Theobald I of Navarre

Theobald I (French: Thibaut, Spanish: Teobaldo; 30 May 1201 – 8 July 1253), also called the Troubadour and the Posthumous, was Count of Champagne (as Theobald IV) from birth and King of Navarre from 1234. He initiated the Barons' Crusade, was famous as a trouvère, and was the first Frenchman to rule Navarre.

Quotes

• Dame, ensi est qu'il m'en convient aler,
  Et departir de la doce contrée,
  Ou tant ai mauz soffers et endurez;
  Quant je vos lais, droiz est, que je m'en hée:
  Dex! porquoi fu la terre d'outremer,
  Qui tant amans aura fait desevrer,
  Dont puis ne fu l'amour reconforté,
  Ne ne porent lor joie remembrer?
  • Lady, the fates command, and I must go,—
      Leaving the pleasant land so dear to me:
    Here my heart suffer'd many a heavy woe;
      But what is left to love, thus leaving thee?
    Alas! that cruel land beyond the sea!
      Why thus dividing many a faithful heart,
    Never again from pain and sorrow free,
      Never again to meet, when thus they part?
  • Translated by Edgar Taylor, Lays of the Minnesingers and Troubadours (1825), p. 262