically laments. His sirventes, cansos, and planhs are all directed toward realizing
those consummate moral and social ideals of the courtly world.
Roy S.Rosenstein
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