Conon de Béthune (EN)

Conon de Béthune, *ca. 1160 Pas-de-Calais, †l7 December 1219 or 1220, a trouvère from northern France. He was the son of Robert V, Count of Béthune, a descendant of the House of Artois, and Adelaide de Saint-Pol, who was related to the Flemish aristocracy. He learned the art of poetry and the skill of composing melodies (l’art du trouver) from his uncle Huon d’Oisy, castellan of Cambrai and a renowned trouvère. For a time, he stayed at the French royal court; during the wedding celebrations of Philip Augustus and Isabella of Hainault, he was mocked for using the Picard dialect, which provoked his vehement protest, expressed in the song Moult mé semont Amors que je m’envoise. He took part in the Third and Fourth Crusades under the command of Count Baldwin of Flanders, who was crowned Emperor of Constantinople in 1204. Conon played an active role in the military and political affairs of the Byzantine Empire of the time; in his work Prise du Constantinople, Villehardouin particularly emphasised his oratorical talent. In 1217, he was appointed marshal of the court in Constantinople, and subsequently regent of the Byzantine Empire; he held this office until his death.

Among the 11 songs preserved with musical notation are two chansons de croisade and one tenso in the form of a dialogue between a lady and her knight, featuring an archaic structure reminiscent of the chanson de geste, as well as love songs, which are the earliest works by Conon de Béthune, who ceased to deal with this subject matter after 1180. The popularity of the songs dedicated to the Crusades, Bien me deusse targier and Ahi, Amors, com dure departie, is evidenced by French contrafacts of these works; the text and melody of Ahi, Amors, com dure departie were also used by the minnesingers Friedrich von Hausen (Mîn herze und mîn lip diu wellent scheiden) and Albrecht von Johansdorf (Mich mac der tôt von ir minnen wol scheiden). Bertran de Born drew on the stanzaic structure of the love song Moult mé semont Amors… in his sirventes Pois als baros enoja e lur pesa, dedicating it, incidentally, to Conon de Béthune, referred to here by the pseudonym Isembert; the same versification formula was used by Gace Brulé in Bien ait l’amor dont l’en cuide avoir joie and by the minnesinger Bernger von Horheim in Wie solt ich armer der swaere getruwen. A particular correspondence between the versification structure and the musical form is evident in the song Tant ai aimé c’or me convient hair. In addition to the eleven surviving songs, several other works are attributed to Conon de Béthune, though their authorship is sometimes disputed.

Literature: J. Frank, W. Müller-Blattau Trouvères et Minnesänger, 2 vols., Saarbrücken 1952–56; I.M. Cluzel, L. Pressouyre Les origines de la poésie lyrique d’oïl et les premiers trouvères, Paris 1962; H. van der Werf The chansons of the Troubadours et Trouvères, Utrecht 1972; P. Gülke Mänche, Bürger, Minnesänger. Musik in der Gesellschaft des europäischen Mittelalters, Leipzig 1975; H.-H.S. Rakel Die musikalische Erscheinungform der Trouvèrpoesie, «Publikationen der Schweizerischen Musikforschenden Gesellschaft», series II, vol. 27, Bern 1977; F. Gennrich Zu Liedern des Conon de Béthune, “Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie” XLII, 1922; P.A. Becker Die Kreuzzugslieder von Conon de Béthune und Huon d’Oisi, “Zeitschrift für französische Sprache und Literatur” LXIV, 1942; H.-H. Räkel Drei Lieder zum dritten Greuzzug, “Deutsche Vierteljahresschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte” XLVII, 1973.