Nothing is known of “P. Basc”, the name attached to this sirventes in the collections of troubadour poetry called chansonniers. Nevertheless, this poem is often listed among the works of the trobairitz, the women troubadours. The poet, whoever she or he was, apparently wrote during the period when Jacme (James) I of Aragon (1208-1276) had expanded his rule into Languedoc (present-day southern France). The regulations the poet bemoans—sumptuary laws in 13th-century France, Languedoc, and Italy— were the first laws in western Europe to attempt to control the clothing lay people could wear.