Gil Peres Conde
Trovador medieval

Biographical Note:

Portuguese troubadour (nationality that he himself mentions in one if his compositions), active in the middle and final 13th century, in the courts of Alfonso X and Sancho IV of Castilla, as his satirical compositions prove. We know almost nothing, however, of his biography, nor the reasons he left for Castilla, where he’s documented from 1269 to, at least, 1286. Resende de Oliveira1 supposes that he would have belonged to a Conde lineage, arising from the Sousa family as bastards (from the liaison of count Dom Mendo de Sousa to a lady from Guimarães, a liaison that resulted, according to the Books of Lineages, in a Martim Mendes Conde). From this lineage there are several documented individuals in the beginning and mid-13thcentury, one of which, Martim Peres Conde, clergyman of the Coimbra cathedral, might eventually be the troubadour’s brother.

References

1 Oliveira, António Resende de (1994), Depois do espectáculo trovadoresco. A estrutura dos cancioneiros peninsulares e as recolhas dos séculos XIII e XIV, Lisboa, Edições Colibri.