In the tremendous flowering of the art of trouvères in the 12th and 13th centuries, courtly love was not the only theme developed by poet-musicians.

The "fin'amor" actually appears in a harsh and warlike old feudal world, which is just beginning to integrate this new ideal of courtesy. This is why the period of creation of the trouvères is also that of the apogee of "chivalry". Originally a simple professional group of the military aristocracy, the knighthood stands as a social and ethical community. Chivalry and nobility now merge. Chivalry becomes hereditary and becomes Christianized. It becomes a fundamental element for the stability of feudal society. It is therefore logical to find in the impressive production of the trouvères a certain number of songs reflecting the essential concerns of the chivalrous spirit of the 12th and 13th centuries. Crusade songs and political songs are the most striking expressions of this.

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Two other genres of uncourteous lyric shed much light on this chivalrous and feudal ideal. The lay and the chanson de geste also testify to this very medieval taste for sung stories and the immense success of the jugglers who peddled them. They also have in common the seniority of their origin and a decisive role in the development, creation, fixation of this beautiful langue d'oïl.