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William IX

born 10/22/1071
(d. Feb 10, 1127)

Medieval troubadour, count of Poitiers and duke of Aquitaine and of Gascony and grandfather of the famous Eleanor of Aquitaine.

William IX spent most of his life in warfare, including leading an unsuccessful Crusade to the Holy Land (1101-02). His fame rests chiefly, however, on his being the first poet in the Provençal language whose works have come down to us. His chansons, or songs, are boisterous, amorous, humorous, usually delicate but sometimes coarsely obscene and tend, in the fashion of courtly love, to idolize one's lady love.    [Ency. Brit.]

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