Guillem Augier^[1] Novella was a troubadour from Vienne in the Dauphinois who lived most of his adulthood in Lombardy and was active as a minstrel in the early or mid thirteenth century.^[2] According to his late thirteenth-century vida, "he composed good descartz and sirventes in the manner of jongleurs, in which he praised some and blamed others."^[2]

Augier spent his early career at the court of the Emperor Frederick II, and was there associated with such figures as Guilhem Figueira and Aimery de Pégulhan, until 1230.^[2] Among Augier's most famous works is his sirventes (a planh or lament) now entitled A People Grieving for the Death of their Lord, which commemorates either the murder of Raymond I Trencavel in 1167 or, as is more preferred, of Raymond Roger Trencavel in 1209.^[3][4] It has been described as a "funeral oration",^[3] but its contemporaneousness with the death of Raymond Roger has been called into question recently.^[3] It was probably written at a much later date. The chief purpose of the sirventes may be to mourn the lost culture of Languedoc before the Albigensian Crusade and the "lord" of the story is probably a stereotype meant to represent that culture.^[5] It can therefore be viewed as representative of a genre of anti-Crusading verse prevalent in the trovatore traditions of Italy at the time. On the other hand, it is said to convey a "sense of personal loss" and not "opposition to the expedition".^[4]