Music From The Time of the Crusades (1 of 2)

This is a genuine 800 year old Troubadour song, arranged here for solo lyre, & written by King Richard the Lion Heart, whilst imprisoned during the Crusades! The song he wrote, over 800 year ago, is called "Ja Nus Hons Pris"...

"Ja nus hons pris ne dira sa reson
Adroitement, s'ensi com dolans non;
Mes par confort puet il fere chancon,
Moult ai d'amis, mes povre sont li don;
Hont en avront, se por ma reancon
Or sai je bien de voir certainement
Que mors ne pris n'a ami ne parent,
Quant hon me lait por or ne por argent.
Moult m'est de moi, mes plus m'est de ma gent,
Qu'apres ma mort avront reprochier grant,
Se longuement sui pris."

Here the English translation:

No prisoner ever tells his story objectively;
rather, it is cloaked in sorrow.
To comfort himself, however,
he may write a song:
I have many friends, but their gifts are few.
Dishonor will be theirs if I remain in prison
these two winters; my ransom unpaid.

My men and my barons,
from England, Normandy, Poitou, and Gascony,
know that I would never forsake
even the least of my friends.
I do no say this as a reproach.
Still... I remain a prisoner.

Despite all the pointless religious intolerance and bloody brutality of the Crusades, at least they resulted some amazing, utterly timeless melodies, like this! Indeed, it was upon hearing the late great David Munrow's arrangement of this tune performed on medieval Gemshorn, (which I happened to find by chance, on an utterly obscure tape cassette I found in WH Smith when I was just 14, waaaay back in 1982!) which is what got me hooked on ancient music in the first place...whilst my peers were all buying the latest "Bananarama" LP, I was "geeking out" to THIS! ;o)

Richard was imprisoned by the Duke of Austria who he had insulted while on Crusade. Traditionally he was discovered by his minstrel Blondel. It was his mother Eleanor of Aquitaine and the officials he left in charge of England, who raised the 150,000 Marks from the common people, that secured his release in February 1194.

My Albums of Ancient Lyre Music are available, anywhere in the world, from iTunes:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/michael-levy/id4324920

They are also available from Amazon MP3 Store:

http://amzn.to/eyI34H

Also, my 3 CD albums, "King David's Lyre; Echoes of Ancient Israel", "An Ancient Lyre" & "Lyre of the Levites" are available anywhere in the world from CD Baby:

http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/MichaelLevy

For full details, and all the historical research behind my myriad of "Musical Adventures in Time Travel", please visit my official website:

http://www.ancientlyre.com

Many thanks for watching!

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[peloavila]

brutality of the crusaders.... and what about muslims. the turks. are they saints? one of the causes of the crusades was the brutality of the muslims against catholic pilgrims.

[famousjonnyk]

The crusaders were sent to the Holy Land because of the land hungry Muslims who invaded the Byzantine Empire. The Crusaders were sent as a response to the attack against the Byzantines, and rightfully so.

[ThomasRenneis]

@famousjonnyk not to forget the ivading of Spain,sicilly,Romania;Bulgaria­,Hungary,the try to Invade Austria and the HRE...and so on and so on...

[EnjoiThrowdown]

@archer1949 and after we weakened our own brothers, islam continued to murder armenians and iranians, and now serbians, they creep closer and closer to the heart of europe

[EnjoiThrowdown]

@famousjonnyk rightfully so brother, and we do not forget the slaughter of our brothers in armenia, byzantium and aryans of iran, we see them in kosovo. the war continues, stay vigilant and keep a keen eye on the truth. the war has not ended.

[archer1949]

@famousjonnyk And less than two hundred years later, Western Crusaders who were sent to defend Byzantium and Outremer ended up sacking Constantinople itself, which futher weakened the Empire and helped spur Turkish conquest. That Crusade  didn't even make it to the Frankish Crusader Kingdoms because Constantinople was a better target.

The Crusades were about 20 percent piety and 80 percent loot.

[J0dXr]

im proud to be INFIDEL

[Ongarukat]

@karkrashful Exactly. The Crusades were needlessly and ruthlessly bloody, and to praise streets "piled with heads and hands and feet" or the sight of the (Jewish!!) Temple of Solomon filled with blood up to your horse's knees, "nay, the very bridle," was not uncommon. To ignore that as if the Christians were totally innocent is extremely dishonest and cruel.

[Ongarukat]

As someone who enjoys both early music AND Bananarama, I have to say, this is just plain awesome. All of it--the song, the description, everything.

[karkrashful]

@peloavila and the christians retaliated by taking over jerusalem and slaughtering every muslim man woman and child with no mercy. 

[CommunistSovietChris]

I was playin midevil 2 total war. And i was england. My closest ally russia. Invaded by second most trusted ally. I had a choice betray the church or brake the trust that me and the russians had. What started as a simple trade agreement turned into a friendship of trust. In blood and steel. From the mongol invasions were we repelled seemingly undless hoards. We joined the crusades of jerulslum.... I betrayed them..... DAMN wait i saved the game before that decison NEVERMIND EVERYONE!

[vonMohl]

Join the CRUSADE AGAINST THE PROFANATION OF CHRISTIAN SYMBOLS, find me on Facebook.