Jacques Bretel
Jacques Bretel or Jacques Bretex was a French language trouvère, best known for having written le Tournoi de Chauvency.
His only known work, signed and dated in 1285, le Tournoi de Chauvency is a long poem of about 4,500 verses recounting the events of a tournament held during six days of feasting given by Louis V, Count of Chiny, in October 1285 at Chauvency-le-Château. It is without doubt a masterpiece of French Middle Ages literature and, in any case, one of the best digests of courtly art of the period.
His origin is unknown, but Tournoi de Chauvency is written in Old French combined with words in the western Lorraine dialect.
Le Tournoi de Chauvency is kept in a manuscript at the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford.
