Nicolas Champion

Nicolas Champion (also Nicolas Liégeois, dis le Liégeois; c. 1475 – 20 September 1533) was a Franco-Flemish composer and singer of the Renaissance. He was a member of the renowned musical establishments of the Habsburg court, including the chapels of Philip I of Castile and Charles V. While with Philip’s chapel he was a close associate of composers such as Pierre de La Rue, Marbrianus de Orto and Alexander Agricola. Life Champion was born in or near Liège, where he probably received his early training. Little information survives regarding his early life and the first record relating to his involvement with Philip’s Grande chapelle, the Habsburg chapel choir, dates from 13 November 1501, prior to Philip’s first trip to Spain. He was one of the few singers who remained with the chapel after Philip’s death in 1506, maintained by his wife Joanna the Mad; for several years after Philip’s death, Joanna traveled around Castile with his corpse in its coffin, having her chapel choir sing requiems to it each night, until her father Ferdinand I finally had her locked up in the fortress at Tordesillas. After the dissolution of Joanna’s chapel, Champion joined the chapel of Charles V. While th