Raimon de Tors de Marseilha

Raimon de Tors de Marseilha (fl. 1257–1265) was a Provençal troubadour. He hailed from the "city of towers ("tors")" in Marseille ("Marseilha"), a district wherein the local bishop possessed many towers. He wrote six moral and political "sirventes" which survive.

Raimon was a dispassionate debater, equally sympathetic to the Guelph cause of Charles of Anjou and that of the Ghibelline Henry of Castile. He had great affection for Alfonso X of Castile, but never visited Spain. But like many contemporary troubadours on either side he hated "false clerics" and denigrates them extensively in his poetry. Metrically and rythmically, Raimon imitated the "Apres mon vers vueilh sempr'ordre" of Raimbaut d'Aurenga in his own "Ar es dretz q'ieu chan e parlle".

Raimon's most interesting and entertaining song is undoubtedly his complaint against mothers-in-law, "A totz maritz mand e dic".

ources

*Riquer, Martín de. "Los trovadores: historia literaria y textos". 3 vol. Barcelona: Planeta, 1975.