William IX of Aquitaine

William IX of Aquitaine, who was also known as William the Troubadour, ruled as Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony and Count of Poitou from 1086 until his death in 1126, and he took part in the Crusade of 1101. He was born on 22 October 1071 and died on 10 February 1126. Although his campaigns and rule carry some historical weight, he is remembered in literary history as the earliest troubadour whose work survives, a lyric poet who wrote in the Occitan language rather than in Latin. That makes him the starting point of the vernacular song tradition of southern France that later troubadours such as Jaufre Rudel and Bertran de Born built on. The surviving poems are the main reason a medieval ruler appears among the authors of this atlas.