Mem Rodrigues de Briteiros
Trovador medieval


Nationality: Portuguesa

Biographical Note:

Portuguese troubadour, active in the final decades of the 13th century. The third son of the family’s dean, the also troubadour Rui Gomes de Briteiros and Elvira Anes de Maia, Mem Rodrigues is first documented at the portuguese court around 1252, already after the death of his father1. But from him he inherits the status of rico-homem (high nobility), granted by Afonso III to Rui Gomes de Briteiros, and his path confirms the de facto ascension of the Briteiros lineage, grand representatives of the new ascendant aristocracy in the portuguese court after the civil war that led Afonso to power.
Present in the portuguese documentation between 1252 and 1304, Mem Rodrigues doesn’t accumulate palatine positions, but was lieutenant of Lanhoso (1257), of Maia (1256-1287), corretor of the kingdom (1273) and lieutenant of the place of Mordomo (1297). His presence in the portuguese court is, however, intermittent, being interrupted several times, in periods of three or four years, in favor of journeys to Castilla between the decades of 1250 and 1290. He was also one of the challengers of King Denis’ sentence relative to the inheritance of Count Garcia de Sousa (1288), a situation that would lead him to a new withdrawal from the portuguese court, being documented in the court of Sancho IV of Castilla between 1291 and 1294. He returns, however, in 1295, to the court of King Denis, having remained there until 1304, his death probably occurring shortly thereafter.
He married around 1257 with Maria Anes da Veiga, a marriage from which were born Martim Mendes and João Mendes de Briteiros, the latter also a troubadour


References

1 Ventura, Leontina e Oliveira, António Resende de (2003), "Os Briteiros (séculos XII-XIV) 4. Produção Trovadoresca", in Os Reinos Ibéricos na Idade Média. Livro de Homenagem ao Professor Doutor Humberto Carlos Baquero Moreno, coord. Luís Adão da Fonseca et al, vol. II , Porto, Livraria Civilização.

Read all cantigas (in Cancioneiros' order)


Cantigas (alphabetical order):


Veerom-me meus amigos dizer
Cantiga de Amor


Doubtful Authorship:


Pero Colhos é deitado
Cantiga de Escárnio e maldizer

Um sangrador de Leirea
Cantiga de Escárnio e maldizer