Lord Aimeric de Peguilhan was from Toulouse, the son of a burgher who was a merchant and had cloth to sell. He learned songs and sirventes, but he sang very badly. And he fell in love with a burgher, his neighbor. And this love taught him how to invent poetry. And he composed many good songs about her. And the husband of the laady quarreled with him and dishonored him. And Lord Aimeric took revenge and struck him on the head with a sword. For this reason it was necessary for him to leave Toulouse and go into exile.
And he went to Catalonia. And Lord Guillem de Berguendan welcomed him, and he exalted him in his invention of poetry, in the first song he composed. And Guillem made him a minstrel and gave him his palfrey and his clothing. And he introduced him to King Anfos de Castilla who increased his equipment and his honor. And he was in those regions for a long time.
Later he went to Lombardy, where all the notable men granted him great honor. And he ended his days in Lombardy.
*nb* an alternate version of the story adds a vignette of Aimeric returning to Toulouse when he hears that his lady’s husband is away. He claims that he’s a pilgrim, in need of hospitality en route to his pilgrimage. Stricken with a pretended illness, he is _forced_ to stay at the lady’s house.
” And the lady pretended to cover him with the cloth and kissed him. From here on, I do not know what happened, except that Lord Aimeric stayed there for ten days under the pretext of his illness. ..”
Vida #3, quoted from:
Egan, Margarita, The Vidas of the Troubadours, Vol. 6 Series B, Garland Library of Medieval Literature, NY, 1984, page 2.