Jacques de Cysoing was a late thirteenth-century Franco-

French people

The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...

Flemish

Flemish people

The Flemings or Flemish are the Dutch-speaking inhabitants of Belgium, where they are mostly found in the northern region of Flanders. They are one of two principal cultural-linguistic groups in Belgium, the other being the French-speaking Walloons...

 trouvère

Trouvère

Trouvère , sometimes spelled trouveur , is the Northern French form of the word trobador . It refers to poet-composers who were roughly contemporary with and influenced by the troubadours but who composed their works in the northern dialects of France...

. He wrote nine songs that survive, all of them with their melodies.

Probably born into a noble Flemish family in Cysoing

Cysoing

Cysoing is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.It is southeast of Lille.-Heraldry:-References:*...

, "messire" Jacques probably flourished during the reign of Guy of Dampierre

Guy of Dampierre

Guy of Dampierre was the count of Flanders during the Battle of the Golden Spurs in 1302.Guy was the second son of William II of Dampierre and Margaret II of Flanders. The death of his elder brother William in a tournament made him joint Count of Flanders with his mother...

 as Count of Flanders

Count of Flanders

The Count of Flanders was the ruler or sub-ruler of the county of Flanders from the 9th century until the abolition of the position by the French revolutionaries in 1790....

 (1251–1305), for he addresses his serventois Li nouviaus tans to the count. Other events that date Jacques are a reference to the Battle of Mansurah in 1250 in one of his songs and a reference in an envoi

Envoi

In poetry, an envoi is a short stanza at the end of a poem used either to address an imagined or actual person or to comment on the preceding body of the poem.-Form:...

of Thomas Herier

Thomas Herier

Thomas Herier, Erier, Erriers, or Erars was a Picard trouvère associated with the "Arras school".Herier is not mentioned in contemporary documents and all that is known about him is derived from his works. He composed a jeu parti with Gillebert de Berneville and possibly another with Guillaume le...

 to "Jakemon" at "Cyson", probably in the third quarter of the century.

All of Jacques's musical compositions are in ABABx form and are preserved in only a few manuscripts, but one, Nouvele amour, exists in eight different versions, including two contrafacta. The popularity of this one piece is probably explained by its rondeau

Rondeau (music)

The rondeau was a Medieval and early Renaissance musical form, based on the contemporary popular poetic rondeau form. It is distinct from the 18th century rondo, though the terms are likely related...

 form, though the original text is not a rondeau. Jacques's song Quant la saisons is a chanson avec des refrains in which each of the eight stanzas has a different refrain and some of these refrains are found in other songs.