Some historians have attempted to show that he [John, king of England] tried to halt the Capetian invasion, but a contemporary troubadour tells a very different story. Writing apparently at the beginning of 1205 Bertran de Born’s son composed a sirventès (or satirical ballad) ‘to make king John blush for shame’. It seems that he did so at the request of one of John’s most loyal officers, Savary de Mauléon.
The troubadour says that the king ought to be ashamed to think of his ancestors after having abandoned Poitou to Philip II ‘for the asking’, and that all Aquitaine regrets lo rei Richart, whom his brother is so plainly incapable of emulating.
The younger Bertran adds sarcastically that one can scarcely compare John to Sir Gawain (the Arthurian hero), and that the king prefers hunting or sheer idleness to anything else, which is why he has lost both his honour and his lands.
The poem ends by calling John a flabby coward who does not know how to fight and can inspire loyalty in no one.
Source:
Seward, Desmond. “The End of the Angevin Empire.” Eleanor of Aquitaine. New York: Times , 1979. 254. Print.
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