Guillaume de Machaut

Guillaume de Machaut (1300?-1377) exerted considerable influence in both music and poetry during his lifetime. Employed from his youth as a secretary to King John I of Bohemia, he stayed in the employ of various other nobles throughout his life. His 400 poems or so discussed the subjects of courtly love and war, while he also wrote both secular and sacred music, blazing trails in polyphony as well as the forms of motets and ballades.