Perez, Maria (fl. 13th c.)
Perez, Maria (fl. 13th c.)
Medieval Spanish composer and singer who wrote sacred plainsong and performed in the courts of Europe. Name variations: Maria Perez Balteira; La Balteira. Flourished in the 13th century.
Maria Perez, also known as La Balteira, lived a long, lusty life which might have come from the pages of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. A medieval Spanish composer and singer, she wrote sacred plainsong and performed in the courts of Europe; she was also reckless and profane and loved to gamble. Men were greatly attracted to her, including Alphonso X the Wise (1221–1284) at whose court she sang for a time. Alphonso used Perez as a spy against his Moorish enemies who could not resist her charms. But Perez often wavered between Moors and Spaniards in her loyalties, and at one interval consorted with a Moorish chief. Another time, she fleeced the king's archers and made off with the spoils. Perez often vowed to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, but she never got farther than Montpellier, a circumstance which prompted satirical poems and songs to be written about her. Despite her eccentricities, Perez remained much loved by Moors and Spaniards alike. In old age, she renounced her past, took up good works, and bequeathed an estate to the Cistercian monks at Sobrado.
John Haag , Athens, Georgia