ABSTRACT
As I have told you, during the time that Bertran de Born was at war with Count Richard, he arranged for the viscount of Ventadorn and the viscount of Combom and the viscount of Segur–who was the viscount of Limoges–and the viscount of Turenne to all swear allegiance to a pact with the Count of Perigord, with the bourgeois of those lands, with the lord of Gourdon and with the lord of Montfort. They united together so as to defend themselves against Count Richard, who wished to rob them of their lands because of their love for his brother, the Young King, with whom he was at war and from whom he had taken all the revenues from carriage traffic. The Young King did have a certain stake in these carriages as his father had given them these rights; and Richard left the Young King no safe resting place anywhere in his own territory. And Bertran composed this sirventes on the topic of the oath that these men had taken to wage war against Sir Richard: Since Ventadorn and Combom with Ségur…
