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This paper deals with the imbrication of the motif of love with that of holy war in the poetry of the Troubadours, especially in the sub-genre of the chanson de croisade. Though it is traditionally viewed as belonging to the political genre (sirventés) of twelfth and thirteenth-century Occitan literature, I prefer to subsume the chanson de croisade to the love song, the erotic canson, on account of their common religious substrate. Here the motifs of love and war meet and are refined to accord with the teachings of Catholic religion, such that unrequited fin’amor and religiously inspired Crusader militarism may be viewed as expressions of a single drive. The convergence of these two motifs over the history of Occitan lyricism is sometimes so perfect as to make it difficult to determine whether a particular poem is a militant song making metaphorical use of the imagery of love, or, conversely, a love song invoking the imagery of war to emphasize the force of passion. The avatars of Occitan lyric in other languages (Old French; Middle High German) also display the same dynamics, especially as far the imitations of Occitan chanson de croisade are concerned. Examining these songs in their generic context allows us to consider their extratextual dimensions and to show how the Troubadour songs in general and the chansons de croisade in particular not only reflected the value system of Occitan, French and German aristocracy in the era of the Crusades, but also exerted a performative influence upon it.