But the chief importance of William’s life and poetry for our present purpose lies in the light which these throw on the high esteem in which the poet’s art was held in those days. For it must be remembered that the man who proudly donned the Troubadour’s garb was the same Duke of Aquitain and Count of Poitiers whom William of Malmesbury mentions amongst the great warriors of his time, and who, in the unfortunate crusade of 1101, appeared at the head of three hundred thousand fighting men. Such were the princely amateurs in mediæval Provence. Turning from these to the Troubadours proper, that is to professional poets who owed their sustenance to their song, we find that they occupied an important and honoured position in fashionable circles. There is scarcely a noble family in the south of France whose name is not by one or more of its members connected with the history of the Troubadours. His love of poetry and poets is a redeeming feature in the lion-hearted Richard’s wild career, but he had inherited this feeling from his mother, the much-maligned Queen Eleanor, whom we shall meet again as the generous friend of a celebrated singer. The kingly house of Aragon vied with that of Anjou in its liberal protection of the gay science. The names of Alfonso II., Peter II., and Peter III. continually occur in the grateful acknowledgments of the Troubadours; and to another monarch of Spanish origin, King Alfonso X. of Castile, belongs the honour of having given shelter to the remnant of Provençal poets after the fall of their own country. At his court lived and deplored the decline of poetry the last of the Troubadours, the noble Guiraut Riquier. Many other protectors of the Troubadours, no less liberal though less illustrious, will be incidentally mentioned in these pages. At the courts of these princes and nobles the Troubadour was eagerly welcomed. Without any distinct charge or office he partook of the liberality of his protector, half guest, half courtier, but without any of the irksome duties of the latter, and free to come and go where his wayward mood attracted him. We hear of frequent and rapid changes of abode in the lives of many troubadours, mostly in consequence of some imbroglio with a lady. But Provençal poets were naturally a restless tribe, ever in search of new lands and new loves.