ur de Lion who mentions Bertran's name. The
_razos_ prefixed to some of his poems by way of explanation are the work
of an anonymous troubadour (possibly Uc de Saint-Cire); they constantly
misinterpret the poems they attempt to explain, confuse names and
events, and rather exaggerate the part played by Bertran himself.
Besides these sources we have the cartulary of Dalon, or rather the
extracts made from it by Guignieres in 1680 (the original has been
lost), which give us information about Bertran's family and possessions.
From these materials, and from forty-four or forty-five poems which have
come down to us, the poet's life can be reconstructed.

Bertran de Bern's estates were situated on the borders of Limousin and
Perigord. The family was ancient and honourable; from the cartulary
Bertran appears to have been born about 1140; we find him, with his
brother Constantin, in possession of the castle of Hautefort, which
seems to have been a strong fortress; the lands belonging to the family
were of no great extent, and the income accruing from them was but
scanty. In 1179 Bertran married one Raimonde, of whom nothing is known,
except that she bore him at least two sons. In 1192 he lost this first [59]
wife, and again married a certain Philippe. His warlike and turbulent
character was the natural outcome of the conditions under which he
lived; the feudal system divided the country into a number of fiefs, the
boundaries of which were ill defined, while the lords were constantly at
war with one another. All owed allegiance to the Duke of Aquitaine, the
Count of Poitou, but his suzerainty was, in the majority of cases,
rather a name than a reality. These divisions were further accentuated
by political events; in 1152 Henry II., Count of Anjou and Maine,
married Eleanor, the divorced wife of Louis VII. of France, and mistress
of Aquitaine. Henry became king of England two years later, and his rule
over the barons of Aquitaine, which had never been strict, became the
more relaxed owing to his continual absence in England.

South of Aquitaine proper the dominions of the Count of Toulouse
stretched from the Garonne to the Alps; this potentate was also called
the Duke of Narbonne, and was not disposed to recognise the suzerainty
of the Duke of Aquitaine. But in 1167 Alfonso II., King of Aragon and
Count of Barcelona, had inherited Provence, to which the Duke of
Toulouse laid claim. Henry and Alfonso thus became natural allies,