trouvère

(-vûr', -vœr')
n.
One of a class of poet-musicians flourishing in northern France in the 12th and 13th centuries, who composed chiefly narrative works, such as the chansons de geste, in langue d'oïl.

[French, from Old French trovere, from trover, to compose, from Vulgar Latin *tropāre. See troubadour.]

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trouvère [troo‐vair], a poet of northern France in the late Middle Ages. The trouvères flourished in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, and were in many respects the followers of the Provençal troubadours, although their repertoire extended beyond love lyrics into narrative verse, especially the chanson de geste and the verse romance. The term covers some of the professional entertainers known as jongleurs, but applies mainly to poets of higher rank. The most important was Chrétien de Troyes, who established the Arthurian romance of courtly love with his Lancelot (c.1170); other notable trouvères include Conon de Béthune, Thibaud de Champagne, and Blondel de Nesle—who, according to legend, discovered the imprisoned Richard the Lionheart by singing under his window.