Troubadours

The Nuttall Encyclopedia

A class of poets who flourished in Provence, Eastern Spain, and Northern Italy from the 11th to the 13th century, whose songs in the Langue d'Oc were devoted to subjects lyrical and amatory, and who not infrequently were men of noble birth and bore arms as knights, and as such were distinguished from the Jongleurs, who were mere strolling minstrels.