Gersenda OF SABRAN (1180?-1242?)

	Garsenda as she appears on her seal, from drawing by Louis Blancard (1860)

Individual Events and Attributes

Marriage

	Alphonse II, church Saint-Jean-de-Malte at Aix-en-Provence		Alphonse II, church Saint-Jean-de-Malte at Aix-en-Provence		Raimond-Berenger IV, church of Saint-Jean-de-Malte at Aix-en-Provence

Individual Note

Garsenda or Garsende (II) de Sabran (c. 1180 – c. 1242) was the Countess of Provence as the wife of Alfonso II from 1193 and the Countess of Forcalquier in her own right from 1209. She brought Forcalquier to the House of Barcelona and united it to Provence. She was also a patron of Occitan literature, especially the troubadours, and herself wrote some lyric poetry and is counted among the trobairitz as Garsenda de Proensa or Proença. She was, in the words of her most recent editors, "one of the most powerful women in Occitan history".[1]

Early life and marriage

Garsenda was the daughter of Renier de Sabran, lord of Caylar and Ansouis, and Garsenda, daughter of William IV of Forcalquier. She was named after her mother, who was the heiress of William IV, but predeceased him. Garsenda therefore inherited Forcalquier from her grandfather. She was only thirteen years of age when, in 1193, her grandfather William IV and Alfonso II signed the Treaty of Aix whereby Garsenda would inherit William's county and would marry Alfonso, who was in line to become Count of Provence. The marriage took place at Aix-en-Provence in July 1193.

Regency and patronage

In 1209 both William IV and Alfonso died and Garsenda became the natural guardian of their son and heir, Raymond Berengar IV. Initially her brother-in-law, Peter II of Aragon, assigned the regency of Provence to his brother Sancho, but when Peter died in 1213 Sancho became regent of Aragon and passed Provence and Forcalquier to his son Nuño Sánchez. Dissension broke out between the Catalans and the partisans of the countess, who accused Nuño of attempting to supplant his nephew in the county. The Provençal aristocracy originally took advantage of the situation for their own ambitious ends, but eventually they lined up behind Garsenda and removed Nuño, who returned to Catalonia. The regency was passed to Garsenda and a regency council was established consisting of the native nobles.

It was probably during her tenure as regent (1209/1213–1217/1220) that Garsenda became the focus of a literary circle of poets, though the vida of Elias de Barjols refers to his patron as Alfonso. There is a tenso between a bona dompna (good lady), identified in one chansonnier as la contessa de Proessa,[2] and an anonymous troubadour. The two coblas of the exchange are found in two different orders in the two chansonniers, called F and T, that preserve them. It cannot be know therefore who spoke first, but the woman's half begins Vos q'em semblatz dels corals amadors. In the poem the countess declares her love for her interlocutor, who then responds courteously but carefully. Under some interpretations the troubadour is Gui de Cavaillon, whose vida repeats the rumour (probably unfounded) that he was the countess' lover. Gui, however, was at the Provençal court between 1200 and 1209, pushing the date of the exchange forward a bit. Elias de Barjols apparently "fell in love" with her as a widow and wrote songs about her "for the rest of his life", until he entered a monastery. Raimon Vidal also praised her renowned patronage of troubadours.

Retirement and later life

In 1220 Guillaume de Sabran, a nephew of William IV, who claimed Forcalquier and had been in revolt in the region of Sisteron, was neutralised in part through the mediation of the Archbishop of Aix, Bermond le Cornu. By 1217 or 1220 Garsenda had finally ceded Forcalquier to her son and handed the reins of government over, retiring to the monastery of La Celle in 1222 or 1225.

Garsend may have been alive as late as 1257, when a certain woman of that name made a donation to a church of St-Jean on the condition that three priests be kept to pray for her soul and that of her husband.

Poetry

Vos que.m semblatz dels corals amadors,

ja non volgra que fossetz tan doptanz;

e platz me molt quar vos destreing m'amors,

qu'atressi sui eu per vos malananz.

Ez avetz dan en vostre vulpillatge

quar no.us ausatz de preiar enardir,

e faitz a vos ez a mi gran dampnatge;

que ges dompna no ausa descobrir

tot so qu'il vol per paor de faillir.

You're so well-suited as a lover,

I wish you wouldn't be so hesitant;

but I'm glad my love makes you the penitent,

otherwise I'd be the one to suffer.

Still, in the long run it's you who stands to lose

if you're not brave enough to state your case,

and you'll do both of us great harm if you refuse.

For a lady doesn't dare uncover

her true will, lest those around her think her base.[3]

NOTES:

1 Bruckner, Shepard, and White, p. 163

2 Variously spelled comtessa or contesa.

3 Bogin, pp. 108–109.

SOURCES:

Bogin, Meg. The Women Troubadours. Scarborough: Paddington, 1976. ISBN 0 8467 0113 8.

Bruckner, Matilda Tomaryn; Shepard, Laurie; and White, Sarah. Songs of the Women Troubadours. New York: Garland Publishing, 1995. ISBN 0 8153 0817 5.²

Sources