ABSTRACT
This chapter describes entertainers such as troubadours of Toulousan origin or residence around 1200. The main business of these singers and poets was to entertain, a function they sometimes performed with such brio as to stagger the morally stiff. At Toulouse around 1200, there is no doubt that they were rich: excepting a few very rich 'arrivistes,' the most expensive marriage contracts are those of such families, urban or rural in domicile. Like Cathars fleeing the Inquisition, however, most Toulousan emigrants aligned themselves to those hostile to the Capetians, the Roman see and the mendicants, Rome's ecclesiastical allies. In Europe generally and specifically in Toulouse, working-class folk enjoyed romance just as much as did their social superiors. As entertainers and authors, troubadours wanted butter and jam on their bread. The biographical lives or vidas,' furthermore, mention few 'amice' except great ladies or princesses.
