The tales of Lancelot and Tristram, the lives of the troubadours and the Wachtlieder of the minnesingers, sufficiently prove with what sensual freedom a knight loved the lady whom custom and art made him profess to worship as a saint.
The most accomplished and versatile representative of his gifted family, Richard was, in his lifetime and long afterwards, a favourite hero with troubadours and romancers.
In character and interests he was rather Provencal than Spanish, a favourer of the troubadours, no enemy of the Albigensian heretics, and himself a poet in the southern French dialect.
He was a favourer of the troubadours, and in his ways of life he indulged in the laxity of Provençal morals to the fullest extent.
Alphonso, who became count of Portugal in 1128, was one of the warrior heroes of medieval romance; his exploits were sung by troubadours throughout south-western Europe, and even in Africa " ibn Errik " - the son of Henry - was known and feared.
