Troubadour, Literary Folk Figure. A Provençal poet of Catalan origin, he is the subject of one of the most famous of troubadour legends. Cabestany was born in the region of Rossillon near the Spanish border, and frequented the court of Alfonso II of Aragon. Like many Catalan knights he participated in the battle against the Moors at Las Navas de Tolosa (July 16, 1212) and was probably killed in action, as no further evidence of him exists. Seven of his lyrics survive, none with their music. The best known, "Lo dous cossire" ("The Sweet Sadness"), was very popular; it was preserved in 22 different manuscripts and adapted into new songs by other troubadours and at least one German minnesinger. Cabestany's vida (short biography), presumably written by Uc de Saint-Circ around 1230, chronicles his love for Seremonda, wife of the knight Raimon of Castel Rossillon. He dedicated songs to her, and she returned his love. Raimon murdered Cabestany in a jealous rage and served his heart to his unsuspecting wife for dinner. When he revealed what he had done - producing Cabestany's severed head as proof - Seremonda told him, "My lord, you have given me such a precious meal that I shall never have another" and threw herself off a balcony. Word of the tragedy reached Alfonso II, who tossed Raimon in prison for life and gave his lands to the parents of his victims. He then had Cabestany and Seremonda buried together at Perpignan Cathedral and ordered annual pilgrimages to their graves. Saint-Circ made no distinction between fact and fiction in his troubadour vidas, but this was far-fetched even for him. Later research established that the historical Seremonda and Raimon were married in 1197, by which time Alfonso II was already dead, and that their marriage prospered; the tale of the grisly meal was inspired either by the Roman poet Ovid or an old Eastern fable. The real point of the story - at least for Saint-Circ, a troubadour himself and an exile - was that enlightened monarchs recognized how artists were entitled to certain liberties in their behavior, and avenged wrongs done to them. (Certainly wishful thinking, along with a mindset that hasn't changed over the centuries). But the image he created of Cabestany and Seremonda as "love martyrs" proved irresistible in the literary world. One Renaissance writer likened their story to Tristan and Iseult. Among the many works that have cited it are Petrarch's "The Triumph of Love" (c. 1342), Boccaccio's "The Decameron" (c. 1353), Stendahl's "On Love" (1822), and Ezra Pound's 20th Century "Cantos".