Richard Coeur de Lion

Richard I, lion-heart, was King of England from 1189 to 1199. Though he did not make an extensive impact on musical progression he has had an impact on the history of music. Decidedly a poet and a composer he was a member of a troubadour family. His grandfather, Guillaume IX, father of Eleanor of Acquitaine, was one of the earliest troubadour poets, if not the earliest. Richard wrote two poems which survive and may well be the earliest surviving examples of rotrouenge -- poems with a definite rhyme scheme and a refrain. (The schema and existence of such a form is contested.) The two poems, "Dalfin, je'us voill deresnier," and "Ju nus hons pris ne dira sa raison," deal with the chastisement of the Dauphin of Auvergne for not coming to Richard's aid, and a complaint about his time as a prisoner in Austria. ~ Keith Johnson