Sex sells. It's the advertising cliché that comes to mind every time you turn on the television, and it's true. From soap operas that glorify the drama of a relationship, to daytime talk shows that mediate rejected spouses, to news programs that expose philandering politicians, the more illicit the relationship, the better. The same maxim was valid for medieval Occitania and for the texts of the troubadours. Married women were often the subjects of these songs, depicted as the neglected wife, the frightened victim of a jealous husband, the passionate lover, but always idolized by the voice of the troubadour. Between stolen moments and secret glances, the noble woman plays shy and resists her suitor's advances. Or does it? In the absence of her husband, what will stop our noble heroine from falling into the arms of a smooth-talking artist? Although adultery is not always explicitly mentioned, the vivid descriptions of sensual encounters do more than suggest illicit activity. This fascination with unavailable women is curious but not inexplicable, regardless of any truth behind the songs. To understand the interest in married women we must first understand what marriage meant to the nobility. Far from the happy ending of romantic fairy tales, marriage in Occitania was a business arrangement in which little, if any, thought was given to the emotions of the couple involved. “On the whole, marriage for them was simply an economic and political enterprise: its objectives were the expansion of the fiefdom, the consolidation of power and the continuation of their lineage.” Land and power were accumulated and passed down within the family and as such a wife's ability to bear legitimate children was extremely important. “…[T]he aristocracy, which in the twelfth...... middle of paper......Paden, William D., and Frances Freeman Paden. Troubadour poems from the south of France. Cambridge, UK: D.S. Brewer, 2007.Paden, William D. “The Beloved Lady in Medieval Galician-Portuguese and Occitan Lyric Poetry.” La Corónica: A Journal of Medieval Hispanic Languages, Literatures, and Cultures 32, no. 2 (2004): 69-84. Accessed April 2014. doi:10.1353/cor.2004.0031.Paden, William D., Jr., Mireille Bardin, Michele Hall, Patricia Kelly, F. Gregg Ney, Simone Pavlovich, and Alice South. "The Troubadour's Lady: Her Marital Status and Social Rank." Exemplaria: A Journal of Theory in Medieval and Renaissance Studies 11, no. 2 (1999): 221-44. Accessed April 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4173861.Paden, William D. “The Troubadour's Lady Seen Through Thick History.” Specimens 11, n. 2 (January 1, 1999): 221-44. Accessed April 2014. doi:10.1179/104125799790497060.