Bernart de Rovenac
French troubadour and poet
Bernart de Rovenac, Rovenhac, or Roenach (fl. 1242–1261) was a Languedocian troubadour. Four of his sirventes have been preserved. The attitude ubiquitous in his poetry is perhaps best expressed by these lines: Aital guerra m'agrada mas que platz, / non tals treguas ont om si'enganatz ("Thus war would please me more than peace, / nor such truces wherein men lie").
Bernart hailed from Rovenac in the modern Aude. He is first attested in early 1242, when he composed a poem, Ja no vuelh do mi esnenda, concerning a local uprising against King Louis IX in Languedoc. In it he attacks both James I of Aragon and Henry III of England for not coming to the aid of their vassals and makes a play on James' Occitan name, Jacme: Jacme (i.e. jac-me) quar trop vol jazer, meaning that it is appropriate his name is "James (i.e. "Going-to-bed"), because he wants to lie down too much." This piece was written in Limós near Rovenac, as a line of the tornada indicates.
In a slightly later poem, D'un sirventes m'es gran voluntatz preza, Bernart attacks amdos los reis ("both the kings") for neglecting lor fieus ("their fiefs") that the rei que conquer Suria ("king who conquered Syria") has possessed.
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