THE OCCITANL RENAISSANCE
In the centuries following the crusade against the South, the Occitan lands were gradually annexed under the kingdom of France. In 1539 the Edict of Villers-Cotteret was passed which imposed the use of the French language in all public acts, thereby making it seem likely that the Occitan language was doomed. However the Religious Wars between Catholics and Protestants, served to undermine the king’s power, and the sovereign was faced by a great poet, Peire de Garròs, “taking up the damned cause – of our disdained language”. Whilst the in Albi region, it was Augier Galhard who voiced his defence in writing, while in Provence the language was defended by Belaud de la Belaudière. The end of the XVI century saw an unexpected re-birth of language conscience, while it was in Toulouse, the glorious town of the pastel, the second most important in France, in which one of the greatest poets of the time was born: Pèire Godolin. His works brought him great fame and glory, and he came under the patronage of nobles and became a kind of official poet for the town at the beginning of the XVII century. In old age, and in financial difficulty he approached the government for help, which it gave, acclaiming all the glory and fame that the poet has brought to Toulouse. His most famous work remains “Lo Ramelet Mondin” dated 1671, and three collections of verse (“Floretas”). The personality of Godolin is closely linked to the glorious years of Toulouse, when the «blue gold» which was the «pastel» dye, brought immense wealth to the town.