Guillem de Masdovelles

Late in 1389 the count of Armagnac, John III, invaded northern Catalonia from across the Pyrenees in an attempt to seize the Kingdom of Majorca, which he claimed.

Guillem puts word into the mouth of the bellicose count of Charolais in an attempt to stir up his own Catalans' martial fervour.

The sirventes, ferocious and sanguine, which dreams of exterminating the rebellious Sicilians, is written, according to its author, en la guaya siença, in the "gay science" espoused by the Consistori.

[9] The song Eras mi ponch Amors tan finamen, written for Toulouse, deals primarily with the topic of secret love, always from the traditional perspective of the troubadours, as the Consistori's Leys d'amors dictated.

The song Pus li prat son de verdura guarnit, given at Barcelona, was written in a fast style because it was Lent (jatz que siam en los jorns caresmals).

Guillem also wrote Le temps presens de guaya primavera for the Consistori of Barcelona but won no prize for it.

This was a private contest held in June 1438 in the parish of Sant Just in Barcelona by Bartomeu Castelló, a notary public.

Based on internal evidence, they can be dated to the final phase of Guillem's writing career and towards the end of his life.

The most interesting of such poems is probably his Pus qu'iey suy vielhs, en favor de les velles or "Because I am old, in favour of old ladies", in which Guillem and his nephew argued over whether older or younger women were to be preferred.

Ironically, in another poem, Dues gentils donzellas say que•z an, Guillem defends his love for a girl of twenty-two, while Joan Berenguer expresses a preference for twelve-year-olds.