CHAPTER IV.
TROUBADOUR.
NAVARRE has not produced many poets in early times; and the only troubadour whom it claims, is the famous lover of Blanche of Castile, the accomplished Thibault of Champagne, who rather belongs to Provins, where he lived so much, and sang so many of his beautiful lays, than to the Pyrenees.

All critics, ancient and modern, from Dante to the Abbe Massieu, have agreed in admiring his compositions, in which grace, tenderness, and refinement, shine out in every line, encumbered though his language be with its antique costume.

His mother was Blanche, daughter of Sancho the Wise, King of Navarre; his birth took place in 1201, a few months after the death of his father; and it was with difficulty the persecuted widow could retain her government of Champagne and Brie.

In 1234, he was called to the throne of Navarre, by the death of his maternal uncle, Sancho le Fort.

Soon after this, he left for the Holy Land; therefore, what time he spent in Navarre, does not appear.