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diff --git a/32695-h/32695-h.htm b/32695-h/32695-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0556dc1 --- /dev/null +++ b/32695-h/32695-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,13225 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> + <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> + <title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Women of Mediæval France, by Pierce Butler</title> + + +<style type="text/css"> +<!-- + +body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%} + +h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center;} +p {text-align: justify} +blockquote {text-align: justify} + +hr {width: 50%; text-align: center} +hr.full {width: 100%} +hr.short {width: 10%; text-align: center} + +.note {font-size: 0.8em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%} +.footnote {font-size: 0.8em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%} + + +.sc {font-variant: small-caps} +.lef {float: left} +.mid {text-align: center} +.rig {float: right} +.sml {font-size: 10pt} +.overl {font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: overline; text-align: center} +.red {color: red; font-style: italic;} + + +.poem {margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; + text-align: left} +.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em} +.poem .stanza.i {margin: 1em 0em; font-style: italic;} +.poem p {padding-left: 3em; margin: 0px; text-indent: -3em} +.poem p.i2 {margin-left: 1em} +.poem p.i4 {margin-left: 2em} +.poem p.i6 {margin-left: 3em} +.poem p.i8 {margin-left: 4em} +.poem p.i10 {margin-left: 5em} +.poem p.i12 {margin-left: 6em} +.poem p.i14 {margin-left: 7em} +.poem p.i16 {margin-left: 8em} +.poem p.i18 {margin-left: 9em} +.poem p.i20 {margin-left: 10em} +.poem p.i30 {margin-left: 15em} + + +--> +</style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Women of Mediæval France, by Pierce Butler + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Women of Mediæval France + Woman: in all ages and in all countries Vol. 5 (of 10) + +Author: Pierce Butler + +Release Date: June 5, 2010 [EBook #32695] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMEN OF MEDIÆVAL FRANCE *** + + + + +Produced by Rénald Lévesque + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<br><br> + + + +<h2><i>WOMAN</i></h2> + +<hr class="short"> + +<h5>VOLUME V</h5> + +<h3>WOMEN OF MEDIÆVAL FRANCE</h3> + +<h5>by</h5> + +<h4>PIERCE BUTLER, PH. D.</h4> + +<h5>OF TULANE UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA</h5> + + +<br><br><br> +<a name="ill1" id="ill1"></a> + +<p class="mid"><img alt="" src="images/001.png"><br> +<b><i>ODETTE DE CHAMPDIVERS AND CHARLES VI.<br> +After the painting by Albrecht de Vriendt</i></b></p> +<blockquote> +<b><i>The king, now often idiotic when he was not raving,... To amuse and +distract him, and also to strengthen the Burgundian influence, the Duke +of Burgundy provided him with a fair child as playmate and mistress. To +the sway once held by Valentine over Charles there now succeeded Odette. +She was little more than a child, but she became mistress as well as +playfellow of the mad king. Of humble origin (daughter of a horse +dealer), she wears in court history a name better than that she was born +to, Odette de Champdivers; and the people, indulgent of the sin of the +mad king, called her "la petite reine" She was happy, it seems, and kind +to the king, amused him, was loved by him; and, more true to him than +was quite pleasing to the Burgundians, did not play false to France in +later years when Burgundy and England were leagued together.</i></b> +</blockquote> + +<br><br> + +<h1 class="red">WOMAN</h1> + +<h4>In all ages and in all countries</h4> + +<h4><i>VOLUME V</i></h4> + +<br><br> + +<h2>WOMEN OF MEDIÆVAL FRANCE</h2> + +<h5>BY</h5> + +<h3>PIERCE BUTLER, PH. D.</h3> + +<h5><i>Of Tulane University of Louisiana</i></h5> + +<br><br> + +<h2 class="red">Illustrated</h2> + +<br><br> + + + +<p class="mid"><i>PHILADELPHIA<br> +GEORGE BARRIE & SONS, PUBLISHERS</i></p> + +<br><br> + +<p class="mid">TO</p> +<p class="mid">M. L. B. AND J. P. B.</p> +<br><br> + +<a name="pre" id="pre"></a> +<br><br><br> + + +<h3>PREFACE</h3> + +<p>It is the customary privilege of the author to meet you at the +threshold, as it were, bid you welcome, and in his own person explain +more fully and freely than he may elsewhere the plan and intent of his +book. After you have crossed this imaginary boundary you may judge for +yourself, weigh and consider, and condemn even with scant regard for the +author's feelings; for as a guest it is your privilege. But here outside +I am still speaking as one with authority and unabashed; for I know not, +and will not let myself fancy, how the reader will censure me. Though +the little that need be said may be said briefly, I trust the reader +will be a reader gentle enough to permit me graciously this word of +general comment upon the whole work.</p> + +<p>From the mediaeval <i>Ladies' Book</i>, of a kind that will be referred to in +the following pages, to the very latest volume of <i>Social England</i>, or +more aptly, perhaps, to the most local and frivolous <i>Woman's World</i> +edited by an Eve in your daily paper, all the little repositories of +ebbing gossip help immensely in the composition of a picture of the life +of any period. They are not history; by the dignified historian of a few +generations ago they were neglected if not scorned; but more and more +are they coming to their own as material for history. In like manner the +volume hardly claims to be a formal history, but rather ancillary to +history. It has been the aim to present pictures from history, scenes +from the lives of historic women, but above and through all to give as +definite an idea as might be of the life of women at various periods in +the history of mediaeval France.</p> + +<p>The keenness of your appetite for the repast spread will be the measure +of the author's success. But whether I have been successful or not, the +purpose was as has been said. Figures more or less familiar in history +have been selected as the centrepieces; but scarcely anywhere have I +felt myself bound to expound at length the political history of France: +that was a business in which few women had a controlling voice, however +lively their interest may have been, however pitifully or tragically +their fate may have been influenced by battle or politics or mere +masculine capricious passion.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Theirs not to reason why;</p> +<p class="i14"> Theirs but to do or die,"</p> +</div></div> + +<p>may be said of the soldier. Of these women of mediaeval France, as of +all in the good days of old, it might be better said that it was not +even theirs to do; the relief of action was not theirs; but to suffer +and to die, without question. Yet the life was not all pain and +suffering and sadness, as the scenes depicted will show. It is merely +that the laughter has fallen fainter and fainter and died away--comedy +perishes too often with the age that laughed at it--while the tears have +left their stain.</p> + +<p>With this little hint to the reader I have done, and let the book tell +him more if he please. To those who helped me in the writing of, nay, +who made it possible to write this book, my gratitude is none the less +strong that I do not write them down in the catalogue. Many a page will +bring back vividly to them as well as to me the circumstances under +which it was written. May these memories sweeten my thanks to them.</p> + +<p class="rig">PIERCE BUTLER.<br>New Orleans.</p> + +<br><br><br><br> +<a name="c1" id="c1"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER I</h3> + +<h3>IN THE DAYS OF THE CAPETIAN KINGS</h3> + +<p>In the older conception, history was a record chiefly of battles, of +intrigues, of wicked deeds; it was true that the evil that men did lived +after them; at least, the even tenor of their ways was passed over +without notice by the chroniclers, and only a salient point, a great +battle or a great crime, attracted attention. If little but deeds of +violence is recorded about men, still less notice does the average +mediaeval chronicler condescend to bestow upon women. History has been +unjust to women, and this is preeminently the case in the history of +France at the period with which we are to begin in this chapter. The age +of the good King Robert was an age of warfare; the basic principle of +feudalism was military service; and what position could women occupy in +a social system dependent upon force? The general attitude toward women +is hinted at by the very fact that, in the great war epic of Roland, the +love story, upon which a modern poet would have laid much stress, is +entirely subordinated; it is the hero and his marvellous valor that the +poet keeps before us. The heroine, if she can be so called, the sister +of Roland's brother in arms, Oliver, is not once named by the hero. In +the midst of the battle, when Roland proposes to sound his horn to +summon Charlemagne to his aid, Oliver reproaches him:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i20"> "Par ceste meie barbe!</p> +<p class="i14"> Se puis vedeir ma gente soror Aide,</p> +<p class="i14"> Vos ne gerrez jamais entre sa brace."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>(By my beard! if I live to see my sister, the beautiful Aude, you shall +never be her husband!) After this she is mentioned no more until +Charlemagne returns to Aix with the sad news of Roland's heroic death. +Then comes to him <i>la belle Aude</i> to ask where is her betrothed Roland. +"Thou askest me for one who is dead," says Charlemagne; "but I will give +thee a better man, my son and heir, Louis." "I understand thee not," +replies Aude. "God forbid that I should survive Roland!" She falls +fainting at the emperor's feet, and when he lifts her up he finds her +dead. Then he calls four countesses, who bear the body into a convent +and inter it, with great pomp, near the altar. (II. 3705-3731.) <i>La +belle Aude</i> has fulfilled her mission when she dies for love of Roland. +If she had been on the battlefield, she might have dressed Roland's +wounds, since the rôle of physician and nurse was frequently played by +women. Otherwise there is little use for women in an age of warfare, and +so we shall find most of the good women passed over in silence, and only +those of more masculine traits prominent in the earlier parts of our +story.</p> + +<p>Before we can begin the story of those women whose names have come down +to us from the France of the year 1000, it is necessary to have some +sort of understanding of the social, if not of the political, condition +of France, to learn what sort of influences environed and moulded the +lives of women in those days. Such a survey of society, indeed, will be +useful for the whole period of the Middle Ages, and will serve as a +background for the figures of the women we shall have to consider, +whether they be saints or sinners.</p> + +<p>At the beginning of the reign of the good King Robert, the France over +which he ruled was still scarcely consolidated. The power of the kings +of France hardly yet extended, in reality, over more than the little +duchy of France, a territory bounded, roughly, by the cities of Orléans +on the south, Sens on the east, Saint-Denis on the north, and Chartres +on the west. Not only were the more powerful barons, counts, and dukes, +among whom the land was parcelled out, subject to the kings only at +their good pleasure, but the very people over whom they directly ruled +were still dimly conscious of the fact that they sprang from different +races. Even as late as the middle of the tenth century we hear of +"Goths, Romans, and Salians" as more or less distinct. The fusion of the +several races on the soil of France was, however, at that time probably +complete in all but name, if we except the Celts in Brittany; even the +latest arrivals in France, the Norsemen, had ceased to be mere wandering +freebooters and were fast developing, like the rest of France, a caste +of hereditary nobles whose title and power depended upon the tenure of +land.</p> + +<p>We may roughly divide the society of the period into four classes. In +the first we must place the nobles and their bands of retainers. In the +second we find the churchmen, the greater among whom are hardly to be +distinguished from the secular nobility, Below these, and a long +distance below, come the inhabitants of the larger towns, the merchants +and the better class of artisans. At the bottom, trodden down to the +very soil from which they are forced to extract food for all the rest, +and perhaps, if any is left, for themselves, come the peasantry.</p> + +<p>Since the disruption of the great conglomerate empire of Charlemagne, +the power of the nominal kings of France had been gradually restricted. +Powerless to protect the kingdom from the attacks of foreign enemies, +the king was also powerless to preserve order within it. Personal +immunity from force could be obtained only by the use of force; and if +one were not strong enough to protect one's self, the only way was to +purchase protection from a stronger neighbor. This was the reason for +the growth of the complicated system of feudalism, with whose remote +origins and exact details we are not here concerned.</p> + +<p>As regards the influence of the feudal system upon the position of +women, it might be safe to say that feudalism at first made little +change in their condition. They enjoyed neither more nor less rights +than during the ages of barbaric <i>Sturm und Drang</i>; but certainly they +found a little greater security against violence and oppression, since +greater security was the general aim and the general effect of +feudalism. The weak must always occupy a relatively better position in a +compactly organized society than in a democracy of violence; and so the +feudal system, retaining for women such small civil rights as they +already possessed, added a greater personal security.</p> + +<p>This was not all. Though the transmission of property, on which all +social standing was based, was regularly from male to male, and though +female heirs might be passed over or disposed of by violence or +chicanery, there were exceptions, which become more numerous as we go +on. It cannot be said that there was at any time absolute prohibition of +a daughter's inheriting from her father. In the Salic law, so called, +there was a provision that "no part <i>of the salic land</i> shall pass to a +woman;" but all land was not salic, or allodial, and this provision was +later held to apply particularly to the lands of the crown, and hence to +the crown itself, as we shall see. Under the feudal system, the fief was +held on condition of military service, and each vassal, as a rule, must +<i>servir son fief</i> (do the service of his fief) in person; but it was +expressly stipulated that ecclesiastics, women, and children could +perform this service by proxy, generally through a seneschal or baillie.</p> + +<p>Though warlike churchmen not infrequently led their vassals in person, +witness the Bishop of Beauvais at the battle of Bouvines, "who shed no +blood, though he brake many bones with his club," women appeared but +rarely in the earlier time as Amazons, and then half in sport, as in the +case of Queen Eleanor in the second Crusade.</p> + +<p>But, however they chose to perform their duty in the <i>host</i> summoned by +the sovereign's <i>ban general</i>, women were recognized as members of the +feudal nobility. At the very top we find them, among the immediate great +vassals of the crown, the <i>pairs de France</i>. We find, for example, +Mathilde, or Mahault, Countess of Artois, sitting as a peer in the +assembly which rendered judgment against the claims of her nephew, +Robert, to the countship of Artois, in 1309; and the same countess +receives a special summons to attend the court of peers in 1315; and in +the next year, at the coronation of Philip V., she is among the peers +who hold the crown over the king's head. This function was also +performed by another Countess of Artois at the consecration of Charles +V., in 1364.</p> + +<p>In less exalted stations, too, women held fiefs, and there may +frequently have been personal reasons for the suzerain's preferring +female vassals. For first by custom, and then by written law (see the +<i>Assises de Jérusalem</i> and the <i>Etablissements de Saint Louis</i>), the +suzerain exercised a right of guardianship over his female vassals, +maids or widows, as long as they were unmarried. In England very serious +abuses followed from this right of wardship, as it was called, and the +unfortunate French girls and children who were subjected to it were no +better off than the English. We are not especially concerned here with +the case of minor heirs under <i>garde-noble</i>, or ward, except where these +heirs were girls. The girl so situated must not marry without the +consent of the lord who held the <i>garde-noble</i> of her person and of her +domain. If she did so she was liable to fines and even to forfeiture of +her fief; and this power was one which the feudal lords did not hesitate +to exercise. We find Saint Louis objecting to the marriage of Jeanne, +heiress of the county of Ponthieu, to the King of England, and to the +marriage of the Countess of Flanders, widow of Count Ferrand, to Simon +de Montfort, a vassal of the King of England. Both these instances show +the reason which, in such a system as feudalism, underlay a power +apparently so arbitrary; the suzerain, in mere self-defence, could not +allow one of his fiefs to fall into the possession of a possible enemy.</p> + +<p>There was another right, a corollary to this one. The lord could compel +his female ward to marry in order that the military duties of the fief +might be performed by a man. Saint Louis compelled Matilda of Flanders +to marry Thomas, Prince of Savoy. The famous <i>Assises de Jérusalem</i>, +organizing one of the most compact bodies which feudalism developed, to +defend the Holy Sepulchre in the midst of hostile infidels, contains +express provisions on this subject. According to this code, the baron +could say to his female vassal: "Dame, you owe service of marriage." He +then designated three suitable candidates, and she had to choose from +among them. The regulations of the so-called <i>Etablissements de Saint +Louis</i> on this subject are so interesting that we may give a paraphrase +of a considerable portion of them. "When a lady becomes a widow, and is +advanced in years, and has a daughter, the seigneur to whom she owes +allegiance may come to her and say: 'Dame, I wish you to give me surety +that you will not marry your daughter without my advice and consent, or +without the advice and consent of her father's relatives; for she is the +daughter of my liegeman, and therefore I do not wish her to be deprived +of this advice.' Then it behooves the lady to give him due surety. And +when the girl shall be of marriageable age, if the lady find anyone who +asks her in marriage, she must come before the seigneur and the +relatives of the girl's father and say to them: 'Sire, my daughter is +asked in marriage, and I will not give her without your consent, nor +should I do so. Now give me your good and faithful counsel; for a +certain man has asked for her' (and she must give his name). And if the +seigneur say: 'I do not wish this man to have her, for so-and-so, who is +richer and of better rank than the one you have named, has asked me for +her, and will take her willingly' (and he shall name the man); or if the +relatives on the father's side say: 'We know a richer and a better man +than either of those you have named to us' (and they shall name him); +then shall they deliberate and choose the best of the three and the one +most advantageous to the demoiselle. And he who is chosen as the best +should be really thought so, for no one should make a mockery of law. +And if the lady marry her daughter without the consent of her seigneur +and of the relatives on the father's side, after she had been forbidden +to do so, she shall lose her movable goods," on which the seigneur is +given the power of distraint. There is in this enactment elaborate +provision for satisfying everybody but the person one would think most +interested the young lady. Her consent to the arrangement was, to the +mediaeval mind, a matter of small moment.</p> + +<p>The powers thus given to the seigneur by formal law were certainly +exercised by right of custom, and probably with far less restraint of +justice than that provided for in the <i>Etablissements</i>. For caprice, +tyranny, or avarice might be satisfied by forcing an unfortunate ward +into marriage. Frequently, the unscrupulous baron forced his ward to +marry the highest bidder, or proposed some absolutely impossible +candidate for her hand merely to have her buy her freedom. "You will +either marry this decrepit old knight, to whose rank and wealth you +cannot reasonably object, or you will pay me so much." We can well +imagine that the impulse of youth would suggest surrender of almost any +worldly wealth to have "freedom in her love." The romances are full of +incidents akin to this, where the authority of either father or guardian +was exerted in vain; and the romances, however fantastic in some +respects, are but the reflections of actual conditions.</p> + +<p>The unmarried woman, whether princess or mere demoiselle, was in a +condition almost as dependent as the serf. If she did not choose to +marry, or if her face or her fortune could not tempt anyone to ask her +in marriage, she might enter a monastery. Indeed, a father unwilling or +unable to provide a suitable dower for her might force her to become a +nun. The eldest son must be provided for first. If the patrimony were +small and the family large, younger sons had to fend for themselves, and +daughters had to take what they could get. The convent was the cheapest +and the safest place in which to establish them.</p> + +<p>Yet in the age of feudalism there were certain safeguards for women, +whether these were altogether of feudal origin or merely survivals of +homely, common-sense custom. To cite but a few examples, we find in the +<i>Assises de Jérusalem</i> most stringent provisions for the punishment of +seduction or crimes of violence against women. The statute provides that +the seducer, if he be able to do so and is approved by the parents, +shall marry the girl. In another connection, we learn that in Paris it +was for a while customary to marry such a couple, whether they would or +not, in the obscure little church of Sainte-Marine, and with a ring of +straw as a symbol of their shame. In case marriage was not acceptable to +the parents of the girl, the seducer might provide for her suitably in a +convent, and he himself might be punished by mutilation, confiscation of +his goods, and banishment. The husband had to secure to his wife a +certain proportion of, if not all, her dowry, and in the book of the +customs of Anjou we find it definitely stated that: <i>Il est usage que +gentil home puit doer sa fame a porte de mostier dou tierz de sa terre</i> +(It is the custom for a gentleman to endow his wife with the third of +his goods at the church door). Then, to protect widows from oppressive +feudal reliefs, as they were called, the <i>Etablissements de Saint Louis</i> +ordain that "no lady shall pay a redemption fee (to secure succession to +the fief), except in case she marry. But if she marry, her husband shall +pay the fee to the seigneur whose vassal she is. And if what is offered +does not please the seigneur, he can claim but the revenues of the fief +for one year."</p> + +<p>Once admitted to the recognized class of the nobility, either as a wife +or as one of the greater vassals, a woman's position was decidedly +improved. Her rights were not many, but yet the feudal chatelaine +occupied a position of some dignity and importance. She was regarded as +in some sort the representative of her husband during his presence as +well as during his absence. The <i>Assises de Jérusalem</i> provide, among +other things, that she shall not be proceeded against in court as the +representative of her husband until a respite of a year and a day has +elapsed, to allow for his possible return; and in the chateau, at all +times the lady had charge of domestic affairs, and on state occasions +shared the dignity of her husband.</p> + +<p>The feudal chateau of a great baron was not only a fortress to secure +him against his enemies; it was also a home for his family and for +scores of dependents and retainers, and frequently a hostelry for the +entertainment of travellers of high and low degree. The moat, the +drawbridge and portcullis, the strong walls pierced with narrow slits to +admit scant light and air in time of peace and to deliver arrows in time +of war, the battlements, and the lofty tower of strength, all these are +familiar in our conceptions of the feudal castle. Many of us have +followed Marmion in his mad dash under the descending portcullis and +across the drawbridge of Lord Angus's castle; and we have watched the +arrows flying against the walls of Front de Boeuf's donjon and old mad +Ursula raving on its battlements. But the other features of the +dwellings, though sometimes described with equal care by the great Sir +Walter and his disciples, attract less attention and fade sooner from +our memories. Such a manor hall as that of Cédric the Saxon should be +kept in mind if we wish to get a fair idea of the actual life of the +better classes, not only in England but in France, for the main features +of the architecture and of the furnishings were the same. The nature and +extent of the fortifications might vary greatly, according to the power +or ambition of the owner; but the domestic arrangements of the feudal +home would be substantially the same in all.</p> + +<p>The main portion of the house was given up to a huge hall. Entering the +gateway of the outer wall, one found one's self in a court, around which +were ranged the great hall, the smaller sleeping apartments, the +domestic offices, and the stables. Every possible provision was made for +men and animals to live within the enclosure in case of siege. The great +hall itself was usually at least thirty or forty feet in length, and +often so wide that its high, vaulted roof had to be supported on a row +of columns extending down the middle. In the ceiling was a hole, or +<i>louvre</i>, to allow the smoke to escape when fire was lighted on the +hearth in the centre of the floor for chimneys were used as yet, if at +all, only in the smaller rooms. At one end of the hall there was +probably a slightly elevated dais, or platform, on which were the seats +for the lord and lady, and perhaps for distinguished guests. In the tall +ogival windows, which were glazed only in the houses of the very +wealthy, were window seats, and along the rude board or table in the +body of the hall were rough benches and stools for the retainers and +guests of lesser rank. And if the lord were rich, there would be a +gallery, at the opposite end from the dais, for the minstrels who played +during banquets. Armorial bearings and weapons and armor hung upon the +walls. If the roof were so broad as to require the support of pillars, +these and the arches of the roof were decorated with carving. Sometimes +a further effect of color might be added by tapestries upon the walls, +and sometimes, though rarely, by mural paintings, as we are told in the +lay of <i>Guingamor</i>:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "La chambre est paint tut entur;</p> +<p class="i14"> Venus, la devesse d'amur,</p> +<p class="i14"> Fu tres bein en la paintur."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>(The room is painted all about; Venus, the goddess of Love, was +beautifully pictured in the painting.)</p> + +<p>The floor of the hall might be of wood, though at the early period of +which we write it was very commonly of earth. There were no carpets, +except in palaces of great luxury, even at a much later date; instead, +the floor was covered with rushes or straw. Straw was anciently one of +the symbols of investiture; in the Salic law the person conveying an +estate cast a wisp of straw into the bosom of him to whom the property +was to be conveyed. With this custom in mind, we can understand the +anecdote told by Alberic des Troisfontaines of William the Conqueror. +The floor of the room in which he was born was covered with straw. The +newborn child, having been placed on the floor for a moment, seized in +his tiny hands a bit of the straw, which he held vigorously. <i>"Parfoi!"</i> +cried the midwife, <i>"cet enfant commence jeune à conquerir."</i> Obviously, +the anecdote, with its allusion to the Conquest, was made up long after +the event, but it serves to show that even in the mansions of the well +to do straw was the usual floor covering; and even much later we do not +find the old coverings of rushes, branches, or straw displaced by +carpets. In 1373 the inhabitants of a certain town (Aubervilliers) were +exempted from a feudal tax on condition of their furnishing annually +forty cartloads of straw to the hotel, or palace, of Charles V., twenty +to that of the queen, and ten to that of the dauphin. On special +occasions the ordinary straw might be displaced by fresh green boughs +upon the floor and against the walls. Froissart tells us that on a very +warm day "the count of Foix entered his chamber and found it all strewn +with verdure and full of fresh new boughs; the walls all about were +covered with green boughs to make the room more fresh and fragrant.... +When he felt himself in this fresh new chamber, he said: 'This greenery +refreshes me greatly, for assuredly this has been a hot day.'" When the +rushes or straw remained long on the floor without being renewed, as was +assuredly often the case, trampled on by men and used as a couch by the +dogs of the establishment, the effect must have been quite other than +refreshing. This must have been the case in many a private house, but +especially in such public places as the great churches and the great +university of the Sorbonne, whose students sat on the floor upon straw, +and had to pay twenty-five sous each to the chancellor for furnishing +it.</p> + +<p>In the hall of the castle thus rudely furnished the inmates lived a +large part of their lives. There the household assembled for meals. +There the minstrel, if one chanced to be present, recited his romance. +There the lord in person, or his seneschal or baillie, held his court to +administer justice. It was the common room of the house, and usually +contained all there was in the way of decoration. Comfort even here was +hardly to be found; one can fancy that the fire on the open hearth gave +out more smoke than heat, and the windows, often entirely unglazed and +ill-fitting, let in more cold than light.</p> + +<p>The smaller apartments were even less pretentious in the way of comfort. +Opening out of the hall, or arranged around the court, were little +cubby-holes of places to serve as sleeping apartments. The furniture in +them was of the simplest description, and one was not even sure of +finding a bedstead; for unless the occupant were outrageously affected +by what the old folks doubtless called the degenerate effeminacy of the +age--in the year 1000--his bed was apt to be made on the floor, or in a +bunk against the wall. Sometimes there was a larger apartment opening +from the rear of the hall and destined for the private use of the lord +and his lady. As luxury increased, this apartment gradually became +better furnished, and at length there developed the lady's bower, where +she might retire with her maids. Of these there would often be a goodly +number, some mere domestics, some young girls of good family sent to +learn polite manners and domestic arts under the lady of the castle. In +the bower also tapestries would be hung on the walls, and, in place of +arms, perhaps there would be the various musical instruments in popular +use, particularly the harp, in various forms, known as <i>psaltérions, +cythares, décacordes</i>; the rote, which was what we should now call a +viol; various forms of violins, such as the rebec and the lute; guitars; +and perhaps flutes. The use of these instruments was, of course, not +unknown to the ladies themselves, and we find many references in the +romances to maidens at the courts playing upon the harp and singing, +though the professional minstrel or the page in training was oftener the +performer.</p> + +<p>In the bower, the lady was not occupied with mere amusements. We are apt +to forget that our more complex civilization has taught us to rely upon +others to do many things which even our great-grand-mothers had to do +for themselves. Placed in the position of Robinson Crusoe, even with the +help of the simple tools which Defoe allows him to have, how helpless +would be the average man of to-day, simply because, from long dependence +on the little conveniences of modern life,--from Lucifer matches and +cooking stoves to ready-made clothing and ready-made houses,--he would +have lost the use of the most elementary faculties. So the female +Crusoe, in a feudal castle lone island, far from the conveniences of +town and shops, must, if she expected to get any comfort for herself and +those around her, know how to do innumerable small things that even the +modern shopgirl finds done for her as a matter of course.</p> + +<p>She must know how to make bread, without question. In the romance of +King Florus a faithful wife disguises herself as a page and accompanies +her husband without his recognizing her. They fall upon evil days, and +the wife-page earns a living for herself and her master by starting a +bakery and eventually an inn. The lady of the manor must not only know +how to make the greater part of the clothing that she wears, but must +know how to weave the cloth of which her gown is made, and to spin the +yarn from which cloth and thread alike must come, and to card the wool +or prepare the flax before that. If soap be considered necessary,--and +there seems to have been no excessive use of it,--it would be wise for +her to know how to make it, since there might be no place near by where +soap could be bought. Candles, too, of a rude sort, or some sort of +rushlight, for domestic use, it would be well to know how to make; and, +of course, she should know how to make cheeses and to cure meats for use +during the long months when fresh meats might not be had. Even on the +tables of the rich, salt meats were the staple article. Unable to +provide for the feeding of large flocks through the winter--forage was +scarce, root crops were little cultivated for stock, and the omnipotent +potato had not yet come to its own,--the lord's steward would have a +large number of animals slaughtered just at the beginning of winter, and +the flesh of these had to be salted down. The good housewife would, of +course, know something of the process. Though in large households the +management of the male servants, the outdoor servants generally, fell to +the steward or baillie, the lady even here undoubtedly had to give a +general supervision, and had to provide work for and maintain discipline +among the women of the household. It must have required no small amount +of ability and tact, therefore, successfully to be the lady of the +chateau.</p> + +<p>We need not pause here to consider the amusements and the traditional +occupations of women, such as fine sewing and embroidery, or music and +the care of flowers. These can best be noticed when we examine the +romances of a later age.</p> + +<p>For women of the upper classes feudalism was not, we may say, entirely +unjust or evil in its operations; but as feudalism meant oppression +verging on slavery for Jacques Bonhomme, the peasant, his wife Jeanne +could hardly have been in better case. With peasant marriages the +seigneur could interfere even more tyrannically than with those of his +feudal wards. In some places the bride and groom owed to the seigneur +certain gifts called <i>mets de manage</i>. On the day of the wedding these +"must be brought to the chateau by the bride, accompanied by musicians; +the said mets shall consist of a leg of mutton, two fowls, two quarts of +wine, four loaves of bread, four candles, and some salt, under pain of a +fine of sixty sous." In some places that most infamous right known <i>par +excellence</i> as the <i>droit du seigneur</i> was claimed, and we find a writer +even as late as the seventeenth century recording the fact that the +husband was sometimes required to purchase his bride's exemption from +this right.</p> + +<p>At the early date of which we write, however, there is little or no +information to be had about the peasantry; the monkish chroniclers +mention them but rarely, and then unsympathetically. Popular literature, +with its <i>lais, contes, fabliaux</i>, or rude dramas in which Jacques and +Jeanne appear, did not yet exist. We may, however, guess from the +barbarity with which they were treated how near to that of the brutes +was their condition.</p> + +<p>About the year 997, soon after the death of the glorious Duke Robert the +Fearless, the peasants of Normandy began to murmur against the wrongs +they had to suffer. "The seigneurs," they said, "only do us harm; on +account of them we have neither gain nor profit from our labor. Every +day they take from us our work animals for feudal services. And then +there are the laws, old and new, and pleas and lawsuits without end, +about coinage, about forest rights, about roads, about milling our +grain, about <i>hommage</i>. There are so many constables and bailiffs that +we have not one hour of peace; every day they are pouncing down on us, +seizing our goods, chasing us away from our land. There is no guarantee +for us against the seigneurs and their men, and no contract holds good +with them. Why do we allow ourselves to be treated thus, instead of +trying to right our wrongs? Are we not men as they are? Courage is all +we need. Let us therefore bind ourselves together by an oath, swearing +to sustain each other. And if they make war upon us, have we not, for +one knight, thirty or even forty young peasants, active, and fit to +fight with clubs, with pikes, with bows and arrows, yea, with stones if +there be no better weapons? Let us learn how to resist the knights, and +we shall be free to cut the trees, to hunt, to fish at our own sweet +will; and we will do as we please upon the water, in the fields, and in +the forests." They held secret meetings, and finally formed some sort of +an organization. But the seigneurs got wind of their designs. The young +Duke Richard sent for his uncle, Raoul, Count of Evreux. "Sire," said +Raoul, "do not you stir a foot, but leave it all to me." He collected a +force of knights and men at arms, and, informed by a spy of the meeting +place of the peasants, bore down upon them suddenly and arrested all the +ringleaders. Then came the punishment, the like of which was not +uncommon, though the victims were more numerous than usual. Some were +empaled outright; some were cooked before a slow fire; some were +sprinkled with molten lead. Others had their eyes torn out, their hands +cut off, their legs scorched; and of these victims the few who survived +were sent back among their fellows to inspire terror.</p> + +<p>One can well believe that these horrors and the ever present sight of +those who had suffered from them kept the peasants in awe, as the old +chroniclers exultantly tell us. The account as given in Wace's <i>Roman de +Rou</i> has in our eyes a pathos and a poetic grandeur far greater than the +chronicler's enthusiastic record of the deeds of the great Norman dukes. +With us the democratic spirit, or mere humanity, is so much stronger +than with him that we read his lines with feelings of pity and +indignation quite unforeseen by him. Is it not pitiful, this cry of the +peasants?</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Nus sumes homes cum il sunt,</p> +<p class="i14"> Tex membres avum cum il unt,</p> +<p class="i14"> Et altresi grant cors avum,</p> +<p class="i14"> Et altretant sofrir poum."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>(We are men even as they are, we have limbs and bodies like theirs, and +can suffer as much.) One hears the echo of Shy lock's "Hath not a Jew +eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, +passions?" The feudal ages would have answered Jew and peasant alike +with an emphatic "No!"</p> + +<p>The barbarism in the suppression of this revolt is merely a typical +instance of the prevailing cruelty of manners. It was not the peasant +alone, regarded as hardly the same flesh and blood, to whom the seigneur +was cruel. Let us look at a few of these famous knights, and first at +the deeds of one notoriously wicked even in his own day. This was +Foulques, surnamed Nerra, the black, Count of Anjou, and ancestor of the +Plantagenet line. This same Foulques was twice married. His first wife, +Elizabeth, accused of adultery--probably because he wished to get rid of +her,--he disposed of by violent methods. One account reports that he had +her burned alive; another, that he had her thrown over a precipice; and +as she survived this, he, scandalized by her refusal to die in this more +picturesque fashion, stabbed her himself. One is reminded of Nero, that +most cheerful of the Roman murderer-emperors, who contrived an elaborate +machine to drown his mother, and, when she swam ashore, was so irritated +by the failure of his scheme that he had her summarily decapitated. +Foulques's second wife was so ill used that she fled to the Holy Land. +The pious count once burned down the church of Saint-Florent at Saumur, +calling out to the saint: "Let me burn your old church here, and I'll +build you a far finer one in Angers." And later he did build a huge +abbey, which no one of the neighboring bishops would consecrate; but a +judicious application to Rome, backed by a present, brought a cardinal +to consecrate it; and the wrath of Heaven was shown, says the +chronicler, for the new church was destroyed by lightning. At length the +devout Foulques, who had made two previous pilgrimages to the Holy Land, +was so smitten by remorse that he undertook a third. When he arrived at +Jerusalem he had himself tied to a hurdle and dragged through the +streets, while two of his servants flogged him, and he cried out at +every blow: "Have mercy, O Lord, on the perjured traitor, Foulques!" We +are not told--but it is probable--that the servants who did the flogging +either did not survive very long, or else were wise enough to flog very +gently. Foulques, however, died on his way back from Jerusalem.</p> + +<p>Then there is the story of the chatelaine of the magnificent castle of +Ivri, Albérède, or Aubrée, wife of Raoul, Count of Evreux, half-brother +of Richard I. She employed Lanfred, the most accomplished architect of +the time, who had built the strong castle of Ponthiviers (about 1090), +to build the castle of Ivri, stronger and more cunningly devised than +any other. When he had finished, in order that he might build no better +castle, or might not reveal the secrets of the fortifications of Ivri, +she had his head cut off. But Count Raoul was a prudent man, and took +the hint. He had Albérède executed too.</p> + +<p>One Norman gentleman, Ascelin de Goël, having had the good luck to +capture his feudal lord, held him for ransom; and in order that he might +be encouraged to pay more, had him exposed at an open north window, in +his shirt, and poured cold water over him, that the winter winds might +freeze it. And even the mild and saintly King Robert, in his war against +the Duke of Burgundy, laid waste the country far and wide, massacred +defenceless peasants, and did not spare even monasteries and churches, +since peasants and monasteries alike were regarded as but the goods of +the duke, which it was his right to destroy.</p> + +<p>The Church had some redress for the evils suffered. The pious and +superstitious king was tormented nearly all his life by the threats of +eternal damnation which the Church held over him. This brings us to a +consideration of the influence of the Church upon manners in general and +upon the condition of women.</p> + +<p>Though there were many ambitious, greedy, and cruel priests; though many +of them lived in open defiance of the Church's prohibition of marriage +among the clergy,--there were several married bishops at an earlier +period, and one of these, the Bishop of Dole, actually plundered his +church to dower his daughters,--the Church as a whole unquestionably +stood for the best in manners and in morals. After Charlemagne's vain +attempts to revive popular education, what learning there was existed +only among the clergy. Though themselves forming part of the feudal +nobility and holding fiefs for which they owed military service, the +bishops, abbots, and priors almost always espoused the cause of the weak +and the oppressed. Within the precincts of the church the poor fugitive +from violence done in the name of justice was offered sanctuary, and the +right of sanctuary was usually respected.</p> + +<p>Within the walls of the monastery women were offered safety. There were +many, of course, who might choose the quiet and the comparative ease of +the cloister life from motives little better than worldly, and others +who might enter with sentiments of romantic devoutness which it is hard +for most of us to appreciate in this day; and both were doubtless +satisfied with what they found in the convent. But there were many +others who had been forced into a life absolutely distasteful to them +and alien to their temperaments. How many of these withered away in +discontent! how many revolted more actively and led lives that brought +reproach and disgrace upon the Church! Among the earliest of the satires +against social abuses we find those against hypocritical, avaricious, +gluttonous, or licentious monks and nuns; and the stream of satire runs +throughout the Middle Ages. Monks live in the <i>pays de Cocagne</i>, to gain +admittance to which one had to wallow seven years in filth; monks and +nuns are in Rabelais's <i>Abbé de Thélème</i>, and <i>en leur reigle n'estoit +que ceste clause: fais ce que vouldra</i>; and monks and nuns again play +anything but edifying roles in the <i>fabliaux</i> and their successors, the +short tales such as one finds in the <i>Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles</i>.</p> + +<p>Monasteries for women abounded all over France, most of them under some +form of the Benedictine rule. Within their own monasteries women could +govern themselves, though the whole convent was usually dependent upon +male ecclesiastical control, either attached to a neighboring monastery, +or under the jurisdiction of a bishop. In the great double monastic +community of Fontevrault, established about noo by Robert d'Arbrissel, +women were exalted above men; the nuns sang and prayed, the monks +worked, and the entire establishment was under the guidance of the +abbess.</p> + +<p>The abbess or prioress occupied a position of responsibility and dignity +not unlike that of the chatelaine. She too had the control of a large +domestic establishment, and she was responsible not only for religious +discipline but for the temporal provision for her nuns. The abbess had +the power of a bishop within the limits of her convent, and bore a +crosier as the sign of her rank. She might even hold some feudal tenure +in the name of her convent. She drew revenues from her holdings and was +in every sense the executive head of her house. At first--always under +some of the stricter rules--the abbess carried on business outside the +convent through some male agent. Greater freedom undoubtedly prevailed +at times, however, and the rule against her leaving the convent was +ignored. She was in some cases appointed, but usually elected from among +the nuns, though cases are found, of course, where the abbess was the +mere creature of some powerful lay or ecclesiastical authority. To +become abbess of a nunnery was not considered beneath even a princess of +the blood; and in some convents probably the same caste distinctions +were observed as prevailed outside, and the nuns were nothing more than +elegant retired ladies of birth and fashion.</p> + +<p>The abbess appointed her subordinates, who varied in number and rank +according to the power of the convent. There was generally a +sub-prioress, second in authority to the abbess, and certain minor +executive officers, whose duties were nevertheless important, such as +the chaplain, the sexton, and the cellaress. The chaplain was in most +cases a monk chosen to celebrate Mass for the nuns, since women were not +allowed to become actual priests; but in some cases the officer called +the chaplain was a nun, whether or not she could officiate in all +capacities. The sexton was a nun whose duties were to ring the bells for +services, to keep in order the chapel, the altar, and the sacred +vessels, and sometimes to act as a treasurer. The most interesting of +these officers, however, and the one whose position must have been +really most trying, was the cellaress. It was she who had general +supervision of the commissariat. She was usually chosen upon the advice, +if not by the election, of the whole community, and it was especially +important that she should be a tactful person and a judicious manager. +As housekeeper of the establishment, she had to control the servants and +to satisfy the nuns. In providing food and drink for the household, she +had to manage receipts and disbursements of considerable amounts. Very +frequently a farm was attached to the nunnery, or there were several +farms whose produce was to be used for the support of the institution. +For whatever was bought or sold the cellaress had to make an accounting. +With the proceeds of her sales or of the rent of the farms under her +control, or with the money allowed her, she had to buy such provisions +as were needed: grain, flesh, fish,--usually a very large item, +especially in the Lenten season,--condiments, such as preserved fruits, +spices, salt, etc., and, where the rule did not utterly forbid it, wine +or ale. Of these details we shall speak more fully in connection with +the rules for a model nunnery which Abélard wrote for Héloïse and upon +which she based her government of the famous monastery of the Paraclete.</p> + +<a name="ill2" id="ill2"></a> +<p class="mid"><img alt="" src="images/002.png"><br> +<b><i>DROIT DU SEIGNEUR<br> +After the painting by Lucien Mélingue</i></b></p> + +<blockquote><b><i>As feudalism meant oppression verging on slavery for Jacques Bonhomme, +the peasant, his wife Jeanne could hardly have been in better case. With +peasant marriages the seigneur could interfere even more tyrannically +than with those of his feudal wards. In some places the bride and groom +owed to the seigneur certain gifts called</i> mets de mariage.... <i>and that +most infamous right known as the</i> droit du seigneur <i>was claimed, and we +find a writer even as late as the seventeenth century recording the fact +that the husband was sometimes required to purchase his bride's +exemption from this right.</i></b></blockquote> + +<p>Aside from the protection they afforded to women who might otherwise +have been utterly lost in the rough world, the monasteries were of great +importance in other ways. Whatever it may have become during the period +of the decline of monastic purity, the life in the nunneries, even in +the comparatively dark period about the year 1000, was not an idle one. +The day was carefully portioned off into periods of work, of religious +devotion, and of leisure, which long custom fixed into a routine. The +occupations included what we should now class chiefly as artistic work, +though much of it was at the time really useful in a more homely +way,--weaving of hangings and tapestries for the church, embroidery, +painting and illuminating, and copying of manuscripts. This last was, of +course, work of the highest utility, though the artistic skill displayed +in the writing itself and in the beautiful illuminations made it also an +art. We have few names of actual scribes of either sex, since they +rarely signed the manuscripts they copied; but among these few there are +some of women. The magnificent tapestries, sometimes large enough to +cover in one piece the side of a church, are perhaps the most noteworthy +of the products of the monasteries. So famous was the work of the nuns +in this particular that tradition assigned to them, though perhaps +mistakenly, the production of one of the most famous historical +authorities for the Norman Conquest, the Bayeux tapestries, said to have +been wrought for Bishop Odo of Bayeux by nuns under the direction of +Queen Matilda.</p> + +<p>Most important of all in the activities of the convent was education. At +the time of which we write, the standard of learning in the convents was +higher than one would think, and higher than it was some centuries +later; for Latin was still used familiarly among some of the women +educated in convents. The most famous instance of learning is that of +the Saxon nun Hrotsvith, or Roswitha, of the tenth century, who wrote +legends of the saints, dramas on the model of the comedies of Terence, +and chronicles. There were other learned nuns, though none famous in the +French literature of the time, all of whom gained their knowledge in +convents; for it was in convents alone that women could ordinarily +receive any education at all. One of the main purposes of the convent +was to train young girls. Sometimes there was only such training as +would fit them to became novices and eventually nuns, and the degree of +education was of course determined in part by social standing; that is, +a princess would be more carefully trained than a mere demoiselle; but +some convents became famous schools, where education was given for its +own sake, not merely to train those who meant to become nuns. In many +cases, children of both sexes were taught, and girls and boys together +learned Latin. In the romance of <i>Flore et Blancheflore</i>, the hero +recalls how he and Blancheflore loved when they were children at school, +"and told each other of our love in Latin, and none understood us." But +the girls were probably better educated, in our sense of the word, than +the boys; for teaching a boy to avoid breaking Priscian's head was then +less necessary than teaching him to break that of his opponent in +battle.</p> + +<p>Leaving the convents out of the question, the Church helped the cause of +woman and of humanity by its constant endeavor to repress violence. +About the year 1030 France was afflicted by a succession of bad crops, +resulting, together with the constant waste and ravages of petty wars, +in the most frightful famine. The people in their misery became almost +inhuman; men died in such multitudes that it was impossible to bury +them, and the wolves fed on their flesh; human flesh was actually +offered for sale in the market of Tournus; and one monster, near Macon, +living as a hermit, enticed unwary travellers into his den and there +slew and devoured them! When found out he had a pile of forty-eight +human skulls, those of his victims. In the midst of this horrible state +of affairs the bishops and abbots of all parts of France met in council +and decreed punishment upon whoever should carry arms, and upon whoever +should use violence against defenceless persons, merchants, monks, and +women; not even the refuge of the altar was to protect him who disobeyed +this decree. Raising their hands to heaven all those present cried out, +<i>Pax! pax! pax!</i> in witness of the eternal peace compact, the <i>Paix de +Dieu</i>--the Peace of God. Wars had caused much of their distress, and the +kingdom was indeed weary of war, but the millennium had not yet +come,--philosophers still tell us that it is "just beyond the sky +line,"--and the Peace of God was ineffective.</p> + +<p>Failing to suppress war, the Church next sought, with more practical +wisdom, to modify its horrors. In 1041 was proclaimed the <i>Trève de +Dieu</i>--the Truce of God. All private feuds were to cease during the +period from Wednesday evening to Monday morning, under penalty of fine, +banishment, and exclusion from Christian communion. Then the days of the +great feasts were included in the period of truce, as well as Advent and +Lent. "Churches and unfortified cemeteries," says the chronicler Ranulph +Glaber, "as well as the persons of all clerks and monks, provided they +did not carry arms, were put under the perpetual protection of the Truce +of God. For the future, when making war upon the seigneur, men were +forbidden to kill, to mutilate, or to carry off as captives the poor +people of the country, or to destroy maliciously implements of labor and +crops." This last provision in particular is very interesting. Of +course, powerful barons broke the truce again and again; but it was +there as a real moral force of restraint, and the Church did not forget +to contend for its observance, so that it must have had some effect. To +no class in society could peace have been more welcome, more essential, +than to women, always the sufferers in war.</p> + +<p>We have left to the last one most important question in considering the +moral influence of the Church. Surely, the sanctity of the marriage tie +is one of the foundation stones of morality and of civilization; upon it +rests the home, where woman has always found her greatest and surest +happiness. The Church had been struggling for centuries, and was to +struggle some time longer, to make effective its opposition to marriage +among the clergy. Among the secular priests, those not connected with a +monastic order, marriage or concubinage had not by any means ceased, and +we find even bishops leading scandalous lives. But the Church continued +to fulminate its decrees, and the evil grew slowly less and less, till +it existed only among the lower orders of the clergy and in +out-of-the-way places. Monks and nuns alike took the three vows of +poverty, of chastity, and of obedience. We are not concerned with the +general question of whether or not priests should be married, or whether +or not it is wisdom to force the observance of a vow of perpetual +chastity upon young men and women who may have taken such a vow without +duly considering their own temperaments, or who have been compelled to +take it against their wills. Despite the scandals,--scandal has always a +noisy tongue,--there should be no doubt that in the great majority of +cases the vow of chastity was sincerely kept. Within its own limits the +Church discouraged and was soon utterly to forbid marriage; what did it +do to sanctify and to protect marriage outside of the ranks of the +clergy?</p> + +<p>Marriage was made one of the seven great sacraments of the Church, and +the breach of the marriage tie was one of the sins most severely +punished. Adultery had been severely punished under the customary laws +of the Franks, usually by the death of both parties with frightful +tortures; and the Church added to the physical punishment inflicted by +the civil law in this world the threat of eternal torments in the next. +Nevertheless, according to the testimony of many who are satirists and +of some who are not, it was the unmarried priest who was the most +frequent offender. An anecdote will illustrate the prevailing looseness +of clerical morals. Wace tells us that a sacristan of Saint-Ouen, in +Rouen, fell in love with a lady who lived across the little river Robec. +As he was stealing across to meet her one dark night, his foot slipped +on the plank by which he was crossing the stream, and he tumbled therein +and was drowned. A devil was just about to pitchfork his soul and carry +it off when an angel appeared, contending that the sacristan had not yet +committed the sin. The case was submitted to Duke Richard, who ordered +that the soul should be returned to the body, and that he would then +judge according to the sacristan's actions. Presto! it was done; and the +monk, his ardor cooled by the ducking, went back to his abbey and +confessed to the abbot. A popular proverb makes the story survive: "Sir +monk, step lightly, and take good care when you cross the plank." Not +only in the Church, but in the world, immorality was too common and too +easily pardoned. It is significant that illegitimacy was the rule rather +than the exception among the Norman dukes, and that William the +Conqueror, himself illegitimate, was conspicuous in his age for marital +fidelity.</p> + +<p>The moral theory of the Church was correct enough, however it failed in +practice. Every precaution was taken--indeed, too many were taken--to +prevent hasty and ill-assorted marriages. The banns had to be read three +times in the church; the contracting parties must be of proper age; they +must have the consent of parent or guardian; they must not be related +within the degrees prohibited by the Church; they must not be bound by +any previous vow of chastity or be guilty of any mortal sin.</p> + +<p>These provisions would seem to be in the main wise enough, and yet out +of one of them grew a considerable moral evil. Divorce had been +recognized by the Salic law: "Seeing that discord troubles their union, +and that charity reigns not in it, N. and M., husband and wife, have +agreed to separate and to leave each other free either to retire to a +monastery or to remarry," without question or opposition from either +party. So ran one of the formulas; and as a sign of the divorce the keys +of the house were taken from the wife, or a piece of linen was torn +before her. The Church, however, opposed divorce, and declared it +contrary to the spirit of Christianity. Yet, if one were wealthy or +powerful, it was easy to have a marriage annulled, on one pretext or +another. The most frequent was the plea for divorce for reasons of +conscience, since the contracting parties, being within the prohibited +degrees of relationship,--a fact which they had not known at the time of +the marriage,--were guilty of incest in the eyes of the Church, and +prayed to be relieved from the danger of perilling their immortal souls +by deadly sin. Other pleas were resorted to, but this seems to have been +a favorite one. By a subtile division of a hair "'twixt south and +southwest side," this might be considered as not divorce, but the mere +annulment of a contract which had been illegal and unsanctified from the +start; and the distinction was an important one, since the rich noble or +the monarch who had disposed of an objectionable wife in this way, and +who had absolved himself by proper penances and by sufficient gifts to +the Church, might, and generally did, remarry.</p> + +<p>It is with the story of a divorce or forced separation that we are +concerned in the case of Queen Bertha. Robert, the son of Hugues Caput, +and the first real king of the Capetian line, was a devoted friend of +Eudes, Count of Champagne and Blois, who proudly styles himself, in his +charters, <i>Comes Ditissimus</i>,--richest count of France,--and whom Robert +had honored with the title of count or seneschal of the royal palace. +This Eudes had a beautiful and virtuous wife, Bertha, daughter of King +Conrad the Pacific of Aries, and descended from the great Emperor Henry, +the Fowler. Robert, then married to a princess named Rosella, was +godfather to one of the children of Eudes and his fair cousin Bertha. +Both Princess Rosella and the Comes Ditissimus died. Bertha and Robert +already loved each other, it would seem, since neither mourned very +long. Within a few months they were married, in spite of the protests of +Hugues Capet, who would have liked a more powerful alliance for his son +and heir. Although Bertha and Robert were cousins, it was only in the +fourth degree. This actual relationship, though within the proscribed +degrees, would have been overlooked probably, as well as the spiritual +relationship established by Robert's having stood godfather to one of +Bertha's children, had it not been for the prince's ill luck in +incurring the enmity of certain powerful and active churchmen. +Archambaud, Archbishop of Tours, had issued a special dispensation, and +had blessed the marriage in the presence and with the consent of several +other bishops. But to understand fully the violent opposition which the +marriage encountered from the papal party we must go back to an episode +in the reign of Hugues Capet.</p> + +<p>In the course of the last effort of Carl, the heir of the Carlovingian +line, to recover dominion, the Archbishop of Rheims had betrayed Hugues +Capet, and had agreed to introduce Carl's forces into Rheims. It was +proved that this man, Arnoul, or Arnulph, had surrendered the keys of +the city to the emissaries of Carl, and he himself confessed his guilt. +Accordingly, with the sanction of an ecclesiastical court, Arnoul was +deprived of his see, which was given to Gerbert, the tutor of the young +King Robert. The papal party refused to recognize the jurisdiction of +the court which had deposed Arnoul, and which still kept him imprisoned +at Orléans, and a special legate was sent to France to protest against +this action at the very time of Robert's marriage to Bertha. The legate +raised his voice in protest against the incestuous and sinful marriage. +Thinking to appease him, Robert released Arnoul and restored him to his +archbishopric; but to do this he had to depose Gerbert, and by so doing +he made an enemy of one of the most active and able men in the Church, +famous as a theologian, and afterward to become Pope Silvester II.</p> + +<p>For a time, however, Bertha and Robert, who loved each other devotedly +and lived in a simple piety quite in contrast to the licentious habits +of the period, were left unmolested. The bribe to Rome was sufficient +for the moment to purchase for them innocent happiness. Robert was most +singularly devout, and was ranked almost as a saint by the +ecclesiastical chroniclers who preserve his story for us. Though a +handsome and well-formed man, and not altogether unfit for martial +exercises, he delighted in pastimes rather befitting a monkish scholar +than a soldier. He was gentle and kind to those about him, especially +the poor and the unfortunate, and was devoted to music. He himself +composed a number of Latin hymns for the Church, some of which are still +retained, notably the sequence to the Holy Spirit, <i>Adsit nobis gratia</i>, +and he set many others to tunes of his own composing. He was innocently +vain of his powers as a musician and singer, and on a pilgrimage to Rome +in after years, 1016, he deposited on the altar of Saint Peter his Latin +poems set to music. The very graces and virtues for which his +contemporaries praise Robert are the ones that make him manifestly out +of place as King of France in the year 1000, and the misery of his +domestic career is only more pitiful than the disorder which reigned in +his kingdom. That one of the most pious kings of France should +nevertheless have begun his career in opposition to the Church is very +remarkable.</p> + +<p>While Bertha and Robert were enjoying their brief respite from +persecution, the papacy itself was struggling for existence.. At last +the Emperor Otho fought his way into Rome, seized the leader of the +popular party, John Crescentius, "Senator and Consul of Rome," and +pitched him over the walls of the castle of Saint Angelo. The unhappy +Pope, John XVI. was replaced by the emperor's nominee, Gregory V. Almost +as soon as Gregory was seated he summoned a council (998), in which +Gerbert, now Robert's bitter enemy, sat as Bishop of Ravenna. This +council, largely controlled by the vindictive Gerbert, threatened the +kingdom of France with a universal interdict, suspending all religious +rites but those of baptism and extreme unction, if Robert would not +repudiate Bertha. The decree commanded "that King Robert, who has, +contrary to the holy canons of the Church, married his cousin, Bertha, +shall forsake her at once, and shall perform a penance of seven years, +in accordance with the rules and customs of the Church. If he obey not, +may he be anathema! And so also be it as regards Bertha! That +Archambaud, Archbishop of Tours, who consecrated this incestuous union, +and all the bishops who sanctioned it by their presence, be refused the +Holy Communion until such time as they shall have come to Rome to make +amends to the Holy See!"</p> + +<p>One can imagine that, to a nature as devout as Robert's, such a curse +was almost overwhelming. Yet he and Bertha endured for some time the +horrors which this excommunication brought upon them, and Robert +resisted with far more spirit than one would have supposed him to +possess. The curse fell upon France, and upon its king and queen, who +were surely no more morally guilty than their unfortunate subjects. +Awful were the effects of the curse, according to Petrus Damianus, who +records with pious unction most of the signs and wonders with which the +age was filled. All save a few of the lowest servants fled from the +accursed presence of Robert and his queen, and even these menials, when +they had prepared the king's food, deemed the very vessels from which he +had eaten polluted by his touch, and purified them by fire or destroyed +them. Bertha was reported to be a foul witch, and to have the foot of a +goose, and was nicknamed <i>la reine pedauque</i>, or <i>pied d'oie</i> (Queen +Goose-foot). In her agitation and misery, the child she should have +borne was prematurely brought forth. The charitable Damianus tells us +that it was currently reported to be of monstrous form, having the head +and neck of a swan and not of a human being.</p> + +<p>Whether these horrors were direct effects of God's wrath or had birth in +the zealous imagination of a writer whose interest it was to lay on the +colors in his description of the blasting effects of excommunication, +Robert and Bertha had to resign themselves to the cruel separation. +Robert's superstitious fears were worked on by his monkish advisers, +particularly Abbo, Abbot of Fleury, "who incessantly reprimanded the +king, in public and in, private." This holy man, says the biographer of +Robert, "continued his reproaches until the good King acknowledged his +fault and abandoned the wife whom it was not permitted him to possess." +The separation seems to have taken place definitely about the year 1006, +and Robert was to be miserable in his domestic life all the rest of his +days.</p> + +<p>He and Bertha had passed part of their married life together in the +midst of a veritable reign of terror. All over Christendom the belief +was general that the end of the work! was at hand. The lurid prophecies +of the Apocalypse were supplemented by texts believed to be prophetic of +the Judgment Day, raked together from all parts of the Scriptures and +from what superstitious ignorance regarded as almost of equal authority, +the Sibylline Leaves. Preachers took as their text the horrors of the +approaching dissolution of the world, when, according to Revelations: +"The stars of heaven fell unto the earth... and the heavens departed as +a scroll when it is rolled together;" or in the magnificent words of a +hymn written long after: <i>Dies iræ, dies illa Solvet, sæclum in favilla: +Teste David cum Sybilla</i>. (Day of wrath! O day of mourning! See +fulfilled the prophet's warning! Heaven and earth in ashes burning!) +They supplemented this picture by accounts of the torments of hell as +reported in the legends of those who had been granted a vision of them. +"Repent ye! repent ye! for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Woe unto +him who in that day shall be found still a sinner!" There was naturally +a paralysis of all useful activities. What was the use of preparing for +the morrow, if there was to be no morrow? During the last year of the +century the terror reached its highest point, and only absolute needs +were attended to. There were great donations to the Lord on the part of +tardy sinners who thought thus to purchase remission of their sins. But +there were also those who refused to repent, and who resolved, since +their life was to be short, to make it as merry as it could be. While +the former crowded the churches, weeping and praying and surrendering +themselves to the terrors suggested by the priest, the latter gave +themselves up to the wildest dissipation. The year 1000 passed away, and +still the stars were in heaven, and the wicked on earth began to breathe +more freely; and when the next year went by without any Day of Judgment, +courage revived, and the Church began to make use of the immense gifts +which impulsive sinners had turned over to her. New cathedrals and new +abbeys rose all over the land.</p> + +<p>The pathos of the story of Bertha is heightened when we look at her +successor on the throne. Even in her own day Constance, daughter of +Guilhelm Taillefer, Count of Toulouse, was considered harsh and cruel; +one chronicler euphemistically expresses this when he says: "There was +as much constancy in her heart as in her name." She probably came by her +nature honestly enough, for her mother was Arsinda, sister of that +Foulques Nerra of cheerful memory, who, indeed, according to some +accounts, forced the weak Robert to marry his niece. She was, says the +chronicler, surnamed Candida on account of her excessive fairness, and +is not infrequently called Blanche, the "fair queen." Into the rather +primitive court of the French king, surrounded by his monks and probably +longing for the banished Bertha, she came with a scandalous display of +luxury and frivolity.</p> + +<p>The south of France, in contact with Italy, with the cultured Moors of +Spain, and, through its Mediterranean ports, with the most advanced +civilization then known, that of the Arabs, was far in advance of the +northern provinces in civilization, or at least in luxury and knowledge +of the arts usually accompanying civilization. Provence, especially, +with its ancient port of Marseilles to recall memories of the most +cultured nation of antiquity, was in material prosperity and in arts +already advancing to that stage of civilization which was to make her, +in the course of the next century, the mother of the first real +literature France had known and of the first extended protest against +the Church of Rome. The troubadours were soon to make Provence and the +Provençal tongue famous, and the Albigenses, with their heresy, were to +invite the destruction of this gay, brilliant, but unsound society. The +south was already far more gay and pleasure loving than the north, where +the ravages of wars foreign and domestic had been more terrible. And out +of the south came Queen Constance, <i>la Blanche</i>, to a court where the +king was more monk than king.</p> + +<p>The northerners, always disliking the men of Provence, exclaimed in +horror against the manners and the costume of the horde of Provençal +attendants whom Constance brought with her. "The favor of the queen," +says Glaber, "attracted into France and Bourgogne many natives of +Aquitaine and Auvergne. These vain and frivolous men showed themselves +to be as ill-regulated in their morals as they were immodest in their +dress. Their armor and the furnishings of their horses were +extraordinary. Their hair fell scarce to the middle of their heads (the +fashion of shaving the back of the head was strange in northern France, +though afterward so prevalent that William's Norman knights were +reported by Harold's spies to be all shaven-crowned monks); they shaved +their beards off as smooth as play actors; they wore boots indecently +turned up in long points at the toes, robes cut off short, reaching to +the knees and divided behind and before; in walking they hopped along!" +Alas for France! the French and the Burgundians, formerly the most +honest and sober of all nations, eagerly followed the "sinful example" +set by the queen's favorites. The whole nation copied these indecent +costumes, and short hair, short robes, and sinfully pointed shoes became +the fashion. As the Puritans inveighed against Babylonish apparel, the +livery of the "scarlet woman," in the shape of Cavalier curls and long +plumes, so the divines of France made a crusade against this livery of +the devil. They declared that the finger of Satan was in all this, and +that the pointed shoes would infallibly carry their wearers to the realm +of the master whose livery they wore. One can hear the very voice of Ben +Jonson's Ananias, the Puritan, as he testifies against the costume of +the Spaniard: "They are profane, lewd, superstitious, and idolatrous +breeches."</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, the satanic livery was never utterly thrown aside; and +clothes were not the only things satanic about the new queen. Constance, +high-tempered and energetic, reigned over France through or in spite of +King Robert. Coming of a forceful and warlike race, she must have found +many things distasteful in the weakness and superstition which were the +chief traits she noted in her husband. She and her kinsfolk left him +free to compose hymns, while they ruled France. But when one of his +favorites, Hugues de Beauvais, whom he had made count of the palace, +suggested to Robert that he might get rid of Constance and send for the +ever-regretted Bertha, Constance notified her strenuous uncle Foulques. +Foulques promptly despatched a dozen brave knights, with orders to slay +Hugues whenever and wherever they found him: they found him and murdered +him in the very presence of the king. Robert was too weak to resist +effectively, made his peace with the queen, and gave himself up more and +more to religious devotions.</p> + +<p>He used to go to the church of Saint-Denis and sing with the choir and +challenge the singers to a trial of skill. When Constance one day asked +him to compose some song in her honor, he responded with a stave of his +hymn: <i>O! Constantia martyrum</i> (O! faith and constancy of the martyrs), +with which she was as well pleased as if the reference had not been a +bit ambiguous. On a certain occasion, as he was besieging a castle on +the feast of Saint Hippolytus, to whom he professed a special devotion, +he left the army and repaired to Saint-Denis to sing hymns in honor of +the saint. While he was thus engaged, the walls of the castle fell, and +the king's troops entered in; a manifest reward for his singing <i>Agnus +Dei, dona nobis pacem!</i> While he was one day at prayers, shedding many +tears, as was his wont, the vain and worldly-minded Constance adorned +his lance with silver ornaments. The king, finding this sinful waste, +looked out of his door and saw a poor man near by. He sent him off to +get some sort of tool to cut off the decorations, shut himself up in a +room with the fellow, stripped the lance of its silver gewgaws, and gave +them to him, bidding him begone in haste lest the queen see him. +Constance asked what had become of the silver, and Robert "swore by the +Lord's name, though not in earnest," that he knew not what had become of +it.</p> + +<p>In spite of this pious perjury, we are told that Robert had a great +horror of lying. The proof of this statement is very interesting. He had +a reliquary made of crystal, set in a golden case, and containing no +relic. Upon this his nobles, ignorant of the deceit, could swear without +danger of risking their souls, in case the oath was false. And as common +folk had souls, too, and might endanger them by false swearing, he had a +similar reliquary, made of silver, in which was deposited nothing more +sacred than an egg. He was constantly endeavoring to shield the petty +malefactors whom his unworldliness had tempted to wrongdoing, and whom +Constance would have punished. It was his habit to have the poor fed +from his table, and on one occasion he had a fellow concealed under the +table at his feet. The man found time between bites to cut off a heavy +gold ornament attached to the king's knee. "What enemy of God, my good +lord, has dishonored your gold-adorned robe?" cried Constance. +"Undoubtedly," said Robert, "he who took it wanted it more than I, and +with God's aid it will be of service to him." One day he saw a young +clerk named Ogger steal a candlestick from the altar in his chapel. The +priests were much disturbed over its loss; and the queen, in a rage, +swore by the soul of her father that she would have the eyes of the +priests torn from their sockets if they did not account for what had +been stolen from the sanctuary. The priests questioned Robert, who, +denying all knowledge of the theft, at once sent for the thief. "Friend +Ogger," said he, "haste thee hence, lest my inconstant Constancy eat +thee up. What thou hast taken will be enough to carry thee to thy own +country. The Lord be with thee." When the thief was beyond danger of +pursuit, Robert cheerfully said: "Why all this pother about a +candlestick? The Lord has given it to some of his poor."</p> + +<p>One can well understand that however churchmen might commend this sort +of meekness it was most irritating to Constance. She was full of energy +and vigor, and never jested, says her biographer, about anything. She +and her uncle Foulques, whom Robert had made governor of Paris, ruled +France and fought against the turbulent and rebellious barons, chief +among whom was Eudes II., Count of Blois, of Chartres, of Tours, and of +Champagne, the son of the deposed queen, Bertha. She led in the first +important attack upon heresy. Certain clerks in the city of Orléans +developed a secret, heretical sect which gained many proselytes, among +others a certain Etienne, who had been the confessor of Queen Constance. +Their secret was discovered; they were brought to trial, refused to +recant, and were ordered to execution. As they marched from the church +where they had been tried to the immense funeral pyre, they passed +Constance in the porch of the church. Recognizing Etienne among the +thirteen prisoners, she attacked him furiously, and with a whip put out +one eye of the defenceless victim. This vindictive queen, aggravating +the tortures of the first victims of the new religious persecutions, is +not a pleasant figure in French.</p> + +<p>As Robert grew older and it became necessary to determine on a +successor,--the right of the oldest son was not yet altogether +fixed,--Constance began to intrigue against her husband. Robert was in +the habit of saying: "My hen pecks, but she gives me plenty of +chickens." They had had six children; but had lost their eldest son, +Hugues, in 1025. Of the three remaining sons, Eudes, the eldest, was an +idiot; Henry, the second, was his father's choice; and Robert, the +youngest, was favored by Constance, "with her habitual spirit of +contradiction." She said, with some reason, that Henry was weak, +inactive, deceitful, and negligent of affairs, and could no more be king +than his father could; whereas Robert had far more energy and sense than +his brothers. For once, the king resisted, and with the consent of the +peers assured the succession to Henry. Constance fomented ill feeling +between the two sons, and between Henry and his father. Robert, with the +notion that injustice had been done him, was soon in revolt against his +father. But the queen had always been so harsh to all her children that +none of them seem to have had faith in her or affection for her, and the +two brothers, Henry and Robert, soon became reconciled to each other and +made a joint invasion of their father's dominions, pillaging his castles +and territories. The poor king, after many ravages had been committed, +at length bribed his sons to let him sing his last hymns in peace. Henry +was to succeed to the throne, and Robert became Duke of Burgundy.</p> + +<p>The peace thus made did not long outlast King Robert. He died in July, +1031, and the monks mourned their friend and protector, and many of the +poor sincerely bewailed the loss of their "good father"; but there is no +sign of any excessive grief on the part of Constance. She soon gave the +kingdom cause to mourn in other fashion; for no sooner was Henry I. +seated on his throne than his mother began to stir up rebellion against +him. She had always been violent in private as in public life, and +treated Henry in particular "as if she hated him like a stepmother." Her +intrigues now were so far successful that she won over to her side most +of the direct vassals of the crown, and the greater number of the towns +in the duchy of France declared themselves in favor of placing Robert, +Duke of Burgundy, on the throne. By surrendering the county of Sens to +her old enemy, Eudes, Count of Blois, Constance gained his aid. This +plot of a mother against her son was successful in all but one main +point: the other son, in whose name she was preparing to wage civil war, +took no active part against his brother, and appears to have remained +quietly in Burgundy. Perhaps he was wise enough to understand that what +Constance was really scheming for was the continuance of her own power, +and that if placed on the throne he would have been completely under her +control.</p> + +<p>In this crisis of the affairs of the kingdom, Henry, fleeing with a +following of but twelve vavasours, called upon Normandy for aid; and +most effective aid he had from one whose name was to become famous, a +nucleus for the gathering of romance. This was Duke Robert of Normandy, +surnamed Robert the Devil, who carried on a predatory warfare so savage +and so successful that most of the revolted lords near the borders of +Normandy "bowed their heads before him." Old Foulques Nerra, probably in +one of his edifying fits of repentance, at length brought Constance to a +reconciliation with Henry, reproaching her with the brutal fury with +which she was treating her son. The miserable queen, who had caused so +much unhappiness to her husband and to her sons, did not long survive +the peace, dying at Melun in July, 1032. Her ally Eudes continued the +struggle some little while, but was at last vanquished and forced to +disgorge half of the county of Sens which Constance had given him as a +bribe.</p> + +<p>Thus ends the life of one of the first of the French queens who really +took an active part in affairs. Beautiful, witty, and full of graces and +caprices essentially feminine, as well as of some masculine qualities, +she yet appears to have inspired no love, nothing but dread, in anyone +who came near her; and the chroniclers of the time seem to delight in +telling anecdotes illustrative of her wickedness as contrasted with +Robert's saintliness. But we must remember that at least she +accomplished something, and that her enemies tell her story.</p> + +<p>At the period of which we write, Normandy was all powerful, and the +Capets had come to look upon her dukes now as their most dangerous foes +and now as their most useful friends. Duke Robert the Magnificent, as +his courtiers called him, or Robert the Devil, as literature knows him, +had an amour which is interesting as showing that class distinctions +were not so rigid as one might think. According to Wace's story of the +romance:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "A Faleize ont li Dus hante,...</p> +<p class="i14"> Une meschine i ont amée,</p> +<p class="i14"> Arlot ont nom, de burgeis née."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>(The duke did much frequent Falaise,... There he loved a girl named +Arietta, born of a burgess of the town). Arietta, the tanner's daughter, +was to become a figure of romance in the story of Robert the Devil; but, +romance or no romance, she was the mother of the greatest of the Norman +dukes, William the Conqueror, born in 1028. William had hard work to +keep his place in Normandy, but we cannot stop to tell of the long and +successful struggle which he waged against the haughty barons who +refused to bow to the illegitimate son of the tanner's daughter. We all +know the story of how the citizens of Alençon, which he was besieging, +beat skins upon the walls of one of their redoubts, crying: "Work for +the tanner!" and how William captured the redoubt, cut off the hands and +feet of the unlucky jokers, and threw them over the town walls.</p> + +<p>With a man of such temper, it is not unnatural that there should have +arisen a curious story of his courtship, which began soon after this +episode at Alençon. Engaged in constant conflict with his neighbors, +William determined at least to secure the friendship of Flanders. He +sought the hand of Matilda, daughter of Baldwin, Count of Flanders. +Mauger, William's uncle, objected to the marriage, because Matilda and +William were cousins, and caused the clergy to prohibit it. The Pope +issued a special pronouncement against it. With him William could not +proceed after the manner which doubtless most commended itself to him, +but when the Italian Lanfranc, at the monastic school of Bee, dared to +pronounce the marriage sinful, William promptly gave orders to burn down +the farms from which the monks drew their sustenance, and to banish +Lanfranc. But a shrewd display of courage and wit on Lanfranc's part +made William his friend; and soon it was agreed that if William would +found two monasteries the sin of his marriage would be forgiven him.</p> + +<p>The chronicles of Tours report that Matilda herself objected to wedding +the bastard of Normandy. The match, however, had been agreed to by her +father, and William had set his heart on it. As proof of his +determination, if not of his lover-like devotion, he waited for her as +she came out of church one day, and whipped her till she consented to +marry him! And as some writers assert, even after the marriage he +continued to use this sort of suasion with his duchess, finally causing +her death by his brutality. Despite this unlovely beginning, the +marriage was a happy one. Matilda was beautiful, virtuous, and of strong +character, so that she won her husband's confidence and love. In an age +of scandalous marital infidelity, he was faithful to her. She was his +faithful friend and counsellor through life; and when he went on that +perilous voyage of adventure to win the English crown, it was she who +was left in charge of the duchy of Normandy; she who was praying for her +husband's safety in the priory she had founded at Rouen, when she heard +the news of the great victory of Hastings, and christened the church +Bonne Nouvelle; she who welcomed him back to his capital of Rouen after +the success in England.</p> + +<p>The purity and devotion of the Conqueror's queen present a picture very +different from that of Bertrade de Montfort, who, like the wicked +Constance, was connected with the house of Anjou. Philip I., a pitiable +<i>roi fainéant</i>, had married, in 1071, Bertha of Holland, by whom he had +had three children. Having wearied of her, he sent her off to the +chateau of Montreuil, prepared for her long before as a wedding bower, +and then discovering one of those convenient relationships we have +mentioned, succeeded in having his marriage annulled. Having thus +relieved his conscience, it was but natural that he should begin to look +about him--he may have looked before--for a wife whom he might keep for +a while without distressing his conscience. He found this helpmeet in +Bertrade de Montfort, with whom he fell in love while on a trip to +Tours, in 1092. It is true that "a good man could find naught to admire +in her but her beauty," and that her husband, another Foulques of Anjou, +was still living. But these are small matters when one is King of France +and has one's heart set upon some particular lady. Foulques was not an +attractive man; he seems to have had something like a club foot, and to +have worn long, pointed shoes to hide his deformity; besides, he had +already been twice divorced. Bertrade, young, beautiful, ambitious, was +quite ready to go to the king and replace the unhappy Bertha. She eloped +on the night following the king's visit to her husband, found an escort +waiting for her at Meung-sur-Loire, and was conducted to Philip at +Orléans.</p> + +<p>Philip and Bertrade decided to get married, for the duchess was anxious +to be called queen. They were indignant because most of the bishops +suggested that the proceeding was rather irregular, since Foulques was +not only still living but at that moment actually preparing to bring +back his runaway spouse by force of arms. Nevertheless, by large gifts, +the king persuaded one bishop to consecrate his union with Bertrade. +Foulques and the friends of the deposed queen, Bertha, made forays into +Philip's territory, but accomplished nothing. Meanwhile, Philip incited +one of his barons to make war on and imprison the Bishop of Chartres, +who had dared to denounce the marriage with Bertrade. The whole power of +the Church was soon enlisted against him, and Pope Urban II. despatched +a special legate to dissolve the marriage, or to excommunicate Philip if +he did not leave his paramour. The Bishop of Chartres was promptly +released, and Philip attempted to forestall further action on the part +of his enemies by calling a special council at Rheims to try the bishop +on a frivolous charge. But the legate summoned another council at Autun, +which issued a decree of excommunication against Philip and Bertrade in +October, 1094.</p> + +<p>Though Queen Bertha was now dead, the ecclesiastical censure still held +good. According to one of the conditions of the decree, Philip was to +put off his crown. He obeyed this to the letter, refused to wear any +insignia of royalty, and feigned to have ceased all intercourse with +Bertrade. The Pope gave him till All Saints' Day, 1095, to reform, being +afraid to use extreme measures while a rival Pope, already sustained by +the German Emperor, might entice the King of France into his following. +All Saints' Day came and went, and still Philip and Bertrade were living +as man and wife. Once more Philip was excommunicated, by a council held +at Clermont; he again made fine promises of reformation, broke his word, +and even had the audacity to have Bertrade consecrated as queen. +Excommunication after excommunication was pronounced against him, and +the kingdom was put under an interdict; he continued to make most +generous promises about sending Bertrade back where she belonged, and +still never did he do what he promised.</p> + +<p>The terrors of excommunication had evidently lost their force, or else +laymen and clerks alike were too much occupied with other important work +before the council of Clermont, work whose effects were to influence +profoundly the whole history of Europe and to bring about great social +as well as great political changes: men were talking of the First +Crusade. In the mighty stir of preparation, in the wild enthusiasm of +that great movement, the king and his paramour were for the moment lost +sight of. While men and women, and even children, were listening to the +fierce eloquence of Peter the Hermit, and in inspired frenzy shouting +out their approval: <i>Dieu le veult! Dieu le veult!</i> who could stop to +think of the idle and shifty King of France? Were they not all going to +battle in the service of a greater king than he?</p> + +<p>Yet the motives of even these first Crusaders were in some cases far +from that consistent purity which one would expect. Among the leaders is +one Guilhelm, Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Poitiers, a gay and famous +troubadour, who has founded in his own domain a <i>maison de plaisir</i> +where the inmates are dressed like nuns, a sort of Persian heaven ("A +Persian's heaven is easily made 'Tis but black eyes and lemonade"); who +bids an affecting farewell "to brilliant tourneys, to grandeur and to +riches, to all that enchained his heart, for he goes in the service of +God to find remission for his sins;" and who yet carries with him on +this holy war a perfect swarm of the beauties (<i>examina puellarum</i>) who +enchained his heart, and continued to enchain it, probably, until they +were captured by the Turks. But this Guilhelm gives a still more +interesting proof of the motives of his pious warfare. Two papal legates +came to Poitiers in November, 1100, to hold a council. Having preached +the Crusade, they next proceeded to renew the curse of excommunication +upon Philip, who was still living with Bertrade. The good Count +Guilhelm, with the red cross already upon his breast, stirred up a mob +against the legates, led the way into the church where the council was +sitting, and encouraged his followers to stone the assembled bishops. +There were broken heads, and there was some bloodshed, but enough of the +bishops stood their ground to pronounce the excommunication once more.</p> + +<p>Bertrade bore the censures with amazing effrontery, and jested about how +the bells of the churches, silent during their stay, would begin to ring +as they left a town; and she actually forced some priests to hold a +service for her. But repeated curses, or the debauchery in which he had +all his life indulged, seem to have undermined Philip's constitution. At +any rate, he determined to relieve himself of the cares of government. +In spite of the protests of Bertrade, who wished to prevent the power of +the sceptre from going to the son of Queen Bertha, Philip, in 1100, +associated his son Louis in the government.</p> + +<p>The young man proved himself a vigorous ruler, and won the love of his +subjects by attempts to punish some of the robber barons who made life +miserable for merchants and travellers. He became too popular to be +altogether agreeable to his amiable stepmother, who set about planning +to get rid of him. Louis went to visit the English king, Henry +Beauclerc, in 1102, and was received with all the courtesy and honor due +his rank. Bertrade despatched after him letters, sealed with the royal +seal of Philip, instructing Henry to seize Louis and confine him in +prison for the rest of his days. But Henry was either too wise or too +humane to perpetrate this outrage, and sent the young prince back with +every honor. Louis was furious; Philip denied all knowledge of the +infamous letters; and Louis, guessing whence they came, planned to kill +Bertrade.</p> + +<p>She, however, was not easily to be caught, and began devising means to +procure the death of Louis. She first had resort to three clerks, who +proposed to destroy the prince by means of sorcery, if they could +conduct their incantations unmolested for nine days. But one of them +confessed the plot, and the black art was abandoned for some surer +method. The queen had Louis poisoned. He languished for several days, +unable to eat or to sleep, and given over by the best physicians in +France. At length, one who had learned some of the art of the Saracens +volunteered his services; and under his care Louis's life was saved, +though he bore traces of the poisoning all the rest of his days.</p> + +<p>Queen Bertrade, like an affectionate mother, had hoped to see one of her +own sons seated upon the throne, and was much grieved at Louis's +recovery. Philip, completely under her influence, actually implored his +son to forgive this second direct attempt upon his life; and Bertrade, +in a great fright now that her crime had failed and had been found out, +cringed before Louis like a common servant, and at length won his +forgiveness.</p> + +<p>Philip determined to be reconciled to the Church. At a council held at +the close of 1104 he appeared as a sincere penitent,--barefooted, with +unkempt hair and beard,--and solemnly swore never to live with Bertrade +again. The curse of excommunication was removed; the council discreetly +went about its business; and Philip went outside, and put on his shoes, +and had his hair cut, and put on his crown, and had one ready for +Bertrade, too. But the Church was tired of contending with him, and took +no further notice of his irregularities, though what happened soon +afterward was, if possible, more scandalous than all that had gone +before.</p> + +<p>Bertrade had the address to reconcile her two husbands; and in 1106 she +and Philip actually went to visit Foulques, in Angers, where all three +hobnobbed most amicably, sitting at the same table, or occupying seats +of honor in the church, with Philip seated by Bertrade's side and +Foulques on a stool at her feet. One can hardly credit a statement like +this, but there seems to have been no limit to Bertrade's effrontery, +and the complete subjection of Foulques is recorded in the Latin life of +Louis the Fat: "Although he was banished outright from her bed, she so +mollified him that... often sitting on a stool at her feet, he submitted +in all things to her will."</p> + +<p>Foulques, though he sat at the feet of his wife and the king's paramour, +and though he ceased to make active claim to his share of Bertrade, has +recorded his and his wife's infamy for us. One of his charters, for +example, is dated thus: "This donation was made in the year one thousand +and ninety-five after the incarnation of Our Lord, Urban being Pope, and +France befouled by the adultery of the infamous King Philip." But this +was in the salad days of his wrath, before Bertrade had induced him to +sit on a stool at her feet and submit to her will in all things.</p> + +<p>In the year 1108, Philip, feeling his sins and his diseases lie heavy +upon him, determined to take an allopathic dose of repentance to purify +himself from the first before the second carried him off. He addressed +special prayers to Saint Benedict, ordered that his wicked body should +not be buried in the royal tombs at Saint-Denis, and clothed himself in +the habit of a Benedictine monk. Thus he expired, having existed--not +reigned--as king for forty-eight years, and was succeeded immediately by +Louis the Fat, who was crowned within five days after the death of his +father.</p> + +<p>This haste was not altogether without excuse, for Bertrade was still +alive, and not wasting her time in prayers to Saint Benedict. Taking +advantage of the disturbed state of the kingdom, she managed to form a +coalition, headed by her brother, Amauri de Montfort, and by the +successor of her Angevin husband, to dethrone Louis and put in his place +her own son, Philip, Count of Mantes. But Louis was too active to be +caught as the conspirators had planned. He summoned Philip to appear +before the court of peers of the duchy of France, and, on his refusal, +seized upon the strongholds of his enemies before they were prepared, +and deprived Philip of his county of Mantes.</p> + +<p>Bertrade's last card was played, and she succumbed to her defeat. Though +still in the height of her beauty, with not a wrinkle on her brow, she +retired to the convent of Haute Bruyère, a dependency of the famous +monastery of Fontevrault. Whether or not she was truly penitent for the +evil life she had led we do not know. But there was to be short time +left her for the cultivation of the monastic virtues; for the austerity +of the new life soon wore her out, and she died in the convent.</p> +<a name="c2" id="c2"></a> +<br><br> + +<h3>CHAPTER II</h3> + +<h3>FAMOUS LOVERS</h3> + +<p>In Père Lachaise, the famous cemetery of Paris, there is none among the +hundreds of monuments upon which the traveller looks with more interest +than that of the lovely and unhappy Héloïse. There her body lies, with +that of her lover-husband, Pierre Abélard. It is her story that we wish +to tell; but her fame and that of Abélard are so intimately associated +that one cannot tell of Héloïse without first telling something of +Abélard. The debt to fame, however, is not all on her side; to translate +the words of a great French historian: "Alone, the name of Abélard would +be known to-day only to scholars: linked with the name of Héloïse, it is +in every heart. Paris, above all,... has kept the memory of the immortal +daughter of the Cite with exceptional and unchanging fidelity. The +eighteenth century and the Revolution, so pitiless towards the Middle +Ages, revived this tradition with the same ardor which led them to +destroy so many other memories. The children of Rousseau's disciples +still go in pilgrimage to the monument of this great saint of love, and +each spring sees pious women placing fresh crowns of flowers upon the +tomb in which the Revolution reunited the two lovers." We shall not, +therefore, attempt to part those whom love has for more than seven +centuries joined together, and shall tell of Abélard as well as of +Héloïse.</p> + +<p>The great University of Paris was already famous in the twelfth century. +Professors, most of them ecclesiastics, lectured on all the foolish +subtilties of the learning of the day to crowds of students collected +from every quarter of Europe. At the monastic school of Notre Dame the +most distinguished lecturer on dialectic,--meaning philosophy and logic +as applied to philosophy,--at the close of the eleventh century, was +Guillaume de Champeaux. The method of instruction was, necessarily, +almost entirely oral, for books were worth almost their weight in coin. +It was the custom for the professor to encourage discussions with the +students and to overwhelm them with the weight of his wisdom and the +acuteness of his reasoning. In this fashion Guillaume had long +triumphed, and had, we may fancy, acquired no little of that dogmatic +habit of mind which is fostered by unchallenged teaching. About the year +1100 his ascendency was seriously threatened by a young Breton, scarcely +yet a man, who had come to his school as a student and had had the +temerity to overcome him in argument. This was Pierre Abélard, soon +famous as a logician, philosopher, and theologian, now remembered +chiefly because of his connection with the fair and noble Héloïse. +Abélard was born at Pallet, or Palais, not far from Nantes. He was the +eldest son of a family of some distinction, and his father, Bérenger, +was determined to give his son an education in keeping with his own +knightly rank. Bérenger himself was better educated than most of the +gentlemen of his class, and there seems to have been a decided leaning +to devoutness in the family, since both Bérenger and his wife, Lucie, +took monastic vows later in life. At any rate, Pierre, after a taste of +learning, determined to devote himself entirely to the pursuit of +knowledge. Let us see how he tells this part of his own story. "The +progress that I made in learning attached me to its pursuit with an ever +increasing ardor, and such was the charm that it exercised over my mind +that, renouncing the glory of arms, my own heritage, my own privileges +as eldest son, I abandoned forever the camp of Mars to take refuge in +the bosom of Minerva. Preferring the art of dialectic to all the other +teachings of philosophy, I exchanged the arms of war for those of logic, +and sacrificed trophies of the battlefield for the joys of contest in +argument. I took to travelling from province to province, going wherever +I heard that the study of this art received special honor, and always +engaging in argument, like a veritable emulator of the Peripatetics."</p> + +<p>In this way, Abélard, still under twenty, came to the school of +Guillaume de Champeaux. Received at first with honor, as an intelligent +pupil, Abélard remained some time, perhaps two years. But his restless, +inquisitive, and, above all, rational mind could not accept calmly what +seemed to it untrue. Abélard, a mere boy, dared to dispute with his +master, Guillaume, and, what is far worse, to get the better of +arguments on Guillaume's own peculiar subject. The school was divided +into two parties. Guillaume, being the more influential, prevented his +pupil from establishing himself as a lecturer in Paris, and Abélard +removed to Melun, at that time a royal residence and a city of some +importance. Here he opened a school of his own, which prospered so +greatly, in spite of the jealousy of Guillaume and the older teachers, +that he removed to Corbeil, near Paris, and was soon recognized as more +than the equal of his old instructor. But his health broke down under +the strain; he retired to rest and recuperate in his native land, and +remained there several years. Returning about 1108, he again met +Guillaume in argument, in the convent of Saint-Victor, outside Paris, +and again vanquished him, this time so completely that Guillaume gave up +his chair in Paris. His jealousy, however, still kept Abélard from +establishing himself in the great city. The young philosopher opened his +school on Mont Sainte-Geneviève, a hill just outside the walls of the +Paris of that day, where he taught with brilliant success, till summoned +to Brittany by his mother Lucie, then about to take the veil. On his +return from this trip he determined to study theology. The venerable +Anselm of Laon was the most distinguished teacher of theology, and to +him Abélard went. Here is part of his comment on Anselm, which will help +us to understand something of the writer's character.</p> + +<p>"He enjoyed marvellous facility of speech, but his thought was without +value, even without good sense. The fire that he kindled filled his +house with smoke, but did not illuminate it. He was a tree dense with +foliage and beautiful from afar, but found fruitless when examined more +closely. I had come to him to gather fruit; I found in him the fig tree +cursed by the Lord, or the old oak to which Lucan compares Pompey: But +the shadow of a great name, the lofty oak in the midst of the fruitful +field." With such an opinion of his preceptor, it is not surprising that +Abélard grew impatient and talked imprudently. The immediate result was +that the young scholar proved, to his own satisfaction and apparently to +that of his hearers, that he could lecture on theology, as Anselm +understood theology, by the aid of ordinary intelligence alone. The +ultimate result was that he made an enemy of Anselm. He returned to +Paris--about 1115--in triumph, was given the chair formerly held by +Guillaume de Champeaux, and became a canon of the cathedral of Notre +Dame.</p> + +<p>During the three or four years that followed this signal triumph over +his old master, Abélard enjoyed a popularity and a reputation for +learning almost without parallel. He was of handsome presence, polished +and winning in manners, accomplished even in the little arts and graces +of the society of the period. All this would account for his personal +popularity; but his was really a brilliant mind, fascinatingly if +dangerously logical, and straightforward in dealing with vexed questions +of philosophy and theology. And with all his learning he knew how to +meet the difficulties of ordinary minds, to present his arguments in a +style not only simple but lucid and entertaining. He brought to his work +a precious quality--enthusiasm. From all parts of Europe students +flocked to him, by hundreds, by thousands; and with the offerings they +brought he was rich. Then it was that pride prepared his ruin. +"Believing myself henceforth the only living philosopher, fancying that +I had no more opposition to encounter or accusation to fear, I commenced +to give rein to my passions, I who had always lived in the greatest +continence. The more I advanced in the paths of philosophy and theology, +the further I was getting, by my impure life, from philosophers and +saints." How much of this confession is real humility, and how much mere +pretence, exaggeration, and vain rhetoric, we cannot say. It is an +unfortunate fact that what is recognized as the language of religion is +so highly colored, so tropical, so manifestly not to be taken in its +absolute and literal sense, that one cannot estimate a character by +autobiographic testimony of this sort. What Rousseau meant when he +confessed that he "gave rein to his passions" we know full well, for he +tells us. What, or rather how much, Abélard means we cannot tell, since +his language is evidently in large part figurative. We do not think, +however, that he was ever really a libertine.</p> + +<p>In his own account of his love story Abélard says that he was attracted +by the beauty, the youth, and the mental attainments of Héloïse, the +niece of Fulbert, a canon of Notre Dame, who had loved her tenderly and +had educated her with unusual care. Smitten more by the physical than by +the mental graces of the girl, then about eighteen, Abélard sought a +pretext to ingratiate himself with Fulbert, and to enter his house as a +lodger. The opportunity of having his beloved niece instructed by a +person of such distinction was more than Fulbert could let pass. In the +intimate relations of teacher and pupil Abélard also found his +opportunity; and the two were soon plainly lovers in the eyes of all the +world save Fulbert, who refused to believe in the treachery of his +friend and the shame of his niece. Abélard, who was in his thirty-ninth +year, loved with all the ardor of youth; he wrote passionate love songs, +which were long popular but have been lost; he neglected his work, and +devoted his time to Héloïse instead of to his lectures on theology. At +last even Fulbert could no longer refuse to believe. The lovers were +separated, but continued to meet in secret. Not long after the first +discovery of their relations by her uncle, Héloïse found herself about +to become a mother. Abélard stole her away one night, while Fulbert was +absent, and fled with her to Brittany, where she remained with his +sister until after the birth of her son, whom she named Astrolabe.</p> + +<p>To appease Fulbert, who was thirsting for revenge but dared not pursue +the pair into Brittany, the stronghold of Abélard's family, Abélard +proposed to marry Héloïse, provided the union be kept secret, so as not +to jeopardize his interests or prospects in the Church. Héloïse, devoted +body and soul to Abélard, would not hear of a marriage which might ruin +his career, and was with difficulty brought to consent even to a secret +union. Fulbert, seeing no other means of redress, accepted Abélard's +proposition, and gave his word to keep the marriage a secret. Héloïse +and Abélard secretly came back to Paris and were wedded a few days +later, the ceremony being performed at dawn, in the presence of Fulbert +and a few of his friends.</p> + +<p>But the temporary disappearance from Paris of so noteworthy a person as +Abélard could not be concealed. The whole town had known of his passion +for Héloïse, and the gossips now guessed, no doubt, why he had +disappeared, and why Héloïse also had gone. We do not need to be told +that the surmises made, all so dishonorable to his niece, must have been +galling in the extreme to Fulbert. He could not endure the shame of his +niece, and tried to quell the scandal by letting the news of the +marriage leak out. Abélard says that Fulbert told it himself, in +violation of his oath of secrecy--for which we can hardly blame him as +much as Abélard does. The devoted Héloïse, to protect Abélard, flatly +denied the marriage; not all Fulbert's entreaties and threats could move +her to admit that she was anything but Abélard's mistress. Beside +himself with anger and shame, Fulbert grew so violent that Héloïse fled +to a nunnery at Argenteuil, near Paris, Abélard aiding her in her +flight. At Argenteuil Abélard had her dressed in the monastic habit, +though she did not take the vows.</p> + +<p>We must admit that there were some grounds for supposing, as Fulbert and +his family believed, that Abélard meant to rid himself of his wife by +having her shut up in the convent: and they had experienced enough of +her self-sacrificing firmness to know that she would offer no resistance +to Abélard's wishes, if such were his wishes. Determined at least to +punish him, they bribed one of his servants, broke into his house at +night, and inflicted upon him the most severe and brutal mutilation. If +Héloïse was forced to be a nun, Abélard should be fit for nothing but a +monk.</p> + +<p>The perpetrators of this Draconian vengeance fled. Paris was all agog +with the shame of the brilliant philosopher. There were partisans in +plenty on his side, and Abélard takes pleasure in telling us that two of +the perpetrators of the crime, including his servant, were captured, +blinded, and mutilated as he had been. The justice of the Middle Ages +never erred on the side of mercy. Abélard fell into the most abject +despair, but still we see in him the same dominant regard to his career +in the world. When his friends came about him, particularly the clerks, +with their lamentations and their manifestations of compassion, he says: +"I suffered more from their compassion than from the pain of my wound; I +felt my shame more than my actual mutilation." He felt not only the +shame, but the ruin of all his ambitions. "In this state of hopelessness +and of utter confusion it was, I admit, rather a feeling of shame than +predilection for the vocation that impelled me towards the shades of a +cloister." Ever ready to obey his wishes, Héloïse took the veil in the +convent of Argenteuil at the same time that Abélard entered the abbey of +Saint-Denis. Héloïse was not yet twenty; did her youthful heart, full of +love of life, yearn for the cramped life of the nunnery? We shall later +see what she herself says upon this score; for the present suffice it to +note that even Abélard pauses in the account of his woes to praise her +complete abnegation of self, and to tell us that she went to the altar +where the irrevocable vows were to be taken, repeating in the midst of +her sobs the lament of Cornelia: "O my husband, greatest of men! worthy +of a bride far better than I! Had Fate such power over a head so +illustrious? Wretch that I am, why did I wed thee only to bring woe upon +thee? Be thou now avenged in the sacrifice I so willingly make for +thee!" --(Lucan, Pharsalia, VIII., 1. 94.) The convent was to her a +punishment; but as she goes to it she does not think of her punishment, +but only of his.</p> + +<p>Let us leave Héloïse for the present and pursue the story of Abélard. +His troubles were just beginning; henceforth almost everything seemed to +go wrong with him. Scarcely recovered from his injuries, he was besought +by his former pupils to resume his lectures, while the monks of +Saint-Denis, thinking to gain credit through their illustrious recruit, +also urged him to teach again. These same monks Abélard had found far +from congenial. They were covetous, narrow-minded, and outrageously +licentious. He was, therefore, the more willing to undertake his old +work, and opened a modest school at the little village of Maisoncelle, +in Brie, where the monks of Saint-Denis had a priory. Here, once more, +crowds came to hear him, and he felt so encouraged that he ventured to +put in book form some of his theological and philosophical opinions, at +the instance and for the use of his students. Neither misfortune nor the +wish of Job that his adversary had written a book had taught him +caution; in his book, probably the <i>Introductio ad Theologiam</i> that has +come down to us, he ventured to discuss even the most obscure and +jealously guarded mysteries of the faith, and to discuss them with the +same lucidity, directness, and acuteness of reason that had made him +famous as a lecturer. He was, indeed, in the habit of acting upon one of +the phrases which one may cull from his writings as characteristic of +the man's mental attitude: "Understand, that you may believe." Abélard +found, like hundreds of others who have proceeded in this way, that his +reason could not account, to its own satisfaction, for all the things +called of faith. He was constantly allowing himself to be led on in +discussion until he found himself confronted with a dilemma: either to +follow logic still further and end in infidelity, or to silence, as best +he could, the voice of reason by an appeal to authority and to faith. On +the present occasion it was an utterance on the dogma of the Trinity +that his enemies seized upon. The leaders of the persecution were two +former classmates, who now intrigued against him. Without examining him, +without giving him a chance to discuss, justify, or explain his +doctrine, a council, assembled at Soissons in 1121, condemned his book, +not so much for what it taught, as because the author had presumed to +teach theology without definite authority from the Church. Summoned +before the council--the decision had been reached and the trial +conducted without his presence--Abélard was forced to throw his book +into the flames. As a confession of faith he was made to recite the +Athanasian creed, and, to humiliate him still further, they brought him +the text, as if he could not recite from memory that which was known by +every child. The man's overwrought nature gave way under this last +exhibition of petty malice. He tells us: "I read (the creed) as well as +I could for sobs and tears." He was then delivered to the abbot of +Saint-Médard to be confined to the monastery for an indefinite period.</p> + +<p>He soon obtained permission to return to Saint-Denis, but here his +tongue once more got him into trouble. The patron saint of the abbey, +the patron saint of all France, was Saint Denis, whom the ignorant monks +of the abbey, jealous of the dignity of their patron, identified with +Dionysius the Areopagite, the convert of Saint Paul. Abélard pointed out +to them a passage in Bede which proved the whole thing a legend. Abélard +was perfectly right, but in the eyes of his brother monks he was +certainly a traitor, probably an emissary of the devil. His life at +Saint-Denis becoming unbearable, he fled at night to Champagne, and, +after some little opposition, was permitted to retire to a desert place +not far from Troyes. Here he built an oratory of reeds and thatch, +dedicated to the Holy Trinity, and here he dwelt as a hermit. But even +here pupils sought him out. To gain his living, he opened a school; and +the desert gave birth to scores of little huts and tents, in which his +eager hearers lived. His own little oratory being too small to +accommodate the crowds, the students built for him a new and larger +temple, which, in gratitude for the consolation he had found here, he +dedicated to the Trinity and named Paraclete, in honor of the Holy +Ghost, the Comforter.</p> + +<p>But he was tormented by new dangers, or at least by new fears. A nature +so hypersensitive perhaps conjured up hobgoblins of persecution out of +pure imagination. "I could not hear of an assemblage of churchmen +without thinking that its object was to condemn me." He even cherished +the idea of flying from Christendom, to live among the infidels. When +the abbacy of Saint-Gildas de Rhuys, a remote place on the coast of +Brittany, was offered to him, he hastened to accept, thinking that if he +gave up teaching the persecution would cease. This was about 1128, and +for nearly ten years Abélard struggled on there. It was a struggle, for +he found the monks not only undisciplined, and given to licentious +pleasures, but positively criminal. One gets a picture of the abbot and +the abbey in Longfellow's <i>Golden Legend</i>, where Lucifer, in the guise +of a monk, gets into the refectory of the convent of Hirschau and tells +the monks how much more delightful is life in his own abbey of +Saint-Gildas de Rhuys:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> From the gray rocks of Morbihan</p> +<p class="i14"> It overlooks the angry sea;</p> +<p class="i14"> The very sea-shore where,</p> +<p class="i14"> In his great despair,</p> +<p class="i14"> Abbot Abélard walked to and fro,</p> +<p class="i14"> Filling the night with woe,</p> +<p class="i14"> And wailing aloud to the merciless seas</p> +<p class="i14"> The name of his sweet Héloïse!</p> +<p class="i14"> Whilst overhead</p> +<p class="i14"> The convent windows gleamed as red</p> +<p class="i14"> As the fiery eyes of the monks within,</p> +<p class="i14"> Who with jovial din</p> +<p class="i14"> Gave themselves up to all kinds of sin!.</p> +<p class="i14"> Abélard!...</p> +<p class="i14"> He was a dry old fellow....</p> +<p class="i14"> There he stood,</p> +<p class="i14"> Lowering at us in sullen mood,</p> +<p class="i14"> As if he had come into Brittany</p> +<p class="i14"> Just to reform our brotherhood!...</p> +<p class="i14"> Well, it finally came to pass</p> +<p class="i14"> That, half in fun and half in malice,</p> +<p class="i14"> One Sunday at Mass</p> +<p class="i14"> We put some poison into the chalice.</p> +<p class="i14"> But, either by accident or design,</p> +<p class="i14"> Peter Abélard kept away</p> +<p class="i14"> From the chapel that day,</p> +<p class="i14"> And a poor, young friar, who in his stead</p> +<p class="i14"> Drank the sacramental wine,</p> +<p class="i14"> Fell on the steps of the altar, dead!</p> +</div></div> + +<p>The facts here presented are essentially the same as those vouched for +by Abélard himself, even to the poisoning of the young monk. There were +two attempts of this kind, and the wicked monks also hired assassins to +waylay their abbot, who lived in constant terror of his life. He strove +to control his monks by every sort of means, but at length was forced to +fly to the protection of a friend in Brittany. He did not definitely +abandon his abbey for some time, probably not before 1138; but his +regular connection with it ceased some years earlier.</p> + +<p>The years of his struggle with the monks of St. Gildas were not without +their periods of relief. In the midst of his selfish preoccupation with +his own tribulations his thoughts were distracted by solicitude for +Héloïse. Héloïse, in the nunnery of Argenteuil, had led a life so +exemplary that she had won universal esteem. But it happened, says +Abélard, "that the Abbot of Saint-Denis had claimed, as a dependency +formerly subject to his jurisdiction, the Abbey of Argenteuil, in which +my sister in Christ, rather than my spouse, had taken the veil. Having +obtained possession, he expelled the congregation of nuns, of whom my +companion was prioress." When this happened Abélard bestirred himself to +provide for Héloïse and her nuns, and at the same time to provide for +the maintenance of religious services in his old temple of the +Paraclete. He returned thither, and invited the nuns to come. He donated +to them the oratory and its dependencies, and Pope Innocent II. +confirmed the donation to them and to their successors forever. For some +time Héloïse and her nuns endured great privations, for the Paraclete, +after its abandonment by Abélard, had relapsed into the condition of a +wilderness; "but," continues Abélard, "for them, too, the Lord, showing +himself in very truth the Comforter, touched with pity and good-will the +hearts of the people in the neighborhood. In one single year... the +fruits of the earth multiplied around them more than I could have made +them do had I lived a century... The Lord granted that our dear sister, +who directed the community, should find favor in the eyes of all men: +bishops cherished her as their daughter, abbots as their sister, laymen +as their mother; all admired equally her piety, her wisdom, and her +incomparably sweet patience."</p> + +<p>It has been doubted by some biographers whether Héloïse ever saw her +lover after she took the veil. His language in the passage just quoted +as well as that in the following would seem to leave no room for doubt +that they met frequently at this time: "All their neighbors blamed me +for not doing all that I could, all that I ought, to help them in their +misery, when the thing would have been so easy for me to do, by +preaching. Accordingly I made them more frequent visits, in order to +work for their good." The voice of calumny, he continues, would not even +yet be still; but, in spite of evil tongues, "I was resolved to do my +best to take care of my sisters of the Paraclete, to administer their +affairs for them, to increase their respect by my very bodily presence +in such a way as to give me, at the same time, a better opportunity to +look out for their wants." When or how often he visited the Paraclete we +do not know; but in some of these visits Héloïse and Abélard must have +met again.</p> + +<p>While visiting a friend, during one of his enforced flights from +Saint-Gildas, Abélard wrote the history of his woes, <i>Historia +Calamitatum</i>, to which we owe most of the details given previously. This +work, in the form of a letter, is addressed to a friend whose name we do +not know. Abélard calls him "my old friend and very dear brother in +Christ, my intimate companion," so that it is at least certain that he +was a clerk. It may have been that this letter was meant for Peter the +Venerable, who afterward showed himself a devoted friend to Abélard as +well as to Héloïse. But to whomsoever the letter was written, it came +into the hands of her who had sacrificed so much for the writer. All the +old love awoke in Héloïse's heart when chance threw in her way the +story, in Abélard's own hand, of their misfortunes. Moved beyond her +powers of repression, her feelings overflowed in a beautiful letter to +her lost husband. In all the literature of love there is nothing finer +than this letter, either for passion or for tenderness and pathos. It is +no wonder that Abélard replied, as she besought him to do. A sort of +correspondence was opened; she wrote three letters in all, and he four. +The actual text of these letters is in a Latin manuscript of a date one +hundred years later than the time of Héloïse. The preservation of such a +series of letters has seemed to some investigators improbable, but there +is every reason to believe that Héloïse herself would have collected and +preserved with the greatest care a correspondence so precious to her. +That the letters excited the highest admiration from the very first we +have ample proof, for one of the authors of the <i>Romance of the Rose</i>, +Jean Clopinel, translated them as early as 1285. In the fifteenth +century they were printed, and since then numberless translations, +imitations, and perversions have appeared. We need feel no doubt, +therefore, that we are reading an actual love letter, dating from about +1135, when we follow the glowing lines addressed to Abélard by Héloïse.</p> + +<p>There is naturally a marked difference in the tone of the letters, due +to a difference of character and to different environment. While +passages in the first letter of Héloïse are almost lyric in their +intensity, like the words of a Juliet, at times almost of a Sappho, the +reply from Abélard is apparently cold in many places, certainly +constrained, only occasionally throbbing an answer to the touch of her +whom he had loved. As we shall have some very unfavorable things to say +of Abélard's character in general, it seems but fair to say that this +constraint and evident desire to suppress the violence of Héloïse's love +and to direct her thoughts to the duties of her calling cannot be +charged against him as a fault. Not one of his replies shows lack of +affection. In justice to him we may say that he was seeking to teach her +resignation; to divert her thoughts from the past, where was only storm +and shipwreck in their brief love.</p> + +<p>It is pleasant to believe that, when he wrote these letters, Abélard was +in some sort aware of and repentant for the great wrong he had done. +There was never a more disgustingly deliberate and inhumanly selfish +seduction than that of Héloïse by Abélard. He was by nature excessively +vain of his personal appearance no less than of his attainments. We have +seen how he speaks of Anselm; in the same tone, in the same florid, +turgid, pedantic style he was constantly boasting of his achievements. +Having won all the laurels available in the intellectual world, he +sought new experiences. It has been remarked, not inaptly, that this +sudden awakening of the man in the scholar is a reproduction of the +Faust legend with living actors. As the scholar, Faust, bent with age +and labors, is suddenly transformed into the youthful, ardent, and +selfish lover, so Abélard's long dormant passions transform him. But his +real nature is not altered; he is always fundamentally selfish. The very +terms in which he relates his first feelings toward Héloïse are almost +brutal. He praises the unusual extent of her knowledge, an attraction of +special force for him; and then, "physically, too, she was not bad." +While he condescends to allow that Héloïse was "not bad" as regards +looks, it is quite another tale with regard to himself: "Seeing her +adorned with all the charms that attract lovers, I thought to enter into +a liaison with her, and I felt sure that nothing would be easier than to +succeed in this design. I enjoyed such reputation, and had so much grace +of youth and good looks, that I thought I should have no rebuff to fear, +whoever might be the woman whom I should honor with my love."</p> + +<p>All through the man's career one finds the same exaggerated self-esteem, +the same preoccupation with his own selfish interests. He positively +chuckles over the perfect success of his ruse to deceive Fulbert. +"Fulbert was fond of his money. Add to this the fact that he was eager +to procure for his niece all possible advantages in belles-lettres. By +flattering these two passions, I easily won his consent, and obtained +what I desired.... He urged me to devote to her education all of my +spare time, by day as well as by night, and not to fear to punish her +should I find her at fault. I wondered at his naiveté!... Entrusting her +to me not only for instruction but for chastisement, what was this but +allowing full licence to my desires and furnishing me, even against my +will, with the opportunity of conquering by blows and threats if +caresses should be unavailing?" When he has ruined this niece, of whom +Fulbert was so proud, a moment of apparent remorse comes to him as he +witnesses the old man's distress: "I promised him any reparation which +it might please him to demand; I protested that what I had done would +surprise no one who had ever felt the violence of love and who knew into +what abysses women had, since the very beginning of the world, plunged +the greatest men. To appease him still further, I offered him a sort of +atonement <i>far greater than anything he could have hoped: I proposed to +marry her whom I had seduced, on condition only that the marriage be +kept secret, so as not to injure my reputation.</i>" The italics are ours; +they can but faintly indicate our astonishment at the impudence no less +than the selfishness of this piece of condescension. This passage is +followed by four pages devoted to pedantic arguments, enforced by appeal +to historic cases, seeking to prove how prejudicial a thing marriage is +to holy men, to wise men, to great men, and that therefore it must be so +to Abélard. All this argument he ascribes to Héloïse, who implored him +not to marry her; but the tone is his own; there is never a thought of +what it may mean for her, only for himself. In the same way, after +Fulbert has taken vengeance on him, in two pages of lamentations over +his fate there is not one word of pity for the grief of the woman who +had given all to him. It is: How shall I appear in public? What a wreck +I have made of my life! Not once: How shall I care for Héloïse? What +amends can I make her for the wreck of her young life? One need not +wonder--since this was the sentiment of the period--that he fears the +vengeance of God only because he has broken the rule of continence, not +at all because he has led into wrong doing one who trusted and loved +him.</p> + +<p>The shame of his punishment and the griefs of his life do seem to have +made some impression on him, however. Abélard actually learns to speak +of "the shameful treachery of which I was guilty towards your uncle." +One can but compare him with Rousseau; those who have read the latter's +fascinating, eloquent, but disgusting <i>Confessions</i> cannot fail to +remember that there is the same inordinate vanity and selfishness in +them as young men, the same misery and insane fear of foes, sometimes +purely imaginary, in them as old men.</p> + +<p>Beginning as a vulgar passion, there is no doubt that Abélard's feeling +for Héloïse afterward became more honorable. After their separation, and +the softening, chastening influence of his misfortunes, he developed for +her a real affection. Though there is a constraint, a coldness in the +address of his letters, and often too much solicitude about form and too +much display of erudition, the heart of the man is moved in spite of +himself. He begins his first letter to her: "To Héloïse, his +well-beloved sister in Christ, Abélard, her brother in Christ;" the +second: "To the spouse of Christ, the servant of that same Christ." But +he shows a tenderness for her at the very start; if he has not written +to her and advised her before, he says, it is because he had such +absolute confidence in her judgment. He calls her his "sister, once so +dear in the flesh," and sends her a Psalter, which she is to use in +imploring the Divine mercy for him. He will give counsel to her and to +her nuns, if she desires it. And here he can dissemble no longer: "But +enough of your holy congregation,... it is to you, to you whose goodness +will, I know, have such power with God, that I address myself.... +Remember in your prayers him who is your very own." He sends a form of +prayer which she and her nuns are to use for him. Then the man once more +gets the better of the monk: "If it chance that the Lord deliver me up +into the hands of mine enemies, and that they, victorious, put me to +death, or if, while far from you, some accident should bring me to that +goal whither all flesh is tending, let my body, whether it be already +buried or simply abandoned, be brought under your care, I implore you, +to your cemetery."</p> + +<p>It is pleasant to read his letters, after one has become convinced that +the man really loved Héloïse; then, one finds in them gentleness and +consideration for her feelings. With patience and adroitness, he answers +the questions she asks, distracts her thoughts, still too much intent on +him, and works out for her an elaborate scheme of government for use in +the Paraclete; and one can understand that this, if anything, would have +been a consolation to Héloïse, to feel that the whole tenor of her life +was regulated by the affectionate legislation of the man whom she had +loved.</p> + +<p>About the love of Héloïse we need not hesitate. "Truly, she did love +him," says the old chronicler of Saint Martin de Tours, and the ages +since have been but echoing this. We must try, however, to form some +more definite idea of the personality of one who is perhaps the greatest +figure in an actual romance that the world has known. Of her beauty +there can be no question; but we neither know nor very greatly care +whether she was tall and dark or slender and fair. Probably we should be +safe in assuming, on general principles, that she was a blonde, since +the predilection for that style of beauty was so strong that Saint +Bernard devotes a whole sermon to proving that there is no contradiction +in the statement in the Song of Songs: "I am black, but comely." The +most remarkable thing about her was her learning. Even when Abélard +first met her, she was "most distinguished for the extent of her +learning,"... "in great renown throughout the kingdom" for her +proficiency. Her knowledge included not only Latin, but Greek and even +Hebrew, both rarely understood even among men in a day when men usually +got all and women none of the education that could be had. Her monastery +at the Paraclete became a school as famous in its way as Abélard had +made Paris.</p> + +<p>Of another trait in her character, too, we can speak with certainty. +Together with her learning went firmness of judgment and perfect sanity, +the elements which go to make up what we vaguely call character. We have +seen Abélard expressing his confidence in her wisdom and judgment. Saint +Bernard, the bitter enemy of Abélard, could not withhold his admiration +from her, although she herself, a faithful partisan of her husband, +always spoke of Saint Bernard as "the false Apostle." The latter, as was +natural in a man renowned for intellect and for asceticism, was more +struck by the grandeur of her character than moved by her personal +charms, and he wrote a letter to the Pope, commending her as a prioress, +in a tone of lofty esteem rather than sympathy. Her own conduct, we have +remarked, was above reproach, and her convent was so well governed that +its rule became the standard for all the convents of her day. Whatever +may have been the violence of her grief over the separation from +Abélard, she was too proud to expose her feelings to the world. She +lived on bravely, honorably, respected by high and low, yet making no +secret of the fact that she had loved and still did love Abélard. One +does not wonder that she won the popular fame which has kept her name +alive, and which has fixed the epithet applied by Villon some three +centuries later: <i>La très-sage Héloïse</i>. In all the happy phrases of the +<i>Ballade des Belles Dames du Temps Jadis</i> there is no juster epithet.</p> + +<p>In striking contrast to the brutal selfishness of Abélard is the noble +disinterestedness and complete effacement of self seen in the conduct of +Héloïse. Realizing that with him success in his vocation is everything +and love but an episode, she is content. More than this, she does +everything in her power to make him sacrifice her for the sake of the +career which she knows he is bent upon. She flatters him, feeds his +vanity, already overgreat, and consistently keeps out of view her own +woman's feelings. When Abélard, with what he considers unusual and +exemplary generosity, offers to marry her--one can fancy that he was not +very urgent--this is part of the argument she uses to dissuade him: "She +asked," says Abélard, "what atonement would not the world have a right +to require of her should she deprive it of such a light? What curses she +would call upon her head! What a loss this marriage would be to the +Church! What tears it would cost philosophy! Would it not be an unseemly +and deplorable thing to see a man whom nature had created for the whole +world made the slave of one woman?... The marriage would be a shame and +a burden to me... What agreement could there be between the labor of the +school and the cares of a house, between the desk and the cradle?... Is +there a man who, devoted to the meditations of philosophy or to the +study of the Scriptures, could endure the cries of a child, the singing +of the nurse as she put it to sleep, the continual coming and going of +the servants, the incessant worries of young children?"</p> + +<p>That Abélard has reported her arguments with accuracy we need not doubt +when we come upon this remarkable and often quoted passage in her first +letter: "I never thought... of my own wishes; it was always yours, you +know yourself, that my heart was bent upon satisfying. Although the name +of wife seems both more sacred and more enduring, I should have +preferred that of mistress, or even concubine... thinking that, the more +humble I made myself for your sake, the more right I should have to your +favor, and the less stain I should put upon the brilliancy of your +glory."</p> + +<p>When their misfortunes came upon them and Abélard wanted her to enter +the cloister she obeyed without complaint; but the truth comes out at +the close of her first letter: "When you entered the service of God, I +followed, nay, I preceded you... You made me first take the veil and the +vows, you chained me to God before yourself. This mistrust, the only +lack of confidence in me you ever showed, filled me with grief and +shame, me, who would, God knows, have followed you or have gone before +you unhesitatingly into the very flames of hell! For my heart was no +longer with me but with you." In this letter are the only things that +even look like reproaches on her part; she complains of his not writing +to her, of his grudging her even the poor consolation of a letter, when +she had done all for him: "Only tell me, if you can, why, since the +retirement from the world which you yourself enjoined upon me, you have +neglected me. Tell me, I say, or I will say what I think, and what is on +everybody's lips. Ah! it was lust rather than love which attracted you +to me... and that is why, your desire once satisfied, all demonstrations +of affection ceased with the desire which inspired them." She implores +him, therefore, to write and silence these disquieting voices in her +heart.</p> + +<p>There was no hypocrisy in Héloïse; she never was resigned to her +seclusion in the convent, and never pretended to be. She wrote to +Abélard that she was continuing to live in the convent only to obey him, +"for it was not love of God, but your wish, your wish alone which cast +my youth into the midst of monastic austerities." From the very +monastery of which she was prioress she writes her burning letters. The +first is superscribed: <i>Domino suo, imo patri, conjugi suo, imo fratri; +ancilla sua, imo filia; ipsius uxor, imo soror; Abélardo Heloissa</i>: "To +her lord, nay, to her father; to her husband, nay, to her brother; his +servant, nay, his daughter; his wife, nay, his sister; to Abélard, +Héloïse." She seems to lack words to voice the passionate devotion of +her heart, and comes at the last to the best and simplest, a veritable +cry of the heart it is To Abélard, Héloïse. Even in the letters +subsequent to Abélard's patient endeavor to allay the transports of +devotion to a mere man in one who had vowed her life to Christ, she does +not restrain her feelings entirely. She superscribes them: "To him who +is all for her after Christ, she who is all for him in Christ," and +finally, "To her sovereign master, his devoted slave." It is true that +the passion is more under control, but it is there nevertheless; for in +one of these letters she ever and anon addresses Abélard as "my greatest +blessing," and deliberately says: "Under all circumstances, God knows, I +have feared offending you more than I have feared offending Him; and it +is you far more than God whom I wish to please; it was a word from you, +no divine call, that made me take the veil." And she says, in reply to +Abélard's request to be buried in the cemetery of the Paraclete: "I +shall be more intent on following you without delay than upon providing +for your burial."</p> + +<p>Bigotry or narrow piety, which are so much alike as to be scarcely +distinguishable, might find fault with the uncompromising frankness of +Héloïse in confessing the persistence of love after she is a nun. She +admits that she loved Abélard passionately; moreover: "If I must indeed +lay bare all the weakness of my miserable heart, I do not find in my +heart contrition or penitence sufficient to appease God. I cannot +withhold myself from complaining of His pitiless cruelty in regard to +the outrage inflicted on you, and I only offend Him by rebellious +murmurings against His decrees, instead of seeking to allay His wrath by +repentance. Can it be said, in fact, that one is truly penitent, +whatever be the bodily penances submitted to, when the soul still +harbors the thought of sin and burns with the same passions as of old?" +She cannot bring herself to regret or even to forget and to cease to +long for the pleasures of their love. "They praise me for purity of +life; it is only because they do not know of my hypocrisy. The purity of +the flesh is set down to the credit of virtue; but true virtue is of the +soul, not of the body." These confessions, it strikes us, are proof of +the purity and loftiness of her ideals; she will not accept credit for +virtues that are only skin deep; she honors the robe she wears too much +to soil it by any sort of indulgence that might give occasion for +scandal or for irreverent scoffing. But she bravely owns: "I do not seek +the crown of victory (over my evil thoughts), it is enough for me to +avoid the danger."</p> + +<p>In a person so honest with herself we are not surprised to find a +charity for the weaknesses of others and a catholicity of view in regard +to things moral and religious quite in advance of the rather cramped +asceticism distinctive, for example, of Saint Bernard, whom we take as a +typical representative of the religious feeling of the age. In the last +of her letters, she shows her learning, it must be admitted, with a +little too much pedantry; but that was in accord with the habit of the +day. She overloads her letter with useless erudition in the way of +appeals to this and that holy man or this and that text of Scripture to +support a point which the reader would accept as axiomatic. But behind +this there is good sense and kindness. She asks Abélard to determine, in +the rule he is to make for her convent, all sorts of practical points. +Can women, being physically weaker, fast as rigidly as men? Yet meat is +not so necessary for women; is it really a deprivation, then, to make +them abstain from meat? Women are not so prone to intemperance as men, +and at times they really need some stimulant; how shall we determine in +regard to wines? We should avoid, of course, male visitors; but do not +vain, gossiping, worldly women corrupt their own sex just as much as men +would? Above all, she says, nuns must learn to eschew Pharisaism, the +better-than-thou frame of mind. "The blessings promised us by Christ +were not promised to those alone who were priests; woe unto the world, +indeed, if all that deserved the name of virtue were shut up in a +cloister."</p> + +<p>The close of this last letter is in a tone of religious exaltation which +but poorly conceals the more human sentiments of the noble Abbess +Héloïse: "It is for thee, O my master, it is for thee, as long as thou +livest, to institute the rule which we are to follow evermore. For, +after God, thou wast the founder of our community; it is for thee, then, +with God's assistance, to legislate for our order."</p> + +<p>The two letters in which Abélard answers this request are more coldly +formal, less personal, than any of the others. At the end, for example, +instead of some tender reminiscence, some hint that it was at the +bidding of love that he had poured forth his erudition on the subject of +the monastic life, we find merely an exhortation such as might be +addressed by any father confessor to one seeking his direction: +"Imitate, in the love of study and of good books, those blessed +disciples of Saint Jerome, Paula and Eustochia, at whose request this +great doctor wrote so many works that are a guiding light to the +church."</p> + +<p>What were the rules by which Héloïse and her nuns were to live? In +essence not fundamentally different from those in use in regular +monasteries of the Benedictine rule, they are yet of sufficient interest +to warrant us in giving a brief account, a mere abstract, of the very +lengthy and verbose commentary on monasticism which Héloïse received +from Abélard. We cannot doubt that a person of her intelligence and +strength of character followed the spirit, not the letter, of the law, +and made her nuns live as she lived, beyond the utmost reach of evil +report.</p> + +<p>The three cardinal virtues in the view of monasticism are Chastity, +Poverty, Silence. These the nuns must observe most strictly, and such +observance involves the renunciation of all family ties, of all worldly +affections and desires. As there is less of temptation to worldliness in +the solitary places of the earth, the convent should be remote. The +absurd extent to which the cult of mere chastity was exalted in the +mediaeval mind has been commented on by many a writer; but one little +incident or illustration from the book by which Héloïse was to govern +herself and her community may be forgiven us. Abélard quotes from a +letter of Saint Jerome. In the life of Saint Martin, written by +Sulpicius, we read that the saint wished to pay his respects to a virgin +renowned for her exemplary conduct and her chastity, who, it seems, had +spent all her life since girlhood shut up in a small cell. She refused +to allow Saint Martin to come into her dwelling, but, looking out of the +crevice which served for a window, she said: "Father, pray where you +are, for I have never received a visit from any man." Saint Martin "gave +thanks to God that, thanks to such a mode of life, she had preserved her +chastity." The humor, the irony, of such a remark appeals to us; but it +never occurred to Saint Martin, to Saint Jerome, to Abélard, or to +Héloïse, that she who had continued chaste merely because she had +bottled herself up in a living tomb did not merit praise for any +extraordinary virtue: one might as well praise Robinson Crusoe on his +island for not indulging in the dissipations of society.</p> + +<p>To continue the rules for the Paraclete, which was certainly situated in +a place remote enough to protect its inmates from worldly intrusions, we +may add that the rule advises that the grounds or inclosure of the +convent should contain "all that is needful for the life of the convent, +that is to say, a garden, water, a mill, a bolting house and a bakery +oven," in short, everything that can be thought of, in order to obviate +the necessity of communication with the outside world.</p> + +<p>Héloïse's monastery, we may be assured, did not want for a diligent +abbess, who was to be assisted by six subordinates: "For the entire +administration of the convent we believe that there ought to be seven +mistresses, so many and no more: the porteress, the cellaress, the +vesturess (<i>robaria</i>), the infirmaress, the precentress (<i>cantaria</i>), +the sacristan, and finally a deaconess, called now an abbess.... In this +camp of Heaven's militia... the deaconess takes the place of the +general-in-chief, to whom all are in all things obedient." The six other +sisters called officers, who command under her, rank as colonels or +captains. The rest of the nuns belonging regularly to the order are the +soldiers of the Lord, while the lay sisters, who were employed in menial +offices and were not initiated into the order, but merely took vows +renouncing the world, were to be the foot soldiers.</p> + +<p>Héloïse would accord quite well with the requirements for an abbess or +deaconess. Such a one must have learning sufficient to read and to +comprehend the Scriptures and the rules of her order. She must be +dignified, able to command respect and obedience. "Only as a last resort +and for pressing reasons should women of high rank or of great fortune +be chosen as abbesses." Full of the importance of their titles, they are +ordinarily vain, presumptuous, proud. Being the guardian of the whole +community, the abbess should keep a close watch over her own conduct, +lest she corrupt by evil example. Above all, the abbess is forbidden to +"live in greater comfort, greater ease, than any of her nuns. She shall +not have any private apartments for dining or sleeping; she shall share +all with her flock, whose needs she will comprehend so much the better." +When guests are to be entertained at table the abbess is not to make +this an excuse for providing delicacies on which she herself may feast, +the guest is to sit at the table with the other nuns, though a special +dish may be provided for her, and the abbess herself is to wait on her, +and afterward to eat with the servants. According to a maxim of Saint +Anthony, as fish that are kept long out of water die, even so monks who +live long out of their cells in communication with worldly folk break +their vow of seclusion. We may recall that Chaucer's jolly monk held +this same text "not worth an oyster"; but the abbess of the Paraclete is +specially enjoined "never to leave the convent to attend to outside +business." This reminds us that it was provided that the Paraclete +should have a certain number of monks attached to it. Convents, indeed, +were rarely if ever independent of masculine supervision, if not +control, and in this case it is specially provided that the convent +"shall be subject always to a monastery, in such sort that one abbot may +preside, and... that there be but one fold and one shepherd." The +relations, however, are decidedly to the advantage of the nuns; their +subjection is only nominal, and every provision is made, in the letter +of the law, that the monks shall attend merely to things outside of the +convent and shall not meddle with its administration: "If we wish that +the abbot... should have control over the nuns, it is only in such sort +that he shall recognize as his superiors the spouses of Christ, whose +servant only he is, and that he shall find pleasure in serving, not in +commanding them. He should be like the intendant of a royal household, +who does not venture to make his mistress feel his power.... He or his +representatives shall never be at liberty to speak to the virgins of the +Lord in the absence of their abbess.... He shall decide nothing +concerning them or their affairs until he has taken counsel with her; +and he shall transmit his instructions or orders only through her.... +All that concerns costume, food, even money, if there be any, shall be +gathered together and put in the custody of the nuns; out of their +superfluity they shall provide what is needful for the monks. The monks, +therefore, shall take charge of all outside affairs, and the nuns of all +those things which it becomes women to attend to in the house, to wit, +to sew the frocks of the monks, to wash them, to knead the bread, to put +it in the oven and bake it. They shall have charge of the dairy and its +dependencies; they shall feed the hens and geese; in short, they shall +do all that women can do better than men.... Men and women both shall +vow obedience to the abbess."</p> + +<p>Though not so radical in some respects as the constitution which Robert +D'Arbrissel imposed upon his monastery of Fontevrault, where women were +exalted above men in all respects, the provisions cited above seem +sufficient to insure the independence of the nuns. There are, of course, +careful rules to safeguard the virtue of both monks and nuns in the +close relations necessitated by the conventual scheme; but as these are +not different from what ordinary prudence would suggest--and ordinary +craft circumvent--we need not pause to give them.</p> + +<p>The deaconess or abbess was not absolute; she must take counsel with her +subordinates, and for some things she must convene the whole convent to +ask advice and consent. Her subordinates had duties and responsibilities +of no mean sort. The sacristan, who is also treasurer, shall have charge +of the chapel and its ornaments, their repairs, etc. She must care for +the things needful for the services of the church, such as the incense, +the relics, the bells, and the communion wafers, which latter the nuns +are to make of pure wheat flour. The sacristan, too, having to decorate +the church in keeping with the seasons of the religious year, must be +enough of a scholar to know how to compute and determine the feast days +according to the calendar.</p> + +<p>With the precentress, or mistress of the choir, rested the +responsibility for the church music. She was to train the choir, and to +teach music, in which she must be well versed. Besides this, she was the +librarian, must give out and take in the books, and take care of books +and illuminations. In case of the illness or other incapacity of the +abbess, the precentress took her place.</p> + +<p>One of the most trying places must have been that of infirmaress, who +not only had charge of the sick in the capacity of nurse, but "must keep +herself supplied with proper medicines, according to the resources of +the place, and this she can do the better if she knows a little of +medicine.... She must know how to let blood (the medicine of the period +relied very largely upon phlebotomy), so that this operation may not +require the access of any man among the nuns." Much of the simpler +knowledge and practice of medicine was permitted to women; the simpler +medicine, indeed, was the only hope of the unfortunate sick in the days +of drastic doctoring.</p> + +<p>The nun called the <i>robaria</i>, who had charge of the wardrobe, we have +christened "vesturess," for lack of a better name. She provided and +cared for the clothing of both monks and nuns, not so simple a matter as +it might seem, for "she shall have the sheep sheared, and shall receive +the leather (for shoes, etc.); she shall collect and take care of the +wool and linen and see to the making of the cloth from them; she shall +distribute thread, needles, and scissors (to the nuns assigned to work +under her). She shall have charge of the dormitory and of the beds; and +she shall be charged with directing the cutting, sewing, and washing of +the table-cloths, napkins, and all the linen of the monastery.... She +shall have all the necessary implements for her work, and shall regulate +the tasks assigned to each sister. She shall have charge of the novices +until they are admitted to the community." The novices, by the way, were +regularly taught in the convent, and a good deal of the work for which +religious exercises left the nuns little time was assigned to them.</p> + +<p>The clothes worn by the nuns of Héloïse's convent were to be of the +simplest kind. "The clothes shall be of black woollen stuff; no other +color, for that best accords with the mourning of penitence; and no fur +is more fitting than the fleece of lambs for the spouses of Christ...." +And this black robe was not to extend lower than the heel ("to avoid +raising the dust"), or to have sleeves longer than the natural length to +cover arm and hand,--a provision which one can understand only after +seeing pictures of the immense sleeves in fashion. "The veils shall not +be of silk, but of cloth or dyed stuff. They shall wear chemises of +cloth next the skin, and these they shall not take off even to sleep. +Considering the delicacy of their constitutions, we will not forbid the +use of mattresses and sheets.... For covering (at night), we think a +chemise, a robe and a lamb skin, adding over these, during the cold +weather, a mantle for covering to the bed, will suffice. Each bed must +have a mattress, a bolster, a pillow, a counterpane, and a sheet." In +order to guard against vermin and dirt, all clothing should be provided +for each nun in double sets. On their heads the nuns were to wear a +white band with the veil over it; when necessary, on account of the +tonsure, a bonnet of lamb skin might be worn. When a nun died, she was +dressed in clean but coarse garments, with sandals on her feet, and the +garments sewn or fastened to the body, so that they might not be +disarranged in the presence of the priests officiating at her funeral. +As a special honor, the abbess could be buried in a garment of +haircloth, sewn around her like a sack.</p> + +<p>The duties of the porteress were sufficiently simple, consisting chiefly +in guarding the gate and admitting only persons properly accredited. But +the cellaress had duties manifold. She "shall have charge of all that +concerns the feeding of the nuns: cellar, refectory, kitchen, mill, +bakery, bake ovens, gardens, orchards and fields, beehives, flocks, +cattle of all kinds, and poultry." With keen insight into human nature, +it is especially provided that she shall not reserve any tidbits for +herself at the table, with the admonition that this was precisely what +Judas did.</p> + +<p>We have given but the merest sketch of the provisions by which Héloïse +was to regulate her life. The rule determines points great and small; +meat can be allowed three times a week, except during Lent; wine may be +used in moderation; services must be held at such and such times, with +work or sleep between; nuns must never go bare-footed, nor gossip with +visitors, and so on. But one thing we must add, as illustrative of the +manners of the time: "There is one thing more which must be not only +forbidden but held in abhorrence, although it is a custom in use in most +monasteries: that is that the nuns should wipe their hands or their +knives with the pieces of bread remaining from dinner, which are the +portion of the poor. To save table linen it is not right to soil the +bread of the poor."</p> + +<p>In the way of actual facts little is really known of the life of +Héloïse. We have sought to trace the fortunes of the man to whom she was +so unselfishly yet so passionately attached and to reproduce from her +own scanty writings as much as may be of her character. We must now +conclude the story of Abélard. After his departure from Saint-Gildas his +days were still full of trouble. In 1136 we find him once more +triumphing in his old field, delivering his lectures to crowds of +students upon Mont Sainte-Geneviève. Not only did his teaching draw +crowds, but his book on theology was in every hand, and his doctrines +spread beyond the Alps. In the words of one of his enemies, writing to +Saint Bernard: <i>Libri ejus transeunt maria, transvolant Alpes</i>: "His +books are wafted across the seas, and fly over the Alps." Arnold of +Brescia, a disciple of Abélard, was preaching in Italy a more democratic +religion and a more liberal form of government, stirring up the wrath of +the Church as another Tribune of the People daring to incite the Italian +cities to proclaim their freedom. The final conflict of Abélard's life +was preparing.</p> + +<p>At Clairvaux, in a valley so dismal as to have won the name of the +<i>Valley of Wormwood</i>, lived the very incarnation of asceticism, stern +religious orthodoxy, and uncompromising conservatism--Saint Bernard. To +him, a restless, daring innovator like Abélard was abhorrent. To profess +doctrines that led to the view that original sin was less a sin than a +punishment, that the redemption of man was an act of pure love, not one +of necessity for our redemption, that God, in short, was a God of Love, +not a God of Wrath--what was all this but striking at the very root of +that exquisite mortification of the flesh, the prayers, the fasting, the +actual corporeal torment inflicted upon himself by Saint Bernard in the +hope of purchasing remission of his sin? His sin, we may remark, +consisted merely in being descended from Adam, for he had been pure in +life from his youth up. Saint Bernard was looked upon even in his own +life as almost a saint; his influence was tremendous. He now began to +stir up the powers of the Church, from the Pope down, against Abélard. +The latter, puffed up with pride at his renewed success, or perhaps +willing to risk all at one throw, did not wait for the Church to proceed +against him: he challenged his enemies to prove his doctrines heretical; +he challenged Bernard himself to meet him in debate before a council +that was to meet at Sens in 1140. Fully aware of his inferiority as a +logician to this trained thinker, Saint Bernard reluctantly consented to +take up the battle for orthodoxy. All was ready; Abélard appeared before +the council, realized that his case was prejudged, and appealed to Rome. +Nevertheless, Saint Bernard got the council to pass judgment against +Abélard and to sentence him to silence and to perpetual reclusion in a +monastery, and Innocent II., the next year, confirmed the finding of the +council. Broken in spirit, Abélard nevertheless set out for Rome to urge +his plea in person, but at Cluni he broke down in health. Tenderly cared +for by the good abbot, Peter the Venerable, who effected a sort of +reconciliation between Abélard and the triumphant Abbot of Clairvaux, +Abélard lingered but a few months. To ease his dying days Peter the +Venerable had him removed to the little priory of Saint Marcel, a +dependency of Cluni, where he died, April 21, 1142.</p> + +<p>In accordance with the wishes of Héloïse and of Abélard himself, Peter +the Venerable sent his remains secretly to the Paraclete, writing to +Héloïse: "May the Lord keep him for you, to give him back to you through +His mercy." There was a heart still in the breast of this old monk; we +trust that his prayer has been answered, even as we trust that the +absolution which he sent at Héloïse's request has washed away the sins +of her lover: "I, Peter, Abbot of Cluni, who received into the monastery +of Cluni Peter Abélard, and granted that his body be borne secretly to +the Abbess Héloïse and the convent of the Paraclete, by the authority of +God Almighty and of all the saints, absolve him, by virtue of my office, +from all his sins."</p> + +<p>We hear nothing more of Héloïse, except that she provided for her child, +left with Abélard's sister in Brittany; but we know that she lived her +life not only bravely, but honorably. For twenty-two years more she +lived on at the convent over which her husband had established her, and +here she died, on the 16th of May, 1164. Her body was buried beside that +of her husband in the cemetery of the Paraclete, and a touching legend +relates that when, according to the order given by herself, her body was +deposited in the tomb of her husband, "Abélard stretched out his arms to +receive her and closed them in a last embrace." Through all the +centuries love has guarded their remains; though often shifted, their +resting place is still known: in the famous Cimetière de L'Est, Père +Lachaise, at Paris, the traveller still sees the tomb of Abélard and +Héloïse.</p> + +<p>It is not her learning that has made Héloïse famous; it is the accident +of her connection with Abélard which has served to keep her name alive. +It is not because she was learned or because she was loved by Abélard +that we admire her. Her greatness is a moral greatness rare in her time, +and not due to her intellect or to the tragic circumstances of her life. +The remarkable thing is that, overwhelmed in the ruin of her lover, +forced into a convent at twenty, where she obeys him and imitates him, +she yet does not change in her heart, she does not suffer the mystic +death of the cloister; of her love she never repents, though she does +repent of her faults; to the law of monastic asceticism her conscience +refuses to submit, let Abélard preach as he will, for she vaguely feels +that asceticism is in violation of some higher law of life. The great +love in her heart knew no faltering; so much like devotion was it that +one feels that she meant no name but that of Abélard to be associated +with the words of a dirge attributed to her:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "With thee I suffered the rigor of destiny;</p> +<p class="i14"> With thee shall I, weary, sleep;</p> +<p class="i14"> With thee shall I enter Sion."</p> +</div></div> + +<a name="c3" id="c3"></a> +<br><br> + +<h3>CHAPTER III</h3> + +<h3>WOMEN IN EARLY PROVENÇAL AND FRENCH<br> LITERATURE</h3> + +<p>Guilhelm--or William--X., Duke of Aquitaine, remorseful because of the +ravages committed in Normandy by himself and his allies in 1136, started +on an expiatory pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint-James of Compostella. +Before going he willed to Louis the Fat, King of France, the +guardianship of his daughter, "la très noble demoiselle Eléonore," sole +heiress of his extensive dominions, including Poitou, Marche, the +Limousin, Auvergne, Gascony, and Guienne. This Eléanor was to be the +brilliant and passionate Queen of England, mother of Richard of the Lion +Heart and of John Lackland. But we will not anticipate her story, for +sixteen years of her life precede the time when she became the queen of +Henry II.</p> + +<p>The youthful heiress had been left as the feudal ward of King Louis, who +lost no time in securing her domain for the crown of France. Duke +Guilhelm died in the church of Compostella April 9, 1137-1138. Eleanor, +now Duchess of Aquitaine, was but sixteen years of age, but she was not +long to remain unmarried. Prince Louis of France, accompanied by a +gorgeous company of five hundred knights, under command of the Count +Palatine, Thibaud de Champagne, came as her suitor,--a suitor whom she +could not refuse. She was married, and crowned as future Queen of +France. On their way back from Bordeaux to Paris the young couple met +the news of the death of Louis the Fat. Eleanor was thus Queen of France +indeed, but there was more of the south, of Toulouse and Bordeaux and +the troubadours in her nature than was quite good for one who was the +wife of the correct, devout, narrow-minded, though not stupid or unkind +Louis VII.</p> + +<p>She came of a race notorious for reckless love of pleasure, for +sparkling wit, for vehemence of temper and strong passions, for utter +disregard of the merely decorous, the sober commonplace rules of either +morals or society. We have seen some of the pranks of her grandfather, +William of Poitou. Her father was not less high-tempered, though less +brilliant than his troubadour predecessor. His fits of extravagance were +followed by fits of penitence in whose sincerity one may place some +faith, whereas the troubadour was certainly never sad for long, and +apparently not much imbued with religious ardor, even if he did go to +the Holy Land as a pious crusader. Eleanor inherited her grandfather's +temper and his love of literature, music, fighting, and all that made +life worth living, according to the standards of her native land. Let us +look at this land of the troubadours, from which Eleanor came, and try +to picture the environment to which she was accustomed and which she +abandoned to live with the sober, monkish, unlovely French king, whose +court and whose city of Paris did not compare with the gay capital of +Bordeaux, where her father and her grandfather had gathered the most +brilliant poets and musicians of Provence.</p> + +<p>While the northern and western portions of France, including even that +muddy <i>Lutetia Parisorum</i> which has become the modern Paris, were for +but a short time, comparatively, under Roman rule, there was a portion +of France, between the Rhone and the Swiss Alps, which was so +distinctively and peculiarly a part of the great empire that it was +called <i>Provincia</i>, "the Province," or, as we know it, Provence. It was +in this beautiful land, the French Riviera, that the Roman legions +established their first posts, long before there was a Roman Empire. +Here they found a civilization ready to their hands, for in the centre +of their new Provincia was the famous port of +Massillia--Marseilles--established long before by Greeks and +Phoenicians. To the present day one finds at Aries, at Mimes, at +Avignon, titanic ruins bearing witness to the Roman civilization. It was +a fertile country, glowing with rich fruits and flowers, and favored +with a climate which has made it famous since the days of Rome. While +the north of France was hopelessly barbarized by Teutonic inroads and +long years of barbaric warfare, the civilization of Provence was rather +checked than destroyed. Marseilles was still a port, and the commerce of +the east, of the Mediterranean, of Rome, came through Marseilles, not +only for Gaul but for Britain. The influence of this constant +intercourse, no less than the large infusion of Latin or Hellenic blood, +kept the people of Provence from relapsing into the primitive state of +the people further to the north. They were, moreover, a gay and +pleasure-loving people by nature, and probably always less savage and +rough than the Franks. We may remember that even at the beginning of our +story the court of the pious King Robert, according to the monkish +chronicles, was hopelessly corrupted by the attendants of his Provençal +bride, Constance, with their scandalously fashioned costumes and their +ungodly minstrelsy. The rich clothing, the minstrelsy, the more gracious +manners, were always characteristic of the southerners, from the very +first moment we hear of them until the end.</p> + +<p>During the eleventh century, while the kingdom of France was just +beginning to gain something like an ascendancy over the other provinces +which were eventually to constitute a real power under one rule, the +riches and the power of the Mediterranean district came to full flower. +We speak of this whole territory as Provence, although in reality +Provence proper was but a small portion of the whole. It would be, +perhaps, better to confine one's self to the old distinction between +north and south France, based on the difference in dialect. Dante, +distinguishing between three groups of the tongues derived from Latin, +says: <i>Alii Oc, alii Oil, alii Si, affirmando loquuntur:</i>--"For the +affirmative, some use Oc (Provençal) some use Oil (French), some use Si +(Italian)." The langue d'oc was the tongue used in that part of France +south of a line drawn from the south of the Garonne to the Alps, +including not only Provence but Guienne, Gascony, Languedoc, Auvergne, +etc. The people and the language, however, throughout this whole +territory, were generally named from that Provincia which, as we have +said, was the most fertile and the most favored. Thus, in ordinary +speech, a citizen of Beziers, Toulouse, or even Bordeaux was as much a +Provençal as one from Aries or Aix.</p> + +<p>Among the other influences to which Provence owed part of its culture +one must not forget that of Spain. At the time of which we write a large +part of the richest lands in Spain was in the possession of a race more +cultured, more intellectual, more refined, despite their warlike nature, +than any race with which western Europe had yet come in contact. The +story of the Saracen empire in Spain, its rise, its glorious struggle, +its almost fabulous luxury, and its pathetic fall, is one of the most +fascinating in history. Arab songs, Arab singers, Arab instruments +became known among the Spaniards, and even in the face of continual +warfare some little of infidel arts and sciences and refinements +penetrated and softened the rougher-mannered civilization of the +Christians.</p> + +<p>On Spain itself this Oriental influence was, of course, strongest; but +the relations between Spain and the south of France were at all times +close, and the relations between Provence and Spain were made still more +intimate when, in the early part of the twelfth century, the crown of +Provence passed to Raymond Bérenger, Count of Barcelona, who had married +Douce de Provence.</p> + +<p>Under these influences the nobility of Provence developed a culture +perhaps purely artificial and exotic, but certainly far in advance of +that prevailing in any other part of France. With their civilization +came, of course, a knowledge of the gentler arts and a feeling for the +beautiful. At a time when French literature consisted of a few fragments +of documents, chronicles, or dull legends of the saints, Provence had +developed a literature of most astonishing richness and delicacy. The +surprising thing about this literature of Provence is that it has no +beginnings, no childhood, but is almost as perfect in artistic finish, +in the careful handling of most intricate rhymes and stanzas, when the +first troubadour sings as it became during the two hundred years of its +life. There were songs or poems in stanzas of varying structure and +lines of varying length, some really lyric, and some epic. The most +distinctive forms of the lyric poetry were probably the dirge or +<i>planh</i>; the contention or <i>tenson</i>, a poem in which two or more persons +maintain an argument on questions of love, or chivalry, etc., each using +stanzas terminating in similar rhymes, somewhat like the style of poem +long after known in Scottish literature as a "flyting;" and the satiric +poem or pasquinade, the <i>sirvente</i>, often a fierce war song in which the +poet lashed his foes and urged his men on to battle.</p> + +<p>The social conditions of France during this period were such as to make +caste distinctions very marked. That a <i>roturier</i>, a plain peasant, or +even a tradesman, should become the social equal of a noble was a thing +unheard of. But in Provence--curiously enough when one remembers the +excessive refinement of luxury encouraged in this land of flowers--the +society was much more democratic. Perhaps it would be more accurate to +say that among a people who had already discovered that literature and +music were arts the artist was welcomed, talent was recognized and +rewarded, no matter in what class it was found. Yet the troubadours as a +class belong to the nobility. That this was almost necessarily so one +can easily understand, for the troubadour was expected to live a life of +gay extravagance in his own chateau and to travel about the country +during favoring weather, accompanied by a little band of retainers who +must be trained musicians, and who at the castles they visited sang or +performed pieces of their master's composing.</p> + +<p>We can imagine what a flutter there must have been in the breasts of the +ladies, always the prime object of the troubadour's songs, when the gay +cavalcade approached, heralded by the song of the <i>jongleurs</i>: "We come, +bringing a precious balsam which cures all sorts of ills, and heals the +troubles both of body and mind. It is contained in a vase of gold, +adorned with jewels, the most rare. Even to see it is wonderful +pleasure, as you will find if you care to try. The balsam is the music +of our master, the vase of gold is our courtly company. Would you have +the vase open, and disclose its ineffable treasure?"</p> + +<p>The troubadour himself must go in knightly panoply, and he and his +musicians or jongleurs were usually provided with rich clothing. Gifts, +of course, might be accepted from a sovereign, but no pecuniary +recompense; the knightly minstrel disdained to sing for hire; it was +pure love of his art that inspired him, and the idea of making it a +lucrative profession never occurred to him. The troubadour, therefore, +had to live upon his patrimony--until he squandered it in riotous +living--and only a gentleman could afford to do that. Of the scores of +troubadours whose names are known to us, the great majority are nobles, +though not always belonging to the higher nobility; but the artist, the +musician who "found" enchanting melodies, was almost <i>ex officio</i> a +knight, a chevalier, the terms troubadour and chevalier being +interchangeable, and knighthood was considered so essential that one of +the well-known troubadours was accused of having conferred the dignity +upon himself, since no one else would knight him. Among the number of +the troubadours one can count a score or more of reigning princes, +"counts and dukes by the dozen,... many princes of royal blood, and +finally four kings." Yet beside the royal troubadour, and associated +with him in a perfect freemasonry of art, one finds the troubadour of +humble birth. Bertrand de Born, the petty baron, was on terms of perfect +equality with the sons of Henry II.: Geoffrey, he called by the nickname +of <i>Rassa</i>, Henry was <i>Marinier</i>, and Richard was <i>Richard Oc e No</i> +(Richard Yea and Nay). Pierre Vidal, the most eccentric of all the +<i>genus irritabile</i>, was the son of a furrier of Toulouse, and yet, being +a poet, was the friend of princes, notably of Alphonso, the troubadour +king of Arragon. Bernard de Ventadour, who ventured, unrebuked, to send +love songs to haughty Queen Eleanor, was the son of the baker of the +chateau de Ventadour. There was, therefore, much greater freedom of +intercourse in Provence than in the north of France, where feudalism had +taken deeper root, where the warrior was merely a hard hitter, not a +musician who went about equally prepared to fight or to sing.</p> + +<p>The grace and polish of Provençal society was, of course, only relative. +At best, it was merely a surface polish in many cases; and to us the +manners of the troubadours might seem as coarse as their morals were +corrupt. The very extravagance of the troubadour's life, with its +constant demands for large expenditure in travel or in fantastic +entertainments and revels at his chateau, the persistent thirst for +excitement and pleasure in themselves would have been sufficient to +foster licentious habits. Prodigality reduced many a troubadour to the +rank of a mere jongleur or hired musician. A mediaeval moralist remarks, +for the benefit of <i>la cigale</i>,--who probably paid no attention +whatever, but went on singing,--<i>Homo joculatoribus intentus cito +habebit uxorem cut nomen erit paupertas, ex qua generabitur filius cui +nomen erit derisio</i> (He who devotes himself to minstrelsy will soon have +a wife named Poverty, of whom will be born a son named Ignominy.) But +whether or not the troubadour made a sinful waste of his fortune, his +one business in life was understood to be making love.</p> + +<p>Every troubadour chose some lady to whom he devoted his talents, seeking +to make her</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> + <p class="i14"> "Glorious by his pen, and famous by his sword."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>Like a true knight-errant of music and poetry, he travelled over the +land, singing the praises of his lady-love and upholding the superiority +of her charms in the lists, in battles with the infidel, or in any +chance adventure on the road. After enduring in her honor whatever +fortune might send him, and singing to her in songs of triumph or in +plaintive love songs, he would return to claim his reward. So far, all +is romantic and innocent enough. One can indulge in lovely sentimental +fancies concerning this world of gentle singers and fair ladies and +poesy and sunshine. But in sober fact the loves of the troubadours were +neither so romantic nor even so innocent as one would gladly think. In a +certain class of modern novels, the hero rarely experiences a <i>grande +passion</i>, as it is charitably called, except for some other man's wife; +so the lady to whom the troubadour devotes himself, to whom he pours out +his passion with all the cunning and warmth that art can devise, and of +whose favors he sometimes most ungallantly boasts, is almost invariably +a married woman. Fortunately, despite the fact that poets are given to +proclaiming that truth and poetry are almost synonyms, most of us do not +take them <i>au pied de la lettre</i>. "Most loving is feigning," says a good +authority, and certainly most of the protestations in erotic poetry are +hardly to be taken at their face value. So we may safely assume that the +intercourse between the troubadours and the ladies to whom their songs +are dedicated was generally quite innocent; and the burning desire, the +tragic despair, or the exultant passion, of the poems was also largely +figurative, mere squibs and crackers of love. Certainly, if it were +otherwise, the husbands of Provence were most unselfish patrons of art.</p> + +<p>Yet, making all the allowances that common sense or charity may warrant, +we have to admit that there is only too much evidence of deplorable +moral laxity in the days of the troubadours. The very first troubadour +of note, Count William of Poitou, Eleanor's grandfather, was notorious +for his contemptuous attitude toward the Church and for his +licentiousness. In fact, the poems of William are coarse and almost +brutal in their tone, utterly lacking in the superfine gallantry, the +preciosity, which is characteristic of the love poetry of his troubadour +successors. There is in the poems a sort of bold laughter and wit, and +the technical part of the work shows a most surprising artistic finish, +but nothing that speaks of chivalrous ideals. It is with some wonder, +therefore, that we read in the old Provençal biography of this first of +the troubadours that "the Count of Poitou was one of the most courteous +men in the world, and a great deceiver of ladies; and he was a brave +knight and had much to do with love affairs; and he knew well how to +sing and make verses; and for a long time he roamed all through the land +to deceive the ladies." According to all accounts, William was very +successful in this gallant undertaking. It was the troubadour's +business, openly avowed, to "deceive the ladies," and among a people so +susceptible as those of Provence many must have been the domestic +tragedies brought on by these erotic knights-errant.</p> + +<p>When love making, or the writing of love songs, becomes a profession one +need not be surprised to find that there is a great deal of pure +conventionality. The love of beauty is not supreme in all hearts, even +in those of poets, and so the love poetry of the troubadours is as +artificial, as overstrained and oversweetened as a panegyric of an +Elizabethan poet upon that very questionable beauty of the "vestal +throned in the west." What was the actual standard of beauty among the +ladies of Provence is hard to determine, for they are all much the same +in the songs of the troubadours. The lady has skin whiter than milk, +purer than the driven snow, of tint more delicate than the pearl. Upon +her cheeks the roses vie with the lilies, the delicate color mounting at +the sound of her praises and melting away in danger or distress. A +wealth of flaxen hair, of silky texture, crowns her head, and a pair of +soft blue eyes gaze languishingly upon the lover; and when they close, +the sun is gone from the face of nature, so dark does the world seem to +him. But when she walks abroad in smiling beauty, the very birds stop +their own love making to chant of her loveliness, and the flowers turn +to look at her. With all this delicacy of physical beauty goes a +constitution as delicate, for she faints at the news of disaster or +danger to her troubadour. When the monkish chroniclers are so very cold +in their descriptions of personal charms, we are left to the poets. It +may be, then, that, in troubadour eyes at least, Eleanor herself was of +the type we have described.</p> + +<p>It was from a society formed of such elements, and from the very home of +music and poetry, that the young Queen of France came to Paris, at that +time no doubt a very dismal place, inhabited by people who, however +superior as Christians, must have seemed to her uncultured barbarians. +The details of her life during the first ten or fifteen years after her +marriage are obscure, and certainly of little historic interest. We can +feel sure only that her union with Louis VII. must have been distinctly +and increasingly irksome to both parties. With the best will in the +world, historians can say no more of him than that he was a safe and +conservative ruler, never achieving any marked success, and yet never +incurring serious disaster. As a man he was cold, personally +unattractive and unsympathetic, possessed of unquestioned physical +courage, and yet at times fatally timid and irresolute; easily +influenced,' especially by the one power which one might fancy most +distasteful to Eleanor, the Church, for he was devout to the point of +superstition. If Eleanor had been a mere sybarite, a nerveless devotee +of pleasure, she might have lived in obscurity and borne with the +puritanism of her husband. But her blood was too hot for that; she was +full of ambition and of energy and relentless determination to realize +that ambition. As Queen of France there was no great rôle for her to +play. She was young, and for the moment Louis and his counsellors +governed France, while she was satisfied with less ambitious +occupations. One of these occupations was, no doubt, keeping up her +connection with the troubadours of her native land, with whom her family +and her ducal court of Bordeaux were traditionally associated. The exact +dates of her friendship with various troubadours we do not, of course, +know; but we do know that she made rather frequent trips to her beloved +Bordeaux during these years, and that she was commonly recognized as a +patroness of the troubadours.</p> + +<p>We next hear of Eleanor in a rôle not altogether in keeping with her +troubadour affiliations: one does not think of the daughter of William +of Poitou as a defender of the Cross, yet it is as a crusader that +Eleanor first makes a stir in history. Much has been made by historians +of the influence of the Crusades; here we are concerned to remark only +that the spirit of adventure spread even to the women, and that many a +dame went to the Holy Land, some even in panoply of war. It was a +wonderful step forward in the freedom of women, if we recall the +conditions existing a generation before. Our great Provençal queen was a +typical representative, not only of the chivalry and love of adventure +of Provence, but of the spirit of greater independence prevailing among +women. When her grave and devout husband began his preparations for the +Second Crusade, in 1147, Eleanor determined to accompany him.</p> + +<p>A woman of her energy could not, of course, be content with the +<i>fainéant</i> rôle of spouse and consoler. Accordingly, she organized a +regular band of Amazons among the great ladies of France, including the +Countesses of Toulouse and Flanders and other noble dames. The costume +of this troop was the most notable thing about them. The gay and +extravagant queen had devoted much time and thought to the devising of a +dress sufficiently showy for herself and her ladies, and, according to +the accounts of the chronicler William of Tyre, to whom we are indebted +for most of the details of her crusading exploits, Eleanor and her +companions presented a gorgeous spectacle. Accompanied by bands of +troubadours and musicians, with much flaunting of gay banners and +glittering of spangles, Queen Eleanor, clad man-fashion, in glittering +spangle armor, and her ladies rode in the van of the army. Their +discarded distaffs these martial ladies sent to recreant knights who had +preferred staying at home to crusading.</p> + +<p>The saintly Bernard of Clairvaux, the most powerful religious influence +of his time, one whose inspired preaching could move vast audiences to a +perfect frenzy of religious exaltation, had been induced, almost +compelled, to preach the crusade for that loyal son of the Church, Louis +VII. Saint Bernard himself confessed to serious misgivings about the +righteousness of this crusade, and would not be a second Peter the +Hermit to lead the vast host of the Cross. One can imagine that the +doings of Louis's queen must have filled the soul of Saint Bernard with +misgivings still more serious. Eleanor, indeed, was incapable of +religious feeling of sufficient depth to sympathize with the purer +motives of fanaticism that inspired the best of the crusaders. For her +it was a pleasure jaunt, a glorious opportunity to enjoy all the pomp +and circumstance of being a queen, and at least the show of power. +Louis, perhaps, would have been glad to leave his rather too theatrical +and frivolous consort behind, for the crusade was to him a serious +business; but it is likely that the large contingent of Gascons and +Poitevins, devoted to their troubadour duchess, were hardly so eager +about following the King of France.</p> + +<p>The crusade, whose history we need not dwell upon, was like a triumphal +procession as far as Constantinople. To be sure, there were misery and +sickness and death among the hordes of poor camp followers and pilgrims +who had sought the protection of the great army as they journeyed to +that Holy Land whose mere sight, they fancied, would be as a balm to +their seared consciences; but Queen Eleanor and her princesses +experienced nothing but the vain excitement of it all, the wonders of +the Greek civilization, the glitter and splendor. Warned by the +disastrous experience of the Germans who had preceded him, Louis elected +to follow the coast route along the shores of Asia Minor, and he and his +army were safely transported across the straits by the Greeks.</p> + +<p>In the march that followed, the vain and headstrong Eleanor more than +once jeopardized herself and the whole army. She insisted on leading the +van, and her too complaisant husband consented. The result was that +Eleanor, with utter disregard of strategy and of ordinary military +precautions, conducted her forces as if the expedition were merely a +party of pleasure, selected her camps and her route according to the +beauty of the landscape, and all the time flirted in the most +irresponsible fashion with anyone who attracted her. It was said that +she had a most shameful intrigue with a handsome young emir, accepted +gifts from Sultan Noureddin, and spoke of her husband with increasing +flippancy, disrespect, contempt. The army was saved in the mountain +passes by a knight from Eleanor's native land, one Gilbert, of whom +really nothing is known, but who has been made the central figure in a +romance in which Eleanor also plays her part.</p> + +<p>From Satalia, on the Gulf of Cyprus, the king and Eleanor, with the more +well to do among their followers, took ship for Antioch, abandoning the +mass of poor followers to the mercies of the perfidious Greeks and the +fierce Turks. In Antioch, Eleanor was received too kindly by her uncle, +Raymond, Prince of Antioch, said to have been the handsomest man of his +time, and as licentious as Eleanor's own grandfather had been. Despite +their relationship, Eleanor's conduct with Raymond made Louis wildly +jealous. She was already talking of a separation from Louis. The +daughter of William of Poitou certainly could not, as she proclaimed, +put up with a monk for her husband; but it is rather amazing to find her +pretending that she wishes her marriage dissolved for reasons of +conscience, since she and her husband are related within the degrees +prohibited by that Church of which she has always been so devout a +daughter. Louis carried her off, willy-nilly, from Antioch, and we hear +nothing more but complaints from him and soothing counsel from his +friends until after he and Eleanor returned from this disastrous +crusade. Eleanor's caprice and haughty temper had almost driven Louis to +despair, and perhaps it was this constant domestic irritant which +exacerbated his temper and caused those quarrels with the Emperor Conrad +which resulted in the miserable failure of the Christian arms at the +very gates of Damascus.</p> + +<p>Eleanor returned to France, and continued to give her husband cause of +complaint not only by her conduct but by her tongue. Yet the +ill-assorted pair lived in marital relations until the winter of +1151-1152. During a journey to Aquitaine, however, a violent rupture +occurred. Louis appealed to the Council of Beaugency for a divorce, +declaring openly that he did not trust his wife, and could never feel +sure of the legitimacy of her issue. But Eleanor, as usual, had been +beforehand with him. She, too, appealed for divorce, and her appeal was +in the hands of the Council before that of her husband. Less frank and +more politic than Louis, Eleanor sought for an annulment of the marriage +on the ground that she and Louis were cousins--they were related in the +sixth degree. The Council, which might have been seriously embarrassed +by discussing and recognizing such a plea as that of Louis against one +of the most powerful princesses of Christendom, discreetly granted +Eleanor's plea, and annulled the marriage, March 18, 1152. Louis lost a +wife who despised him, and whom he dreaded for her violence and her +sharp tongue. France lost all those rich provinces which had come as +Eleanor's dower.</p> + +<p>The divorced queen, now reigning Duchess of Guienne, was at once pursued +by a number of suitors. With all the romance and sentiment said to be +characteristic of southern France in her day it is hard to reconcile +facts like those that follow. Thibaud de Blois was bent on capturing the +rich duchess, and when she refused him, he plotted to capture her, to +imprison her in his castle of Blois, and to force her to marry him. +Fortunately, Eleanor was warned of the plot and escaped to her own +frontier; but here young Geoffrey of Anjou, aged eighteen, laid an +ambuscade for her on the Loire, intending to marry her himself. Again +she escaped, this time to her own county of Poitou. Into Poitiers she +was followed almost at once by Geoffrey's elder brother, Henry +Plantagenet. Handsome, masterful, brilliant, Henry was of the very type +to captivate Eleanor. It is altogether probable that she had had a +previous understanding with him, and had conducted the proceedings for +divorce on his advice. At any rate, they were married at Bordeaux on the +1st of May, 1152, in spite of the opposition of Louis as Henry's feudal +lord. Two years later Henry succeeded King Stephen, and Eleanor was +Queen of England.</p> + +<p>A troubadour queen was certainly no fit mate for Louis VII.; and now +that Eleanor has secured her divorce from Louis, and has married a man +of temperament somewhat similar to her own, let us step aside from the +story of her career in history to tell something more of her relation to +the troubadours, and of the troubadours themselves.</p> + +<p>Not inheriting any of her grandfather's talent as a singer, Eleanor yet +made her court a haven for troubadours. Unfortunately, we know but +little of her personal relations with her troubadour courtiers, though +tradition has conjectured that they were by no means always platonic. It +was after her marriage to Henry Plantagenet, Duke of Normandy, that she +became the special protectress of a forlorn troubadour lover, Bernard de +Ventadour. He was, as we have noticed, of very low birth, the son of a +baker in the Château de Ventadour; but he had risen in his lord's favor +by reason of his poetic powers. The fair young Viscountess de Ventadour, +a perfect angel of beauty in the eyes of the poet, delighted to listen +to his songs of love. At first these songs did not distinctly refer to +her; but the allusions became more unequivocal, and the songs became +warmer, till one day, as they sat under the shade of a pine tree, +Bernard singing to her, the viscountess suddenly kissed her minstrel. +The poet tells us in a song that so great was his bliss and ecstasy that +the winter landscape seemed suddenly to blossom with all the flowers of +spring. And now he sang more openly of love, and at length put the fair +lady's own name in his songs as the object of his passion. The viscount +could no longer overlook his wife's conduct; so the viscountess was shut +up in a tower and Bernard was driven out of the Limousin.</p> + +<p>Eleanor gave the banished troubadour a kindly welcome. She listened to +his songs, heard his plaintive story, and consoled him. Eleanor was +unquestionably a beautiful woman, and at that time she was still in her +prime. It is no wonder that the soft heart of the troubadour soon forgot +its grief for the lost Lady de Ventadour in the new love for his +gracious protector. Both Eleanor and the troubadour were probably really +in love, for she was as susceptible as he, though neither was capable, +perhaps, of lasting affection. At any rate, Bernard wrote for her songs +full of love and longing, declaring that her image dwells with him +always, that in her absence he cannot sleep, and that the mere thought +of her is sweeter far than sleep. Henry II. was not himself +irreproachable as a husband, and perhaps he thought it wise not to look +too closely into what his wife was doing. Just at this time, however, +Henry became King of England, and there was no need to urge Eleanor to +hasten across the channel to become queen; her vanity was sufficient for +that. The new queen and her troubadour were parted, and, says his +biographer, from that time Bernard remained sad and woeful. He writes +her that, for her sake, he will cross the channel, for he is both a +Norman and an Englishman now; but we do not know that the intimacy +between them was renewed.</p> + +<p>This story is the only one of any detail showing the direct relations +between Eleanor and the troubadours. There are, however, a score of +other anecdotes which serve to show the relation of other women of her +class--not all princesses, but at least of the higher nobility--to the +troubadours. As illustrative of the position of women in Provence at +this time we may select a story as famous in troubadour annals as that +of Francesca da Rimini.</p> + +<p>The Lady Margarida de Roussillon, says the Provençal biography, was the +"most beautiful lady of her time, and the most prized for all that is +praiseworthy, and noble, and courteous." She lived in happiness with her +husband, the powerful Baron Raymond de Roussillon. But in her suite was +a page, Guillem de Cabestanh, poor, but of noble birth, with whose +handsome face and gracious ways the Lady Margarida fell in love. "Love +kindled her thoughts with fire," till at last the passion so +overmastered her that she said to Guillem one day: "Guillem, if a lady +were to love you, could you love her?" "Certainly, my lady," replied the +young man, "if I thought she loved truly." "Well spoken! Tell me, now, +can you distinguish true love from counterfeit?"</p> + +<p>These questions roused the smouldering love in Guillem's heart, and he +gave vent to it in "stanzas graceful and gay, and tunes and canzos, and +his songs found favor with all, but most with her for whom he sang." +Margarida, indeed, knew that he loved her and that the songs were +inspired by her, though Guillem had not as yet ventured to name her in +them or to speak to her. Once again she spoke to her timid lover, and he +confessed his love. Then began the love story, the troubadour pouring +out his sweetest songs and trusting fondly that, because he did not name +her, no one would guess their love. But the gossips began to talk of +them, till at last the scandal came to the ear of Sir Raymond. "He was +ill pleased and hot with rage through having lost the friend he loved so +well, and more because of the shame of his spouse." Instead of taking +summary vengeance, however, he bided his time till the guilty pair could +be self-convicted.</p> + +<p>One day when Guillem had gone off hawking alone Margarida saw Raymond +hide his sword under his cloak and follow after Guillem. She waited in +fearful anxiety till they returned, Raymond apparently in good humor +with Guillem and all the world. Raymond told her that he had discovered +who was the lady of Guillem's songs. Margarida's terror may be imagined. +"I knew," said Raymond, "that no one could sing so well unless he loved. +When I conjured him, by his faith, to tell me whom he loved, he evaded +me at first, but at length confessed that it was your sister, Lady Agnes +de Tarascon." He then told her that it was all true, moreover, for he +had ridden to the Château de Tarascon with Guillem, and that, after some +hesitancy, the Lady Agnes had admitted that Guillem was her lover. +Margarida was at first dumfounded, and completely incredulous; but her +husband's statements were so exact that she was finally convinced of +Guillem's faithlessness.</p> + +<p>At their first private interview she taxed him with his ingratitude, and +would scarcely listen to his denials. Guillem told her that, seeing +himself forced into a corner by Raymond's persistent questions, he had +named the Lady Agnes in desperation, to prevent immediate discovery and +death. The Lady Agnes and her husband, whom she had told of the +intrigue, soon confirmed the lover's story. Lady Agnes had seen the +distress in Guillem's countenance when Raymond brought him to Tarascon +and asked her, in his presence, who was her lover. To save Guillem and +her sister, Lady Agnes had admitted that Guillem was her lover, and she +and her husband had done all in their power to convince Raymond of this +fact. One need hardly remark on the social conditions or the general +laxity of morals implied in the naïve recital of such an incident.</p> + +<p>To continue Margarida's story, the lovers were reconciled and Guillem +celebrated the reconciliation in a song. Unfortunately he had grown +rash, and alluded too openly in this song to the very circumstances of +their case. "No man," he sang, "suffers greater martyrdom than I; for +you, whom I desire more than aught in this world, I must disavow and +deny, and lie as if no love were in my heart. Whate'er I do through fear +of my life, you must take in good faith, even though you do not see why +I do it." This song, some portions of which were violently amorous, came +to the hands of Raymond. He guessed the truth at once, and planned an +awful vengeance.</p> + +<p>Some days later, as the husband and wife were seated at dinner, the Lady +Margarida commented on the delicacy of a bit of deer's heart which she +had eaten. "Do you know," said Raymond, "what you have been eating?" +"No, but I found it delicious." "This will show you," he said, raising +before her the bloody head of Guillem Cabestanh. "Behold the head of the +man whose heart you have just eaten!" The lady fainted at the horrible +sight, and when she recovered screamed aloud that the heart she had +eaten was so good and savory that never more would she eat meat. The +maddened husband rushed at her with drawn sword, and she, to escape +death at his hands, cast herself out of a window and was dashed to +pieces.</p> + +<p>The story has a little sequel, not less instructive and enlightening in +its way. "The news of the deed spread rapidly, and was received +everywhere with grief and indignation; and all the friends of Guillem +and the lady, and all the courteous knights of the neighborhood, and all +those who were lovers, united to make war against Raymond." King +Alphonso of Arragon invaded Raymond's dominions, took him prisoner, kept +him in captivity the rest of his days, and divided his property among +the relatives of the murdered lovers. The unhappy pair he caused to be +buried in one tomb, and erected over them a sumptuous monument, whither +once a year came all the knights and all the fond lovers of Roussillon, +Cerdagne, and Narbonnais, to pray for the souls of Guillem Cabestanh and +the fair Lady Margarida. In the glamor of romance, morality and common +decency are apt to be lost sight of. The romancer enlists all our +sympathies for the guilty Paolo and Francesca of this story, while +Raymond, the miserable husband, meets with captivity and the loss of his +property. We may add that the main facts of this story are confirmed, +even to the episode of the heart, by several accounts in manuscripts, +though imagination is doubtless responsible for certain details.</p> + +<p>In the loves of the troubadours one is constantly encountering stories +not less immoral though less tragic than this one, as we may see in the +story of the Lady de Miravals. The wife of Raymond de Miravals, a rich +baron and famous troubadour, being neglected by her husband, had formed +a secret attachment for a knight called Bremon. She was pining in secret +for her lover when, to her delight, Raymond threatened to divorce her, +because he himself had tired of her and was in love with another lady +who insisted that he should divorce his wife. Seeing in the threatened +divorce a chance of perfect liberty in her relations with Bremon, the +Lady de Miravals pretended extreme grief and indignation. Such treatment +from an ungrateful husband she would not stand, she said. She would send +for her parents and relatives to see justice done or to take her away. +To this Raymond, apparently, made no very determined resistance. The +lady, with great show of wrath, sent a messenger to summon her family, +secretly directing him to go to Bremon and tell him that she was ready +to marry him if he would come. Bremon came with alacrity, accompanied by +a troop of his knights, and halted at the gate of the castle. The +expectant Lady de Miravals, seeing her lover ready, announced to Raymond +that her friends had come for her, and that she would be pleased if he +would allow her to leave at once. Raymond consented; in fact, he was so +pleased at the prospect of being rid of his wife that, with unwonted +courtesy, he himself conducted her to the castle gate. Seeing that her +little plot was working so well, the runaway wife could not forbear +adding one more touch to this lovely little deception. "Sir," said she +to Raymond, "since we part such good friends, with no regrets, would you +not be good enough to give me, no longer your wife, to this gentleman?" +Nothing was easier to Raymond than unmarrying a wife of whom he was +tired. With ready courtesy he gave her to Bremon, who, receiving her +from her husband's hands, put the ring on her finger and rode off, in +high glee, with his lady-love.</p> + +<p>We do not know whether the Lady de Miravals and her new husband found +the course of their love smooth or rough; but the too complaisant +Raymond met with very bad luck, which he most richly deserved. As soon +as his wife was gone, he posted off to tell his lady-love that her +commands had been obeyed and that he had now come to marry her. But this +lady, who seems to have cared nothing for the foolish troubadour except +to have the honor of having him make a fool of himself for her, said: +"It is well done, Raymond; you have sent away your wife to please me. +Now go and prepare for a magnificent wedding at your castle, and let me +know when you are ready to receive your bride in fitting style." The +troubadour rushed home, spent weeks and squandered his substance in +preparations for his bride, and went back to claim her. Alas! this very +sensible lady had married another man--we hope not a troubadour--on the +very day after she had sent Raymond on his fool's errand.</p> + +<p>With all his protestations of undying devotion, it not infrequently +happened that the troubadour did not continue to devote himself to one +lady. Sometimes the lady found a more acceptable lover, or became tired +of the love rhapsodies of her troubadour. But it was dangerous to +dismiss one of these violent poets without good excuse, for he might +turn from love songs to <i>sirventes</i>, and satirize her whom before he had +extolled as a paragon. One of the most amusing of the anecdotes of the +troubadours is that telling how Marie de Ventadour got rid of the +attentions of Gaucelm Faidit.</p> + +<p>The beautiful Countess Marie de Ventadour was, says the old Provençal +historian quoted in Mr. Rowbotham's <i>The Troubadours and Courts of +Love</i>, to which we are indebted for many of the facts here used, "the +most esteemed lady in the province of Limousin; the lady who prided +herself most on doing whatever was right and good, and who best +preserved and defended herself from all evil; who always shaped her +conduct by the rules of reason, and never at any time committed an act +of folly." Her charms were celebrated by many a troubadour, but her most +devoted admirer was Gaucelm Faidit. Gaucelm, the son of an artisan of +Uzerche, had been raised from his low estate by the favor of the +troubadour Richard Coeur de Lion, and his talent had assured his +position in what one might call the best society. Marie, like other +ladies of her time, was rather vain of her troubadour admirers, and did +not disdain the brilliant but lowborn Gaucelm Faidit. But she told him +that, if he was to win her love, he must show himself worthy of it by +prowess in battle, and suggested that he accompany her husband--whom we +neglected to mention before--on the third Crusade, just then being +organized. The poet, though not very fond of fighting, took the Cross, +went to the Holy Land, sent home to his lady-love most ferocious poems +telling of the perils he was encountering or escaping, and then made his +way back to the Château de Ventadour as soon as he could find a decent +excuse for doing so. Marie, however, was not so gracious to him as he +had hoped; she did not love him for the dangers he had passed, or for +his telling of them. She was, in fact, decidedly cold to him. Gaucelm, +in a rage, left the chateau, saying: "I shall never see you again! But +perhaps I can find another lady who will treat me with more +consideration." Marie was rather glad to be rid of her poet's +tempestuous love; but she was afraid of his sharp tongue; he could write +most bitter <i>sirventes</i>: what if he should avenge himself on her by +turning against her all his satiric powers?</p> + +<p>In this dilemma she resorted to a stratagem which her friend, Madame de +Malamort helped her to put in practice, Madame de Malamort sent a +message to the troubadour asking: "Which do you prefer, a little bird in +the hand, or a crane flying high in the air?" Gaucelm's curiosity was +piqued; he came to ask her to unravel this riddle. "I am the little +bird," said she, "whom you hold in your hand, and Marie de Ventadour is +the crane who flies far above your head. Am I not as beautiful as she? +Love me who love you, and let this haughty countess find out, as she +will, what a treasure she has lost." The vanity of the troubadour, +incensed by what he thought unjust treatment, could not withstand this +artful attack. He consented to be off with the old love, and the new +love required that he take leave of the old love, not in any violent +sirvente, but in a poem relentless, stern, yet calm and dignified; after +which he might begin to sing as he pleased about the new love. Too proud +of his new conquest to suspect the trick being played on him, Gaucelm +bade farewell to Marie de Ventadour in a formal and very dignified +fashion. When he turned now to sing of joy and spring and the like to +Madame de Malamort he found his attentions very coldly received; and the +lady soon gave him to understand that, having got her friend out of a +difficulty, she cared not a fig for any troubadour. Gaucelm was nicely +trapped; he could not indulge in abuse of either lady without danger of +having the whole foolish tale told at his expense. He became a heretic +toward love, and satirized women in general; but he soon recovered from +this, and lived to be consoled by other ladies, and to be fooled by one +more. This one, Marguerite d'Aubusson, pretending the most devoted and +innocent romantic love for Gaucelm, used to meet her real lover under +cover of Gaucelm's roof.</p> + +<p>Though not at all essential to the story, it is a fact worth mentioning +that Gaucelm Faidit himself was married while the romance with Marie was +in progress. The wife of a troubadour, indeed, was not allowed to +interfere with any really serious business of his career, such as a love +affair with another man's wife. That this was so, in theory at least, +can be seen in the story of the lives of many of the troubadours; and +that the general attitude of Provençal society, as represented by this +particular phase of its literature, was unfavorable to matrimony, can be +seen most clearly when we look at those curious institutions called +Courts of Love. It is not yet quite certain whether the Courts of Love +are altogether or only partly mythical.</p> + +<p>This century of ours is a Sancho Panza among the centuries; like that +stout and excellent squire, we have unlimited faith in things material, +visible, tangible, and especially eatable and no faith in things +romantic, such as windmills, and knights-errant, and chivalry. Looked at +from the Panzaic point of view, which we are fain to admit is also the +common-sense point of view, it seems inherently most improbable that any +set of people should waste their time upon anything so fantastic as the +Courts of Love. Yet Panza should be asked to remember that there are and +have been things in heaven and earth that surpass the limits of his +philosophy; that the race among whom such institutions are alleged to +have flourished was notoriously sentimental, or poetic, if you like a +more respectful term; that, for a parallel, he has only to go to a +famous French romance, published less than two centuries ago, which +contained a grave description and map of the Country of Love, a <i>Carte +du pays de Tendre</i>, with minute directions as to how the amorous +traveller might proceed safely on his journey to the city of true love; +and that Molière's <i>Précieuses Ridicules</i>, however overdrawn for comic +effect, presents a picture of what really existed. Reason is, +undoubtedly, opposed to the possibility of the existence of the Courts +of Love; but, as we have said, we cannot always refuse to believe what +seems to us preposterous. The historical evidence for the existence of +the Courts of Love is unquestionably very scanty. Mr. Rowbotham, who +believes firmly in their existence, is forced to rely upon the testimony +of one contemporary witness, of very uncertain date (Andrew the +Chaplain, "who lived probably about the end of the twelfth century"), +and two very obscure allusions to courts and trials in the poems of the +troubadours. The chief sources for our knowledge of the Courts of Love +are writers long subsequent to the events, notably Jean de Nostredame, +who, in 1575, published a book entitled <i>Les Vies des plus célèbres et +anciens poetes provensaux</i>. But the tradition is so well established, +and above all so intimately associated with Queen Eleanor, that we shall +give a little sketch of the courts and their doings.</p> + +<p>The <i>tensons</i> of the troubadours were poetic disputes on points of love +and on lovers' conduct. If, says Jean de Nostredame, the disputants +"could not come to an agreement they referred the matter for decision to +the illustrious lady presidents who held open and plenary court at the +Castle of Signe, and other places, and these gave judgments which were +called the judgments of Love." If a lady treated her troubadour lover +unfairly, or if a lover were guilty of any dereliction or crime in love, +or if, for the guidance of future generations of lovers, a decision on a +mere point of gallantry were sought, all such cases came before the +Courts of Love, which had a regular code of laws, thirty-one in number, +upon which decisions were based. The court, composed of a jury of the +most beautiful, accomplished, and celebrated ladies of the neighborhood, +and presided over by some lady of special distinction, heard the pleas +on both sides, and gave judgment, which depended upon a unanimous vote +of the jury. There were several of these courts, the most famous being +those of Queen Eleanor of England, of her daughter, Marie de Champagne, +of the Viscountess of Narbonne, and of the Countess of Flanders. The +code under which these fantastic tribunals are said to have given their +judgment is a very curious document. The statutes of love are hardly so +rigorous as might be expected; some of them are merely proverbial bits +of wisdom, with here and there a hint very far from romantic:</p> + +<p>IV. Love never stands still; it always increases--or diminishes.</p> + +<p>X. Love is always an exile where avarice holds his dwelling.</p> + +<p>Some seem so distinctly suggestive of a smirk beneath all this affected +seriousness that one can hardly take them seriously.</p> + +<p>XV. Every lover is accustomed to grow pale at the sight of his +lady-love.</p> + +<p>XVI. At the sudden and unexpected sight of his lady-love the heart of +the true lover invariably palpitates.</p> + +<p>XX. A real lover is always the prey of anxiety and malaise.</p> + +<p>XXIII. A person who is the prey of love eats little and sleeps little.</p> + +<p>This last is, of course, a rule not only venerable, but universal. One +recalls Chaucer's Squire, "as fresshe as is the moneth of May," who +"coude songes make, and wel endite;... so hote he loved that by +nightertale he slep no more than doth the nightingale." Others of the +troubadour statutes are frankly suggestive of that moral laxity, not to +say obliquity of vision, of which we have spoken before.</p> + +<p>I. Marriage cannot be pleaded as an excuse for refusing to love.</p> + +<p>XI. It is not becoming to love those ladies who love only with a view to +marriage.</p> + +<p>XXVI. Love can deny nothing to love.</p> + +<p>With this little group of laws in mind one can but reflect that, pushed +to their logical conclusion, they are suggestive of moral laxity. We are +not, however, left to guessing. According to Andrew the Chaplain, the +court of the Countess of Champagne was asked, on April 29, 1174, to +decide this question: "Can real love exist between married people?" The +countess and her court decided "that love cannot exercise its powers on +married people," the following reason being given in proof of the +assertion: "Lovers grant everything, mutually and gratuitously, without +being constrained by any motive of necessity. Married people, on the +contrary, are compelled as a duty to submit to one another's wishes, and +not to refuse anything to one another. For this reason it is evident +that love cannot exercise its powers on married people. Let this +decision, which we have arrived at with great deliberation, and after +taking counsel of a large number of ladies, be held henceforward as a +confirmed and irrefragable truth."</p> + +<p>Quite in line with this judgment is one reported from the court of Queen +Eleanor. A gentleman, the complainant in the suit, was deeply in love +with a lady who loved another. Taking compassion on him, however, she +promised that, if ever she should lose her first lover, the complainant +should be received as his successor. The lady shortly after married her +lover. Thereupon the complainant, citing the decision of the Countess of +Champagne, demanded her love. The lady refused, denying that she had +lost the love of her lover by marrying him. Wherefore the complainant +humbly sued for judgment, we presume it might be called a writ <i>mandamus +amare</i>. The honorable court handed down a decision for the complainant, +declaring that the solemn decree of the court of the Countess of +Champagne was of force in the present case, and issuing the writ +<i>mandamus amare</i> as prayed for: "We order that the lady grant to her +imploring lover, now the complainant before this court, the favors which +he so earnestly entreats, and which she so faithfully has promised."</p> + +<p>One other decision of the gay Queen Eleanor is so righteous that we +cannot forbear repeating it. A gentleman brought suit because a lady of +whom he was enamored had accepted numerous handsome gifts from him and +yet persistently denied him her love. We are not altogether sure whether +the gentleman was not really bringing suit to recover his presents; but +Queen Eleanor gave judgment: "A lady who is determined to be inflexible +must either refuse to receive any gifts which are sent with the object +of winning her love, or she must make compensation for them, or she must +be content to be classed as a courtesan."</p> + +<p>In all this world of love and song were the women merely objects of the +troubadour's song, or merely patronesses of the troubadour? Were there +no poetesses? The names of fourteen ladies who may be called troubadours +by reason of their own works are all of whom we have record, and even of +these fourteen not one was really a professional troubadour; in most +cases it is but one song, or even one part of a <i>tenson</i>, which gives +the lady a right to be named among the poets. We find Clara D'Anduse, +the beautiful love of the troubadour Uc de St. Cyr, remembered for but +one song; and but little more remains of the work of Countess Beatrice +de Die, who loved Rambaut d'Orange, and who tells of how this troubadour +loved her, and grew cold to her, and finally was faithless, forsaking +her for another; but she and her sister troubadours are shadowy figures: +the time had not come for woman to take a permanent place in literature.</p> + +<p>In our attempt to present the literary and artistic side of Eleanor's +life, and to tell something of the brilliant society of Provence in +which she played no small part, we have neglected the facts of her +career in England. As Queen Eleanor of England, however, we shall not +have much to say of her. Even now she does not play a very prominent +part in history, and the development of her character is quite in line +with the moral training one would acquire in the Courts of Love. It does +seem as if there were such a thing as reaping the whirlwind.</p> + +<p>Eleanor was eleven years older than her new husband. She had despised +Louis because he was too austere, too cold, too plain in mind and in +morals. Her new husband soon gave her ample cause to develop a new +passion jealousy. She learned to hate him for vices the very opposite of +Louis's colorless virtue. She herself had been notoriously a coquette, +and not an innocent one. She felt the eleven years of difference between +herself and Henry. The gossips said she could hardly expect to retain +Henry's affection, she who was so much older, and who had been, it was +rumored, the mistress of Henry's own father. Despite the gallant +principles she had professed in her own Court of Love, despite the +latitude to which she had thought herself entitled, she became furiously +jealous of Henry. There was, indeed, much reason for jealousy. Young, +hot-blooded, passionate, as greedy of pleasure as of power, Henry lost +no time in giving her numerous rivals. No means were too vile or too +violent when Henry wished to gratify his passions. It is said that he +even dishonored the young Princess Alice of France, betrothed to his son +Richard, and for that reason would never allow Richard to marry her. +There we're fierce quarrels between Eleanor and Henry, and tradition has +ascribed to her the murder of Fair Rosamond Clifford, whom she is said +to have pursued into the labyrinth of Woodstock and stabbed with her own +hand.</p> + +<p>Finding it impossible to avenge herself in any other way, Eleanor +stirred up her sons against their father. They were all turbulent +enough, and needed little encouragement. The eldest living son, Henry, +injudiciously crowned king by his father's desire, persuaded himself +that he must be king in deed, and was spurred on by his mother and by +her friend, the restless troubadour Bertrand de Born. Raymond of +Toulouse, who had been sought by them as an ally, revealed the plot of +the queen and her sons to Henry. Young Henry and his brothers fled to +France, where they were received by Louis with royal honors. Eleanor was +imprisoned in her own duchy, and in prison she remained during Henry's +lifetime. The troubadours, devoted to their duchess, sang dolorous songs +upon her captivity, and voiced their hatred of her jailer, Henry, in +burning <i>sirventes</i>. But Henry went on relentlessly in the intermittent +struggle with his sons, conquered Bertrand de Born, and kept his +rebellious subjects in check. Not till he died, cursing Richard and +John, who had again been in revolt against him, was the queen released.</p> + +<p>Hardly had Richard been crowned before he departed for the Crusade, +leaving Eleanor as regent. Even against her own son the old queen +intrigued; yet it was partly her indignant intervention which later +helped to release Richard from the German prison where the emperor, +instigated by Philip Augustus, would have kept him. The son whom she +loved best, John, loved and trusted her no more than did Richard. In the +struggle between Philip Augustus, championing Arthur of Brittany, and +John, Eleanor seems to have kept faith with her son, and to have given +him shrewd if cruel counsel. We hear of her but once or twice more in +active affairs. In 1200 she was sent by John into Spain to bring back +his niece, Blanche de Castille, who was betrothed to Prince Louis of +France by one of the terms of a treaty just concluded between John and +Philip Augustus. On her return, when passing through Bordeaux, a mob set +upon and killed one of her party, the detested Mercader, captain of +Richard's Brabançon mercenaries. Eleanor, old, and sick with fatigue and +fright at this scene of horror, could proceed no further, and stayed in +the abbey of Fontevrault, sending Blanche on with the Archbishop of +Bordeaux. She rallied from this illness, however, and two years later +had a narrow escape from being captured by her grandson, Arthur. She was +besieged, and very hard pressed, in the Château de Mirebeau, when Arthur +and his followers were surprised and captured by John. This episode of a +grand-mother besieged by her own grandson is quite in line with the +traditions of the family. "It is the fate of our family that none should +love the other," said Geoffrey Plantagenet.</p> + +<p>In the midst of the triumph of Philip Augustus over her miserable son +John, old Queen Eleanor died, in the convent of Beaulieu, in 1204. The +miseries of her declining years make us more charitable toward her; but +it is impossible to respect a character such as that of England's +troubadour queen. One sometimes finds her praised for a splendid virtue, +that of impulsive generosity; but there was no generosity in her nature; +she was merely lavish in spending for her own pleasure. In keeping with +what a great historian has said of her son Richard Coeur de Lion, one +may say that she was a bad wife,--to two husbands,--a bad mother, and a +bad queen. There was in her nature none of the tenderness which alone +can ensure domestic love, nor yet enough force to enable her to make +herself a great queen.</p> + +<p>Even before the death of their patroness the glories of the troubadours +were fading. There was an angry murmur, growing ever stronger, against +the immorality of the troubadours, and particularly against a new and +formidable heresy which had gained ground rapidly in the south of +France. With the doctrines of the Albigenses we are not concerned; it is +difficult to discover the exact truth about them, since we must rely +chiefly upon the testimony of their enemies. It is sufficiently well +established, however, that the Albigenses believed in a form of +Manichseism which asserted the existence of two Eternal powers, +equipotent, the one a power of Good, the other a power of Evil. Since +Evil ruled the world on equal terms with Good, might not man feel +utterly relieved of moral responsibility? Certainly, such is the +tendency of this species of Dualism.</p> + +<p>Whether the Albigensian heresy be responsible or not, it is +unquestionable that the troubadours were in nearly all cases +indifferent, and in very many cases sceptical or utterly rebellious, in +their attitude toward the Church and its teachings. Among the nobility +the sacrament of marriage, so carefully hedged about by the canons of +the Church, could hardly have been regarded with much respect, since a +venal clergy was ready to sanction a union which their own Church +pronounced incestuous or to dissolve one which their own Church +pronounced indissoluble. Political and racial antipathy, the old +ineradicable and inexplicable hatred of north for south, helped on the +religious quarrel. Count Raymond of Toulouse, who seems to have been +merely an easy-going man, inclined rather to religious liberty and +freedom of conscience than to positive heresy, was assailed as a monster +of vice. At length, in 1208, Pope Innocent III. authorized the +Cistercian monks to preach a crusade against the Albigenses: "Arise! ye +soldiers of Christ! exterminate this impiety by every means that God may +reveal to you. Stretch forth your arms and smite the heretics, making +upon them war more relentless than upon the Saracens." So ran the papal +letters. The new crusade was preached far and wide over France, Germany, +and Italy, and a host of crusaders, promised greater indulgences than +those who went to the Holy Land, assembled to destroy Provence. Among +their leaders were two recreant troubadours, Izarn, who leaves us his +version of the fall of Provence, and Folquet, now Bishop of Toulouse, +who is so cruel, so bitter, so treacherous in the cause of Christ that +one enjoys hearing him called by the troubadour nickname "Bishop of +Devils." More terrible than Folquet, because more sincere, was one +Domingo, canon of Osma, a man of almost puritanic habits of mind, famous +in history as the founder of the order of <i>Fratres Predicatores</i>, the +Dominican Preaching Friars, and of an institution not less well +known--the Inquisition. The military leader who really broke the back of +the resistance in Provence was Simon de Montfort. The siege and capture +of Beziers, where a number of those accused of heresy had taken refuge, +will serve to show in what spirit the whole war was conducted. When +Beziers was taken the soldiers asked Abbot Arnold, of Citeaux, who +represented the Church of Mercy: "How shall we distinguish the faithful +from the heretics among the people of the town?" The priest answered: +<i>Caedite eos, novit enim Dominus qui sunt ejus</i>: "Kill them all, for the +Lord will know His own." In this spirit the Albigensian war continued, +with occasional respites, for more than thirty years. Over the land of +the troubadours brooded the menacing figure of the Inquisition; and fair +women no less than men knew the sinister meaning of "<i>La Question</i>" the +inquisition by torture, by scores of devices of ingenious cruelty, of +which the "rack" and the iron "boot" are best remembered. The brilliant +life of the south was extinguished. We hear the piteous wail of the fast +disappearing singers: "Oh! Toulouse and Provence, land of Agen, Beziers, +and Carcassonne; as I have seen you, and as I see you now!"</p> + +<p>While Provençal literature was thus perishing miserably, that of France +was gradually unfolding; and we find here and there some <i>grande dame</i> +named as a patroness of literature. Most of them are but names, yet we +find that the Countess Marie de Champagne, Queen Eleanor's daughter, +encouraged the great <i>trouvère</i> Chrestien de Troies. She made him +introduce into his romances the notions of love and chivalry fostered in +the Courts of Love, and gave him the theme of his romance of <i>Lancelot</i>, +or <i>Le conte de la Charrette</i> (about 1170). For Blanche de Navarre was +made a prose translation of saints' lives. A poet named Menessier +completed, about 1220, for the Countess Jeanne de Flandre a poem on +Perceval and his search for the Holy Grail.</p> + +<p>One French woman of this period, moreover, won for herself an abiding +place in literature. Of her personality we know nothing, and we are even +ignorant of the dates of her birth and death. Gathering her materials +from Welsh and Breton traditions and popular songs, she wrote a number +of <i>lays</i>, as she called them. These lays are short poems, in verse of +eight syllables, recounting some little romantic tale or adventure. +There are about twenty of them, of which fifteen, at least, are ascribed +to Marie. From another of her works we glean the few facts that follow, +substantially all that we know of her:</p> + +<p>"At the end of this work, which I have translated and sung in the +Romance tongue (French), I will tell you something of myself. Marie is +my name, and I am of France. It may be that several clerks might take it +upon themselves to claim my work, and I wish none to say it is his: who +forgets himself works to no purpose. For the love of Count William, the +most valiant man in this kingdom, I undertook to write this book and to +translate it from English into Romance. He who wrote this book, or +translated it, called it Ysopet. He translated it from Greek into Latin. +King Henry (some manuscripts say Alfred), who loved it greatly, then +translated it into English, and I have turned it into French verse as +accurately as I could. Now I pray to God Almighty that I may be given +strength to do such work that I may give my soul into His hands, that it +may go straight to Heaven above. Say Amen, all of you, that God may +grant my prayer."</p> + +<p>This conclusion of one of the fables in the book called <i>Ysopet</i>, which +we have translated freely, shows us that Marie was of French birth, but +that she had, probably, lived for a time in England. Who was Count +William? We are free to guess, but there seems no chance of confirming +the guess. Some have supposed him to be William Longsword, the reputed +son of Henry II. and Rosamond; while Henry, the king who loved the book +so well, might be Henry Beauclerc. But as the English book from which +Marie translated is lost, there is again no chance of confirmation. It +is now generally agreed, however, that Marie lived and wrote about the +end of the reign of Henry II.</p> + +<p><i>Ysopet</i>, or <i>Ysope</i>, as it is sometimes spelled, is nothing more than +the name of our dear old Æsop, whom childhood loves and whom folklore is +proving a myth. The term came to be the generic one in Old French for +collections of fables on the model of Marie's. Marie's fables cannot +compete with those of her great French successor, La Fontaine; and yet +one is always insensibly comparing them with his. The literary value of +her works is not great; the recital is too cold and impersonal; there is +too much of the apologue and none of that delightful individuality, the +reflection of his own mind, which La Fontaine manages to impress upon +his creatures; the writer shows no sympathy with the "little people" of +her fables.</p> + +<p>The lays are decidedly more entertaining, and show considerable +narrative power, as well as an unconscious appreciation of the romantic +beauty of the incidents, many of which have to do with fairies and +enchantment. They are tales of love and adventure, full of marvels. One +meets King Arthur and Tristram, and a host of knights and ladies +transformed by the fairies. We may mention the pathetic <i>Lai de Frene</i>, +a story related to the famous one of <i>Patient Grissel</i>; the story of +<i>Guingamor</i>, a tale of a knight who lives three days in fairyland and +comes back to find that three hundred years had passed on earth; and the +story of the werewolf Bisclavret, which we may give as a specimen of +this very interesting portion of Old French literature interesting, at +least, to those who love literature in its infancy.</p> + +<p>"When I set out to write lays," says Marie, "I would not forget +Bisclavret. In Breton he is called Bisclavret, while the Normans call +him <i>garwalf</i> (werewolf)." We have heard often enough, she continues, of +men who became werewolves and lived in the forest. The werewolf is a +savage beast, and when he is in a rage he devours men and does much +damage. After this little preface, the tale goes on to tell of a knight +of Brittany, courteous, rich, beloved by all his neighbors. His wife, +however, was piqued by unreasoning curiosity about one thing, which was +quite enough, indeed, to arouse the curiosity of any wife. This was the +fact that for three days out of 'the week her husband disappeared, no +one knew whither. At length, she asked her husband where he went, and, +in spite of his reluctance to tell,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "tant le blandi e losenia</p> +<p class="i14"> Que s'aventure li cunta,"</p> +</div></div> + +<p>that is, she wheedled and coaxed him till he told her that on three days +of the week he must be a werewolf; that, going to the forest, he +stripped himself and hid his clothing carefully, and then was turned +into a wolf. He besought her not to reveal the hiding place of his +clothing; for if, when the three days were over, he should come back in +wolf form and find them gone, there would be no hope for him: he must be +a wolf for the rest of his days. Now, the wife, as usually happens in +such tales, was a wicked wife, anxious to rid herself of her werewolf +husband and marry a knight who had long been her lover:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Un chevalier de la cuntrée,</p> +<p class="i14"> Qui lungement l'aveit amée...</p> +<p class="i14"> E mult dune en sun servise."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>To him she sends at once, and the guilty pair steal away the clothes of +the poor werewolf at the very first opportunity. And thus was Bisclavret +betrayed by his wife, who married him who had loved her long. The +werewolf is condemned to continue in wolf form; but one must remember +that there are disenchantments as well as enchantments in fairy stories, +and that justice, of a kind which is frequently <i>sui generis</i>, is +generally meted out to the guilty. The giant, it is true, gobbles up +people and behaves horribly for a season, but there is always a giant +killer in training for him. And so here, it is only for "one whole year" +that Bisclavret remains transformed; for the king goes hunting in the +forest, and his hounds pursue Bisclavret till the poor wretch runs +straight to the feet of the king, kisses his feet, and asks mercy in +such pitiful and almost human dumb show that the king orders him spared.</p> + +<p>Bisclavret, taken under royal protection, accompanies the court +everywhere, till, on the occasion of a special assemblage of the barons, +the man who had married his wife comes into his presence. Straight at +his throat leapt the wolf-man, and would have torn him to pieces on the +spot had not the king interfered. The obvious hatred of the wolf for +this particular man aroused the king's suspicions, and these suspicions +were still further intensified when, not long after, the wolf manifested +the same violent hatred toward his former wife, now the wife of the +knight, biting her and scratching her face in spite of all that could be +done. Then, upon the advice of an old knight who remembered the +mysterious disappearance of Bisclavret and who knew something of Breton +legends, the king put the false wife to torture, and forced from her the +confession of the truth. Bisclavret, shut up in a room with the clothes +he had worn as a man, is transformed into a man once more and reinstated +in his possessions. The unfaithful wife, accompanied by her paramour, is +driven from the land, and, as a further retribution, several of her +children were born without noses, the wolf having bitten off her nose. +As Marie concludes, with triumphant rejoicing in the punishment of the +wicked even unto the third and fourth generation, "'tis true, indeed, +noseless were they born, and noseless did they live."</p> + +<p>This paraphrase of Marie's work can, of course, give no idea of its +literary value; but the tale itself will serve as a sample of what the +first woman in French literature wrote. We have from her also a +translation of the famous legend of <i>Saint Patrick's Purgatory</i>, of how +a knight journeyed into the lower regions and came back to warn the +world of the punishments in store for the wicked. Marie represents but a +beginning--and yet it is a beginning--of the writing in their mother +tongue, which was to make famous many women as well as men of France. In +her day, indeed, it was a distinction to write in the mother tongue, for +among the classes which we should call literary Latin was considered the +only proper vehicle for their wisdom. Long after her day, indeed, Latin +still kept French from its birthright, and it will be two centuries +before we come to another woman who writes in French. Though the great +Héloïse and her letters, written not long before Marie's time, take +their place in literature, it is in the literature of scholastic Latin, +not of old French.</p> + +<a name="c4" id="c4"></a> +<br><br> + +<h3>CHAPTER IV</h3> + +<h3>WOMEN IN THE AGE OF SAINT LOUIS</h3> + +<p>While romance has preserved many memories, and history not a few facts, +of Eleanor of Guienne, the records concerning two other notable women, +her contemporaries, are very scanty. Whatever her faults, Eleanor was a +great and commanding personality, one that could not be overlooked +because, whether for good or ill, she was always powerful. The two +unhappy queens of Philippe Auguste, Ingeburge de Danemark and Agnes de +Meranie, though they were the innocent causes of much distress in +France, are yet hardly known to us as personalities.</p> + +<p>The first queen of Philippe Auguste was Isabelle de Hainault; after her +death he sought the hand of a Danish princess, Ingeburge, sister of Knut +IV. The marriage was one contracted for political reasons; Philippe was +at the time engaged in his lifelong struggle against the power of the +Plantagenets, and desired an ally against Richard Coeur de Lion. At +Amiens, on Assumption eve, 1193, Ingeburge was married to the King of +France; the next day she was crowned Queen of France by the Archbishop +of Rheims. During the ceremony, says a chronicler of Aix, "the King, +looking on the Princess, began to conceive a horror of her; he trembled, +he grew pale, he was so greatly troubled in spirit that he could hardly +contain himself till the end of the ceremony." For some unknown reason +the fair stranger seems to have awakened in him unconquerable +repugnance; and from that moment he began to devise means of getting rid +of her.</p> + +<p>Ingeburge, according to the testimony of those who had no special reason +to favor her but every reason to justify the king, was of a gentle +disposition, sensible, affectionate, and endowed with considerable +beauty of the type usually associated with Danish women. She was a +defenceless stranger, not even acquainted with the French language, and +there were but few in France to champion her cause in the painful +complications that followed. Philippe's aversion could by no means be +accounted for; in the Middle Ages what could not be accounted for, if of +evil nature, was the work of the devil or of his vicegerents on earth, +the witches; so it was promptly reported that the King of France was +bewitched, though it is not exactly apparent that the real force of the +enchantment fell upon him it was Ingeburge who suffered.</p> + +<p>Philippe began proceedings to obtain an annulment of the marriage, +which, he asseverated, had never been consummated. This was denied by +Ingeburge, and we are inclined to take her word rather than that of the +unscrupulous king, who, though a successful ruler, was not at all averse +to falsehood where falsehood served his turn. The pair separated almost +at once, and Philippe tried by ill treatment to make Ingeburge consent +to a legal separation. After three months of the utmost unhappiness the +young queen had the shame of hearing her marriage declared null and +void. The council which rendered this decision consisted wholly of +French prelates, presided over by the very Archbishop of Rheims who had +pronounced the nuptial benediction over the pair. Ingeburge was at +Compiègne, where the council met, and was present at the session at +which her marriage was annulled on the frivolous pretext of a kinship, +not between Philippe and Ingeburge for even the ingenuity of mediaeval +genealogy could not trace out that but between the late Queen Isabella +and Ingeburge. The unfortunate Danish lady could not understand what +these priests were saying in the strange tongue of the land to which she +had come to be a queen; when the purport of the proceedings was +explained to her through an interpreter, she exclaimed, in tears: <i>"Male +France! Male France!</i> Rome! Rome!"</p> + +<a name="ill3" id="ill3"></a> + +<p class="mid"><img alt="" src="images/003.png"><br> +<b><i>DOMESTIC INTERIOR IN FRANCE, TWELFTH CENTURY<br> +From a water-color by S. Baron, after a description by Viollet-le-Duc</i></b></p> + +<blockquote><b><i>The decorated fireplace, between two windows, was wide enough to hold +logs eight or ten feet long. Two large benches were at right angles, one +with a movable back, the other being double-seated. The table was fixed +to the floor, the master's chair being elevated, other diners sat on +stools. The tablecloth was used for wiping fingers and lips. The buffet, +with cups and goblets on top, was used as to-day. Generally, the beds +were narrow and displayed great luxury: the wood was carved, incrusted, +or painted; the coverlets had fringes and embroideries; curtains formed +an alcove, and a night lamp was hung at the foot. The room contained an +oratory.<br><br> + +In the rear were the kitchen, etc, and on the upper floors were sleeping +and other chambers.</i></b></blockquote> + +<p>She did indeed appeal from "wicked France" to Rome, and the appeal was +not without ultimate good effect. In the meantime she refused to +prejudice her cause by returning to Denmark, and the heartless Philippe +confined her, almost as a criminal, in a convent at Cisoing, in the +Tournois; he did not even have the decency or the humanity to provide +suitably for her actual needs.</p> + +<p>The appeal to Rome was pushed by Ingeburge's brother, Knut IV., and the +Pope, Celestine III., at length granted the appeal, on March 13, 1196, +reversing the decree of the council of Compiègne. The papal power was +then in very weak hands, and it was fear of offending the great King of +France that had occasioned the long delay in rendering justice to +Ingeburge. That something more than a mere papal decree would be needed +to subdue Philippe was apparent when, in June, 1196, he married Agnes de +Meranie, the lovely daughter of a German prince who, under the title of +Duke of Meranie, ruled the Tyrol, Istria, and a part of Bohemia. The +papal menaces had not deterred the king from this insolent act of +disobedience; and Pope Celestine made no attempt to coerce him by resort +to more rigorous measures. Ingeburge continued to live in confinement, +while Philippe enjoyed the love of his new wife, against whom no one +could lay the guilt of her husband's licentious conduct.</p> + +<p>In January, 1198, Pope Celestine was succeeded by Innocent III., one of +the greatest of the occupants of the chair of St. Peter. He was of an +inflexible character, not to be turned aside by any considerations of +policy or of humanity from what he conceived to be his duty; and his +duty it was, and his right, according to his idea, to dominate the world +and the kings thereof. When the friends of Ingeburge called her case to +his attention, Pope Innocent wrote letter after letter of remonstrance +to Philippe Auguste, "the eldest son of the Church," summoning him to +return to the paths of duty and relinquish his "concubine", Agnes de +Meranie. He urged Philippe's spiritual adviser to bring him to reason by +pious exhortation. All else failing, he sent Cardinal Pierre of Capua as +a special legate, with injunctions to present the Church's ultimatum to +the king: he must either take Ingeburge back at once, with all honor, as +his lawful consort, or the entire kingdom would be put under interdict. +The legate pleaded and threatened in vain; after a year of exasperating +evasion the king was still not obedient. The legate at last summoned a +council and pronounced the interdict, all the prelates receiving +stringent orders to observe it under pain of suspension. From December, +1199, to September, 1200, France was under a general interdict.</p> + +<p>In the case of Bertha and Robert, the ecclesiastical censures had +affected only the guilty couple; in the case of Bertrade and Philippe +I., only the places inhabited by them had been smitten. But the Church +had now grown stronger; now the whole kingdom was to suffer because of +the recalcitrant king. Everywhere religious services ceased, for the +clergy were in sympathy with or afraid of the vigorous statesman now in +the papal chair. The churches were closed, the altars dismantled, the +crosses reversed, the bells silent, as during the solemn days in memory +of Christ's Passion. The accustomed religious exercises ceased; but that +was only a small part of the horror, for no more sacraments, save +extreme unction and baptism of infants, could be celebrated. There were +no marriages: when the king wished to marry his son to the young Blanche +de Castille he was obliged to go into Normandy, into English territory, +to have the ceremony performed. There were no more funerals, for the +Pope forbade burials, whether in hallowed or in unhallowed ground: the +air was filled with the pestilential stench from unburied corpses. The +voice of the people rose in wrath against their impious king; it was he +who was bringing all this woe upon the land. Philippe and Agnes lived +on, she happy in the love of her king, and in her children, Philippe and +Marie, he stubbornly resistant. He deprived bishops of their sees and +sequestered their goods; he punished even laymen for daring to take the +side of the Pope. But at last he must yield, for his people would endure +no more.</p> + +<p>Ingeburge was taken back as wife and queen, being at last released from +the chateau of Etampes where she had been confined. But the king, deeply +in love with Agnes, declared that this recognition of Ingeburge was only +provisional, since he meant to appeal once more to Rome for an annulment +of the marriage. The fair Agnes, the victim of these unfortunate +circumstances, did not long survive the separation from Philippe, whose +passionate love she returned. A few weeks later she died at Poissi, +giving birth to a short-lived son named Tristan, the pledge of his +mother's sorrows. She had given Philippe two children before this, and, +though her union with the king had been stigmatized as immoral by the +Church, the Pope recognized the legitimacy of the offspring in November, +1201. It was her son Philippe, surnamed Hurepel, who became Count de +Boulogne, and played no pleasing rôle under Blanche de Castille.</p> + +<p>The death of Agnes de Meranie did not tend to soften Philippe's feelings +toward Ingeburge. She was imprisoned anew, and treated with every +indignity that could be devised, short of calling down again the wrath +of Pope Innocent. For eleven years she was treated in this way, and was +constantly urged, by entreaties and threats, to take the veil, while +Philippe was continuing his efforts to have the marriage annulled. In +1212, however, Philippe had need of the friendship of Rome. Ingeburge +was again taken from her prison at Etampes and received at court: the +victory of the Pope was complete, as far as the letter of the law was +concerned. There was never any love between the royal pair, and could +not be; for between them stood the sad ghost of Agnes de Meranie to +incite Ingeburge to jealousy and Philippe to fresh aversion.</p> + +<p>Ingeburge could never have been happy with Philippe, though he treated +her more considerately and fairly during the last years of his life. +When her husband died, in 1223, and his son Louis VIII. came to the +throne, Ingeburge was nearer peace than she had been since she left her +native land. We hear, henceforth, almost nothing of her; there was no +role for a dowager queen, especially one who was a foreigner associated +with most distressing events for France. We do find her name as one of +the notabilities in the solemn procession which, on August 2, 1224, went +from the cathedral of Notre Dame to the Abbey of St. Antoine, to ask of +the Lord of Hosts for a victory for the arms of Louis VIII. at Rochelle. +Now and again her name occurs in the accounts of the royal household +while that careful economist, Blanche de Castille, is governing France. +She is called "la reine d'Orléans," because she lived at Orléans, part +of the domain reserved to her as Queen Dowager. Here she lived quietly, +and let us hope not unhappily, till her death in 1237. She lived in the +midst of great events in which she could take no part; and only her +sorrows have preserved for us this fragment of her story.</p> + +<p>Before we begin the history of the greatest queen France had yet seen, +Blanche de Castille, it might be well to note some of the changes in +social conditions since the age of the early Capetians. These changes +were, fortunately, all in the direction of amelioration; for the +civilization of France, of Europe, was taking long strides during the +eleventh and twelfth centuries, and an advance in civilization involves +an improvement in the condition of women. Historians usually look at the +matter from the point of view of man; it must be our endeavor to treat +of social conditions and their causes rather from the point of view of +woman.</p> + +<p>Glancing at the history of France for a moment, it is easy enough to +distinguish certain causes or motive forces in the advance in +civilization. Because it is usually quite overlooked, we shall name +first the influence of contact with that very society of Provence which +France was bending her energies to bring to utter ruin. Unquestionably +the <i>trouvères</i> of northern France owed something of their art to the +<i>troubadours</i> of southern France, even if the former were more than mere +imitators. The softening effect of the musical and literary arts +professed by these poets need not be dwelt upon, but we might remark +that it was to the ladies of France, in most cases, that the <i>trouvères</i> +sang, and that this conversion of the bard, singing the glories of his +chief, into the minstrel, still singing of battles but also of fair +ladies and for the ears of fair ladies, is a fact not lacking +significance. Woman was no longer the mere toy of the warrior; it is no +longer Aude, barely mentioned in the <i>Chanson de Roland</i>, but Nicolette, +that fairest, sweetest of the mediæval heroines of romance, who is of +more interest than Aucassin in the story. And this little <i>chantefable</i>, +as it is aptly called, of <i>Aucassin et Nicolette</i>, is so nearly +Provençal that Provence has claimed it; it lies on the borderland +between the manner of the troubadours and that of the <i>trouvères</i>. A +woman is here distinctly a heroine, no longer a mere foil to the hero; +and the lovely little tale is manifestly intended to please an audience +of ladies as well as of knights.</p> + +<p>We have spoken of this Provençal influence and sought to illustrate what +may be the method of its working, through the minstrel in the lady's +bower, but we do not care to lay too much stress upon it, because it may +not be entirely distinct from a still greater and kindred influence. +When the hosts of Peter the Hermit, crazed with religious fanaticism +such as the world sees but once in a great while, straggled back from +their crusade it might have been thought that they brought with them +nothing but the memory of their sufferings, or the precious memory of +those holy places they had journeyed so far and endured so much to see. +But their crusade had been a success; they had won the holy places from +the infidel, and after they had achieved their success they had had time +to look about them upon the new civilization with which they found +themselves in contact. When they come back to their homes they bring +enthusiastic memories of the glories of the East, and soon the spirit of +sheer adventure replaces, almost insensibly, religious feeling, and +crusade follows crusade, till we find one that does not even pretend to +go to Palestine, but devotes itself to the conquest of Constantinople, +full of riches and luxuries undreamed of in France. When Geoffrey +Villehardouin gives a glowing description of the magnificence of +Constantinople we see that already there is appreciation of things that +the first crusaders would have scorned or ruthlessly destroyed. The +influence of the Crusades in introducing higher standards of domestic +comfort, greater luxury, greater refinement, has been too often dwelt +upon to need further notice here.</p> + +<p>The cause of woman and of civilization was helped in another way by the +Crusades. While the warlike barons found a vent for their surplus +fighting blood in smiting the infidel and robbing the Greek, there was +peace at home, for private wars and feuds ceased. The barons, moreover, +needed money to continue their sojourn in the army of Christ; and we +hear that in the splendor of the preparations for that Crusade in which +Eleanor took part the nobles of France vied with each other till they +were almost ruined. To get this money they sold freedom to their slaves, +immunity from vexatious feudal rights to their serfs, privileges and +charters to their burgesses. While they themselves were spending their +money and acquiring expensive tastes and refined ideas in contact with +the Greeks and Saracens, their subjects were acquiring a greater degree +of freedom, and their king, if he were a wise one, was consolidating his +kingdom and girding up his loins for more effective resistance to their +turbulence. The strength of the monarchy increased as the power of the +independent baronage decreased, and the strength of the monarchy meant +greater tranquillity, greater respect for law, and the fostering of +conditions favorable to the growth of commerce.</p> + +<p>Manners were still rough and cruel, for the Crusades had not tamed the +ferocity of the European heroes. We hear that, when Saladin refused to +pay the enormous ransom demanded for the town of Acre, Richard Coeur de +Lion put to death the two thousand six hundred captives whom he held as +hostages, and the Duke of Burgundy did likewise with his captives. But +in France there was getting to be less and less opportunity for the +display of wanton cruelty toward the lower orders of society. The +seigneur still believed in the truth of the old proverb:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Oignez vilain, il vous poindra;</p> +<p class="i14"> Poignez vilain, il vous oindra."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>(Stroke a villain, and he will sting you; sting a villain, and he will +stroke you); but the number of serfs was constantly diminishing. The +great communal movement emancipated the bourgeois of the towns; whole +villages bought their freedom; the monarchy favored enfranchisement and +gave the example in freeing serfs here and there, till, in 1315, all the +serfs of the royal domain were set free, and the great doctrine was +proclaimed: <i>Selon le droit de nature, chacun doit nattre +franc</i>--"according to the law of nature, everyone should be born free."</p> + +<p>The general improvement in conditions affected more visibly the +bourgeois class. We find, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, that +the members of this class are beginning to build large, solid houses of +stone, with ogival windows, and sometimes with lofty towers and +crenelated battlements. As a class they become richer and obtain +recognition. When Philippe Auguste contemplated paving some of the +streets of Paris--they had been mere roads of mud--he sent for the rich +citizens to ask their assistance. One of these, Richard de Poissi, is +said to have contributed eleven thousand marks in silver. Then the +guilds of the tradesmen become wealthy and exercise considerable +political power. It is in the reign of Saint Louis that the trade guilds +of Paris become so numerous that Etienne Boileau compiles a <i>Livre des +métiers</i>, containing the statutes of the greater number of them.</p> + +<p>In the dress of all classes above the abjectly poor there was a tendency +toward greater show, vainly repressed during part of the thirteenth +century, but continuing to increase even under repression. The standard +costume during the whole period of the Crusades was indeed plain, and +very similar for men and for women. On their heads ordinary women wore +only a sort of coif, or the cowl attached to the long robe or gown, +though there were a few ladies of fashion who scandalized the community +by wearing tall, pointed bonnets, sometimes cone-shaped, sometimes with +two horns, and with a veil hanging from the tip to form a sort of +wimple. The chief article in the dress of both sexes was the garment +called a cotte-hardie, consisting of a long robe reaching to the feet +and confined at the waist by a girdle. The sleeves of the cotte-hardie +were, among sober-minded dames, rather close fitting and plain; fashion +had them made absurdly large, flaring at the wrist to many times the +dimensions of the upper part, and sometimes so long as not only to cover +the whole hand, but to trail upon the ground. Over the <i>cotte-hardie</i> +was worn the <i>surcot</i>, a sort of tunic, shorter than the undergarment, +and either without sleeves or with elbow sleeves. On grand occasions a +handsome mantle was worn, but the use of this was generally restricted +to noble ladies. The shoes were usually simple, lacing higher on the leg +than what we now call shoes; sometimes, however, they were made of gaily +colored leathers, richly embroidered, or even of cloth of gold, damask, +or the like. The days of high heels had not yet come, and women's shoes +seem never to have been quite so outrageous as those long pointed shoes +worn by the dandies of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.</p> + +<p>It was at the other end of the costume, the headgear, that women +displayed their extravagance. Fearfully and wonderfully were the +headdresses made, judging from the pictures in manuscripts and from the +indignation of the satirists. The modest bonnet sprouted horns of +alarming shape and proportions. "When ladies come to festivals," says a +thirteenth century satirist, "they look at each other's heads, and carry +<i>bosses</i> like horned beasts; if any one is without horns, she becomes an +object of derision." Not content with having betrayed man by her +flirtation with Lucifer in Eden, Eve must now wear on her head the very +mark of the beast. No text served as the basis for sermons with more +frequency or more delight than one attacking the horns of the ladies. +One preacher advised his hearers to cry out: <i>Hurte, bélier!</i>--"Beware +the ram!" when one of these horned monsters approached, and promised ten +days' absolution to those who would do so. "By the faith I owe Saint +Mathurin," exclaims the monkish satirist, "they make themselves horned +with platted hemp or linen, and so counterfeit dumb beasts; they carry +great masses of other people's hair on their heads." The author of the +<i>Romance of the Rose</i> describes with great unction the gorget, or +neckcloth, hanging from the horns and twisted two or three times around +the neck. These horns, he says, are evidently designed to wound the men. +"I know not whether they call those things that sustain their horns +gibbets or corbels,... but I venture to say Saint Elizabeth did not get +to heaven by wearing such things. Moreover, they are a great encumbrance +(owing to the hair piled up, etc.), for between the gorget and the +temple and horns there is quite enough room for a rat to pass, or the +biggest weasel 'twixt here and Arras."</p> + +<p>Neither ridicule nor threats of eternal damnation, however, made any +impression on the daughters of Eve, and the horns continued to adorn +their fair heads. The other parts of the costume, as we have said, were +usually simple. The robe, or <i>cotte-hardie</i>, and the <i>surcot</i> were +generally of plain cloth of solid color; but as wealth increased, the +use of expensive materials became more and more common, and silk, cloth +of gold, and velvet appeared on various parts of the dress, as well as a +profusion of jewels. A short passage from the description of the costume +of the queen in Philippe de Beaumanoir's <i>La Manekine</i> may serve to show +the utmost that imagination could devise in the way of dress, for, of +course, the costume of the heroines of romance is always some degrees +more elegant than that to which the fair readers are accustomed.</p> + +<p>"The queen arose early in the morning, well dressed and richly jewelled. +(Her costume) was laced with a thick gold thread, with two big rubies to +every finger's breadth: no matter how dark the skies, one could see +clearly by the light of these jewels. She clothed her beautiful body in +a robe of cloth of gold, with fur sewn all about it. So fine was the +cloth of her girdle that I can scarcely describe it. There were upon it +many little platines of gold linked together with emeralds beautiful and +costly, and one sapphire there was in the clasp, worth full a hundred +marks in silver. Upon her breast she wore a brooch of gold set with many +precious stones. Over her shoulders and about her neck she had fastened +a mantle of cloth of gold, no man ever saw more beautiful. Her furs were +no common, moth-eaten things, but sable, which makes people look +beautiful. At her girdle she wore a purse, in all the world there is +none more elegant. Upon her head rested a crown whose like was not to be +found; for one gazed at it in wonder and admiration of the beautiful +stones in it, stones of many virtues: emeralds, sapphires, rubies, +jacinths,... never was a more beautiful one seen."</p> + +<p>Though the number of jewels is probably magnified, the essential +features of the costume correspond to what a lady of fashion would have +liked to wear in the year 1250. The mantle, being regarded as suitable +for full dress occasions, was much ornamented. In the <i>Roman de la +Violette</i> (about 1225) we find this description of a lady's mantle: "She +wore a mantle greener than the leaves and trimmed with ermine. Upon it +were embroidered little golden flowerets, cunningly worked; each one had +attached to it, so hidden as to be invisible, a little bell. When the +wind blew against the mantle, sweetly sounded the bells. I give you my +word that nor harp nor rote nor vielle ever gave forth so sweet a sound +as these silver chimes."</p> + +<p>Not all ladies, of course, were so gorgeously attired, and even among +the noble ladies of the land the delicacy of manners did not always +match the elegance of the attire. To get some idea of what a fine lady +did, we may look at some of the things she is warned against doing in a +sort of book on deportment, of the thirteenth century, --Robert de +Blois's <i>Chastiement des dames.</i></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Cest livre petit priseront</p> +<p class="i14"> dames, s'amendées n'en sont;</p> +<p class="i14"> por ce vueil je cortoisement</p> +<p class="i14"> enseignier les dames comment</p> +<p class="i14"> eles se doivent contenir,</p> +<p class="i14"> en lor aler, en lor venir,</p> +<p class="i14"> en lor tesir, en lor parler."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>(Ladies will think but little of this book if they are not improved by +it; therefore will I politely teach the ladies how they should conduct +themselves, in their goings, in their comings, in silence, and when +talking.) This last item, he remarks, requires much care. "Do not talk +too much," he continues, "especially do not boast of your love affairs; +and do not be too free in your conduct with men when playing games, lest +they be encouraged to take liberties with you. When you go to church, +take good care not to trot or run, but walk straight, and do not go too +far in advance of the company you are with. Do not let your glances rove +here and there, but look straight ahead of you; and salute courteously +everyone you meet, for courtesy costs little. Let no man put his hand +upon your breast, or touch you at all, or kiss you; for such +familiarities are dangerous and unbecoming, save with the one man whom +you love. Of this lover, too, you must not talk too much, nor must you +glance often at men, or accept presents from them. Beware of exposing +your body out of vanity, and do not undress in the presence of men. You +must not dispute and get in the habit of scolding, nor must you swear. +Above all, eschew eating greedily at the table, and getting drunk, for +this latter practice is fraught with danger to you. Unless your face is +ugly or deformed, do not cover it in the presence of gentlemen, who like +to look at the beautiful." One can guess that this rule was rigidly +obeyed; those succeeding touch upon matters still more delicate. "If +your breath is bad, take care not to breathe in people's faces, and eat +aniseed, fennel, and cummin for breakfast. Keep your hands clean, cut +your nails so that they be not permitted to grow beyond the tip of the +finger and harbor dirt. It is not polite to gaze into a house when you +are passing, for people may do many things in their houses that they +would not have seen; it would be well, therefore, when you go into +another person's house, to pause a moment on the sill and cough or speak +loud, so that they may know you are coming."</p> + +<p>Before we give Robert de Blois's directions for table manners it may be +well to say a few words about the table. Among the common people the +table itself was little more than a rude board on trestles, with benches +or stools along the side and with places scooped out to hold the portion +of food allotted to each person. Among the more well-to-do classes, +however, the table was a more ornamental piece of furniture. The benches +or stools still remained, but the rest was more civilized. The food, +consisting of vegetables, roast fowls, boiled meats, and fish was served +in large earthenware platters. There were no forks, but spoons and +fingers were freely used as well as knives, each guest frequently using +his own knife or dagger. As the guests had to help themselves, often +with their fingers, out of the common serving platters, there was some +reason in the ceremony which preceded each meal; this was the washing of +hands, for which the trumpeter sounded a call. Every gentleman had the +right to <i>faire corner l'eau</i>, as it was called, that is, to have his +trumpeter sound the call for washing hands. When this call sounded the +pages of the establishment bore the ewer to the ladies, and servants of +less pretension did likewise for the gentlemen. Napkins were provided +for drying one's hands after this, but the time had not yet come when +there were regular table napkins; instead, each wiped his hands or mouth +upon the tablecloth, and his knife upon a piece of bread. The company +sat at the table in couples, a gentleman and a lady together. This means +more than may be apparent at first sight, for one must remember that +there was usually but one drinking cup for each couple and that they ate +from a common plate. The plate, as we ventured to call it, was regularly +a large piece of bread, flat and round, which served to hold the food +and absorb the gravy. At the end of the meal this bread, called <i>pain +tranchoir</i>, was given to the poor, with the other scraps from the table. +It took a careful hostess properly to pair off the couples, for it must +have been very embarrassing for either lady or gentleman to have to +<i>manger à la même écuelle</i> (eat out of the same porringer) and drink out +of the same cup with one personally distasteful. In the romance of +<i>Perceforest</i> we find the description of a banquet where there were +eight hundred knights, "and there was not a one who did not have lady or +maiden to eat from his porringer." There was great profusion if not +great delicacy upon the table; we shall content ourselves with echoing +what Philippe de Beaumanoir says: "If I undertook to describe the dishes +they had I should stop here forever.... Each had as much as he wished +and whatever he wished: meats, fowls, venison, or fish cooked in many +styles."</p> + +<a name="ill4" id="ill4"></a> + +<p class="mid"><img alt="" src="images/004.png"><br> +<b><i>LADIES HUNTING<br> +After the painting by Henri Génois</i></b></p> + +<blockquote><b><i>Sometimes brawls followed the too free use of wine, as one romance tells +us "you might see them throw at each other cheeses, and big +quartern-loaves, and hunks of meat, and sharp steel knives." But +sometimes the ladies strolled off into the gardens and played +games--blindman's-buff, or frog-in-the-middle, or the like--or sang to +the harp, or sewed. A great deal of time, indeed, was spent out of +doors, not only in the gentler field sports, such as hawking, in which +ladies participated, but also in the mere routine of daily life. In the +romances many a scene of revelry as well as of love making takes place +under the trees; and the ladies are not always idling away their time, +either; for we find them spinning, embroidering, or at least making +garlands of flowers.</i></b></blockquote> + +<p>Upon a table so appointed and served we can understand that some of the +cautions of Robert de Blois to the ladies would be most useful. "In +eating you must avoid much laughing or talking. If you eat with another +(out of the same <i>écuelle</i>), turn the nicest bits to him, and do not +pick out the finest and largest for yourself, which is not good manners. +Moreover, no one should try to devour a choice bit which is too large or +too hot, for fear of choking or burning herself.... Each time you drink, +wipe your mouth well, that no grease may go into the wine, which is very +unpleasant to the person who drinks after you. But when you wipe your +mouth after drinking, do not wipe your eyes or nose with the tablecloth, +and take care not to get your hands too greasy or let your mouth spill +too much." The really well-bred lady, then, must be like Chaucer's +Prioress:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "At mete was she wel ytaughte withalle;</p> +<p class="i14"> She lette no morsel from hire lippes falle,</p> +<p class="i14"> Ne wette hire fingres in hire sauce depe.</p> +<p class="i14"> Wel coude she carie a morsel, and wel kepe,</p> +<p class="i14"> Thatte no drope ne fell upon hire brest.</p> +<p class="i14"> In curtesie was sette ful moche hire lest.</p> +<p class="i14"> Hire over lippe wiped she so clene,</p> +<p class="i14"> That in hire cuppe was no ferthing sene</p> +<p class="i14"> Of grese, when she dronken hadde hire draught.</p> +<p class="i14"> Ful semely after hire mete she raught."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>One might almost fancy that old Dan Chaucer, the first humorist of +modern times, was copying from and slyly poking fun at our friend Robert +de Blois and his fine lady.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Quant mengie eurent, si laverent.</p> +<p class="i14"> Li menestrel dont en alerent</p> +<p class="i14"> Cascuns à son mestier servir."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>(When they had eaten, they washed their hands; then the minstrels began, +each doing that which he could do best.) The tables cleared, the guests, +the ladies not excepted, watched the tricks of the jugglers and +tumblers, listened to the minstrels, or told tales, nearly all of which +were horribly coarse. Sometimes brawls followed the too free use of +wine, as one romance tells us "you might see them throw at each other +cheeses, and big quartern-loaves, and hunks of meat, and sharp steel +knives." But sometimes the ladies strolled off into the gardens and +played games--blindman's-buff, or frog-in-the-middle, or the like--or +sang to the harp, or sewed. A great deal of time, indeed, was spent out +of doors, not only in the gentler field sports, such as hawking, in +which ladies participated, but also in the mere routine of daily life. +In the romances many a scene of revelry as well as of love making takes +place under the trees; and the ladies are not always idling away their +time, either; for we find them spinning, embroidering, or at least +making garlands of flowers. We have a pretty picture in the <i>Roman de la +Violette</i> of a burgher's daughter "who sat in her father's chamber, +working a stole and amice in silk, with care and skill, and embroidering +upon her work many a little cross and star, singing the while this +spinning song (<i>chanson à toile</i>)."</p> + +<p>With all this romance and poetry there went a freedom of intercourse +between the sexes that not infrequently led to serious immorality. Not +only did the ladies play rather rough games and listen to very vulgar +stories with the men, but they received visits from men in their +bed-chambers, <i>tête-à-tête</i>. More surprising still, ladies sometimes +visited men in this way, without its being considered a serious breach +of etiquette, as one can see in the fashionable romance of <i>Jean de +Dammartin et Blonde d'Oxford</i>. The ladies, when they really fell in +love, did not attempt to conceal the passion from any feeling of shame +or delicacy; nay, they were commonly very forward, and became ardent +suitors sometimes, with less of restraint in word and deed than was +shown by the chivalrous knight under similar circumstances. Indeed, the +knight had need to be a veritable Joseph to withstand temptation, if +there were many scenes in real life like that described, for example, in +the romance of <i>Amis et Amiles</i>, where the good knight is pursued by a +demoiselle who positively insists on loving him.</p> + +<p>The hours of the lady's day were regulated, we may suppose, by the +proverb which says:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Lever à cinq, diner à neuf,</p> +<p class="i14"> Souper à cinq, coucher à neuf,</p> +<p class="i14"> Fait vivre d'ans nonante et neuf."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>(Rising at five, dining at nine, supping at five, sleeping at nine, +makes one live to ninety-and-nine.) Sometimes, instead of rising at five +and dining at nine, it is rising at six and dining at ten, supping at +six and to bed by ten; but we are not, in this case, promised the +ninety-and-nine years of life. Dinner between nine and ten, and other +meals at suitable hours, seems to have been the rule in France even +until the sixteenth century. Breakfast was a very uncertain meal (think +of breakfast before a nine o'clock dinner!), but supper was almost as +elaborate as dinner. As candles and lamps were very expensive, being +regarded as almost a luxury, there was some reason in the early hours +for meals. For the same reason, in summer, when there were no fires to +supply light, most people went to bed as soon as it grew dark. The lady +of the house is told, in a French housekeeper's book of the fourteenth +century, to see that the candles are not wasted. She must go around to +see that all fires are out and the house properly closed and that the +servants are in bed. These latter are to place the candle allowed them +on the floor, at a safe distance from the bed, and the lady must take +care "to teach them to put out their candle with the mouth, or with the +hand before getting in bed, and not by throwing their chemises over +it"--servants, mistress, and all, be it remembered, slept naked.</p> + +<p>The kind of life we have been describing, the washing of hands, the +plentiful food, the wine, the amusements, the rich costumes--all these +are things belonging to the lady. The woman of the poorer classes, the +laboring woman, had no such comforts; lucky was she, indeed, if she had +enough of coarse food and coarse clothing for herself and children. The +mediaeval moralists noted the inequality of the classes, and one of them +compares the fare of the rich, which we have mentioned, with that of the +poor: "There was not one among them, great or small, who did not have a +fine appetite for dry (black) bread, and garlic, and salt; nor did they +eat anything else with these, neither mutton, nor beef, nor a bit of +goose or young spring chicken. And after the meal they took up the basin +with both hands, and drank water." Having attempted to give some idea of +the life of a lady of the time, we may now turn to the life of Blanche +de Castille, the first lady of France in the second quarter of the +thirteenth century. For the first time we shall find a woman whose +history will include a large part of the history of France during her +period. As a late biographer, Elie Berger, <i>Histoire de Blanche de +Castille</i>, says: "Her life, during a great part of the thirteenth +century, is the life of France itself, the France to which she gave +peace; her history is the history of the power of the throne, of the +monarchy, outside of which there was then no France, no <i>patrie</i>."</p> + +<a name="c5" id="c5"></a><br><br> + +<h3>CHAPTER V</h3> + +<h3>BLANCHE DE CASTILLE AS REGENT OF FRANCE</h3> + +<p>IN a preceding chapter we saw how old Queen Eleanor was despatched into +Spain to bring her granddaughter, Blanche de Castille, as a bride for +Louis of France, and how Eleanor fell ill on the way, and handed over +her charge to Elie de Malmort, Archbishop of Bordeaux. The child whom +Eleanor was bringing back as a sacrifice to peace between John and +Philippe Auguste was then but a little over twelve years of age. Blanche +was born in the early part of the year 1188, at Palencia. Her father, a +good man and a brave warrior, was Alphonso VIII., surnamed the Noble, +King of Castille; and her mother was Eleanor of England, daughter of +Henry II. and Eleanor of Guienne. Fortunately, this latter lady seems to +have inherited none of the bad traits of her mother and namesake; at +least contemporary accounts call her "chaste, noble, and of good +counsel." The family of the young Princess Blanche was large and of +illustrious connections. We need not note those of the direct +Plantagenet line, which are sufficiently familiar, but on her father's +side we may mention her eldest sister, Berengère, who, married to her +cousin, the King of Leon, had been forced to separate from him in spite +of their love, in spite of their children, in spite of important reasons +of state. Queen Berengère was of a character, it appears, very much like +that of her sister, and there was much love between the two. Another +sister, but a year older than Blanche, married Alphonso of Portugal, +whose brother was that Count Ferrand de Flandre defeated at Bouvines by +Philippe Auguste and kept in captivity for many years. Of this sister a +curious story is told.</p> + +<p>It appears that, in the negotiations between John and Philippe Auguste, +the name of the Princess of Castille who should become the wife of +Prince Louis had not been specified. The King of Castille had two +unmarried daughters, Urraque and Blanche. When the ambassadors of France +came, accompanied by Queen Eleanor, the two princesses were brought +before them. They chose Urraque, as the elder and the more beautiful; +but when they heard her name they protested that would never do, it was +too hard for the people of France to learn to pronounce; and so the +choice fell upon Blanche.</p> + +<p>After being conducted to Normandy, where was the court of her uncle, +John, the little princess was married immediately. The treaty for whose +ratification and observance she was a sort of pledge was signed on May +22, 1200. John ceded nearly all that Philippe could ask, and bestowed +twenty thousand marks sterling upon the young husband. The next day the +ceremony was performed at Portmort, on the right bank of the Seine, by +the Archbishop of Bordeaux, in the presence of a great assemblage of +barons and ecclesiastics. The young prince and his bride could not be +married on French soil by reason of the interdict then in force against +his father for repudiating Ingeburge; hence the choice of Norman soil +and of such an out of the way place. The prince, aged only twelve years +and six months, proceeded with Blanche direct to Paris. There is no +record of the usual festivities accompanying a royal marriage, despite +the accounts of some modern historians, who claim that there were grand +tourneys, and that Louis was wounded in one of them.</p> + +<p>In one so young as Blanche it is useless to look for the traits of the +grown woman; we might conjecture much, but it would be in the light of +after events. To those about her at this time Blanche seemed a beautiful +girl, deserving of the flattering play upon words which her name +suggested. She was <i>la princesse candide</i> not only in looks but in +conduct, and won the devoted love of her boy husband, who seems to have +been himself of a lovable disposition. It was at his request that Hugh +of Lincoln, at that time in great repute, visited Blanche, whom he found +in tears and managed to console. But the times were troublous, and we +may well suppose that there was little chance for the fostering of quiet +domestic virtues when one had been forced to marry merely for reasons of +state. It is rumored, though not positively confirmed, that the crafty +King of France made use of his young daughter-in-law to solicit from +King John another slice of Normandy, which John dared not refuse. +Whether this be true or not, it is at least certain that neither +immediately nor ultimately did the marriage of Blanche de Castille help +the English Plantagenets. For John quarrelled with Alphonso, Blanche's +father, and the two were at war with intervals of truce, between 1204 +and 1208, the subject of dispute being Gascony. Blanche naturally sided +with her father rather than with her uncle, and when she bore heirs who +might inherit the crown of France, made stronger by the accession of the +Norman lands which had been taken from John and given to her husband, it +is easy to see that her sympathies would be with her adopted country.</p> + +<p>Blanche's first child a daughter, who lived but a short time, and whose +name is not known was born in 1205. On September 9, 1209, she gave birth +to a son, hailed as the heir to the crown, and named Philippe, in honor +of his grandfather. But this child, too, lived only a few years, dying +when between eight and nine. In the interval, on January 26, 1213, +Blanche had borne twins, Alphonse and Jean, who did not live long. Other +domestic joys and sorrows were coming to the young princess. Her father +won a great victory over the Moors, at Las Navas de Tolosa, July 16, +1212, and her sister Berengère wrote her the glad news: "It is my +pleasure to inform you of joyful news; thanks be to God, from whom all +good comes, our king, our lord, our father has vanquished on the field +of battle the Emir Almounmenim, by which, I think, he has won very great +honor; for until this time it has never happened that a king of Morocco +has been defeated in a pitched battle." Within two years after this the +gallant Alphonso was dead, and one month later his wife Eleanor followed +him to the tomb.</p> + +<p>Father and mother had thus both been taken from Blanche, while she was +far from them, in a strange land. But her new country was winning a hold +upon her heart; in the war then waging between her Uncle John and her +father-in-law, all her interests and all her affection were on the side +of France. And now another son was born, on Saint Mark's day, April 25, +1215, at the royal residence of Poissy. The child was named Louis, and +his birth seems to have created but little interest, as was natural, +since the older brother, Philippe, was still living. But this child +became the famous Saint Louis, and pious legends must needs gather +around his birth and his infancy: it was at the special intervention of +Saint Dominique, whose prayers Blanche had asked, that this son was +born; then, at the time of his birth, the pious queen learned that, out +of consideration for her, the bells of the church of Poissy had been +silenced, so she had herself removed, though then in childbed. The piety +of Blanche was sincere but never exaggerated; it is easy to see in such +a legend the art of those who thought it fitting that a saint, even +before birth, should allow nothing to interfere with the services of the +church. In like manner Blanche's extreme jealousy in regard to her baby +is a fiction that has been often repeated. Louis was given to a nurse, +Marie la Picarde, and there is no truth in the story which represents +Blanche as snatching him from the breast of one of her ladies and +forcing the infant to disgorge the milk of the stranger.</p> + +<p>The little Louis was not two years old when the English barons, in +revolt against John, called his father to their aid and promised him the +throne of England, to which he had no claim except through Blanche. +Louis went to England, in spite of the anathemas of the Pope against all +who dared oppose John. Successful at first against the English king, the +French prince began to suffer serious reverses when the hated John was +succeeded by his son, Henry, against whom the English barons had no just +cause of complaint. Philippe Auguste had been from the beginning too +politic to lend his son open assistance, or even to sanction his +enterprise. The task of collecting and sending him reinforcements +devolved upon Blanche. For the first time the full energy of her +character is displayed. A chronicler, almost contemporary, records an +alleged interview between her and Philippe Auguste, who, deaf to his +son's entreaties for help, had declared that he would do nothing, and +that he did not care to risk excommunication. "When Madame Blanche (it +is by this title that she is referred to even when queen) heard of this +she came to the king and said: 'Would you let my lord, your son, perish +thus in a strange land? Sire, for God's sake, remember that he is to +reign after you; send him what he needs, at least the revenues of his +own patrimony.' 'Certes,' said the king, 'I will do nothing, Blanche.' +'Nothing, sire?' 'No, truly.' 'In God's name, then,' replied Blanche, 'I +know what I will do.' 'And what will you do?' 'By the holy Mother of +God, I have beautiful children by my husband; I will put them in pledge, +and well I know some who will lend me on their security.' Then she +rushed madly from the king's presence; and he, when he saw her go, +believed that she had spoken but the truth. He had her called back, and +said to her: 'Blanche, I will give you of my treasure as much as you +would have; do whatever you wish with it; but rest assured that I myself +will send him nothing.' 'Sire,' said Madame Blanche, 'you say well.' And +then the great treasure was given to her, and she sent it to her lord."</p> + +<p>The details of this conversation may not be absolutely accurate, but the +facts seem to have been correctly recorded. Blanche went to Calais and +there established headquarters for collecting provisions, munitions, and +a small army for her husband. She despatched an expedition to his aid, +the army being under command of Robert de Courtenay, the fleet under +that of the famous pirate and freebooter Eustache le Moine. But the +fleet was destroyed by the English off Sandwich, August 24, 1217, and +there was no other course open to Louis than to make the best terms he +could with Henry III. and return to France. Blanche had displayed an +energy that elicited the admiration of her contemporaries, but for the +next few years she had no part in the larger events of history.</p> + +<p>Domestic duties, domestic sorrows, indeed, must have absorbed a good +deal of the energy of this devoted wife and mother. In September, 1216, +her son Robert had been born. In 1218 she lost Philippe, her oldest son. +Three other children came in rapid succession: John (1219); Alphonse +(1220); Philippe Dagobert (1222). Of these only Alphonse was destined to +live to manhood. The anxious mother, having lost so many of her +children, would make vows for their recovery when any of them fell ill. +Fearing that she might have forgotten to fulfil some of these vows, +often made under stress of anguish, she sought and obtained from the +Pope (1220) permission to perform charities in place of trying to fulfil +her vows in all cases.</p> + +<p>In her native land, too, there were events to claim her attention. Her +brother, Henry, having been accidentally killed after a short reign, +Queen Berengère was the next heiress; but she refused the crown for +herself, placing it upon the head of her son, Ferdinand III., whom she +continued to counsel and assist very much as Blanche was later to +counsel her son. It is reported that the discontented subjects of +Ferdinand offered the crown to Blanche. Whether this be true or not, she +would never have taken sides against her sister Berengère.</p> + +<p>On July 14, 1223, the great King Philippe Auguste died, and on August +6th Queen Blanche and King Louis VIII. were crowned with solemn +ceremonial. The Abbot of Saint-Remi, escorted by two hundred knights, +brought the sacred ampulla to the cathedral of Rheims, and the +archbishop anointed the royal pair. The king's sword was borne in the +procession by his half-brother, Philippe Hurepel, son of Agnes de +Meranie and Philippe Auguste. There were great festivities, lasting +eight days, and the new king and queen manumitted serfs and showed mercy +upon prisoners and captives. Queen Blanche still remains in the +background during the brief reign of Louis VIII.; but we may note that +she used her influence to secure the liberation of Ferrand de Portugal, +Count of Flanders, who had been in captivity since the battle of +Bouvines. Released from prison in 1227, Ferrand lived to become one of +Blanche's most steadfast and useful allies.</p> + +<p>Louis VIII. died in November, 1226, leaving Blanche with eight children +to care for; in addition to those already mentioned there were Isabelle, +Etienne, and Charles, all born since the accession of Louis. The king, +who had forced the submission of Languedoc during the expedition on +which he died, made his barons swear to be true to his son Louis. +Realizing that his devoted wife could not reach him before his death, he +provided as best he could for her. With perfect confidence in her, a +confidence fully justified by the event, he declared that Prince Louis, +his heir, as well as the whole kingdom and all the rest of his children +should be under the tutelage of Queen Blanche until they came of age; to +this important portion of the king's will some of the great barons and +high church dignitaries were witnesses.</p> + +<p>Blanche and her husband had loved each other tenderly and faithfully, +and at first the widowed queen was looked upon with compassion. She was +on her way to Louis's bedside, the younger children in a carriage and +Prince Louis riding ahead, when she was met by the news of his death. +Her grief was pitiable; but her sense of duty toward her children and +her realization of the difficulties and dangers of her position gave her +courage. She was not the kind of woman to succumb under grief for the +loss of a well-loved husband or anxiety at finding herself obliged to +govern a kingdom whose king was yet a boy.</p> + +<p>At first the old retainers of Louis were around her and faithful to her. +She was politic enough to win the support of the only prince of the +blood, Philippe, surnamed Hurepel, on account of the great mat of shaggy +hair he had inherited from his father, Philippe Auguste. Ferrand, Count +of Flanders, was her friend, and she could rely upon the support of most +of the clergy, and especially upon that of the papal legate, Romain +Frangipani, Cardinal of Saint Angelo. Her surest allies, however, were +the immediate servants of the crown: the chancellor, Guerin, who was +unfortunately not to live long; Archambaud de Bourbon, Count Amaury de +Montfort, the chamberlain, Barthélémy de Roye, and the noble constable, +Mathieu de Montmorency. With the aid of such friends, Blanche began her +duties as regent.</p> + +<p>How long this regency was to last, how long it really did last, are +matters not altogether easy to determine. In the first place, there were +precedents, in the royal line as well as in feudal annals, for +considering the age of majority as fourteen years; but there seems to +have been authority equally as good for holding to the age of +twenty-one. Louis was in his twelfth year when his father died. Blanche +continued to act as regent for about ten years, and there was no protest +based on the pretext that the young king should have been considered a +major at fourteen years.</p> + +<p>As soon as possible, Blanche had Louis crowned, a ceremony which did not +imply that he was to be considered out of her tutelage, but which did +give him a certain amount of prestige and consequent protection. The +coronation, which took place on November 29, 1226, at Rheims, was but +poorly attended by the nobles. Already there was discontent, and the +great house of Dreux, led by the crafty and unscrupulous Pierre +Mauclerc, Count of Brittany, was at the head of the disaffected. Count +Thibaud de Champagne, son of Blanche's first cousin, would have come to +the coronation, but Blanche ordered the gates of Rheims closed against +him; for it was currently rumored, though the rumor was entirely without +justification, that Louis VIII. had died very suddenly because of poison +administered by Thibaud. But, with or without the presence of the great +barons, Louis IX. was crowned, and Blanche made for herself and her son +such friends as she could.</p> + +<p>In England Henry III., always restive under the thought of the losses +sustained by his father in France, was continually scheming to regain +the lost territories. He formed alliances with some of the chief lords +of Poitou, entered into negotiations for the hand of Yolande, daughter +of Pierre Mauclerc, and made abortive, but nevertheless startling, +preparations for a descent upon the coast of France. His allies among +the discontented French nobility took up arms, inspired in part by the +jealous Isabelle d'Angoulème, who had been the queen of John Lackland +and was now Countess of Marche. Blanche promptly summoned the ban royal +to assemble at Tours, whither she went with Louis in February, 1227. +Count Thibaud de Champagne had been in treaty with the rebels and was +marching with his forces as if to join them in Poitou. Tradition says +that he was diverted by a secret message from Blanche; at any rate, he +suddenly turned in his march and came to Tours, did homage to the boy +king, and was graciously received by the queen regent. The defection of +Thibaud upset the plans of the rebels, who quarrelled among themselves. +Many of them came, one by one, to submit to Louis IX., and hostilities +were suspended between the French and Richard of Cornwall, brother and +representative of Henry III.</p> + +<p>During the truce which followed, Blanche was enabled to prosecute the +unfinished war in Languedoc against Raymond VII. of Toulouse and the +Albigensian heretics. One is surprised to find that certain churches in +France refused at first to grant the king subsidies to conduct this +crusade, and that it was only by the vigorous measures of Cardinal +Remain that they were at length compelled to yield.</p> + +<p>The turbulent barons could not endure being governed by a woman. If +Blanche had been a weak ruler the indignity of bearing her rule would +have been atoned for by the laxity of that rule; but she was strong, and +could control the barons, who accordingly hated her. Pierre Mauclerc and +his party declared that France was not meant to be ruled by a foreign +woman; they called her "Dame Hersent," like the she-wolf in the <i>Roman +du Renart</i>; they circulated odious calumnies against her. The most +noteworthy of these calumnies is that which connected her name with that +of Thibaud de Champagne as an adulteress. They said that Blanche had +been his paramour even during the life of her husband; nay, that she had +connived at the murder of her husband, poisoned by Thibaud. They alleged +that she was, moreover, secretly sending the royal treasure into Spain; +that she was so vile that one lover did not suffice; that she had +illicit relations with Cardinal Remain. It is needless to say that there +is no foundation for these tales; they are the tax that a good woman +paid for being at the same time great.</p> + +<p>The malcontents plotted to separate the king from his mother, and +determined to carry him off by force. Blanche and Louis were near +Orléans when warned of the danger. Hastening toward Paris, they were +forced to take refuge in the strong castle of Montlhéry, for the rebels +were assembled in force at Corbeil, between them and Paris. Blanche +appealed to the citizens of Paris to safeguard the king's approach. +There could not have been a better testimonial to the popularity of the +royal family and, incidentally, to the good government enjoyed under +Blanche than the response made by these <i>bourgeois</i>. The militia of the +surrounding country having been gathered in Paris, the combined forces +of the city and country marched to Montlhéry, deploying along the route. +Long after this Saint Louis used to tell Joinville of his triumphal +entry: "He told me," says this chronicler, "that from Montlhéry, the +road was filled with men with arms and men without arms, up to the gates +of Paris, and that all shouted and called upon the Lord to grant him +long and happy life, and to guard and protect him against his enemies." +The nobles were balked, and retired from Corbeil.</p> + +<p>The barons, though temporarily disheartened, were by no means reduced to +peaceful submission. England was still in a threatening attitude; while +the long and relentless war against the Albigenses was dragging on, with +success now on this side, now on that. Blanche had need to fortify +herself as wisely as she could. She sought the support of the bourgeois. +The citizens of Limoges and of Saint-Junien in the Limousin, in charters +granted in 1228, swore fealty to the queen as well as to the king. +Cardinal Remain, at Blanche's instance, came back to France as legate; +she found his advice, and the prestige of the papal authority, of +material assistance. After some negotiation, the truce with England was +renewed for a year, from July, 1228, to July, 1229.</p> + +<p>Philippe Hurepel, who had been faithful for a time to the interests of +his sister-in-law and her son, displayed discontent, and now went over +to the side of the rebels. It is said that he even had an eye on the +throne, and that the barons had some notion of trying to set up +Enguerrand de Coucy as king that Coucy who was the head of the house +with the famous motto:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Je ne suis roi, ne due, ne prince, ne comte aussi:</p> +<p class="i18"> Je suis le sire de Coucy."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>Before actual hostilities began, Blanche had required and received new +oaths of fealty from the communes of the royal domain north of the +Seine, as far as Flanders. Magistrates of Amiens, Compiègne, Laon, +Peronne, and a host of other places, swore to defend the king, Queen +Blanche, and her children. The barons had arranged that Pierre Mauclerc +should begin hostilities, and that when Blanche summoned the feudal army +to march against him each should come, but come with only two knights, +which would make a force so small that Mauclerc would have nothing to +fear. Once more Thibaud de Champagne came to the rescue. He gathered all +the troops he could, and came with over three hundred knights, these +being, when joined to the contingents from the loyal communes of the +royal domain, enough to save Blanche. In January, 1229, Blanche marched +into the domains of the refractory Mauclerc--who had refused to appear +when summoned to the court--and laid siege to the strong castle of +Bellême. In a few days, though the stronghold was considered +impregnable, the garrison was forced to surrender. The actual military +operations of this successful siege were conducted, of course, by +Blanche's general, Jean Clément, the marshal of France; but she herself +looked after the comfort of her army. It was intensely cold; she ordered +the soldiers to build great bonfires in the camp, promising pay to those +who would fetch fuel from the forests; by this means, men and horses +were kept warm.</p> + +<p>After the capitulation of the garrison of Bellême, Mauclerc's power was +temporarily broken, and Blanche marched back to Paris with Louis, who +had accompanied her. The barons had not received the support on which +they had counted from Henry III., whose weakness and vacillation kept +him from taking advantage of what would have been a splendid opportunity +to weaken the power of France.</p> + +<p>In her precarious situation Blanche needed the support of all classes; +it was now her misfortune to incur, for a time, the ill will of the +students of the University of Paris. These students had, from long +custom and by royal favor, been allowed all sorts of privileges and +immunities, since the University added no little to the prestige of +Paris. They were a turbulent set, frequently engaged in brawls with the +citizens. On Shrove Monday, 1229, some students went to an inn at +Saint-Marcel, outside Paris, where they ate and drank, and then engaged +in a violent quarrel with the innkeeper when the bill was presented. The +quarrel at first seemed rather comic; after a wordy battle they came to +blows and pulling of hair, till the students were driven ignominiously +from the field. But next day, February 27th, they returned in force, +armed with sticks and stones, and even swords. In a spirit of +undiscriminating revenge, they wrecked the first inn they came across +and beat the people in the streets, women as well as men. Word was sent +at once to the authorities of the University, who appealed to Queen +Blanche through Cardinal Romain. The prefect of Paris, with his +soldiers, was ordered to proceed to the scene of the rioting and restore +order, which he did with rather too good a will, for in the process +there was bloodshed; several students were killed, and the complaint was +made that those whom the prefect and his men attacked were not the +guilty ones. The authorities of the University were up in arms against +the queen. As she declined to make the reparation they demanded--which +would have left the students more lawless than ever for the +future--teachers and students scattered, to Rheims, to Angers, to +Orléans, and many returned to their native land. The concessions which +Blanche then made could not bring back all who had gone away. Though her +policy may have been mistakenly severe one can but grant that she had +cause for being severe. All our sympathies are with the woman whom the +students did not hesitate to vilify, reviving the calumny about the +relations of Blanche and Cardinal Romain, who had given her able support +in this affair. Such currency did this vile story gain that one +chronicler tells us that the queen submitted to an examination to +disprove it.</p> + +<p>The first real victory for France in the long war of the Albigenses came +with the treaty of Paris, sometimes called the treaty of Meaux, April +12, 1229. It is, perhaps, fortunate for the reader's good opinion of +Blanche that we omit to chronicle the horrors of this war, though most +of those horrors were committed before she became ruler of France. +Raymond VII., Count of Toulouse, the head and front of the resistance in +Provence, was Blanche's cousin, and she had always shown herself mindful +of family ties, so that we may charitably suppose that she did the best +she could for the ruined Raymond. We do not know that she assisted at +his humiliation,--barefooted, and in his shirt, he was led to the door +of Notre Dame and made to swear absolute submission to the Church--but +we cannot go wrong in assuming that some of the wise provisions of the +treaty of Paris were of her suggesting. The provisions were very wise +indeed, securing to the French crown almost everything that could be +hoped; in our wildest moments of enthusiasm, however, we could not +accuse Blanche of having tempered policy with mercy. As a summary of the +situation, we may state that Raymond contracted to' surrender to Louis +Beaucaire, Nimes, Carcassonne, and Beziers, with other territories on +the Mediterranean to the west of the Rhone; that Toulouse and its +territory must revert to his daughter Jeanne, who was to be espoused by +one of the brothers of Louis IX.; that the dominions remaining to him +should also revert to Jeanne, in failure of other heirs of his body. +Failing heirs of Jeanne, the domains acquired as her dower were to +revert to the crown of France. More complete ruin for Raymond could +hardly have been compassed. It was the end of Provence both as a +political and an artistic entity.</p> + +<p>We have alluded several times to the famous Thibaud IV., called <i>Le +Chansonnier</i>, Count of Champagne. His relations with Blanche of Castille +are matter both of history and of legend; it behooves us to try to sift +the one from the other and to present some account of the loves of +Blanche and Thibaud.</p> + +<p>Thibaud's mother, Blanche de Navarre, Countess of Champagne, had to play +a role not unlike that of her cousin Blanche de Castille; she acted as +regent in the name of her son, and it was due to her good management +that he was allowed to inherit his patrimony. This was surely an age of +woman, with Berengère ruling in Castille, Queen Blanche in France, and +another Blanche, of the same family, in Champagne. Thibaud was of a +gallant temperament, priding himself upon his knightly accomplishments, +but not less upon his talent as a poet; for he was one of those +imitators of the troubadours whom we might almost class with the +troubadours themselves. Of his gifts as a poet we shall not speak here; +in the histories of French literature will be found the record of many +of his chansons. As a man, it is altogether probable that Thibaud did +not suffer from an over-scrupulous conscience; we have knowledge of his +acting in very bad faith on several occasions. But these manifestations +of bad faith were almost always to the advantage of Blanche de Castille. +The rebel barons would enter into league with Thibaud, and he would +agree to betray his queen, and would even consider seriously the +question of marrying the daughter and heiress of Pierre Mauclerc. At the +critical moment comes a missive, nominally from the boy king: "Sir +Thibaud de Champagne, I have heard that you have promised to take to +wife the daughter of the Count Pierre de Bretagne; I bid you, by all +that you hold most dear in this kingdom, that you do not so. The reason, +you know full well;... for never have I had one who wished me more ill +than this same count." The impulsive Thibaud reads the note, and he and +his knights turn aside to support the fair lady who was the real author +of the missive. It was this sort of thing which made the barons hate and +distrust Thibaud and which gave some color to the reports they +industriously circulated, alleging that Blanche was the mistress of +Thibaud. The latter had already been accused of poisoning Louis VIII.; +it was now added that this crime had been connived at by his paramour, +Blanche.</p> + +<p>That Thibaud really loved Blanche, there can be no reasonable doubt. His +amorous songs were probably inspired in part by this devotion to one +whom he might well admire and love, the fair, and good, and great Queen +Blanche, whom he could proudly claim as a cousin. In one of his songs he +alludes to her, it seems to us, very distinctly:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Trop est ce trouble, et s'aveis si cler nom."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>(Troubled was your life, and yet your name so clear.) The chronicles of +the time abound in allusions to Thibaud's passion. It is said that, on +one occasion, after a momentary revolt, he came to make his submission, +and was severely reproached by the queen for his ingratitude. "Then the +Count looked upon the Queen, who was so good and so beautiful, till her +great beauty overcame him, and he stood all abashed. Then he answered +her: 'By my faith, Madame, my heart and my body and all my lands are +yours; there is naught that could please you that I would not do +willingly; and never again, please God, will I go against you or yours.' +And he departed all pensive, and often into his thoughts would come the +memory of the sweet look, of the lovely countenance, of the queen. Then +his heart was filled with sweet and loving thought. But when he +remembered that she was so great a lady, and so good and pure that he +could never win her love, his sweet thought of love turned into great +sadness. And seeing that deep thought engenders melancholy, he was +counselled by some wise men to take lessons in <i>biaus sons de viele et +en douz chanz delitables</i> (in sweet violin music and in soft and +pleasing songs). And so he and Gace Brusle made between them the most +beautiful, the most delightful, the most melodious songs ever heard, +either in songs or in violin music. And he had them put in writing in +the hall of his chateau at Provins and in that of Troyes; and they are +called the songs of the King of Navarre."</p> + +<p>The chronicler who tells us this assigns the incident to the year 1236, +when Blanche would have been forty-eight years of age. The date is +obviously wrong, or rather the story of many years has been crowded into +one. Thibaud's love for Blanche must have begun when she was young and +really beautiful; one can hardly imagine a burning passion conceived for +a lady of middle age, the mother of twelve children. His devotion, then, +dates from an earlier period; indeed, we find definite record of it in +the calumnies circulated by the barons before 1230; and one chronicler +tells us that, during the war of that year, when the barons were +ravaging Champagne, Count Thibaud, dressed as a common stroller and +accompanied by one companion as miserably attired as himself, went +through the country to find out what his people were saying about him. +Everywhere he heard but ill of himself. "Then said the Count to his +<i>ribaud</i> (vagabond companion), 'Friend, I see full well that a penn'orth +of bread would feed all my friends. I have none, indeed, I verily +believe, not a one whom I can trust, save the Queen of France.' She was +indeed his loyal friend, and well did she show that she did not hate +him. By her the war was brought to an end, and all the land (Champagne) +reconquered. Many tales do they tell of them, as of Iseut and Tristan."</p> + +<p>The love of Thibaud was not to be doubted, but it is a delicate matter +to determine how far his sentiments were reciprocated by Blanche. On the +one hand, the party of the barons openly and violently accused her of +adultery; on the other hand, we know that no evil woman could have +reared Saint Louis and have been beloved and revered by him. If Blanche +was a good and pure woman, as we firmly believe, we shall again have to +disappoint the lovers of romance, for there must be some explanation +other than the purely erotic for her conduct toward Thibaud de +Champagne. Alas for the romance! the common-sense explanation is not far +to seek, and not difficult of acceptance when we remember the whole +career of this remarkable woman. Blanche de Castille was an astute +politician; otherwise she would never have been able to maintain her +position, with everything against her: the fact that she was a woman, +the fact that she was a foreigner, alone comprise many difficulties. We +do not know of a single instance in which she allowed her +feelings--love, hate, family affection, mere feminine weakness--to sway +her or interfere with the settled policy which she had determined upon +for the good of her kingdom and of her children. Indeed, as we shall see +later, one serious defect in her character was her inflexibility of +purpose, her resolute suppression of the tenderer feelings. That she +liked and perhaps admired the brilliant poet-knight who proclaimed his +devotion to her in "songs the sweetest ever heard," we need not doubt; +but she never responded to his ardent passion. Surrounded by enemies +domestic and enemies foreign, she took advantage of the romantic +devotion of a poet to win the very effective support of one of the most +powerful barons of France. Flattering Thibaud's vanity now and then,--it +was no small thing to be reputed the lover of a queen,--she adroitly +kept him in leash. As a sovereign, too, she was careful to retain his +good will by services of the utmost value, nay, of imperative necessity.</p> + +<p>The truce with England was to expire on July 22, 1229. Just at this +time, when it might be supposed that the queen's energies would be +required in defending or at least in watching the western frontier, +threatened by Pierre Mauclerc and his English allies, the Duke of +Burgundy and the Count of Nevers prepared to invade Thibaud's country. +Marching into Champagne, they devastated the country and reduced Thibaud +to a very precarious condition. The pretext of this war was, first, that +Thibaud was a traitor and the assassin of Louis VIII.; secondly, that he +was a bastard, and that the real ruler of Champagne was Alix, Queen of +Cyprus, granddaughter of Thibaud's uncle, Henry II. of Champagne. The +claims were both, of course, preposterous, merely trumped up to hide the +real motive of the attack, which was aimed at Blanche de Castille and +through her at the power of the crown. Alix de Champagne, as the barons +called her, was herself of illegitimate descent, a fact recognized by +the Church itself.</p> + +<p>Like a faithful sovereign, Blanche hastened to the defence of her +vassal. Ordering Ferrand de Flandre to create a diversion by an attack +upon the county of Boulogne, she summoned her vassals and commanded them +to desist from their attack upon Thibaud. They refused to obey; she +forthwith put herself at the head of her army and marched to Troyes. The +barons were compelled to accede to a truce.</p> + +<p>During this truce Thibaud managed to secure several allies, and the +civil war broke out again, even before the nominal expiration of the +truce. Villages and towns were burned by the partisans on both sides; +Philippe Hurepel, it is said, besought Blanche to be allowed to fight a +duel with Thibaud to avenge the alleged murder of Louis VIII. --a sort +of appeal to the judgment of God. Wider and wider spread the flames of +civil war, till Blanche was almost at the end of her resources, and in +real peril. At this juncture a danger from without caused a temporary +cessation of hostilities against Thibaud de Champagne.</p> + +<p>Pierre Mauclerc, now insolently styling himself Duke--not Count--of +Brittany, and adding an English title, Count of Richmond, had written to +Louis IX. announcing the withdrawal of his homage. He was to be +henceforth a vassal of the crown of England. Henry III. was preparing in +earnest for a descent upon France; and Blanche sought allies, or at +least friends, among her vassals, while the barons leagued against +Thibaud agreed to a truce. Collecting what forces she could, the queen, +accompanied by Louis, marched toward Angers against Pierre. Meanwhile, +with much pomp and ceremony and rich clothing and luxurious baggage, +Henry III. landed at Saint-Malo, on May 3, 1230, where he had an +interview with Pierre. Henry was full of splendid plans; fortunately for +Blanche, he was incapable of putting them into execution. The time was +frittered away in petty encounters, and in debauchery on Henry's part, +while Blanche continued to negotiate with any who seemed disposed to +favor her cause. She won in this way the support of some Breton and +Poitevin nobles, and held together her uncertain feudal army. As soon as +the legal forty days of their service were done, the more discontented +of the vassals in her army withdrew, and the king had to follow them in +order to prevent their renewing their attacks upon Champagne. Instead of +profiting by the embarrassment of his enemies and overwhelming the +French, Henry marched to and fro in Brittany, through Poitou and to +Bordeaux, returning thence to Brittany. His army was exhausted without +fighting; there was much sickness among men and animals; his provisions +were giving out. Tired of the fruitless expedition, he sailed back to +England, abandoning to the chances of war the Breton nobles who had +deserted France under promise of protection from England. Before the +joyful news of his departure could reach her, however, Blanche was again +in trouble in her attempts to protect Thibaud de Champagne.</p> + +<p>A coalition stronger than before had been formed against Thibaud. He had +put forth his entire resources in his preparations for defence; but in a +pitched battle under the walls of Provins his forces were defeated and +routed, and the count himself fled to Paris with the pursuing victors at +his heels. All seemed lost, and his enemies were marching about as they +pleased over Champagne, when Queen Blanche arrived with her army, which +was large enough, fortunately, to intimidate the rebels. She would not +talk of terms with armed rebels, but demanded the evacuation of +Champagne. After some little parleying, in which the queen held firm, +the rebellious barons submitted. Reparation was agreed to on both sides, +and the chief of the malcontents, Philippe Hurepel, Count of Boulogne, +was satisfied by large indemnities granted him for the damage inflicted +by Ferrand de Flandre while he was making war, in defiance of his +sovereign, upon the Count of Champagne. Truly, mediaeval dispensations +are sometimes amazing.</p> + +<p>By the end of 1230 the barons were at peace, and Blanche was at liberty +to turn her attention to Brittany and Pierre Mauclerc. Louis and his +mother marched upon Brittany in the early summer of 1231; but a truce +was made with England, and soon after with Pierre Mauclerc, to last +until June 24, 1234. The most critical period in Blanche's regency was +now passed. Her son, now nearing his majority, was firmly established on +his throne; for the great ones of the land had not been able to subdue +the spirit of his mother. Their wars had devastated a considerable +portion of France, but the common people knew who was to blame for the +havoc wrought; they had seen their queen a peacemaker, resorting to arms +in defence of loyal and oppressed subjects, but always endeavoring to +further the interests of the kingdom by preserving order within rather +than by seeking conquests without. She had shown herself a ruler full of +energy and resource; the great vassals of the crown, little by little, +recognized their inability to destroy her power, and abandoned the +attempt.</p> + +<p>Two formidable enemies still threatened her, however, in the persons of +Henry III. and Pierre Mauclerc. While warlike preparations were going +forward, in anticipation of the expiration of the truce, domestic +sorrows fell upon Blanche; she lost two of her sons, John and Philippe +Dagobert, the first of whom died certainly in 1232, the second perhaps +in the same year, perhaps not till 1234. In the midst of great events, +those griefs which touch most nearly a woman's heart pass unnoticed by +chroniclers.</p> + +<p>In order to be prepared for the expiration of the truce, Pierre Mauclerc +was seeking to gain such allies as he could. Even in the early part of +1232 he began negotiations with Thibaud de Champagne,--who had lost his +second wife, Agnes de Beaujeu, in the year preceding,--in order to bring +about his marriage to Yolande de Bretagne. We have seen how Blanche +checkmated this move of her wily adversary. Thibaud married, in +September, 1232, Marguerite, the daughter of the loyal Archambaud de +Bourbon. In the next year died one who had been a dangerous power in +France, Count Philippe Hurepel; his death removed one more of Blanche's +difficulties, for he had been restless and pugnacious, when not actually +in rebellion. In 1234 Blanche was enabled to do another good turn to +Thibaud, who now, by the death of his uncle, had become King of Navarre. +The old question of the succession in Champagne and the claims of Alix +had never been satisfactorily determined. Blanche now summoned Alix to a +conference, where, realizing that her party was no longer in the +ascendant, the latter renounced all claim to the counties of Champagne +and Blois.</p> + +<p>From the south of France, that land of the troubadours, now laid waste +in the name of religion, Blanche had nothing to fear in the way of +active resistance. Her cousin, Raymond VII. of Toulouse, was completely +overcome and was intent only on making his peace with the Church. Prince +Alphonse of France was to wed Raymond's daughter, Jeanne, and the +restoration of some degree of prosperity in a land which might ere long +become a part of France was a matter which Blanche was too wise to +neglect. Never forgetting the political interests she had to serve, she +did all in her power to protect Raymond from petty annoyance and +spoliation, to soothe his feelings, and to get the Pope to return to him +the marquisate of Provence, taken away by the treaty of 1229. Meanwhile, +the royal power was being more firmly established over the domains ceded +to France.</p> + +<p>Louis IX. was nearing manhood; it was time to seek a suitable alliance +for him. The initiative in this matter probably came from Blanche, who +decided everything for her son, with his unquestioning approval. In +1233, when Louis was nineteen, she consulted with her friends and +decided upon the daughter of Raymond Bérenger, Count of Provence, as the +most suitable wife for her son. Though the King of France could have +commanded a more brilliant alliance, the marriage with Marguerite de +Provence was a happy one, and not impolitic, for it assured the +friendship of the Provençals, and through the mediation of the queen +peace was re-established between the Counts of Provence and Toulouse.</p> + +<p>An embassy was despatched to escort the young princess, who, as became a +daughter of Provence, came with a numerous suite, in which there were +minstrels and musicians. Louis went to meet his bride, accompanied by +most of the members of the royal family, and the marriage ceremony was +performed at Sens, by the Archbishop, on May 26 or 27, 1234. Adequate +preparations consonant with the dignity of the occasion had been made by +Blanche, but there was no extravagance, no vain display. We hear of a +gold crown made for the young queen; of jewels purchased for her; and of +a ring formed of lilies and <i>marguerites</i>, with the inscription <i>Hors +cet and pourrions nous trouver amor?</i>--"Without this ring, can we find +love?" presented to the bride by Louis. A handsome wardrobe was provided +for the king, and to the lords and ladies of the court were given furs, +handsome robes, many of silk, and other presents. Tents were erected to +accommodate the crowd, which was too great to find housing in Sens, and +there was a leafy bower, made of green boughs, where the king's throne +was set up and where, doubtless, the minstrels played. Then there were +distributions of money among the poor, whom Blanche and her son never +forgot.</p> + +<p>Marguerite was young, lovely, and, what was more important still in one +who must be the wife of a saint, had been carefully educated and reared +in piety. She was of gentler stuff than Queen Blanche, and so we shall +not find her playing any great role in history; but she was courageous, +and a devoted wife. She won her husband's love, and probably exercised +some influence over him; but of her married life and of her treatment by +Queen Blanche we shall not speak at present.</p> + +<p>War with England was threatening again when, on June 8th, Louis returned +to Paris with his bride; for the truce with England could not be +renewed. Blanche de Castille had provided against the evil day, and the +vindictive cruelty of Pierre Mauclerc had helped on her projects. He +punished so severely those of his vassals who had been loyal to France +that it became easier for Blanche to detach one here and there as an +ally. She did not wait for the expiration of the truce to begin her +operations, but summoned her army and marched upon Brittany with +overwhelming forces. Pierre, who had had but small aid from Henry III., +was compelled to submit, and a truce was agreed to for three months, to +terminate on November 15th. The delay had been sought by Pierre in the +hope of extracting, by entreaties or threats, more active assistance +from the miserable Henry III. Finding his appeals here in vain, Pierre +returned to France to submit to Blanche and Louis. It is said that he +came into the presence of the king with a halter about his neck, pleaded +for mercy, and abandoned to Louis all Brittany. While this is doubtless +an exaggeration, we know that he submitted absolutely, in November, +1234, to the will of his sovereign, and promised to serve faithfully the +king and his mother. It was not long after this that he went to the Holy +Land, leaving the government of Brittany in the hands of his son.</p> + +<p>The most bitter, the most crafty, the most dangerous of her enemies +having been reduced to subjection, there remained but one task for +Blanche to accomplish in order to crown the work she had undertaken for +her son. In the course of the year 1235-1236 negotiations were +undertaken with England that resulted in a truce for a term of five +years. Blanche was about to hand over the more active control of affairs +to Louis; it was no bad beginning for him to find his realm at peace +within and without, with a prospect of the continuance of these +conditions.</p> + +<a name="c6" id="c6"></a><br><br> + +<h3>CHAPTER VI</h3> + +<h3>THE MOTHER AND THE WIFE OF A SAINT</h3> + +<p>As the regency of Queen Blanche had begun without formality, so it +ceased insensibly. There was no set day upon which she formally +relinquished the reins to Louis; and so one can but determine an +approximate date. On April 25, 1234, Louis may be considered to have +attained his majority. Though we find the name of Blanche figuring in +royal acts after this date, it becomes less frequent: her share in the +government is growing less, though throughout her life she never ceased +to stand by her son and act with or advise him. At the very close of her +regency we find her once more the central figure with that unaccountable +person Thibaud de Champagne. It must be remembered that he was now King +of Navarre, a dignity which brought with it less of real power in France +than one might suppose; for the French and the Spanish dominions, +Champagne and Navarre, were separated. His elevation to the throne may +have momentarily turned the head of the poet-king; at any rate, he began +to show dissatisfaction and to demur about fulfilling some of the +conditions incident to the settlement of the claims of Alix de +Champagne. In defiance of his duty as a vassal he gave his daughter, +without the king's consent, to Jean le Roux, son of Pierre Mauclerc. He +formed alliances with Mauclerc and with others of the old league; the +hostile intent could not be mistaken. The king mobilized his forces and +went to meet those of Thibaud. As the latter had not had time to effect +a junction with his Breton allies, the royal forces were overwhelming, +and he was compelled to find some way out of his difficulty other than +fighting. Remembering that he had assumed the Cross, and was, therefore, +under the protection of the Church, he persuaded the Pope to enjoin +Louis from attacking him, declaring that his person and his lands were, +on account of his crusading vow, under the protection of the Church. +Even this intervention might not have saved him from severe punishment +at the hands of his incensed sovereign; but when he sent to make +submission and to ask mercy, Queen Blanche, to whom he especially +appealed, summoned him to her presence and promised to obtain fair terms +for him. The terms, indeed, were not hard, nor were the reproaches +unduly severe which Blanche is said to have made in her last interview +with Thibaud: "In God's name, Count Thibaud, you should not have taken +sides against us; you should have called to mind the great goodness of +my son, the king, when he came to your aid to protect your county and +your lands from all the barons of France, who would have burned +everything and reduced it to ashes." Then came the courteous reply of +the gallant and contrite Thibaud: "By my faith, madame, my heart and my +body and all my lands are yours; there is naught that could please you +that I would not do willingly; and never again, please God, will I go +against you or yours."</p> + +<p>The romance of this scene, almost pathetic, is ruthlessly disturbed by +the scene that is said to have followed, yet we must tell of this also. +The young Prince Robert, always of a violent temper, took it upon him to +insult the vanquished King of Navarre. He had the tails of the latter's +horses cut off a--shameful insult to a knight--and as Thibaud was +leaving the palace Robert threw a soft cheese on his head. Thibaud +returned to Blanche indignant at the insult offered him despite her safe +conduct; and she was preparing to punish the offenders summarily when +she discovered that the ringleader was her own son.</p> + +<p>During the ten or twelve years that now intervened before Blanche was +again to take the regency during Saint Louis's crusade, her role in +public life is of less importance; there will be a fact in history to +note here and there, but most of that which we shall say concerns the +woman, the mother, rather than the queen. Though eminently fitted in +intellect and temperament for exercising the powers of an active ruler, +Blanche never forgot that she was only the king's mother, and that she +held the royal power in trust for him. In all her acts--they were really +done on her own responsibility--she sought to associate the name of her +son, as if she would keep for him the honor. In that speech to Count +Thibaud she does not reproach him for ingratitude to her; it is, "you +should have called to mind the great goodness of my son, the king." Her +whole life was devoted to the service of this son, whom she loved with a +love painfully intense, cruelly jealous.</p> + +<p>When she was left a widow, there was entrusted to her not merely the +ruling of a kingdom but the rearing of a large family of children. To +this latter task Blanche devoted herself with as much energy and as much +good sense as she displayed in larger affairs. She reared with +particular care the son who, though not the eldest, had become the heir +to the crown. She tried to make of him a good man. It was certainly not +her training or her example that taught him excessive devoutness; for, +though a good Christian, she was not a devotee. When he was a boy she +gave him over to the care of masters who were to instruct him in all +things. There was physical exercise and recreation as well as study; the +young prince was not even exempt from discipline: according to his own +testimony, one of his masters "sometimes beat him to teach him +discipline." His days were regularly portioned off into periods of work, +of play, and of religious devotion; in the midst of his teachers, most +of whom were Dominicans, the little prince led a very sober life. He was +of a quiet and docile disposition, and received instruction willingly +and readily, and became a man of considerable learning. From his youth +he manifested a tendency to extreme piety, going daily to church, where +he entered into the services with strange fervor; he sang no songs but +hymns, and led a pure and temperate life. It is said that a religious +fanatic, who had listened to some of the calumnies circulated against +the queen, one day came to her and rebuked her bitterly for encouraging +her son to live a life of licentiousness, in the society of concubines. +She corrected his mistaken impression, and said that if her son, whom +she loved better than any creature living, were sick unto death she +would not have him made whole by the commission of a mortal sin. Saint +Louis never forgot this saying of his mother's, which he was fond of +repeating to Joinville, and by which he sought to regulate his conduct.</p> + +<p>Another of Blanche's children was of the same disposition as Saint Louis +in regard to religion. This was the Princess Isabelle, whom her mother +had trained as carefully as Louis. On one occasion, when the family was +going on a journey and there was much noise of preparation in the midst +of the packing, Isabelle covered herself up in the bedclothes in order +to pray undisturbed. One of the servants, occupied in packing, picked up +child and bedclothes together, and was about to put her with the rest of +the baggage, when she was discovered. Even as a child she would take no +part in games, and as a young girl shunned all the gayeties of the +court, devoting herself to study, to reading the Scriptures, and to +devotional and charitable works, leading a life of the utmost austerity. +It is pleasant to know that this timid, pious little lady was not forced +into a distasteful union and passed her days in the pursuits she liked +best.</p> + +<p>Blanche's devotion to her son Louis was repaid by the greatest deference +and affection. Her ascendency over him lasted as long as she lived, and +was responsible, no doubt, for much unhappiness to his wife. Blanche's +love was full of jealousy; she would brook no rival; she must always be +first in the affections of her son. And one cannot deny that the great +queen was selfish even to the point of positive cruelty in her treatment +of Marguerite de Provence. A mere child when she came to the court of +France, Marguerite was made to feel that she was not to be first there, +though her position as the wife of Louis gave her a claim to first +place. She was not of masculine temperament, like Blanche, and she did +not seek even the show of power; but Blanche grudged her even the love +of her husband, though we have no evidence that Marguerite ever +reproached Saint Louis with excessive filial devotion or sought to +detach him from his mother. Many stories have come down to us of how +"the young queen" was treated by the one whom all France continued to +call "the Queen." From the testimony of those intimate with the habits +of the royal family come to us details of espionage, petty malice, and +cold-heartedness on the part of Blanche: we could not believe these +things if they came from less competent witnesses. They are not to the +credit of Blanche, for they show the worst side of her nature. The +confessor of Saint Louis says: "The queen mother displayed great +harshness and rudeness towards Queen Marguerite. She would not permit +the king to remain alone with his wife. When the king, with the two +queens, went in royal progress through France, Queen Blanche commonly +separated the king and the queen, and they were never lodged together. +It happened once that, at the manor of Pontoise, the king was lodged in +a room above the lodging of his wife. He had instructed the ushers in +the anteroom that, whenever he was with the queen and Queen Blanche +wished to enter his room or the queen's, they should whip the dogs to +make them bark; and when the king heard this he hid from his mother." +Imagine the King of France, the man whose peculiar piety won for him the +name of a saint, dodging about like a guilty urchin to keep his mother +from finding him in the company of his wife!</p> + +<p>The honest old Sieur de Joinville, who feared not to tell his master +when he thought him in the wrong, tells us that on one occasion, when +Marguerite was very ill after the birth of a child, Louis came in to see +her, fearing she was in danger of death. Blanche came in, and Louis hid +himself behind the bed as well as he could, but she detected him. Taking +him by the hand, she said: "Come away, for you are doing no good here." +She led him out of the room. "When the queen saw that Queen Blanche was +separating her from her husband, she cried out with a loud voice: 'Alas! +will you let me see my husband neither in life nor in death?' And so +saying she fainted away so that they thought she was dead; and the king, +who thought so too, ran back to her and brought her out of her swoon." +There is nothing in these stories to the credit of Blanche or of her +saintly son.</p> + +<p>Let us turn from this unpleasant picture to glance at some of the facts +in the domestic economy of the royal household. The expenditures of the +court were not great; the household was kept on a scale befitting its +rank, but there was no vain display. Besides the queen's children there +were always a number of dependents, ladies and gentlemen in waiting, +etc., and the expenses for the whole establishment were kept in a common +account.</p> + +<p>Blanche de Castille loved her native land, which she never saw again +after she left it to become the wife of Louis VIII., and she kept up as +active relations as possible with her relatives, particularly with Queen +Berengère; but she had too much good sense to flood her court with +Spanish dependents and Spanish customs, and, therefore, we do not find a +great number of Spaniards occupying important posts in the court. A +certain number of her special attendants appear to have been Spaniards; +we may note a lady in waiting called Mincia, who is often mentioned in +the accounts, and who is granted money and horses for a journey into +Spain. Then there are two Spaniards to whom gifts of clothing and the +like are made at the time of the coronation of Queen Marguerite. But +these and other Spaniards whose names one can pick out belonged to the +personal suite of the queen, and had nothing to do with politics. There +was nothing like the incursion of foreigners which, the people +complained, Italianized France in the time of the Medicis.</p> + +<p>Among the legitimate expenditures of the court, but rather surprising in +the household of a saint, are certain sums set down for the payment of +minstrels. Prince Robert of France loved to give presents to minstrels, +and when he was knighted, in 1237, more than two hundred and twenty +pounds went to the payment of these singers. The horses and their +furnishings form no small item in the expenses, since most of the +travelling had to be done on horseback, and a numerous retinue of +mounted attendants must be provided. Common pack horses were not costly, +but the easy-riding palfrey and the war horse ranged in price from +thirty to seventy-five pounds. There were carriages and other vehicles +also, though the carriages were few. The state of the roads, indeed, +often precluded their use; we find Blanche de Castille excusing herself +from going to Saint-Denis because the state of her health forbids her +going on horseback: the roads were probably impassable; or, perhaps, it +was in attempting this little journey that her carriage suffered the +damages recorded in a bill of repairs of 1234, when it seems the unlucky +vehicle needed new wheels. There was a carriage for <i>la jeune reine</i> +Marguerite, too, and a new one was purchased in 1239.</p> + +<p>Aside from the money expended in the actual maintenance of her family, +Blanche herself spent, and taught Louis to spend, considerable sums in +charity. With the miserable economic conditions prevailing in the Middle +Ages, poverty must have been far more general and far more distressing +than it has ever been since those days. During Blanche's regency the +kingdom had been repeatedly ravaged in the course of the wars of the +nobles, and there is record of famine, notably in the southwest of the +kingdom, where one chronicler asserts that in 1235 he saw a hundred +bodies buried in one day in a cemetery at Limoges. On their frequent +journeys throughout the country, Blanche and Louis did what could be +done to alleviate the condition of the unfortunate, who gathered on the +wayside in crowds. There were regular officers to allot the alms +properly, and considerable sums were distributed, usually at every stage +on the journey. At home, in Paris, there was a regular distribution of +money and of bread, with occasional special bounties on the feasts of +the Church. One special charity of Queen Blanche's deserves notice. When +a girl was to be married, one of the first questions was, and still is, +in France, what dower her parents could give with her; if the dower were +insufficient, the poor girl ran a serious risk of not being married at +all. Blanche often came to the aid of deserving girls so situated, and +her gifts were not confined to her immediate attendants and their +families; for example, a poor woman from Anet, a stranger to the court, +received one hundred sous parisis for the marriage of her daughter; and +while on her way back from Angers, Blanche met a young girl of Nogent, +to whom she gave fifteen pounds for her marriage.</p> + +<p>Blanche had always been respectful in her attitude toward the Church, +and pious in her habit of life; but she was never servile in her +attitude toward churchmen, whom she would no more allow to interfere +with her rule than the greatest of the barons. The higher clergy, as a +body, were faithful to her; but, here and there, bishops and archbishops +arrogated to themselves powers not theirs, or refused to recognize the +rights of the crown, whereupon Blanche did not hesitate to join issue +with them. One celebrated case is that of the riots at Beauvais, in +1233, when, under Blanche's direction, Louis restored order and asserted +the royal power in spite of the objections of the bishop, and continued +to sustain the position taken, even after an interdict had been +proclaimed in Beauvais.</p> + +<p>During the period between her two regencies, Blanche continued to reside +at the court; her jealousy of Marguerite would in part account for her +preferring this to retirement to some one of the chateaux belonging to +her private estate. At the time, it must be remembered, the queen of +Philippe Auguste, Ingeburge, was living in this way at Orléans. Queen +Blanche, indeed, enjoyed a considerable revenue from her estates, which +she generally intrusted to the care of the Knights Templars, the +financial agents of many a crowned head in Europe. Part of her estates +she administered in person. As a further occupation, she devoted herself +to various charities. In 1242 the famous abbey of Notre Dame, generally +known as Maubuisson, at Pontoise, was completed, thanks to the queen's +munificence and to her careful supervision. Maubuisson, with its many +dependencies, its beautiful gardens and buildings, became one of the +most splendid monastic institutions in France. It was frequently visited +and enriched with new gifts by its foundress and her son, and noble +ladies chose it as the place to take the veil. One of these ladies, +Countess Alix de Macon, became abbess of another convent, Notre Dame du +Lys, near Melun, founded by Blanche de Castille.</p> + +<p>The management of her estates and the foundation of convents did not, +however, monopolize the queen's time and energies; she was always the +careful mother, looking out for the interests of her children, and +always the queen, ready to act or to decide promptly and firmly in the +affairs of the kingdom. She arranged the marriages of her sons, Robert +and Alphonse. The former married, in 1237, Mahaut, daughter of the Duke +of Brabant, and there were magnificent festivities at Compiègne in honor +of the event, the young prince being knighted and made Count of Artois. +Alphonse, betrothed to the daughter of Raymond of Toulouse, was married +in 1238. The next year Blanche provided a rich and most desirable bride +for her nephew, Alphonse de Portugal, who had been reared at the French +court. He married the widow of Philippe Hurepel, Mahaut de Boulogne, and +was a faithful vassal of France until he became King of Portugal in +1248. For each of these weddings Blanche saw that there was suitable +provision in the way of new and elegant clothes and entertainments in +keeping with the occasion.</p> + +<a name="ill5" id="ill5"></a> +<p class="mid"><img alt="" src="images/005.png"><br> +<b><i>BLANCHE OF CASTILLE, MOTHER OF SAINT LOUIS<br> +After the painting by Moreau de Tours</i></b></p> + +<blockquote><b><i>Aside from the money expended in the actual maintenance of her family, +Blanche herself spent, and taught Louis to spend, considerable sums in +charity. With the miserable economic conditions prevailing in the Middle +Ages, poverty must have been far more general and far more distressing +than it has ever been since those days. On their frequent journeys +throughout the country, Blanche and Louis did what could be done to +alleviate the condition of the unfortunate, who gathered on the wayside. +At home, in Paris, there was a regular distribution of-money and of +bread, with occasional special bounties on the feasts of the Church.</i></b></blockquote> + +<p>In the larger world, Louis IX. still sought the counsel of his mother: +"He sought her presence in his council, whenever he could have it with +profit or advantage." In judicial proceedings particularly, we still +find her acting in her sovereign capacity; and she continued to keep an +eye upon those who had formerly been the rebel barons, her name being +associated with that of Louis in various acts concerning the shifty +Pierre Mauclerc. For her unfortunate cousin, Raymond of Toulouse, she +still exerted her influence with the Pope to obtain some relief from the +obligation which he had been forced to assume of spending five years in +the Holy Land. It was at his mother's instance, too, that Louis IX. +bought from the young Emperor Baldwin of Constantinople those most holy +relics, the Crown of Thorns and the large portion of the true Cross, to +receive which Louis built the beautiful Sainte-Chapelle. The purchase +was really arranged as an excuse for contributing largely to the +depleted treasury of the Christian Empire of the East, whose emperor was +doubly related to Saint Louis through his father and through Blanche de +Castille. The Crown of Thorns, indeed, had been in pawn to Venice. Louis +and Blanche went to meet the sacred relic, which was escorted to its +resting place in Paris by great crowds singing hymns and displaying +every mark of the utmost reverence. For the piece of the Cross, bought +three years later, in 1241, the same elaborate ceremonial was observed; +and in the great procession which accompanied Saint Louis as he bore the +Cross on his shoulders through the streets of Paris walked Blanche and +Marguerite, barefooted.</p> + +<p>When the Tartar hordes of Ghenghis Khan overran Poland and Hungary, the +whole of Christian Europe trembled with fear and horror. If these +barbarians could not be checked, and they continued to pour in +resistless floods over the land, what was to become of Christendom? +"What shall we do, my son?" cried Blanche; "what will become of us?" +"Fear not, mother," replied the brave king; "let us trust in Heaven." +And then he added that famous pun which all his biographers repeat: "If +these Tartars come upon us, either we shall send them back to Tartarus, +whence they came, or they will send us all to Heaven."</p> + +<p>Out of this threatening of the Tartars grew a religious persecution, in +which Blanche took a part not discreditable to her. When things went +wrong in the Middle Ages, it was the fault of the weak and oppressed; if +it was not the witches, it was the Jews who had brought misfortune upon +the land, and who must be punished before God would be pleased again. In +this case it was the Jews, who were accused of lending aid to the +Tartars. The popular odium incurred by this accusation encouraged the +prosecution of an investigation, ordered by Pope Gregory IX., into the +doctrines of the Talmud. France appears to have been the only country +where the investigation was actually made. Several Jewish rabbis were +haled before the court, presided over by Blanche, to explain and answer +for their books. The fairness with which Blanche presided is indeed +remarkable when one remembers the severity of the common judicial +procedure of the time. The chief rabbi, Yehiel, appealed to her several +times against the injustice of being forced to answer certain questions, +and she sustained his plea. When Yehiel complained that, whatever the +court decided, he and his people could not be protected from the blind +rage of the populace, Blanche replied: "Say no more of that. We are +resolved to protect you, you and all your goods, and he who dares to +persecute you will be held a criminal." When he protested against taking +an oath demanded by his persecutors, because it was against his +conscience to swear, Blanche decided: "Since it is painful to him, and +since he has never taken an oath, do not insist upon it." She reproved +the Christian advocates, the learned doctors of the Church, for the +unseemly violence of their language, and sought in every way to maintain +some sort of impartiality, or at least of decency, in the trial. If she +had conducted the trial to the close, there might have been a different +sentence from that which condemned the Talmud and ordered it to be +committed to the flames.</p> + +<p>It was through an agent of Blanche, apparently a burgess of Rochelle, +that Saint Louis obtained most valuable and timely information in regard +to the rebellious preparations of Hugues de Lusignan, Comte de la +Marche. This Hugues de Lusignan was the vassal of Alphonse, brother of +the king. He had always been inclined to revolt, and this inclination +was not lessened by the incitement of his wife, the haughty, +high-tempered Isabelle d'Angoulème, widow of King John of England. To +have started as Queen of England, on an equal footing with her +contemporary, Blanche de Castille, to have seen her miserable husband +gradually lose his rich possessions in France, and to find herself now +merely a countess and compelled to do homage to a son of her +rival,--this must have been the very wormwood of bitterness for +Isabelle. The secret agent of Queen Blanche writes a very elaborate +account of the conduct of Isabelle and Hugues in 1242.</p> + +<p>Hearing that Hugues had received King Louis and his brother, Alphonse, +in her absence, Isabelle carried off part of her property and +established herself in Angoulème. For three days she refused to admit +her husband to her presence, and when he did appear she lashed him with +her tongue in furious fashion: "You miserable man, did you not see how +things went at Poitiers, when I had to dance attendance for three days +upon your King and your Queen? When at last I was admitted to their +presence, there sat the King on one side of the royal bed and the Queen +on the other.... They did not summon me; they did not offer me a seat, +and that on purpose to humiliate me before the court. There was I, like +a miserable, despised servant, standing up in front of them in the +crowd. Neither at my entry nor at my exit did they make any show of +rising, in mere contempt of me and of you, too, as you ought to have had +sense enough to see." After scenes of this kind in the bosom of his +family it is not surprising that the unfortunate Comte de la Marche +sought the more peaceful atmosphere of the camp, and engaged in a revolt +against his sovereign. Louis, however, had little difficulty in bringing +him to reason and obtaining another victory over England, whom the +rebels had enlisted on their side. "And it was no marvel," says +Joinville, writing of this campaign of Saint Louis's, "for he acted +according to the advice of the good mother who was with him."</p> + +<p>One of the severest trials in the life of this <i>bonne mère</i> was +approaching. Louis, always of a delicate constitution, had contracted a +fever during the campaign against the Comte de la Marche, and the +effects lingered with him until, at the close of 1244, he had a violent +recurrence of the attack, accompanied by dysentery. In spite of the +tender care of Blanche, his life was despaired of. He lost consciousness +and, says Joinville, to whom we shall leave the telling of the story, +"was in such extremity that one of the ladies watching by him wished to +draw the sheet over his face, and said that he was dead. And another +lady, who was on the other side of the bed, would not suffer it, but +said that there was still life in him. And as He heard the discussion +between these two ladies, Our Lord had compassion on him, and gave him +back his health. And as soon as he could speak he demanded that they +give him the Cross; and so it was done. Then the queen, his mother, +heard that the power of speech had returned to him, and she showed +therefore as great joy as she could. And when she knew that he had taken +the Cross, as he himself told her, she showed as great grief as if she +had seen him dead."</p> + +<p>Blanche's grief was not without cause, for nothing short of the death of +this well-beloved son could have caused her the pain that she must +endure if he went on the crusade. Not only her age, but the knowledge +that he would wish her to stay behind and guard the kingdom for him, +precluded all thought of her accompanying him. It meant separation from +him on whom she had all her life lavished an affection little short of +idolatry. How bitterly must she have regretted encouraging that fervent +piety that now led to a sacrifice, in the name of his religion, of all +that the king, the son, the husband ought to hold most dear. At a time +when, under the persistent efforts of his grandfather, his father, and +his mother, the power of the crown had just begun to be firmly +established, Louis must reverse all this policy, or rather must make use +of it not to the profit of his kingdom but to that of fanatical +religious ideals. Blanche was too good a politician not to understand +this, and too sensible not to deplore it. Louis's duty lay in France; he +had everything to lose, nothing to gain, in a crusade; though Blanche +knew too well the relentless doggedness with which he would cling to +what he conceived to be his duty to God, nevertheless she pleaded with +him to give up the idea of going on the crusade.</p> + +<p>The pleading of his mother and of his wife could not turn Saint Louis +from his design, nor was the advice of his councillors more effective. +For three years, however, other matters occupied his attention, though +the preparations for his holy war were not forgotten. When these +preparations began to be undertaken with more vigor a fresh attempt was +made to dissuade him. The Bishop of Paris one day said to him: "Do you +remember, sire, that when you received the cross, when you made suddenly +and without reflection so momentous a vow, you were weak and troubled in +spirit, which took from your words the weight of truth and +responsibility? Now is come the time to seek release from this +obligation. Our lord, the Pope, who knows the needs of your kingdom, +would gladly give you a dispensation from your vow." And then he pointed +out the peculiar danger of undertaking such an enterprise in the +existing disturbed state of Europe. Blanche was present, watching with +anxious countenance the effect of this subtle appeal. "My son, my son!" +she said, "remember how sweet it is to God to see a son obedient to his +mother; and never did mother give her child better counsel than I give +you. You have no need to trouble yourself about the Holy Land; if you +will but stay in your own land, which will prosper in your presence, we +shall be able to send thither more men and more money than if your +country were suffering and weakened by your absence." Louis listened +silently, thought earnestly a moment, and then replied: "You say that I +was not myself when I took the cross. Very well, since you so wish, I +lay it aside; I give it back to you." With his own hand he took the +sacred symbol from his shoulder and surrendered it to the bishop. Then, +while those present had hardly recovered from their delight and +astonishment, he spoke again: "Friends, now surely I am not lacking in +sense, I am not weak or troubled in spirit; I demand my cross again; He +Who knows all things knows that no food shall pass my lips until the +cross is placed once more on my shoulder."</p> + +<p>There was no turning aside a man of such character; the preparations for +the crusade went on, and Saint Louis raised the Oriflamme at Saint-Denis +on June 12, 1248. We shall not tell of the crusade or of Louis's +characteristic conscientiousness in seeing, before he left, that +reparation was made for every act of injustice done in his kingdom, for +which purpose he sent out a commission charged with holding an inquest +in all parts of France. The inevitable day of separation came, the day +to which Blanche looked forward as the last upon which she would see her +son. She accompanied him for the first three or four days of his +journey, which lay through southern France to Aigues-Mortes, and at +Corbeil she received the regency, with power to act in the government +through what agents she pleased and in what way she pleased. The +guardianship of his children, too, Louis left to Blanche. At Cluni came +the scene of final separation; the grief of Blanche can be imagined, and +words would fail to help us to a realization of its intense sincerity. +Her premonition was well founded; she was not to live to see Louis +again.</p> + +<p>Once more was Blanche de Castille regent of France, a heavy burden for +one who had lived a life of no easy indulgence and who was now sixty +years of age. Instead of peace and rest in her declining +years--perchance she had hoped to retire to her own convent of +Maubuisson--she must undertake the cares of government. Truly, Saint +Louis was sacrificing his mother for an ambition, albeit not a vain or +selfish ambition, and whatever service he may have rendered God by +killing some hundreds of Mohammedans in Egypt, there is no question +about the service Blanche was rendering to him and France.</p> + +<p>To aid Blanche in her government, and also to collect an additional +force for the crusade, Louis had left in France his brother, Alphonse de +Poitiers, who was of real assistance to his mother. The other sons, +however, Robert d'Artois and Charles d'Anjou, had sailed with the +crusaders for Egypt. Blanche's first anxiety came from Henry III., who +chose this opportunity to make warlike preparations, after he had +refused to renew the truce with France, and who had been besieging Saint +Louis with preposterous demands for the restoration of his lost +provinces. But Henry contented himself with preparations, being perhaps +held in check by fear of the Church, which threatened an interdict on +all England if he ventured to attack France while the king was away +fighting in her behalf. Relieved of this anxiety, Blanche was free to +concentrate her efforts in procuring assistance for Saint Louis. But the +worldly-minded Pope Innocent IV. was so busily engaged in his contest +with the Emperor Frederick II. that he had little but prayers and +blessings to bestow upon the crusading king; while Frederick was either +unable or unwilling to contribute more than a mere pittance. At the +close of the summer of 1249, Alphonse de Poitiers embarked on his voyage +to lead to his brother the considerable army he had been able to +collect. This was a new separation for Blanche, and one that involved +her, almost at once, in the conduct of new and rather complex political +problems.</p> + +<p>Scarcely a month after the departure of Alphonse de Poitiers, his +father-in-law, Count Raymond of Toulouse, died, leaving as his only heir +his daughter's husband. Blanche immediately took steps to secure to her +son the succession, even before she was requested to do so by a message +from him. Under the terms of the treaty of 1229, she took possession of +the estates of the count, and appointed commissioners to receive the +homage of the vassals on behalf of Alphonse.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, good news had come from Louis, who had landed in Egypt and +had taken Damietta. Frequent letters passed between the queen and her +son; but letters were slow in reaching their destination, and the queen +was still rejoicing over the good news when Saint Louis and his army +were in desperate plight. At last came the letter telling of the +disastrous battle of Mansourah,--a victory in name, but as costly in its +consequences as a defeat,--February 8, 1250, and of the death of the +impetuous Robert d'Artois. His army was reduced by disease and incessant +skirmishes with the infidels and Saint Louis himself fell sick. There +was no Blanche de Castille, no tender mother, no wife there to nurse him +back to health.</p> + +<p>We have mentioned the wife of Saint Louis, and it may be as well to +complete here her part in this story. She had accompanied her husband on +the crusade, but had been left behind in Damietta with a strong garrison +when Louis marched on to Mansourah. When the king was captured by the +infidels, Marguerite lay ill in Damietta, hourly expecting the birth of +her child. When the first messengers came with the news of the captivity +of her husband she refused to believe them, and, it is said, had the +unfortunates hanged as the bearers of false news; but there was soon no +doubt that disaster had overtaken the Christian arms. Marguerite was +half crazed with pain and fear; even in her sleep she fancied that the +room was full of Saracens bent on killing her, and she would cry out +pitifully, "Help! help!" She made an old knight, over eighty years of +age, keep guard at the foot of her bed. Before the birth of her child +she called this old man to her, sending everyone else from the room, and +threw herself on her knees before him, begging him to grant her one boon +she would ask. "Sir knight," she said, "I enjoin you, by the faith you +have sworn to me, that, if the Saracens should take this town you will +cut off my head before they can capture me." And the good knight, with a +sternness characteristic of the age, replied that he would surely do as +she bid him, for he had already resolved to kill her rather than see her +become a Saracen captive.</p> + +<p>A son was born to the queen; in memory of the misery of these days she +named him Jean Tristan. On the very day of the child's birth she learned +that the Genoese and Pisan sailors, and some of the garrison, were +preparing to abandon Damietta. It was a serious danger; for, the fleet +once gone, what chance of rescue, or even of return to France, was there +for the king and his army? In the midst of her pain Marguerite acted +with a promptitude and decision far greater than one could have hoped +for from the rather colorless, yielding woman who had so long submitted +to the domination of her mother-in-law. She sent for the ringleaders, +and besought them for God's sake not to imperil the safety of the king +and the whole army: "Have pity, at least, upon this poor woman, lying +here in pain, and wait but till she can get up again." Then, learning +that they had just cause of complaint in that they could not get food, +she took the responsibility of purchasing what provisions could be had +and of feeding the sailors at the king's expense. Her prompt action +saved the fleet for Louis. Even as it was, Damietta had to be evacuated, +as one of the conditions of his being released, and Queen Marguerite was +compelled to sail for Acre before she had entirely regained her health.</p> + +<p>Once released and safe at Acre, Saint Louis was urged to return at once +to France, whither the dreadful news of his disaster had already gone to +distress Blanche de Castille; but he had left a large part of his +followers prisoners in the hands of the infidels, and under such +circumstances it was useless to urge this truly noble monarch to +consider his own wishes, or his own interests. He called a counsel of +his barons, and announced to them: "I have come to the conclusion that, +if I stay, my kingdom is in no danger of going to destruction, for +Madame the Queen has many men to defend it with." He had good reason to +rely upon <i>Madame la reine</i>, who had kept his heritage for him when he +could not have kept it for himself. Sending back to France his brothers, +Alphonse de Poitiers and Charles d'Anjou, Saint Louis lingered on in +Syria.</p> + +<p>Blanche continued to rule France and to make every effort to succor her +son in his perilous position. The death of Frederick II., in December, +1250, gave a momentary hope of obtaining assistance from the empire or +from the Pope. But this hope was soon dashed, for Innocent IV. was bent +on continuing his quarrel with Frederick's successor, Conrad. Blanche, +moreover, was seriously ill in the early part of 1251 so ill that the +Pope wrote to discourage her from attempting to journey to Lyons to see +him. "Your life," he wrote, "is the safeguard of so many people that you +should use every endeavor and take every care to preserve or to recover +the health which means so much to all." With all the benedictions and +affectionate solicitude contained in this letter, the Pope was not +disposed to give material assistance to Saint Louis. On the contrary, he +ordered the preaching of a crusade, even in Brabant and Flanders, +against the Christian emperor who was his political rival, and promised +greater rewards to those who would engage in it than to those who were +fighting the infidels. Blanche called a council of her vassals, who +broke forth in violent wrath against the selfish and un-Christian +conduct of the head of the Church. No doubt Blanche shared their +resentment, and it is even reported that she ordered the confiscation of +the goods of those who ventured to engage in the Pope's crusade against +the emperor, saying: "Let those who are fighting for the Pope be +maintained by the Pope, and go to return no more."</p> + +<p>While the affairs of the Church were in this state a new and dangerous +movement of the common people, a movement half religious in nature, came +to disturb France. A strange man, of wonderful eloquence, and exercising +a powerful influence upon the peasantry, made his appearance in northern +France. In a few weeks he had gathered veritable armies of the peasants, +the <i>pastoureaux</i>, as they were called, who marched about the country +after their mysterious leader, known only by the name of "the Master of +Hungary," proclaiming that they would go to the aid of their good king. +At first they committed no damage, but, growing bolder and becoming +contaminated by a certain mixture of the more dangerous elements of the +population, they began to manifest a peculiar unfriendliness toward +priests, and soon passed to actual acts of violence. The Master of +Hungary arrogated to himself powers almost miraculous, and the people +believed in him. At Amiens, the first large town entered by the +Pastoureaux, people sought out this man and knelt before him as if he +had been a holy personage. But the priests circulated all sorts of +stories about him: he was a magician in league with the devil; he was an +apostate Christian, an infidel, nay, an emissary of the sultan of Egypt, +charged with delivering into the hands of the Saracens a host of +Christian prisoners. But, impostor or no impostor, the people had faith +in him, and it was in vain for the priests to repeat or to concoct tales +of his being an infidel: the very people of the most Christian nation in +Europe were sullenly murmuring against Christ Himself. When the begging +friars asked for alms the people snarled a refusal at them and, calling +the first poor person in sight, gave alms, saying: "Take that; in the +name of Mohammed, who is greater than Christ."</p> + +<p>The Master of Hungary and his satellites, preaching against the clergy +and inciting to acts of violence, performing all the functions of +priests and even claiming to perform miracles, advanced with their +hordes of ignorant or vicious followers to Paris. What attitude would +Blanche take? She had always had a heart to feel for the woes of the +common people, and she well knew that the priests were not by any means +always the friends of the poor, for she was not so blinded by +religiosity as to think that the clerical habit alone could make a mere +man something more than a man. At this particular time, too, she had +reason to feel vexed with the clergy; was it not the Church itself that +was most niggardly of funds to carry on the war in defence of the holy +places? She was far too sensible a woman to look for any material help +from this rabble which vowed to go to the rescue of the good king; but +she was not disposed to interfere with them until she had definite proof +of their wrongdoing. One can but suspect that she did not credit all +that the priests reported to her of them; she herself had known and in +some ways liked Raymond of Toulouse, whom the priests made out an arch +fiend.</p> + +<p>When the Pastoureaux approached Paris, therefore, she gave orders that +they should not be interfered with. Sending for the Master of Hungary, +she treated him with respect, asked him questions, and sent him back +with some presents. The man lost his head with vainglory at this +reception. Returning to his followers he announced that he had so +thoroughly enchanted the queen and her people that she would approve of +anything they did, and that they might kill priests with impunity. In +episcopal robes, the mitre on his head, he preached in the church of St. +Eustace. Riots were precipitated by his followers, and the vast army +moved on to the south, growing more and more outrageous every day. +Blanche saw that it was time to act; she had made a mistake in supposing +these people to be harmless, misguided peasants or religious +enthusiasts. Orders were given to pursue and exterminate them. Scattered +bands were overtaken here and there and dispersed, and the leaders were +summarily hanged. But the final catastrophe was to take place at or near +Bourges. The Pastoureaux having entered this town, engaged in looting +and rapine, and the royal officers, thinking to confine them in the +town, shut the gates; but the Pastoureaux broke these down, and poured +out of the town, pursued by the enraged citizens. They were overtaken +and brought to bay, and a veritable massacre, rather than a battle, +ensued, for most of the Pastoureaux were poorly armed. The Master of +Hungary was slain and torn in pieces, while his forces were dispersed. +In a few weeks the country was quiet again. Only a few of the +Pastoureaux really received the cross from those who had proper +authority to give it, and went to the aid of Saint Louis.</p> + +<p>During these years we find Queen Blanche acting very frequently in a +judicial capacity, presiding over the court of Parliament and over the +council; she seems to have continued to take an active part in all the +affairs of her government. And, strange to say, we do not find the name +of any one counsellor exalted above the others, as a greater favorite or +as more relied on by the queen; she has her ministers, but so little +part do they seem to play that France is really ruled by the queen, not +by the ministers. We comment upon this because it is remarkable, +especially when we remember that, even with great kings, the names of +the ministers are not often utterly obscured.</p> + +<p>The most interesting of the queen's activities at this time are those +connected with the Church; there are numberless little quarrels in which +she had to intervene and hold out for the rights of the crown, but the +two examples that follow will suffice to show the sort of thing with +which she had to contend. The clergy of France had accorded to Saint +Louis a tax of one-tenth on their property, in view' of his crusade. +Though this tax had been long due, the Abbey of Cluni, one of the +richest and one of the most favored by the royal family, allowed month +after month to elapse without making any move to pay. At length, in the +early part of 1252, while the abbot was away in England, the royal +bailli of Ma'am seized the chateau of Lourdon, belonging to the Abbey of +Cluni. There was a tremendous uproar in the clerical camp; the Pope +himself wrote to protest against this outrage upon the servants of God, +and demanded of Blanche the restitution of the sequestered chateau. At +the same time he instructed the Archbishop of Bourges to launch an +interdict against all those who continued to hold, to guard, or to +inhabit the chateau of Lourdon, with special exception of the queen and +her family. Blanche had not, it appears, given the bailli any orders +with regard to the collection of the tax, but, since he had acted, she +sustained him; there was no persuading her to return the property of the +abbey until the abbot had satisfied her just claims. The Pope and the +abbot were compelled to accept defeat for the present; but after Blanche +was dead a claim was made for indemnity, which we can only hope Saint +Louis did not grant.</p> + +<p>Another instance in which Blanche intervened is even more to her credit, +since it was pure humanity, not the jealous safeguarding of the rights +of the crown, that moved her. The inhabitants of the villages of Orly, +Chatenay, and some others were serfs of the canons of Notre Dame. Being +unable to pay some tax imposed by their masters, the men of the +villages--we mean not a few, but <i>all</i> the able-bodied men--were seized +and imprisoned in the chapter house. The horrors of the Black Hole of +Calcutta have been made familiar to all English readers; there are few +who realize that jails as horrible, and jailers as inhuman, were not +infrequent in many a period of the world's history. The condition of the +prisons of France when the courageous and devoted philanthropist John +Howard visited them, at the close of the eighteenth century, was such as +to beggar description: how much worse must have been a prison of the +thirteenth century! The unfortunate peasants, with insufficient food, +water, and air, were so crowded in the prison that several of them died. +News of the affair coming to Queen Blanche, she humbly prayed the canons +to release their victims, and said that she would investigate the +matter. The canons replied that it was none of her affair, that she +should not meddle with their serfs, "whom they could take and kill and +do such justice on as seemed good to them." To emphasize these rights +and to revenge themselves upon the talebearers who had reported to Queen +Blanche, they seized the wives and children of their prisoners, and +thrust them into the same overcrowded prison. The suffering was, of +course, intensified; many of the miserable wretches died. The historian +tells us that Blanche "felt great pity for the people, so tormented by +those whose duty it was to protect them." We do not need to be told +that; but Blanche was not of the milk-and-water kind that would have +wasted time in <i>fainéant</i> compassion when there was suffering which her +activity could relieve. She summoned a body of knights and citizens, +gave them arms, marched straight to the prison, and ordered the doors to +be broken down, herself striking the first blow, that all might see that +she was not afraid to assume the responsibility for the act. Nor did her +beneficent activity cease with the release of the prisoners; for she was +determined that there should be no repetition of such tyranny if she +could help it. She took the serfs under her special protection and +confiscated the goods of the chapter of Notre Dame, which she held until +such time as full satisfaction had been rendered. The serfs were +enfranchised in consideration of an annual tax. But so far was she from +wishing to wrong the canons, or even to interfere with their rights, if +they had any, that she ordered the bishops of Paris, Orléans, and +Auxerre to hold a special investigation to determine whether or not the +people of Orly had owed the tax. With a woman of her character the +canons vainly resorted to their favorite threat of excommunication. If +they had excommunicated her, she would, in the light of history at +least, have been given an absolution more purifying than any they could +offer.</p> + +<p>For the common people the great queen had always a tender heart. It was +a rough and cruel age, especially for those in bondage. "And since this +Queen," says an anonymous chronicler, "had great pity for such as were +serfs, she ordered, in several places, that they be set free in +consideration of the payment of some other dues. This she did partly +because of the pity she felt for the girls in this condition, because +people would not marry them, and many of them went to ruin thereby."</p> + +<p>The last days of Blanche de Castille were drawing to a close amid sad +and fruitless longing to see her son. Her health was failing; one after +another of those dear to her fell ill or passed away; the dearest of all +lingered in the Holy Land, leading a forlorn hope and deaf to the +entreaties of his mother that he would return. She was at Melun when, in +November, 1252, she became so ill that she hastened to return to Paris. +She put her affairs in order and left instructions that those whom she +had unwittingly wronged should be indemnified out of her private +fortune. All worldly thoughts were now put aside, and she summoned the +Bishop of Paris, took the Holy Communion, and was admitted, by the +prelate's decree, into the Cistercian order, becoming a nun of her Abbey +of Maubuisson. Clothed in the simple garments of the sisterhood, the +noble queen passed, not many days later, from the scene of her useful +labors, murmuring in her last moments the words of the prayer for those +in extremis: <i>Subvenite, saticti Dei</i>.</p> + +<p>It was on November 26th or 27th, in her sixty-fourth year, that Blanche +died. Over her nun's habit they placed her royal robes, and on her head +the crown; thus clothed, and placed upon a bier ornamented with gold, +she was borne by her sons and the great nobles through the streets of +Paris to the Abbey of Saint-Denis. The next day, after a mass for the +dead, the body was carried in procession to Maubuisson, where another +service was held. Here, in the choir of the chapel, the body of the +queen was buried, and a tomb, bearing her effigy in nun's habit, was +erected. The other convent founded by her wished to have the honor of +guarding her heart, which, in March of the following year, was taken to +Notre Dame du Lys by the abbess, Countess Alix de Macon.</p> + +<p>Let us pause awhile by the tomb before we attempt to review the +character of Blanche de Castille; and meanwhile we may see how the news +of her death was received by Saint Louis. He was at Jaffa when, after a +long delay, the intelligence reached him. At the very first ominous +words of the papal legate who had come to break the tidings to him Saint +Louis gave way to uncontrollable emotion. Consolation was unavailing; +even the clergy seemed to realize that it would have been but an +impertinent aggravation; and for two days no one ventured to speak to +him. Then, rousing himself from the depths of his grief, he sent for +that best and sturdiest of his friends, the fearless, honest, blunt Sire +de Joinville, Seneschal of Champagne, who leaves us an account of what +followed. When Joinville came into the presence, the king rose, and, +stretching out his arms to him, cried in simple grief: "Ah! Seneschal! I +have lost my mother!" Joinville replied: "Sire, I do not marvel at it, +for she had to die; but I do marvel that you, a wise man, should mourn +so deeply; you know that in the words of Wisdom it is said that, +whatever grief a man have at his heart, none of it should be seen in his +countenance; for he who does so (<i>i. e.</i>, shows his grief) rejoices the +heart of his enemies and brings sorrow to his friends." As all +consolation would have been inadequate to the magnitude of the loss, we +do not know that anyone could have spoken better than Joinville. The +Seneschal continues: "Madame Marie de Vertus, a very good and pious +woman, came to tell me that Queen Marguerite, who had rejoined the king +a little before, was in great grief, and prayed me to go to her and +comfort her. When I arrived I saw that she was weeping, and I said to +her that he spoke truth who maintained that one ought not to believe +women; for she who is dead was the person in the world whom you most +hated, and yet you display such grief for her. And she told me that it +was not for the Queen that she wept, but for the suffering and the grief +of the King, and for her little daughter, now left in the care of men."</p> + +<p>There is no quality more to be admired in one who attempts to write a +life of some great man or woman than fearless frankness; the passages we +have given are characteristic of the <i>Vie de Saint Louis</i>, by the Sire +de Joinville, whose straightforward bluntness of speech is an amusing +but also a valuable quality. We shall keep Joinville in mind while +concluding, in brief, the story of Saint Louis's return and of the +subsequent career of Marguerite.</p> + +<p>More than a year of misery and futile battling intervened between the +time when the news of his mother's death reached Louis and the time when +he set sail for France. There was no hope of succor from Europe: there +was no Queen Blanche to husband the resources of France that her son +might continue his fight for the faith. On April 25, 1254, Saint Louis, +accompanied by Marguerite, their little son Jean Tristan, and the +remnant of the crusaders, embarked at Acre. The sea was rough, and when +they were off the coast of Cyprus the vessel bearing the royal family +ran on a sand bank. The nurses rushed frantically to arouse the queen, +and asked her what they should do with the children. Marguerite, +thinking all would be lost in the violence of the storm, said: "Neither +waken them nor move them; let them go to God in their sleep." Saint +Louis, urged to transfer himself and his family into another vessel, +refused to do so, resolving to take the risk with those who had to +remain and might be forced to land in Cyprus: "If I leave this vessel, +there are on it five hundred men, each one of whom loves his life as +much as I love mine, and who may have to stay in this island, and they +may never return to their own country. That is why I had rather place in +the hands of God my person, my wife, and my children, than cause such +great suffering to the many people in this ship."</p> + +<p>Joinville narrates another accident during this voyage, one which will +recall the instructions for extinguishing one's candle given in a +previous chapter. It seems that one of the queen's ladies, having +undressed her, carelessly threw over the little iron lantern in which +the candle was burning an end of the cloth she had used to wrap up the +queen's head. The cloth caught fire, and in its turn set fire to the +bedding, which was all ablaze when the queen awoke. Jumping out of bed +<i>toute nue</i>, she seized the blazing stuff and threw it overboard, and +put out the little fire which had started in the wood of the bed. The +cry of fire arose, however, and Joinville tells us that he went to keep +the sailors quiet, and later asked Marguerite to go to the king, who had +been disturbed and excited by the noise.</p> + +<p>We hear little more of Marguerite after this crusade. In spite of his +affection and respect for her, and in spite of his gratitude for her +conduct during his first crusade, Saint Louis did not think his wife +capable of playing the rôle of Blanche de Castille, to which some say +she unwisely aspired. When he was preparing for his second crusade, in +1270, he not only did not leave her the regency, although she was to +remain in France, but he took unusual care to regulate her expenditures +and to hedge about her prerogatives. He forbade her to receive any +presents for herself or her children, to meddle with the administration +of justice, or to choose any person for her service without the consent +of the council of regents. That his precautions were not altogether +without excuse, we see when we learn that Marguerite was already +thinking about securing her position, in case of her husband's death, by +making her son Philippe promise under oath that he would remain in +tutelage until he was thirty years of age; that he would take no +councillor without her approval; that he would inform her of all designs +hostile to her influence; that he would make no treaty with his uncle, +Charles d'Anjou; and that he would keep these engagements secret. The +young Philippe had himself absolved from his oath by the Pope. The +ambition of Marguerite, however, died with the husband whom she had +loved and whom all Europe mourned. The good King Louis is a figure so +heroic in some of its aspects that one must pause and take thought +before venturing on any criticism: his motives cannot be impugned, and +it were an ungrateful task to find fault with his deeds in any +particular.</p> + +<p>Marguerite lived on long after her husband in the convent she had +founded in the Faubourg Saint-Marcel, which she gave to the nuns in +perpetuity, reserving only a life interest for her daughter, Blanche. It +was here that she was living when she had the joy of hearing proclaimed +the canonization of Louis IX., the saintly King of France. This was just +before her death in 1295.</p> + +<p>There are figures in history which have become woefully distorted in the +disfiguring mists of centuries, and others which have been not less +wronged by prejudice, partisanship, or conscious or unconscious +misrepresentation. These--at least some of these--have been in part +indemnified and set right before the world: Louis XI. in France, and his +contemporary Richard III. in England; Cleopatra, Catherine de Medici, +Mary of England, all these and a host of others, we are told now and +then, have been misunderstood by the world; nay, in this century of +universal charity, this century which is undertaking the task of +righting all the wrongs accumulated from the past, one can find +apologists for the enemy of mankind himself. The moral of this homily +is--it may be apparent to some of my readers--that if you are either +very good or very bad you get much talked about in history: there will +be some to defend you no matter how bad you are, and some to denounce +you no matter how good you are. But if you simply do your duty, without +fear and without advertisement, little will be said of you; history, at +least in traditions still partly ruling, does not dignify with the +epithet "great" the steady day-laborers who go about their task and +complete it in silence. This, I would imply, is partly the reason why +Blanche de Castille has never been heralded as great, and why her work +in the upbuilding of the French monarchy is taken as a matter of course, +and not praised like, for example, the more brilliant exploits of the +"Grande Monarque" who was to do so much to undermine the power of that +monarchy.</p> + +<p>The fame of the mother is eclipsed by the peculiar glory of the son; but +would it not be fair to ask how much of the excellence of Louis the man, +how much of the glory of Louis the king, was due to Blanche de Castille? +It cannot be questioned that she found France in a condition most +perilous, threatened with the loss of all that two reigns had won for +the royal power. A glance at the history of her career will show that +she not only averted this danger, but that the crown was stronger when +she began to relinquish her authority than it had been under Louis VIII. +She reduced her rebellious vassals to submission; she more than held her +own against England; she ended the war against Raymond of Toulouse, and +reserved for France the control, immediate or ultimate, of the greater +part of his dominions; and these things she accomplished, not merely by +force, but by wise and patient policy. Louis IX. owed his crown to +Blanche's care as regent; it is not improbable that he owed her as much +during the years when he himself was on the throne and she but a +counsellor. History is silent on many points in this connection, but it +might be noted that it was through disregard of her earnest advice that +he entered on the crusade which resulted so disastrously. She knew that, +even if it had been successful from the point of view of the Church, it +could but be dangerous, perhaps even ruinous, for France. This is one +case in which we know Saint Louis rejected his mother's guidance, and +what came of it is matter of history; might there not be many another +act of his, more successful in its issue, for which the credit should go +to Blanche?</p> + +<p>As a queen, Blanche de Castille was more than capable; it is only the +absence of great battles, great social, religious, and economic +movements, during her ascendency, that hinders our calling her, without +reservation, a great queen. When we look at Blanche the woman, we are +confronted with a like difficulty. Shall we say she was a saint? Her +son, the son whom she bore, whom she reared with unexampled care, whom +she watched over all her life, has been called a saint, and there is no +one to say him nay. Shall we say that the mother of a saint is, <i>ex +officio</i>, or even by courtesy, also a saint? We cannot claim sanctity +for Queen Blanche: there was in her a touch of the temper of her +grand-mother, Eleanor of Guienne of wicked memory, or mayhap a trace of +the Plantagenet. It is interesting to note that the best qualities of +the vigorous Henry II. tempered the woman's nature of this daughter of +Spain and gave her the stamina, the unconquerable spirit, which alone +could save her. This Plantagenet temper is under excellent control in +Queen Blanche; so excellent, indeed, that under some circumstances she +seems cold. She is not cold, she is cool, a very different thing; no +danger, no excitement, no sudden gust of resentment at an insult, can +make her lose her head and act rashly. She is a thorough politician, +making her feelings, her emotions, subservient to her will, and even, as +we have hinted, playing the lover for the sake of controlling an amorous +and uncertain vassal. Danger nerves her to action, and she acts with +promptitude and firmness. At the defects in her character we have +already hinted in part; the fundamental one, when we consider Blanche +the woman, was her love of power. Ambitious she was; and yet, when we +say this, we must not forget that she sought power not for herself, but +for her son. How quietly she relinquishes her authority, and how ready +she is, even when that authority is at its height, to tell Thibaud de +Champagne that he owes his preservation to "the great goodness of my +son, the King, who came to your aid"! But it was her jealousy of +Marguerite de Provence that was the great blemish on Blanche's +character. It was a meanness unworthy of a nature so generous and so +faithful; we can attempt no defence, we can only express regret. Her +personality exerted a powerful influence over those with whom she came +in contact, and from all the best men of her time she received due meed +of praise. Compare her with other women of her day, and there is none +who can be placed beside Blanche <i>la bonne reine</i>, or Blanche <i>la bonne +mère</i>.</p> + +<a name="c7" id="c7"></a><br><br> + +<h3>CHAPTER VII</h3> + +<h3>THE ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY AND LOVE</h3> + +<p>BESIDE such a figure as that of Blanche de Castille, the women of whom +we might next speak would seem pale ghosts, mere masks and shadows; and, +even then, not always pleasing ones. There are, in fact, no immediate +successors of Blanche and her daughter-in-law in the history of France; +there is an interregnum, so to speak, of good, great, even of notorious +women; in this inter-regnum, therefore, let us see how chivalry and +literature were treating woman, what was the ideal, and what was the +real woman in the artistic world at this time.</p> + +<p>Between the tenth and the sixteenth centuries Europe saw the birth, the +growth, the culmination, the decay, and finally the displacement of +those ideals and those customs which we associate with the word +"chivalry." The subject of chivalry, interesting in itself, is also one +of peculiar interest for us, since chivalry affected in no small degree +the condition of women; but with its primal origin we shall not attempt +to deal: we shall dig up no roots, but only do our best to describe the +glorious tree itself and the soil in which it flourished. We shall find +that chivalry, like all other earthly things, has its leprous spots, +which one must keep out of sight if one would pour forth genuine and +unchecked enthusiasm; yet the good and the bad alike must be understood +if we would have a just conception of the whole.</p> + +<p>We have seen in the case of the troubadours something of the nature of +the extravagant amorous devotion avowed for his lady by the knightly +poet. Though this exaggerated passion and romance is one of the +concomitants, it is not the fundamental idea or the best part of +chivalry. Originally, perhaps, a mere association for mutual defence and +support, the order of knighthood soon came to have a deeper and a better +purpose, a wider significance; it assumed the sanctity of a religious +institution, for which long years of careful preparation were deemed +necessary, and which imposed serious duties.</p> + +<p>To defend the weak and the oppressed was what the soldier of God swore +to do; and first in the list of those needing his defence were women. +The knight was not only the sworn defender of woman from all physical +wrong and oppression, but he must guard the honor of her name. Courteous +and gentle he must be toward women himself, and from others less gentle +he must compel at least outward respect. In the statutes of many an +order of knighthood we find provisions like those set forth by Louis de +Bourbon when, in 1363, he established the order of the Golden Shield: +"He enjoined (the knights) to abstain from swearing and blaspheming the +name of God; above all, he enjoined them to honor <i>dames et +damoiselles</i>, not submitting to hear ill spoken of them; because from +them, after God, comes the honor men receive; so that speaking ill of +women, who from the weakness of their sex have no means of defending +themselves, is losing all sense of honor, and shaming and dishonoring +oneself." It was also about this time that Marshal Boucicaut established +the order of the Knights of the Green Shield, fourteen in number, whose +special purpose was the defence of women, and on whose shields was a +blazon representing a woman clothed in white. This same sentiment we +find persisting even in Brantôme: "If an honest woman would maintain her +firmness and constancy, her devoted servitor must not spare even his +life to defend her if she runs the least risk in the world, whether of +her honor or of evil-speaking; even as I have seen some who have stopped +all the wicked tongues of the court when they came to speak ill of their +ladies, whom, according to the devoirs of chivalry, we are bound to +serve as champions in their affliction."</p> + +<p>The devotion to woman which we find becoming the dominant feature of the +chivalrous ideal rises at times to sheer extravagance, mere moonshine +madness. A knight vows devotion to his lady-love; to prove that he is +the truest lover in the world and she the fairest dame, he wears a patch +over one eye and engages in mortal combat with anyone who ventures to +smile at this absurdity. Another takes his station on the highway and +compels every passing knight to joust with him, because he has vowed to +break three hundred lances in thirty days in the honor of his lady. Or +there is Geoffrey Rudel, who falls in love with the Countess of Tripoli +on hearsay; they say she is the most beautiful and lovable woman in the +world; therefore he loves her, and therefore he goes on a crusade that +he may see the lady. On the voyage he falls ill, and lands in Tripoli +sick nigh unto death. The lovely countess, touched by the tales of his +devotion, comes to his bedside; at once the glow of health returns to +the dying lover, who praises God for preserving his life long enough to +permit him to see his lady. When he died, soon after,--for the sight of +the lady did not effect a permanent cure,--the countess had him buried +in the church of the Templars, while she herself took the veil.</p> + +<p>But if there is moonshine madness in the ideals of chivalry, there are +also better things. Devotion to woman rises to the point of adoration; +why should it not, when at its base is really the fervor of worship, the +mystic worship of her whom the Middle Ages delighted to honor, Mary, the +Mother of God? Let us content ourselves here with what Lecky has so well +said in his <i>History of European Morals</i>: "Whatever may be thought of +its theological propriety, there can be little doubt that the Catholic +reverence for the Virgin has done much to elevate and purify the ideal +of woman, and to soften the manners of men. It has had an influence +which the worship of the Pagan goddesses could never possess, for these +had been almost destitute of moral beauty, and especially of that kind +of moral beauty which is peculiarly feminine. It supplied in a great +measure the redeeming and ennobling element in that strange amalgam of +religious, licentious, and military feeling which was formed around +women in the age of chivalry, and which no succeeding change of habit or +belief has wholly destroyed."</p> + +<p>The fact that this love of the Virgin finally became a recognized force +is a proof of how much stronger are love and romance than theology and +dogma; for the strict religious theory of the Church had always been +opposed to the elevation of women to a very high plane of adoration. +While the Fathers of the Church praised and practised chastity as the +highest virtue, and in consequence honored virgins above all others, +they never forgot that it was the sin of woman which had "brought death +into the world and all our woe"; they never forgot to twit the daughters +of Eve with this fact, and to call them <i>vas infirmius</i>--"the weaker +vessel." All through the ages when Christianity was struggling to +maintain its own, the saints and martyrs, the holy hermits, in whom the +Church delighted, fled the very sight of woman, and shuddered at her +touch as at a contamination. Yet, in spite of this, or along with this, +there was growing the adoration of a woman, the mother of Him whom the +world called the Son of God. Little was known about her; so much the +better for the pious hagiologists, who thought they did no wrong in +piecing out scant fact with abundant legend. A regular cult of the +Virgin arose, reaching such proportions that the Church had to do +something to recognize it. Numerous festivals were established in her +honor, some with the sanction of the Church, some without that sanction, +some celebrated throughout Christendom, some only locally: the +Annunciation, the Visitation, the Purification, the Assumption.</p> + +<p>The mystic worship, the tendency to find hidden meanings in things of +the most ordinary appearance to the lay eye, the extravagant symbolism, +were at their height in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The +scholastic theologians and sermon writers applied their fantastic +methods to all phases of the religious life; so we must not be surprised +to find them treating even the Virgin in this way. One of the +extraordinary instances which we can give occurs in a sermon delivered +in Paris by the Chancellor of the university, Stephen Langton, later +Archbishop of Canterbury. His name, by the way, is Latinized for us as +<i>Stephanus de Langeduna</i>, whence it was easy and flattering to deduce +<i>Stephanus Linguæ tonantis</i>. As a text the preacher takes nothing more +nor less than a popular song, <i>Bele Aalis main se leva</i>, of which the +following is the sense: "Sweet Alice arose in the early morn, dressed +herself and adorned her fair body, and went into the garden. There she +found five flowrets, of which she made a chaplet covered with roses. By +my faith, therein has she betrayed thee, thou who lovest not." It is a +little love song; and the author, whoever he may be,--probably some +forgotten strolling minstrel who saw the girl go into the garden and +wrought the incident to suit his fancy,--certainly had no religious +intent. But Stephen Langton endeavors to make a mystic application of +the song to the Virgin, and, as he says, "thus to turn evil into good." +Let me quote a few lines of the sermon to show how this <i>tour de force</i> +was accomplished. <i>"Videamus quæ sit</i> Bele Aeliz.... Cele est bele Aeliz +<i>de qua sic dicitur: Speciosa ut gemma splendida ut luna et clara ut +sol, rutilans quasi Lucifer inter sidera</i>, etc.... <i>Hoc nomen Aeliz +dicitur ab a quod est sine et lis litis, quasi sine lite, sine +reprehensione, sine mundana fæce.</i>" It may be of interest to translate +this as a specimen of the sermon of the first quarter of the thirteenth +century: "Let us now see who is Bele Aeliz.... She is bele Aeliz of whom +it is said: Beautiful as a jewel, shining as the moon and brilliant as +the sun, glistening as Lucifer among the stars, etc.... This name Aeliz +is formed from a, which means without, and <i>lis, litis</i>, which is as +much as to say without dispute, without blame, without mixture of the +dregs of the world." The worthy theologian then proceeds to what is +undoubtedly the most difficult problem of his interpretation to +demonstrate the connection of the garden, the chaplet, and the five +flowers with the Virgin. "Who are these flowers? Faith, hope, charity, +humility, virginity. These flowers did the Holy Ghost find in the +blessed Virgin Mary..." The closing verses are, he says, directed +against pagans, heretics, blasphemers, whom he scripturally addresses +thus: "Depart, ye accursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the +devil and his angels."</p> + +<p>The enthusiasm of the clergy in behalf of the Virgin was matched by that +of the people. Nothing was more popular than the hymn to the Virgin, +scarcely distinguishable, in the ardor of some specimens preserved to +us, from the contemporary love songs to women of flesh and blood. Clerks +and laymen composed these songs, vying with each other in the fervor of +the sentiments they expressed, writing in Latin, in French, in mixed +Latin and French, praising the mere physical beauty and grace of her +whom they called <i>rose des roses et fleur des fleurs</i>. One can read +these things without shock only when one remembers that there was +nothing but devotion of a purely spiritual kind intended by them, a fact +of which it is sometimes hard to persuade oneself. As an example, and +not an extreme one, it might do to substitute merely the name <i>Marie</i> +for that of <i>Aalis</i> in the song used for Langton's sermon.</p> + +<p>Besides these songs there were plays representing miracles ascribed to +the Virgin, and legends without end grew up in which she was the +intercessor for poor mortality. She becomes almost identified with the +attribute of Mercy assigned to the Godhead, and some of the souls +alleged to have been saved by her are not always worth the saving, +according to modern standards of morality. A legend, repeated in many +forms, tells us, for example, of a clerk of Chartres (presumably a clerk +in the cathedral), "proud, vain, rude, and so worldly and licentious in +his habits that he could not be restrained." With all his rakish ways, +however, there was one thing that this man of God never omitted to do: +"He would never pass before the image of Our Lady... without kneeling;" +and once on his knees, "his face wet with tears, he saluted her many +times most humbly, and beat his breast." Now the clerk was killed by an +enemy of his, and then the world began to speak ill of him, and, on +account of his notorious bad habits, they buried his body in a ditch +outside Chartres. Thirty days, or nights, afterward, "she from whom +springs all pity, all mildness and sweetness and love, and who never +forgets her servants," appeared in a dream to one of the other clerks +and reproached him bitterly for the dishonor done her servitor, of whose +piety she then told him. The clergy of the city marched out to the grave +of the clerk; and when it was opened they found "a flower in his mouth, +so fresh and full of bloom that it seemed as if it had just blown +there"; while the tongue with which he used to praise the Virgin was +preserved from corruption, "as clear as is a rose in May." The moral of +this story, one would think, would be anything but salutary; it is only +when one recognizes the simple, unsophisticated piety which inspired it, +and reflects upon its teaching of greater gentleness, greater charity in +judging others, that one can admire it.</p> + +<p>To the mediaeval mind, indeed, the Virgin was not very unlike a heroine +of romance, and it was no disrespect to deck her out in fancy as +gorgeously as some fair Elaine or Iseut. The story of this latter +heroine, whose name no two will spell alike,--Iseut, Ysoult, Isolde, +Isout, Ysolt,--is one typical of the age of romance and chivalry, and +one which we shall give, despite its familiarity. By way of preface it +may be well to remark that the story has been told so often that the +variations introduced by this or that reviser are not to be +distinguished from the original.</p> + +<p>The mother of Tristan was Isabelle, sister of King Mark of Cornwall, +who, dying when her son was born, asked that he be called Tristan, or +Tristram, "that is as much as to say, sorrowful birth." The boy was +hated by his uncle, King Mark, who tried to make away with him; but the +youth escaped to France, where he won the love of King Faramond's +daughter, and was in consequence compelled to flee again to Cornwall, +where a temporary reconciliation with Mark was effected. Then there came +out of Ireland a knight, Sir Morhoult, to claim tribute due to the Irish +king by King Mark. Tristan fought with the stranger, wounded him unto +death, and was himself wounded by the poisoned lance of his adversary. +Only in the country where the poison was brewed was there hope of succor +for the wounded hero; and accordingly Tristan set out for Ireland, in a +boat without sails and without rudder, albeit well victualled. The +helpless boat, however, bore its precious burden safely to Ireland.</p> + +<p>The wounded knight, who concealed his real name, was kindly received by +the Irish king, who gave him into the charge of his wife and his +daughter, La Belle Iseut, both skilled leeches. The latter, fair and +golden-haired, altogether lovely, became the special attendant of the +wounded knight: "And when she had searched his wound, she found in the +bottom of his wound that there was poison, and within a little while she +healed him, and therefore Tristan cast great love to la Belle Iseut, for +she was at that time the fairest lady in the world, and then Sir Tristan +taught her to harp, and she began to have a great fantasy unto Sir +Tristan." Unfortunately the mother of Iseut discovered by chance that +Tristan was the slayer of her brother, Sir Morhoult. Tristan must leave, +and nothing but the love of Iseut and the honor of the king saved him +from the wrath of the queen and enabled him to escape unmolested.</p> + +<p>For long years we hear no more of la Belle Iseut in Tristan's life, +which is wholly devoted to winning himself a place at the Round Table +and putting to shame his wicked uncle, King Mark. But he had never +forgotten Iseut, and praised her so enthusiastically that King Mark +conceived a desire to have her for his wife. Tristan, despatched to +Ireland to fetch Iseut to be his uncle's bride, was kindly received on +account of his honorable mission, and of the great renown he had won. He +made a formal demand for the princess: "I desire that ye will give me la +Belle Iseut, your daughter, not for myself, but for mine uncle King +Mark, that shall have her to wife, for so have I promised him." "Alas," +said the king, "I had liever than all the land that I have ye would wed +her yourself." "Sir, an I did, then were I shamed for ever in this +world, and false of my promise."</p> + +<p>All was made ready for the voyage, and la Belle Iseut was committed to +the care of Tristan: "a fairer couple or one more meet for marriage had +no man seen." She was accompanied into the strange land by her +gentlewoman, dame Brangian, to whom the Queen of Ireland had given a +powerful love philtre to be administered to the husband and wife on the +wedding day: whoso drank of that philtre with another, should love that +other with a love that knows no ending. By a fatal error, it was to +Tristan and Iseut that the philtre was given during the voyage; and from +that time an invincible passion drew them toward each other. Love so +overmastered Tristan that he was false to his knightly vows, false to +the trust imposed, and yet happy in his guilty love for the betrothed of +King Mark. And Iseut returned his love, and moaned at the thought of +Mark.</p> + +<p>When they reached the court of Cornwall some stratagem must be devised +to prevent the King from discovering that his bride had been unfaithful; +but it is always easy for the romancer to extricate himself from +entanglements that seem to the ordinary mind hopelessly involved, and +the solution generally suggests fresh complications. In this case it was +arranged that the lady-in-waiting, Brangian, should personate the bride +at night, trusting that King Mark, fuddled with wine and sleep, would +not discover the fraud. The scheme was entirely successful; King Mark +suspected no wrong. But la Belle Iseut, that gentle lady whom all loved, +determined to leave no witness to the shame of herself and Tristan, +hired two murderers to slay the faithful Brangian! More pitiful than +Iseut, the murderers were smitten with compassion and merely carried off +their victim and left her bound fast to a tree, from which she was +rescued by the gallant Saracen knight, Sir Palamedes. Palamedes, indeed, +was also one of Iseut's lovers, and had loved her in Ireland before she +met Tristan. But Iseut scorned him now as she had scorned him then: her +whole heart was given to Tristan, for Tristan was a knight of greater +prowess than he. Iseut loved Tristan, and not her husband; the husband +at length grew suspicious, and the lover was forced to flee for his +life.</p> + +<p>Many adventures befell him, but his heart was still with la Belle Iseut. +Wounded once more by a poisoned arrow, he could no longer return to +Iseut to be cured, and bethought him of his cousin, Iseut de la Blanche +Main, a lady skilled in surgery, who lived in Brittany. To Iseut of the +White Hand, then, went Tristan, and a new and most curious episode in +the love story began. For the new Iseut cured Tristan, but fell in love +with him, and loved him passionately. He could not return her love, for +he had not forgotten la Belle Iseut, but out of gratitude he married +her; and Iseut of the White Hand, not knowing that she had not all her +husband's love, was happy in what she had.</p> + +<p>Tristan made a confidant of his wife's brother, Peredor, telling him +such marvels of the beauty of la Belle Iseut that Peredor was half in +love by hearsay, and quite in love when he and Tristan journeyed into +Cornwall and saw the lady. She seemed for a moment flattered by the new +love, and played the coquette till Tristan, driven to madness, wandered +off into the forest; and the heart of Iseut was sad and sick of longing +and regret. Here he dwelt, till one day he was captured by King Mark, +who failed to recognize his nephew in the naked madman, and confined him +within the high walled garden. But la Belle Iseut came forth to see the +man, and Tristan, knowing her even in his madness, turned away his head +and wept. Then a little dog that Iseut had always with her, smelt +Tristan, and knew him, and leapt upon him; for this dog had Iseut kept +by her every day since Tristan gave her to Iseut in the first days of +their love. And thereupon Iseut fell down in a swoon, and so lay a great +while; and when she might speak, she said: "My lord Sir Tristan, blessed +be God ye have your life! And now I am sure you shall be discovered by +this little dog, for she will never leave you; and also I am sure that +as soon as my lord King Mark shall know you he will banish you out of +the country of Cornwall or else he will destroy you. For God's sake, +mine own lord, grant King Mark his will, and then draw you unto the +court of King Arthur, for there are ye beloved."</p> + +<p>King Mark banished Tristan forever, and to the court of King Arthur went +Tristan, winning there ever fresh fame, until finally King Mark himself, +moved by jealousy and envy, came to destroy Tristan. But the good Arthur +reconciled uncle and nephew, and Tristan went to free Cornwall from a +horde of invading Saxons. The intrigue with Iseut was renewed, and Mark +confined Tristan in a dungeon, whence he was released only by an +insurrection of Mark's oppressed subjects. Iseut eloped with him, and +the two wandered in the forest like true lovers, this fair lady and her +bold knight, and were finally received at Joyeuse Garde by the gallant +Lancelot, where they dwelt till a fresh reconciliation with King Mark +brought about the restoration of Iseut to her husband.</p> + +<p>We must not forget the other Iseut, the white-handed lady whom Tristan +married and left behind in Brittany. The fact of her existence came +again to his recollection now, and he returned to her. She was in dire +distress and longing for her husband; but from her caressing arms he +fled again to put down a rebellion in his dominions. Once more sorely +wounded, once more he was cured by the white hands of his wife, whom he +nevertheless soon afterward abandoned to renew the intrigue with the +rival Iseut in Cornwall. But he was again discovered and put to flight +by the jealous husband. The spirit of restlessness would not let him be +quiet with his wife, the knight must be up and doing; and while he +engaged in a reckless adventure he was grievously wounded, so grievously +that death seemed nigh and not to be put off by the ministrations of +Iseut of the White Hand. Tristan sent a messenger in haste for la Belle +Iseut: "Come with all speed, if you love me! And that I may know you are +on the ship let the sails be white; if you cannot come, let the sails be +black." Iseut hastened toward her lover, with feverish impatience, +blaming winds and waves and slow messengers. Meanwhile, the neglected +wife, Iseut of the White Hand, discovered the truth and grew wildly +jealous. Tristan lay on his bed in agony, waiting for news of the ship +bearing la Belle Iseut. The jealous wife, too, kept watch, and when the +white sails of the vessel told her that her rival was coming, was almost +at hand, jealousy got the mastery: "I see the ship," she cried to +Tristan. "What color are her sails?" asked he. "Black, all black," she +cried. The sick knight fell back upon his bed, moaning out reproaches +upon the Iseut who had forsaken him in his need:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Amie Yoslt! treis fez a dit,</p> +<p class="i14"> A la quarte rent l'esperit."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>(Iseut, my love! three times he cried, at the fourth he rendered up his +soul.)</p> + +<p>"Iseut is come out of the ship; in the street she hears the +lamentations.... An old woman told her: 'Lovely lady, so help me God, we +have here a sorrow greater than men ever had before: <i>Tristan li pruz, +li francs, est mort</i> (Tristan the brave and noble is dead).'... All +dishevelled went Iseut through the streets and into the palace where the +body lay. Then she turned her to the east and prayed for him pitifully: +'Tristan, my love, when I see you lie dead, I should live no longer. You +are dead because of my love, and I die, ami, of grief because I could +not come in time.' Then she lay herself beside him, embraced him,... and +in that same moment yielded up her spirit."</p> + +<p>The reader will note almost at once the similarity of this tale to one +famous in Greek legend, that of Theseus and the Minotaur; and there are +several details, necessarily omitted in the summary we have given, which +tend to make this similarity still more marked. But the matter in which +we are more interested is the character of the heroine. One might remark +that there are certain features in la Belle Iseut not very unlike those +of Andromeda, so readily consoled by Dionysius. The lady Iseut is a +typical heroine of the romances, and as such we may comment upon those +of her characteristics which seem most noteworthy.</p> + +<p>The love motive of the romance is, to begin with, as strong as the +motive of pure adventure; it is, indeed, the love story which serves as +the thread to bind the whole together. This shows a marked change in the +importance of women in the eyes of those who wrote to please the world. +But the relations of the heroine to the hero are most amazing. Not only +is Iseut very forward, more than ready to confess her love and to give +full response to that of Tristan, but she is all this with the full +consciousness that she is doing wrong. The poet, realizing that the +moral of his story might be brought in question, the love potion: being +under the spell of enchantment the lovers are not responsible.</p> + +<p>Whether we shall acquit the lovers at the bar of romantic justice or +not, we cannot forget that their entire story is based upon guilty +passion, which seems to have a peculiar fascination for the romancer: it +is the same, to cite but one example out of the many that could be +adduced, in the story of Lancelot and Guinever, with the episode of +Elaine. To be sure, in both cases we have mentioned, the highest honor +is denied the hero: it is not for the guilty Tristan, false to his +knightly oath, nor yet for the chivalrous but guilty Lancelot to win the +Holy Grail; and we are not teft in doubt, we are told that only the pure +in life could win that honor. And then for Iseut, though she is fair and +much beloved, there is a pathetic end, an end that brings no crowning +happiness, no reward; but punishment.</p> + +<p>One trait in the character of Iseut is disconcerting to those who +cherish romantic ideals: her cruelty. We could forgive her the love for +Tristan, and we learn to feel for her, as we read the romance, some part +of the passion that instilled itself into Tristan's veins with the love +draught; but what shall we say when she deliberately plans the murder of +a defenceless woman, and one who had performed service unexampled in its +fidelity and sacrifice?</p> + +<p>If Iseut represented the poetic ideal in the age of chivalry, was the +real woman of that age like Iseut? We can answer, unhesitatingly, no. +The conditions of life in the romances were very highly idealized, and +certain forms in the romance became purely conventional. The heroine +must always be more beautiful than tongue can tell, and she must, in the +end, win her lover, or be merciful to him, according as she began in +disdain or in love sickness. Numerous adventures, wildly fantastic in +character, preceded this consummation; but readers even in that day got +to such a point that their jaded palates could no longer be tickled even +by the choicest extravagances. Men knew that in real life they did not +love in that way; and women knew it, too, though they were perhaps +slower to confess it. At any rate, the reaction from the extreme type of +romantic idealization of woman began even while the romance of chivalry +was trying to persuade its readers that all women were like Iseut, +Guinever, Elaine, and that these were angels.</p> + +<p>The reaction against the ideal of chivalry in literature took two main +directions, the one, more purely comic or realistic, representing the +woman of the middle classes, the other, more intellectual and satiric, +representing woman in general but especially the lady. The first is +represented, we may say, by the great <i>Roman du Renard</i> and those short +popular tales which strolling minstrels were wont to recite, the +<i>Fabliaux</i>. The second we find chiefly in the <i>Roman de la Rose</i> and its +numerous progeny.</p> + +<p>Renard is, of course, the central personage in the gigantic beast epic, +but we hear not a little of his wife Hermeline or Erme, of madam wolf, +Dame Hersent, and of Harouge, the leopardess. They play before us a +little game, which we know is the game of life as women lived it in the +days when Renard was still a famous personage. To give but one episode, +from <i>Renard le Nouveau</i>, by Jacquemart Gelée, end of the thirteenth +century, Renard becomes the confidant of Noble (the lion), and learns of +his amour with Dame Harouge; forthwith the subtle Renard begins to +intrigue, until at last Harouge becomes his mistress. Besieged in +Maupertuis by Noble, Renard sends a flattering love letter to each of +his old flames, the lioness, the wolf, and the leopardess. The three +ladies are delighted with the proposals of the charming Maitre Renard. +They draw lots to see which shall possess forever the affections of the +irresistible Lothario; the lot falls to Dame Hersent, and the three +ladies write a joint letter to inform Renard of their choice, a choice +not very pleasing to Renard, who is, moreover, provoked because they +have exchanged confidences. His revenge is at once planned. Going to +court dressed as a charlatan, he gives to Noble a precious talisman by +means of which, he says, any deceived husband can learn of his wife's +infidelities; and Noble, Isengrin (the wolf), and the leopard are eager +to test the virtues of the talisman. The ensuing dreadful revelations +may be imagined. The guilty wives, well beaten by their wrathful +husbands, flee from the court and are kindly received by crafty Renard, +who forthwith establishes a harem. It is a pleasantly humorous story, +and the conditions of real life are distinctly reflected, while the +satiric intent is not enough to distort the reflection.</p> + +<p>In the <i>Fabliaux</i>, however, woman is even more clearly portrayed as she +really was, or at least as she seemed to the men. A large part of Old +French literature, as one critic has remarked, is devoted to exposing +and discussing, the misfortunes of marriage; and in these relations the +deceived husband is, we might say, clown paramount. The authors of the +<i>Fabliaux</i>--which were written to amuse the bourgeois as well as the +knight--"invented or discovered anew talismans that revealed their +misfortunes (as husbands): the enchanted mantle which grows either +longer or shorter suddenly when put on by an unfaithful wife, the cup +from which none but happy husbands can drink.... Our tellers of tales +invented a whole cycle of feminine tricks and ruses.... The women of the +Fabliaux shrink from no stratagem: they can persuade their husbands, one +that he is covered by an invisible cloak, another that he is a monk, or +a third that he is dead." Contending with them or seeking to outwit them +is of no avail, says the author of these tales, for <i>mout se femme de +renardise</i>,--many a foxy trick does woman know,--and <i>fols est qui femme +espie et guette,</i>--he is a fool who spies upon a woman.</p> + +<p>The story of one of these triumphs of beauty over wisdom will illustrate +the best type of the <i>Fabliaux</i>; it is called the <i>Lai d'Aristote</i>. When +Alexander had conquered India, he rested in shameful sloth, a slave to +love for a young Hindoo princess. Aristotle, master of all wisdom, +reproved his quondam pupil for this neglect of grave matters; and the +Hindoo girl, perceiving Alexander's unhappy frame of mind, discovered +what had produced it. She will be revenged on the crabbed old scholar; +ere noon of the next day she will make him forget grammar and logic, if +Alexander will only allow her free scope, and he shall see Aristotle's +defeat if he will watch from a window opening on the garden. In the +early morn, while the dew was on the grass and the birds were just +beginning to sing, she tripped out into the garden, her corsage loosely +fastened, her golden hair waving wildly down her neck; and as she picked +her way hither and thither among the flowers, her petticoat daintily +lifted, she sang sweet little songs of love. Master Aristotle, at his +books, heard the singer, and "such a sweet memory she stirred in his +heart that he shut his book." "Alas," he said, "what is the matter with +my heart? Here am I, old and bald, pale and thin, and a philosopher more +sour than any yet known or heard of." The damsel gathered flowers and +wove a garland for herself, singing the while so sweetly, so enticingly, +that the sour philosopher gave way, opened his window, and talked to +her, nay, came out to her and courted her like a very lover, offering to +risk for her sake body and soul. She asked not so much by way of proof +of his devotion. "It is merely a little whim of mine," she said, "if you +will gratify me in that, I might love you." The whim is, that he should +let her ride about the garden on his back. "And you must have a saddle +on: I shall go more gracefully." Love won the day, and there was the +foremost scholar in the world prancing about on all fours like a colt, +with a saucy girl on his back, when Alexander appeared at the window. +The pedagogue was not dismayed; with the saddle and bridle upon him, he +looked up at the king: "Sire, tell me if I was not right to fear love +for you, in all the ardor of youth, since love has harnessed me thus, I +who am old and withered! I have combined precept and example: it is for +you to profit by them."</p> + +<p>Sometimes the poet of the Fabliau pauses to describe his heroine and her +costume; now it is a lively country maiden, barefooted, with her clothes +all wet from the armful of water-cress she has gathered; now it is a +coquette finishing her toilette before the mirror, which she makes a +little page hold while she binds up her tresses and flirts with him; and +now it is a party of ladies seated in some castle bower, embroidering +heraldic devices on the banners of their knights. Then there is a jolly +story of three <i>commères</i> of Paris, the wife of Adam de Gonesse, her +niece Marie Clipe, and Dame Tifaigne, milliner, who tell their husbands +that they are going on a pilgrimage, oh! a pious pilgrimage, on the +feast of the Three Kings of Cologne. They evade their watchful but too +credulous spouses, and here they are seated at an inn table, where one +gets "as good wine as ever grew; it is health itself; 'tis a wine clear, +sparkling, strong, fine, fresh, soft to the tongue, and sweet and +pleasant to swallow." The good cheer begins with much eating of fat +goose, fritters, onions, cheese, almonds, pears, and nuts, while the +trio joins in singing:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Commères, menons bon revel!</p> +<p class="i14"> Tels vilains l'escot paiera</p> +<p class="i14"> Qui ja du vin n'ensaiera."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>(Gossips, let's revel and frolic to our heart's content! The poor devil +who has never put away wine will pay the score.) And then, the meal +over, they come "out of the tavern into the street," not a little +exhilarated, one may fancy, by this famous wine, and away they go +singing to the fair.</p> + +<p>Not all the pictures of women are as innocently amusing or mirthful as +this one; on the contrary, the general attitude of the authors of the +<i>Fabliaux</i> is distinctly unflattering, not to say hostile. Sometimes it +is merely one of the infinite variations on the idea of the scarcity of +virtuous wives; it is Chicheface, the cow who feeds on virtuous wives, +and who is all but starved to death, while Bigorne, with less rigorous +ideas as to the morals of her food, is choked, fit to burst. But in +general the notion prevails, as one writer himself puts it, that "woman +is of too feeble intellect; she laughs at nothing, she cries at nothing; +she will turn from love to hate in a moment. The strong hand alone can +control her; and yet, beating is useless, for her faults are inherent; +nature made her captious, obstinate, perverse; she is an inferior +creature, by nature degraded and vicious."</p> + +<p>But slightly different from this is the sentiment of the <i>Roman de la +Rose</i>, when we take this huge work in its complete and most influential +form. The <i>Roman de la Rose</i>, to rehearse a few well-known facts, was +composed between 1225 and 1275 by two poets, one writing later than the +other and under somewhat different inspiration. The story is +allegorical, and its main thread has to do with the adventures of a +young man, at once the hero and the poet, in his attempt to pluck a +beautiful rose, which he finds hedged about with thorns in a garden full +of marvels. In his attempts to reach the rose the lover is alternately +aided and hindered by various allegorical personages, whose names +suggest the part they play, such as Kindly Greeting and Modesty and +Vanity and Pity. To the poet who first undertook the telling of this +marvellous allegory, Guillaume de Lorris, woman is a superior being, +almost an angel; and love is a divine thing. Love is the theme of his +poem:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Ce est li Romanz de la Rose</p> +<p class="i14"> Où l'Art d'Amours est toute enclose."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>(This is the Romance of the Rose, wherein is all the art of love.) And +it is real love that he teaches; for the God of Love himself commands +the lover: "It is my wish and my command that you centre all the +devotion of your heart in one place." His lover is gentle and courteous; +we are in an atmosphere not very different from that of the romances of +chivalry.</p> + +<p>When Jean de Meung undertakes, some fifty years later, to complete the +romance left unfinished by Guillaume, we find that woman is for him the +incarnation of all vices; that love is a wicked thing, the root of all +evil; that the art of deceiving women, not of loving them, is worth +learning. Nay, the utmost libertinage is sanctioned; there is no such +thing as fidelity in love, for it is contrary to the law of nature, +which designed <i>toutes pour touz et touz pour toutes</i>--all women for all +men, and all men for all women. Jean de Meung has absorbed all that the +most cynical libertines of antiquity could teach him, and to that he has +added his own rancor against woman. It is Ovid's <i>Art of Love and Remedy +of Love</i> revised for mediaeval use. Anything further from the gallantry +of the romances of chivalry could hardly be found. And yet this cynical +attitude was, as we have attempted to show, but an outgrowth of +gallantry run mad; for in the beginning, gallantry, says Montesquieu, +"is not love, but it is the delicate, the light, the perpetual pretence +of loving."</p> + +<a name="c8" id="c8"></a><br><br> + +<h3>VIII</h3> + +<h3>MARIE DE BRABANT AND MAHAUT D'ARTOIS</h3> + +<p>THE household of the kings of France, so lately under the wise control +of Blanche de Castille or the pure influence of the good but weak +Marguerite de Provence, was the scene of a court scandal which +threatened serious consequences under the son of Saint Louis, that +Philippe misnamed "le Hardi." The central figure in this unpleasant +episode, Marie de Brabant, is otherwise of so little note that we shall +not tell more of her than is necessary to the understanding of the +little intrigue of which she was accused.</p> + +<p>Isabelle d'Aragon, the first wife of Philippe III., had died under +tragic circumstances. She accompanied her husband and Saint Louis on the +latter's second crusade, and returning with the body of the saintly +king, was thrown from her horse while crossing a stream in Calabria, and +died a few days later (January, 1271), giving birth to a child who did +not long survive. In 1274, Philippe married Marie de Brabant, sister of +Duke Jean de Brabant. The new queen was young, beautiful, and +<i>excellente en sagesse</i>, increasing each day in favor with the king. The +favorite of Philippe at that time was Pierre de la Brosse, who had begun +life, so his enemies said, as barber-surgeon to Saint Louis, but who was +really of more respectable origin. He had now arrived at such a pitch of +fortune as to excite the envy of the nobles; since there was a clique +against him, he was resolved to use every means to secure his power, for +the loss of his power, as he well knew, would almost certainly involve +the loss of his life.</p> + +<p>The queen, Marie, had probably manifested dislike of this favorite and +perhaps sympathy with the attempts to overthrow his power. An +accident--we do not hesitate to affirm that it was an accident--gave +Pierre, now her enemy, a chance to ruin her. In 1276, Prince Louis, +Philippe's eldest son by Isabelle, died suddenly, or at least under +mysterious circumstances. The days of poisoning were not by any means +past, and poisoning was at once suggested to account for the mysterious +death. Pierre de la Brosse industriously circulated the rumor that the +queen had committed the crime and was prepared to do the like by the +three remaining children of Isabelle, in order that the crown might +descend to her children. There was, of course, much evil talk in the +court, as well as plots and counterplots between the friends of the +queen and the friends of the favorite. Philippe was half distracted +between his love for Marie and his suspicions of her, and the latter +Pierre de la Brosse took pains to keep alive. Finally things came to +such a pass that resort was had to the supernatural to satisfy the +doubts of the king,--no unusual method of settling difficulties in the +days when the belief in things occult was still rife.</p> + +<p>At the instance of one of the parties,--it is not absolutely certain +which,--Philippe decided to refer the matter of the death of this son to +the decision of a learned and devout nun, or Beguine, of Nivelle in +Brabant, reputed to have the gift of second sight and mysterious +knowledge of things past, present, and to be. It is not impossible that +the oracle was tampered with by the enemies of Pierre de la Brosse; but, +however that may be, she returned an answer that set Philippe's heart at +rest. He was told to credit no ill against his good and loyal wife. +Marie was thereby saved from a most dangerous position; but she could +not fail to harbor resentment against the instigator of the attack upon +her.</p> + +<p>Though, in spite of the intrigues of the queen and the nobles led by her +brother, for two years Pierre de la Brosse continued in favor, his fate +was preparing; and in the spring of 1278 it overtook him, when letters +written by him or forged by his enemies were put into the hands of the +king. There was treason in these letters, alleged to have been taken +from Pierre's correspondence with Spain. He was arrested and confined in +Vincennes, and a court of nobles, dominated by the Dukes of Burgundy and +Brabant and the Count of Artois, held a sort of trial and condemned him. +The nobles lost no time in disposing of the fallen favorite, whom they +conducted at once to the scaffold, while the people of Paris, convinced +of the fact that Pierre had been a good minister and that he was being +unjustly condemned, indulged in serious riots. There was a popular +belief, indeed, voiced by a Parisian chronicler, that Pierre was +sacrificed to the hatred of the queen and the nobles: "Against the will +of the King, as I believe, was he hanged.... He was destroyed more by +envy than by guilt." The insinuations against the queen were no doubt +one of the main causes of his downfall.</p> + +<p>History has never been able to determine whether Marie was really guilty +of some attempt upon the life of the children of her husband's first +wife. There is a very curious letter written by Pope Nicholas III. to +Philippe and Marie that leads one to think that he at least credited the +queen with some of the evil charged against her. After begging Philippe +not to search deeper into the affair, since Pierre de la Brosse is dead, +he fills his letter to Marie with rhetorical questions of a most +disquieting nature: "What could possibly have provoked you to inflict a +death so cruel upon an innocent child (Prince Louis) whose tender years +could give no just grounds for hate?" If Marie was guiltless, it is hard +to believe that the Pope thought her so, when one reads phrases so +equivocal. She certainly had everything to gain for her own offspring by +the death of Isabelle's children; but there is no proof that she even +harbored evil designs, and the whole course of her rather quiet and +obscure life gives the lie to the evil insinuations. She was gentle, +pious according to the habit of the day, and had received a careful +education which left her not without some appreciation of arts and +letters, for we find her the patroness of a poet from her native +Brabant, Adenet le Roi, called "king of minstrels." The real facts in +the case, however, we can never know; and Marie hardly appears again in +history, though she lived on in apparent wealth and fair renown until +1321, when her death occurred.</p> + +<p>Before Marie de Brabant died many other queens had come and gone in +Paris, during the reigns of Philippe le Bel and his sons, Louis le +Hutin, and Philippe le Long. But not one of these is of sufficient fame +or notoriety to merit extended comment; instead, we may centre our +attention upon a typical <i>grande dame</i> of the period, a woman who was a +direct vassal of the crown and who played no small role in the affairs +of her own domain, this is the Countess Mahaut d'Artois.</p> + +<p>Mahaut, or Matilda, was one of the high nobility, illustrious in her +birth and in her relationship to persons of some note in history, being +great-niece of Saint Louis, cousin of Philippe le Bel, grandmother of a +Duke of Burgundy and of a Count of Flanders, and, greater still, mother +of two unhappy Queens of France, the wives of Philippe V. and Charles +IV. She lived an active and a useful life, and is a character not +unpleasant to consider. From the days of her impetuous grandfather, +Robert d'Artois, brother of Saint Louis, her family had been fond of the +battlefield, on which many of them had died. Robert, first Count of +Artois, was killed at Mansourah; Mahaut's father, Robert II., had fallen +in the great massacre of the French nobility at the battle of Courtrai; +and her brother, Philippe, had fallen in another battle with the sturdy +burghers of Flanders, in 1298. The death of this brother left Mahaut the +heiress of Artois, and she succeeded to her heritage when, as we noted +above, her father was slain at Courtrai, in 1302.</p> + +<p>At that time Mahaut was already a matron and a great lady in the land; +for, in 1285, she had married Otho, Count Palatine of Burgundy. Her +husband was far older than she, being then forty-five, while Mahaut had +scarcely reached womanhood; moreover, Otho had been a comrade of her +father, and was as proud, as chivalrous, as lavish in his expenditures +as any prince of his time. This habit of extravagance made Otho an easy +victim for the rapacious money-lenders; and when he was in the hands of +these Philistines the cautious King Philippe le Bel knew how to help him +just enough to keep him a grateful and obedient vassal of the crown. As +early as 1291 was born Mahaut's first child, a daughter named Jeanne, +who was followed by a second daughter, Blanche (about 1295), and then by +two sons, Robert, and John, the latter dying while still in infancy. The +ruinous excesses of Count Otho had brought him to such a pass that, in +1291, Philippe le Bel made a most advantageous bargain with him: the +infant daughter Jeanne, it was agreed, was to marry the eldest son of +the king and thus bring Burgundy under the power of the crown; but it +was stipulated that, in the event of the birth of a son to Otho, +Burgundy should revert to this son and Jeanne should marry the second +son of the king. This, in fact, was what happened, for Otho had two +sons. Again, in 1295, when the count was in the hands of the usurers, +Philippe le Bel paid his debts, and granted him a pension and a +continuance of this or part of it to his children, in return for which +Burgundy was placed in the king's hands, together with the guardianship +of the children until they should reach the age of seventeen.</p> + +<p>What the Countess Mahaut thought of these arrangements, so largely +affecting the future of her children, we cannot tell, for we have little +information in regard to her life previous to the death of her husband. +This event occurred in the early part of 1303, when Otho, like so many +others of Mahaut's family, was killed in battle with the Flemings; and +it cannot be denied that his death was a gain rather than a misfortune +for Mahaut and her children. As a widow she enjoyed the right to special +protection from the crown, with which the relations of her family and of +her husband had been most intimate and fortunate; and as a widow she was +free to devote herself to the task of recouping the losses incurred +through the bad management of her domains by Otho. As the feudal ruler +of Artois and Bourgogne she would have much to occupy her time, even if +her affairs had been in the best order and she had been left to manage +them in peace; but this was not to be, for she had to contend for her +rights during the greater part of the years that remained to her.</p> + +<p>Before we enter upon her career as Countess of Artois, let us conclude a +part of the more intimate life of Mahaut, a part full of shame and +sorrow for the mother. Her son, Robert, was the object of much +solicitude on the part of Mahaut, who sought in every way to give him an +education not only suited for the high station in life he would be +called upon to occupy, but calculated to make him a useful and a happy +man. As early as 1304, when he could have been no more than seven or +eight years of age, Mahaut provided him with a separate establishment, +or <i>hotel</i>, under the government of two worthy gentlemen, Thibaud de +Mauregard and Jean de Vellefaux. There was provided a little comrade for +Robert, Guillaume de Vienne, his playmate, who was treated with as much +consideration and kindness as was Robert himself. Then there was a +retinue of some seven or eight servants, and two knights, old servants +of Mahaut's father, to assist in the military training of the young +gentlemen; and there was also a certain Henri de Besson, the pedagogue +charged with the education of Robert. The child, of course, was not left +solely to these attendants by his mother, who passed a considerable part +of the time with him. Games and fashionable amusements were not +forbidden by the fond mother, and, as early as 1308, we find Robert +losing his money in play at the court, and spending his gold on horses +and tourneys like other young gentlemen of the day.</p> + +<p>In 1314 he was already able to wear knightly panoply of war, and in the +following year he accompanied the royal army in an aimless expedition to +Flanders, while his mother stayed at home and had prayers recited for +the safety of her son. But that son, whom she loved so devotedly, and +whom she was doing so much to please and amuse, did not live to manhood, +for he died in the early part of September, 1317, before he had received +the final dignity of knighthood. From all the Church dignitaries of +Artois, from all the great relatives of Mahaut, came letters of +condolence upon the death of the heir of Artois, which for two days was +publicly proclaimed by servants of the countess through the streets of +Paris, in which city generous alms were distributed to the poor; while +pilgrims were despatched at once to Saint-James of Compostella, to +Saint-Louis of Marseilles, and to other shrines, to intercede for the +soul of the dead. A few weeks later Mahaut ordered a sculptor, Jean +Pépin de Huy, to erect a tomb for the <i>très noble homme monseigneur +Robert d'Artois, jadis fiuz (fils) de ladite comtesse</i>. This tomb, of +white stone, bears a recumbent figure of the young count, clothed in +armor, with long, flowing hair about the handsome, beardless face; it is +now preserved in the Abbey of Saint-Denis, having been moved from the +church of the Cordeliers, where it originally rested over the grave of +Mahaut's son.</p> + +<p>Long before the death of Robert, the Countess Mahaut's daughters had +played their brief and disastrous parts in the French court. In January, +1307, in accordance with the treaty agreed to by Count Otho in 1291, the +eldest daughter, Jeanne, was married to Philippe de Poitiers, second son +of King Philippe le Bel. The next year, Blanche, a great deal younger +than Jeanne, but already renowned for her unusual beauty, married +Charles le Bel, Count de la Marche, the youngest of the three sons of +Philippe le Bel, Louis le Hutin, the eldest, having married Marguerite, +sister of Hugues de Bourgogne. After their marriage to the princes of +France, we hear little more of Jeanne and Blanche in the accounts of +their mother, though both were guests at her mansion rather frequently, +and presents of various sorts were exchanged between mother and +daughters, until in 1314 came the great catastrophe.</p> + +<p>For some time there had been scandalous rumors at the court about the +conduct of the three young princesses, and in the spring of 1314 the +evil report received such confirmation that the old king, Philippe le +Bel, gave the order to arrest them on charges of having been openly and +scandalously unfaithful to their marriage vows with two young knights of +their suite. Marguerite and Blanche were confined in rigid imprisonment +at the famous Château Gaillard, built by Richard of the Lion Heart. They +were stripped of all the glory of fine attire, and their heads were +shaved. Meanwhile, their accomplices in adultery, Philippe and Gautier +d'Aulnai, two Norman knights, were put to the torture, and confessed +that during three years they had sinned many times with the princesses. +The right of trial by battle, for which the knights first asked, had +been sternly denied them; there was but the rack, and after that a +shameful death for those who had dared to bring shame upon the royal +family. With the ingenuity of the Middle Ages in devising exquisite +torments, the two young men were publicly flayed alive, cruelly +mutilated, and tortured as long as life could be kept in their miserable +bodies. There were other accomplices in the disgrace of the princesses; +these, too, when they were not of rank sufficiently high to protect +them, were tortured, sewn up in sacks, and cast into the Seine. An +unfortunate Dominican monk, accused of having debauched the princesses +by compounding love philtres and otherwise exercising the black art, was +delivered over into the hands of the Inquisition; he was never heard of +afterward.</p> + +<p>The confessions of their lovers left no doubt as to the guilt of Blanche +and Marguerite. The former, still but a girl, had been led into her evil +ways by Marguerite, and pitifully owned her sin, pleading for +forgiveness in accents of such sincere repentance that all who heard her +were moved. But her husband was inexorable; and she remained in prison +until 1322, when Charles, having become king, obtained a dissolution of +the marriage on the ground that Mahaut had been his godmother and that +this established a spiritual relationship for which he had forgotten to +ask a dispensation when he married Blanche. Then Charles married Marie +de Luxembourg, and his unhappy divorced wife was compelled to retire to +a nunnery.</p> + +<p>It was said that in her prison of Château Gaillard she had suffered +violence from her jailer; it is more charitable to suppose that this is +so than to assume, as some do, that she was so depraved in morals as +voluntarily to abandon herself to debauchery; and one must always +remember that it was to the interest of the court party to represent her +in colors as dark as possible. The belief in her guilt, nevertheless, +cannot be avoided; and even her mother gives silent proof of her belief +in it, for after the disgrace of her daughter, that daughter's name +appears no more in the accounts of Mahaut's household. Blanche retired +to the convent of Maubuisson, where she took the veil in 1325, and died +in the next year. Under "a large white stone, much carved and decorated +with roses, without any inscription, and bearing a figure representing a +nun," lay the body of the unhappy Blanche, once Queen of France in +right.</p> + +<p>Her companion in debauchery, Marguerite de Bourgogne, met a fate more +suddenly tragic, though surely not more pathetic. Her marriage with +Louis le Hutin could have been dissolved, of course, on the score of +adultery; but Louis preferred less public methods. Having become king, +on the death of his father, not many months after Marguerite's disgrace, +he desired to find another wife; so Marguerite was put to death in the +Château Gaillard, being smothered, it is said, between two mattresses.</p> + +<p>The third of the daughters-in-law of Philippe le Bel, the Countess +Jeanne de Poitiers, was more fortunate than her sister and Marguerite. +When the three had been arrested she was separated from the other two +and sent to Dourdan. Her character seems to have been better formed than +that of Blanche, and she had not indulged in the excesses proved against +Blanche and Marguerite. Mahaut was from the first firmly convinced of +her innocence, and sent frequent messages of consolation and sympathy to +her during her confinement in Dourdan. Although she had been aware of +the evil practices of her sister and her sister-in-law, it could hardly +be held an unpardonable crime for her to have refrained from +talebearing. In one of the rhymed chronicles, which gives a graphic +account of this tragedy, Jeanne is represented as confessing her small +share in the wrong and pleading for mercy before Philippe le Bel: "Sire, +for God's sake hear me! Who is it that accuses me? I say I am a good +woman, without guilt, without sin or shame." She demanded an +investigation, and the king granted her request. While she was confined +a strict inquiry was held into her conduct, and the result was that, at +Christmastide, 1314, she was adjudged innocent, and came back to her +husband, "whereof there was great joy throughout France." She was to +become Queen of France not long afterward, and then to be widowed; but +during the rest of her life there was no blot on her good name, and no +interruption in the affectionate relations existing between herself and +her mother. As Countess of Poitiers, as Queen of France, and as dowager +Queen and Duchess of Burgundy, she visited Mahaut frequently, +accompanied her in journeys, and exchanged gifts with her.</p> + +<p>The scene of the orgies indulged in by Blanche de la Marche and +Marguerite de Bourgogne was long pointed out in Paris and became an +object of peculiar horror--one of those places of evil association +which, without our knowing why, always arouse a feeling of repulsion and +of dread. It was in the dark old Tour de Nesle, on the bank of the Seine +opposite the Louvre, that, said the Parisian horror-mongers, the wicked +queens had held high revel. The legend was not only enduring, but, like +most legends, endowed with the faculty of gathering new matter as the +years went by. Francois Villon, that great repository of the quaint +beliefs of the people of the purlieus of the Sorbonne, tells of the +great queen "who had Jean Buridan cast in the Seine in a sack" from the +high walls of the Tour de Nesle. Brantôme, in his <i>Dames galantes</i>, +records the same popular story of a queen "who dwelt in the Hotel de +Nesle, at Paris, and lay in wait for passers-by; and those who pleased +and suited her best, whatever class of people they might be, she had +them summoned and made them come to her by night; and after she had had +her pleasure of them she had them cast into the water from the top of +the high tower, and had them drowned." Other historians are even more +definite in their statements--which, nevertheless, are +unfounded,--naming the queen who is said to have been the Parisian +Messalina and to have given a tragic end to the celebrated legist, Jean +Buridan; she was, they say, Jeanne de Navarre, wife of Philippe le Bel.</p> + +<p>Jeanne, who died in 1307, was a violent and savage woman, but there is +no proof that she was at all immoral. She it was who manifested such +savage virulence against the Flemish women during the revolt of 1302: +"When you kill these Flemish boars," she said to the soldiers, "do not +spare the sows; them I would have spitted;" and she it was who did her +best to ruin the minister Guichard, who had incurred her enmity by +saving an unfortunate creditor whom she was resolved to destroy. She +pursued Guichard with such relentless fury, indeed, that he had resort +to the black art, seeking at first to win back the queen's favor by his +enchantments, then seeking to compass her death by the favorite method +of constructing a waxen image, representing his enemy, and causing it to +melt slowly away, in the belief that she would waste as the image +wasted. But Jeanne did not die of witchcraft, though Guichard was +imprisoned and long persecuted as a sorcerer. We have given these few +facts about her to show that she was a person of ill repute, which will +partly account for the substitution of her name for the names of +Marguerite and Blanche in the tales of the Tour de Nesle.</p> + +<p>Because of the misfortunes which overtook her daughters, Countess Mahaut +was compelled to be very circumspect in her own conduct. She had been an +indulgent and affectionate mother to both; but her own political +situation was at this time top precarious to admit of her attempting to +defend them with a high hand. After the death of her father, in 1302, +Mahaut and her husband had been invested with the county of Artois, and +she had continued to govern it unmolested after Otho's death until 1307, +when we first hear rumors of a claim affecting the validity of her +title. Mahaut had inherited the county as being nearest of kin to Robert +II., the Salic law not applying under the customs of Artois. At the time +there was living a son of Mahaut's brother, Philippe; and this young +Robert de Beaumont, calling himself Robert d'Artois, was the person who, +instigated by his mother, now attacked Mahaut's title, appealing for +judgment to the king and the court of peers. Robert demanded the +recognition of his rights to the countship of Artois, or, failing that, +to an indemnity of considerable amount. This latter had been already +provided for by a convention between his grand-fathers at the time of +the marriage of Philippe d'Artois and Blanche de Bretagne, and Robert +was perfectly justified in demanding its payment. When the cause was +tried before Philippe le Bel, October, 1309, he rendered fair judgment, +confirming Mahaut in the possession of Artois and granting certain lands +and a large sum of money to Robert.</p> + +<p>But mediæval politics were very uncertain; what one king did or said +might well be reversed by his successor; and so the death of Philippe le +Bel (1314) was the signal for a renewed attempt to dispossess Mahaut and +her children. At this time there was much disquiet over all the kingdom, +and Mahaut had the dreadful shame of her daughter to harass her; it +seemed, therefore, a peculiarly opportune time to begin the attack upon +her. Robert addressed a most insolent letter to his aunt: <i>A très haute +et très noble dame, Mahaut d'Artoys, comtesse de Bourgogne, Robert +d'Artoys, chevalier</i>. But we will translate: "Since you have wrongfully +denied me my rights to the countship of Artois, at which I have been and +still am greatly troubled, and which I neither can nor will longer +suffer, therefore I notify you that I shall take counsel to recover mine +own as soon as may be." Not content with this formal claim, which he +pushed before the king, Robert resorted to most unworthy weapons in his +contest with Mahaut, stirring up the vassals and communes of Artois, +inciting them to acts of violence against her and her children, and +circulating rumors most dangerous in an age when people were but too +ready to credit accusations of the sort that Mahaut had employed sorcery +against her son-in-law, Philippe le Long, and had poisoned the King, +Louis X.</p> + +<p>We have had occasion to mention now and again this subject of +witchcraft; it may be permissible, therefore, to give some few details +brought out in the investigation, in 1317, of the charges of evil +practices brought against Mahaut d' Artois. The belief in witchcraft was +almost a cardinal article of faith throughout many centuries, even among +the educated classes, and one might say that the cynical author of the +second part of the <i>Roman de la Rose</i>, Jean de Meung, is almost a unique +exception in his scepticism regarding the power of sorcery. Many a +miserable old woman had suffered horrible tortures at the hands of +justice or had been hounded to her death by superstitious neighbors who +credited her with causing diseases of men and cattle, dearth, drouth, +storms, or any other untoward misfortunes; and many a monk, devoting +himself to rational study of the phenomena of nature, to chemistry, +astronomy, medicine, or any other science, had incurred suspicion of +damnable traffic with the devil, like the Guichard mentioned above, and +like Gerbert himself, who lived to become Pope. The Church authorized +the belief in evil spirits and provided forms of exorcism to rid the +land, the cattle, the house, the body, of the demons that possessed +them; while the mediaeval books of medicine show us that that science +relied largely upon charms, peculiar times and seasons, and +incantations, for the compounding of the drugs that were to effect +cures. The witch and her hellish brews maintained a perfect reign of +terror over the ignorant and the superstitious.</p> + +<p>Instigated doubtless by Robert d'Artois or his emissaries, a certain +Isabelle de Ferieves, reputed a witch in her own country of Hesdin, +testified that Mahaut d'Artois had come to her and asked her to compound +a sort of philtre or potion to restore the love of Count Philippe de +Poitiers for her daughter Jeanne, then imprisoned at Dourdan under the +charge of adultery. Isabelle required Mahaut to procure for her and +deliver to her, in secret, some blood from Jeanne's right arm, which she +mingled with three herbs, vervain, liver-wort, and daisy, pronouncing +over the mixture a mystic incantation. Placing it then upon a clean new +brick, she burned it by means of a fire fed with oak wood, and pounded +up the paste so produced into a powder, which was to be administered to +Philippe in his food or drink or cast upon his right side. For this +Isabelle received a substantial price, seventy <i>livres parisis</i>, and was +given a similar order for a philtre to recover the affections of the +Count de la Marche for his wife Blanche. Moreover, she asserted that +Mahaut, well pleased with the efficacy of these decoctions, asked for a +poison to envenom arrows, which she pretended that she desired to use +upon nothing more than the deer of her forests. The enchantress set to +work again, with an adder's tail and spine and a toad dried in the open +air, which she pounded up into a powder and mingled with wheat flour and +incense. The sorceress was painfully lacking in imagination, else we +should have had something to rival:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Eye of newt, and toe of frog,</p> +<p class="i14"> Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,</p> +<p class="i14"> Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,</p> +<p class="i14"> Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,</p> +<p class="i14"> For a charm of powerful trouble,</p> +<p class="i14"> Like a hell-broth boil and bubble."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>But perhaps the report of unsympathetic historians and lawyers has been +unjust to her, and has toned down the horrors of her "charm of powerful +trouble," which she alleged the Countess Mahaut gave to Louis X., +thereby procuring his death and the accession of her son-in-law, +Philippe V.</p> + +<p>The king conducted a serious and searching investigation, to which +Mahaut declared herself more than ready to submit, provided that the +court were properly constituted and that her cause in the matter of the +succession in Artois be in no wise prejudiced. Witnesses on both sides +were examined, including the widow of the late King Louis X. and the +officers of his household, and on October 9, 1317, a solemn verdict of +acquittal resulted for Mahaut. There need be no doubt that the +accusations against her had been entirely groundless, merely trumped up +in the hope of prejudicing her cause in the eyes of the court. It was +only a few months later that Philippe V., after a careful and impartial +reexamination of the allegations on both sides, gave judgment in +parliament confirming the finding of his father and establishing +Mahaut's right to Artois, and ordering that "the said parties (Mahaut +and Robert) should desist from all hate and all felonious acts,... and +that the said Robert should love the said Countess as his dear aunt, and +the said Countess the said Robert as her dear nephew" which both swore +to do.</p> + +<p>While Mahaut was forced to contend in the courts for her authority over +Artois, the rebellion of the nobles on the death of Philippe le Bel had +not been without serious results in Artois, where she had found it no +easy task to maintain any sort of hold upon her vassals. Her chief +counsellor, and a faithful servitor he proved, was Thierry d'Hirecon, +whom the vassals of Artois hated as a parvenu foreigner he was from the +Bourbonnais. In 1314 her vassals began complaining to Mahaut of abuses +in the government; but they soon passed from peaceful and legitimate +remonstrance to active outrages upon the servants and the property of +their countess. In all this Robert d'Artois was no doubt the hidden +instigator. One of Mahaut's officers, Cornillot, bailli of Hesdin, who +had incurred the enmity of the Sire de Créqui by interfering with his +hunting over field and forest without regard for the rights of others, +was set upon by a mob of villains who hanged him to a tree; when the +weight of his body broke the limb and brought the poor wretch to the +ground, they buried him in the earth up to his neck, cut off his head, +and carried it as a trophy to the Sire de Créqui. Mahaut despatched her +son with a considerable force to arrest two of the rebel vassals in the +act of going to war; they were taken to prison, but unwisely released by +the intervention of the king, and on the very steps of the prison +proclaimed their intention of going over to Mahaut's enemy, Robert. Some +of the nobles came upon the young count and his sister, Jeanne, in a +country house, insulted them grossly, and even threw mud in the face of +the defenceless Jeanne and her brother, who had with them but three +knights. Jeanne fled to Hesdin, where Mahaut was at the time, and on the +road her carriage was surrounded by a mob of knights, who terrified her +by their insults and their threats. At last both she and Mahaut were +forced to abandon Artois till quieter days should come, leaving the +officers and armies of the king to restore order, a task not completed +until July, 1319.</p> + +<p>The rebels committed so many outrages, and the public peace was so +frequently disturbed by their quarrels, that the better element was +ready to welcome Mahaut as a deliverer when she came back, fortified by +the recent decree of the king in her favor. At Arras a sort of triumphal +procession was arranged to welcome her, and "she entered seated upon a +chariot, preceded by thirteen banners, accompanied by the Constable of +France, by Thierry d'Hirecon,--who, like his mistress, had been driven +to flight,--and, more wonderful still, by many bold knights who had long +sworn to destroy her." The next day the countess gave a splendid +banquet, at which were present "the Constable, all the knights, the +burgesses and notables (of Arras), and besides many ladies." The towns +in particular were glad to have their countess once more in power; +indeed, all the towns except Arras had remained faithful to her, +resisting the enticing proposals of Robert d'Artois and the rebel +nobility, for well the burgesses knew that only a strong hand could +protect them and their goods from the rapacity of nobles who were always +in want of money and always ready to take the first that came to hand. +To two of the emissaries of the rebels the citizens of Saint-Omer gave +answer that their countess "was a good guardian of their law and their +privileges, and if she were not they should make complaint to none but +the King;" while they told the emissaries of Robert d'Artois, who dared +not affirm that the king had decided in favor of their patron, "then we +are not makers of any Count of Artois."</p> + +<p>Though severe in her administration of justice and strict in the +maintenance of order within her dominions, Mahaut appears to have been +just, even kind, and hence able to command the respect of her subjects. +With the citizens of Arras she exchanges courteous greetings and gifts; +cloths, wine, fish, come to her from the townspeople; and she invites to +her table the burgesses and their wives. When she is ill, they send to +inquire solicitously after her health, and she replies: "Mahaut, +Countess d'Artois, etc.... to our beloved and faithful <i>échevin</i> and +twenty-four burgesses of Arras, greeting and love. We are much pleased, +and heartily do we thank you for that you sent to inquire concerning our +health.... Therefore we wish you to know that on the day when this +letter was written we were in good bodily health, thanks be to God.... +Give greeting in our name to all our good subjects, and be assured that +as soon as we shall be able we will journey into that part of the +country. Our Lord have you in His care. Given at Bracon, the thirteenth +day of August." What a quaint and yet dignified and kindly letter is +this, showing us at once the great feudal lady and the woman really +grateful for kindly sympathy.</p> + +<p>Another episode, immediately preceding her triumphant reentry into +Artois, reveals again the feminine nature, and we are rather surprised +to find that this energetic, courageous Mahaut can be, at need, such a +very woman. The royal troops had restored order in Artois, and the +vassals of Mahaut, leagued against her authority, had been reduced to +submission and had consented to a peaceful settlement of their alleged +grievances and to the return of their lawful countess. On July 3, 1319, +the royal commissioners came to her mansion in Paris to read her the +treaty, in the presence of her counsellors. She protested that the +treaty violated her privileges, and declared she would not listen to the +reading of an agreement in which she could not alter a word. Tears +flowed, and the excited lady now would, now would not, listen to the +reading; and that, too, when she admitted that she, like the nobles of +the league, had sworn to submit their differences to the arbitration of +the king, and that she would keep her oath! Summoning her notary to draw +up a formal act of protest,--"all that she might say or swear would be +said or sworn against her will and her conscience, and in the fear of +losing her county of Artois,"--she hurried to Longchamp, into the +presence of the king. Philippe assured her that all had been done in +good faith to safeguard her rights, and that it was merely for form's +sake that he would require her to swear to observe the treaty. Presto! +the doubts and the tears disappear: "I swear it!" And the countess went +out in apparent peace of mind. But now she was met by two of her +relatives, her nephew and her cousin, who pointed out to her that her +oath was insufficient, because she had not specified exactly what it was +that she swore; an oath so vague might have serious consequences, and so +they implored her to return to the presence. More tears, more angry +refusals to swear at all, and finally the countess once more yielded and +went before the king. The chancellor held out the Bible for her to swear +that she would observe the stipulations of the treaty; Mahaut turned +toward the king: "Sire, do you wish me to take this oath?" "I advise you +to do so." "Sire, I will swear, provided you guard me against all +deception." "So help me God, it shall surely be done." "Then, I swear, +as you have said," and once more Mahaut went out.</p> + +<p>One can forgive her exasperation at finding that the persistent +relatives were still not satisfied; poor woman, she felt that all she +possessed and all her children possessed was somehow at stake, and she +helplessly ignorant, like too many other women, of the technical points +of the law. Again, feeling that her counsellors were probably in the +right in protesting against the conditional oath she had taken, Mahaut +went into the royal presence. The Sire de Noiers, marshal of France, +protested that everyone was acting in good faith by her, and that the +king merely wished her to take the oath without equivocation or +reservation: "Sire de Noiers, I am here, as you can see, without +counsel; some of the king's councillors have so intimidated mine that +they dared not appear before you; God alone inspired me to say what I +did say; have I not several times sworn as my lord commanded? What is +there so amazing in the king's promising to succor me, a widow, in case +of deception? Does he not owe this same protection to every widow in his +kingdom? What I have sworn should suffice." Another councillor protested +that her conditional oath was an insult to the King's councillors; there +was crimination and recrimination, till at length the badgered countess, +sighing deeply, appealed to Philippe: "Ah! dear Sire, have pity upon me, +a poor widow driven from her heritage, and here without counsel! You see +how your people besiege me, one barking on my right, another at my left, +till I know not what to answer, in the great trouble of my mind. For +God's sake, give me time to deliberate upon this matter.... I am willing +to take any oath you wish." Then, when the chancellor again held out his +Bible and required her to swear fearlessly and without conditions, she +broke forth in tears: "Many times have I sworn already! I swear again, I +swear, I swear, may evil come upon my body if I swear not truly!" And +she rushed out and hurriedly left for Paris, in spite of all +remonstrances. It was not till the next day that, her advisers succeeded +in persuading her to take the oath in proper form, as the king wished it +taken.</p> + +<p>One may think that this quibbling, this Jesuitical swearing with a +mental reservation to be bound only so far as seemed good to herself, +was unworthy of Mahaut; it was, as a matter of fact, but the poor +defence of the weak in an age when trickery was but too common. Mahaut +knew that, although the king was her son-in-law, policy might have won +him to the side of her nephew, the claimant of her county. Even if +Philippe were above a miserable deception of the kind, there was no +telling to what tricks the crafty lawyers, perhaps in the pay of Robert +d'Artois, might have recourse. She could not conquer chicanery by force, +she could not meet it with chicanery, hence her nervousness and her +hesitation and suspicion.</p> + +<p>When the countess felt herself strong in her own right and sure of +proper support from her servants, she was by no means the tearful and +vacillating woman whom we have seen in the preceding page or two. The +officers of her government in the various bailiwicks of Artois were +usually well chosen and reliable. Appointed and paid by the countess and +holding office at her pleasure, these baillis, recruited from the ranks +of the petty nobility and the bourgeoisie, had every incentive to +honesty and faithful service. They were at once administrators, +justices, and financial agents, and in the latter capacity had to make +reports, at Candlemas, at Ascension, and at All Saints, to the chief +financial officer, the receiver-general, who in turn submitted his +accounts to Mahaut. She was not infrequently in dire need of money, for +the expenses of her household were always large, and she was burdened by +the debts left by Otho, but these she did at last manage to pay.</p> + +<p>With the aid of her officers, upon whom she kept a close watch, Mahaut +was prompt enough to repress any unruly vassal who went beyond the +limits of law. Sometimes force was necessary, as when the Sire d'Oisy +overran and ravaged the lands of certain monasteries under Mahaut's +protection and slew the peaceful inhabitants. Summoned by the bailli to +appear before her court, the sire at first refused to admit the bailli, +then did admit him and kept him a prisoner. "Not a stone of his chateau +shall be left standing," declared Mahaut, and she despatched a little +army that soon brought the Sire d'Oisy to reason. The punishments +inflicted upon recalcitrant vassals were sometimes most severe and +sometimes fantastic. The seigneur himself is sometimes put to death when +his crimes have been too much for the patience of the countess and her +people; or he is expelled and deprived of his fief; or he is heavily +fined and ordered to perform a penitential pilgrimage. It is thus that +Jean de Gouves is condemned, in 1323, to undertake a pilgrimage to the +shrine of Saint-Louis of Marseilles, to the tomb of the Apostles in +Rome, and to two other Italian shrines; while, to avoid possibility of +deception on the part of this pious pilgrim, he is required to bring +back a certificate from each of the places visited.</p> + +<p>If the punishments inflicted on rebellious vassals were severe, what +epithet shall we reserve for the punishments of the criminal code? The +rack and the stake are not unheard of during the reign of Mahaut, and +these are the milder forms of punishment: counterfeiters boiled in oil, +women guilty of theft or of marital infidelity buried alive, miserable +lepers put to the torture,--these are but a few of the ingenious and +barbarous punishments of which we find record. But it is to be noted +that Mahaut was not wantonly cruel or vindictive; the forms of execution +we have mentioned were the established practice of the day, with which +no one dreamed of interfering; so far from being heartless, Mahaut +reduced the severity of the fines and penalties in some cases and +provided for the widows and orphans of some who were sent to the +gallows, while she was always endeavoring to restrain the grasping +proclivities of her tax-gatherers and holding investigations whenever +complaint of injustice reached her ears.</p> + +<p>With the minor matters of her household economy we need not deal, since +enough has been said of the manner of life of a mediaeval lady of rank. +Suffice it to say that the <i>hôtel</i> of the Countess of Artois was famous +for its hospitality and that many of the great ones of the earth sat +down to her table. With the fashionable world, the world of the court, +Mahaut maintained very close relations, since she was, in one way or +another, related to most of the royal family and to the great nobles. +Whenever there was a marriage in these circles, there came a rich +present from "Madame la Comtesse d'Artois"; sometimes, as in the case of +the daughter of her minister, Thierry d'Hirecon, it was practically a +whole trousseau: "One scarlet robe, another of deep green cloth, both +lined and bordered with fine furs; a mantle and a <i>cotte</i> of cloth of +gold, the former lined with fur; a robe of Irish woollen; a coverlet of +green cloth; a counterpane of <i>cendal</i> (meaning usually a heavy and +strong stuff, but sometimes silk); four green carpets and fifty ells of +linens for sheets." Truly a present of which any bride might be proud, +though not so expensive, it appears, as the <i>nef</i> (an ornament for the +table, shaped like a ship, and used to hold spices, extra spoons, etc.), +and costing one hundred and fifty pounds, given to "our niece, Marie +d'Artois, on the occasion of her marriage to Jean de Flandre, comte de +Namur." Then, if her sovereign requires her presence at court, Mahaut +equips herself and all her suite, gives presents to friends and +dependents, and goes up, it may be, to Rheims, as when Philippe le Long +is to be crowned if he can persuade enough of the Peers of France to +attend, and where few do attend, so that our Countess Mahaut, a Peer of +France, has the privilege of holding the royal crown over the head of +her son-in-law. Or mayhap the countess, wishing to keep friends with the +great, sends a mess of fine herrings to the powerful favorite, +Enguerrand de Marigny, or to her own daughter, Queen Jeanne; or a +magnificent jewel of enamelled silver, adorned with rubies and +sculptured to represent a little king and queen, and costing one hundred +and thirty <i>livres parisis</i>, to be delivered to the real king and queen; +or a little statuette in enamelled silver, sustaining a shrine, to be +presented to the widow of Philippe le Hardi, Marie de Brabant, "de par +la comtesse d'Artois et de Bourgogne."</p> + +<p>Mahaut spent in this way a considerable amount, besides purchasing for +herself and her children various <i>objets d'art</i>, statuettes, paintings, +illuminated missals and other books, handsome cups and the like for her +table, and jewels and rich clothing in profusion. She was evidently a +lady of taste, but also of rather extravagant habits and fond of +travelling; for she had carriages or vehicles of some sort in plenty, +and travelled on horseback when the state of the roads would not permit +the use either of carriage or litter. With her retinue of servants and +her carts loaded with baggage and provisions, the countess could yet +make the trip from Arras to Paris in three or four days.</p> + +<p>But the time was drawing nigh when all her journeyings would be at an +end; and as she neared the end of her earthly pilgrimage fresh troubles +came to disturb her in the lawful enjoyment of her heritage. After the +last decree rendered by Philippe V., Mahaut and her nephew were +reconciled and lived on good terms--at least so one would fancy from the +exchange of courtesies and hospitality which took place in the years +ensuing. But Robert was evidently only biding his time; and now an +accident supervened to revive his hopes of better fortune in a new +hearing before the royal court. Of course, there was a woman in this +case, one who does not play a very creditable part. In 1328, Thierry +d'Hirecon had been elected to the episcopal see of Arras, but had died +in a few months after his election. After his death, which was a serious +loss to Mahaut, the episcopal palace was cleansed, by her orders, of the +presence of Thierry's infamous concubine, Jeanne de Divion, who had fled +to the arms of the unscrupulous old churchman from the indignant +vengeance of an outraged husband. Jeanne de Divion, finding herself +driven forth by Mahaut, and forgotten in the will of Thierry, from whose +senile infatuation she had hoped great things, resolved to be avenged on +Mahaut. She fled from Arras to the service of the ambitious and +unscrupulous Jeanne de Valois, sister of Philippe VI., and wife of +Robert d'Artois.</p> + +<p>Jeanne de Divion was full of vague tales of the valuable papers +belonging to the county of Artois which she had seen in the possession +of Thierry, and the two women soon saw that some capital could be made +for the claims of Robert d'Artois. Robert himself seems to have been +reluctant, at first, to have any dealings with the degraded paramour of +Thierry d'Hirecon; in place of vague asseverations of what she had seen +among the papers of Thierry he demanded the documents themselves, if +there were any. It is probable that at the time there were no documents; +but Jeanne de Divion was resourceful and not too nice in regard to +matters of conscience. Going to Arras to search among the papers of +Thierry, she returned with an alleged treaty negotiated in 1281 between +the paternal and maternal grand-fathers of Robert, under the terms of +which the customs of Artois were set aside and the succession guaranteed +to Philippe d'Artois's children, of whom Robert was the representative.</p> + +<p>Robert's scruples were laid at rest when this very questionable +document, of which nobody had ever heard a word, was put into his hands. +He wrote to his brother-in-law, now King of France, to demand a new +investigation of the claims to Artois. Meanwhile, the Countess Mahaut +set about collecting testimony in rebuttal, aiming especially to show +the falsity of the alleged document containing the treaty. She arrested +two servants of Jeanne de Divion, who testified, in the presence of +several witnesses and of a notary who took down the depositions, that +the treaty in question had been written by one Jacques Rondelet, clerk +of Arras, at the dictation of Jeanne de Divion, on her recent visit to +Arras. Moreover, the countess had the wisdom to get these witnesses to +testify that they had not been coerced by her but testified of their own +free will and accord. Then she interrogated Jacques Rondelet, who +confirmed all that the servants had said, adding that he had written at +dictation, and under oath of secrecy, from a document which Jeanne de +Divion would not let him see.</p> + +<p>The proofs of the forgery, one would think, were sufficient before the +cause came to trial; yet, after a statement of the principal allegations +on both sides, the king adjourned the hearing to another day. But that +day was not to dawn for Mahaut. On November 23, 1329, the countess was +at Poissy, where she dined with the king, going on to the convent of +Maubuisson to pass the night, and thence to Paris next day. Here she +fell suddenly ill; and her own physician, Thomas le Miesier, was sent +for in all haste from Arras. The crude or dangerous remedies of the +medicine of the day were powerless to relieve Mahaut; phlebotomy and +purgatives probably served but to exhaust her already depleted strength, +and the physicians recognized that her end was at hand. Couriers rode in +haste from the Hotel d'Artois in Paris to Queen Jeanne, to the Duke of +Burgundy, to the Count of Flanders, on the 26th, and as many as three to +the king next day, bearing news of the great countess's peril. Jeanne +came to her mother with all speed, but the end had come before she could +reach Paris; the good Countess of Artois breathed her last on November +27th.</p> + +<p>She who had expended considerable sums in the pomp of funerals, tombs, +and effigies for others was buried very simply, at her own request, in +the Abbey of Maubuisson, where her grave was marked at first by a plain, +flat copper plate, hardly raised above the level of the pavement. In +accordance with a custom not unusual in her day, the body was opened and +the heart taken to the Franciscan Church in Paris, where it was +interred, as she had directed, <i>juxta sepulturam Roberti carissimi filii +mei</i>--"beside the grave of my very dear son Robert."</p> + +<p>Judging from the features of a statue representing Mahaut, which was +formerly in a church in Arras and was copied in miniature by an artist +of the seventeenth century, the countess was a woman of large and +commanding figure, with features rather masculine and strongly marked in +their regularity. If one may say so, the sculptor has drawn for us +Mahaut's character as well as her features; she was of the masculine +type, strong and energetic rather than lovable. For a woman who would +hold her own in those days, the qualities she possessed were, in fact, +essential; to rule Artois in the fourteenth century there was need of an +amazon rather than of a lovely, fragile, soft-hearted daughter of love. +We do not mean that Mahaut was cold, heartless, merely a politician; she +was far better both in morals and in kindness of heart than the average +lady of her time. She was generous, and yet not a hopeless spendthrift; +she was pious and devoted to the glorious memory of her great-uncle +Saint Louis, whom she must have seen when a child, and yet not a narrow +bigot, displaying her religious feeling rather in acts of charity than +in acts of pure devotion. No niche awaits her among the heroines of +France, for she is a figure neither heroic nor romantic; but she lived +her life, the full, healthy, and useful life of a stirring and good lady +of the manor in the fourteenth century.</p> + +<a name="c9" id="c9"></a><br><br> + +<h3>CHAPTER IX</h3> + +<h3>JEANNE DE MONTFORT</h3> + +<p>WE are now coming to a period in the history of France when woman, +though she may not play a part either more prominent or more honorable, +will be a centre of universal interest to the subjects of France and of +England. Much ink and much fluid of a brighter hue and a more precious +quality will be shed in the war between the lawyers and the soldiers of +France on the one hand, and those of England on the other; and all to +establish the legal status of woman in the eyes of the French law. The +great question is: Shall the succession to the crown of France be +governed by the laws and customs prevailing in many other countries and +in a large part of France itself, whereby women are entitled to inherit +equally with men; or shall the ancient law of the Salian Franks apply, +the <i>Loi Salique</i>, "let no part of the Salian land pass into the hands +of a woman"? Since the question has been argued by many a scholiast and +many a historian and settled for all time by the arms of Frenchmen +defending their right to rule France as seemed best to them, we shall +give but small attention to the niceties of the legal argument; but an +exposition of the principal facts seems essential.</p> + +<p>The argument of the French lawyers was that the Salian land was now +represented by domains of the crown; and since the protection of the +Salian land necessitated the guardianship of a man, <i>a fortiori</i> must +the guarding of the kingdom demand the power of the sword rather than +the gentler distaff. Feeling that we owe some apology for clothing in +figurative language the simple statement that no woman could wear the +crown of France, none more apt can we find than a literal transcription +of one of the arguments used by the French lawyers, which suggested the +unfortunate distaff. It ran thus: In the Gospel of Saint Matthew (6: 28) +one reads: "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil +not, neither do they spin: And yet 'I say unto you, That even Solomon in +all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." Now France was the +kingdom of the lily, witness the <i>fleur-de-lis</i> upon the royal arms; +lilies, according to Scripture, are gloriously arrayed, though they +cannot spin: <i>ergo</i>, the kingdom of the lily should never pass to the +distaff.</p> + +<p>There were of course arguments of more weight than this, which we have +ventured to present merely for the sake of its quaintness, +characteristic as it is of the day when tireless pedants were wont to +debate in this fashion all things in heaven and on earth. Closer study +of the Salic law itself, nevertheless, was not reassuring to the +adherents of France; for there they found one of the formulas of Marculf +proving that, from the days of the Merovingian kings, the <i>terre +salique</i>, the allodial land, could be inherited by a woman. This ancient +act reads: "To my dear daughter: It is among us a custom ancient but +impious that sisters shall not share with their brothers in the heritage +of the paternal land. I have considered that you all came to me alike +from God, that you should therefore find an equal share of love in me, +and, after my death, enjoy equally the heritage of my worldly goods. For +these reasons, my sweet daughter, I constitute you by this letter a +legitimate and equal co-heir with your brothers in all my estate, in +such sort that you shall share with them not only the acquired property +but the allodial land." In the abstract, therefore, as much could be +said for as against the claims of a woman to succeed to the crown of +France. There could be no question, however, that the long established +custom of the kingdom had excluded women, and that this exclusion had +operated to the great profit of the kingdom, by keeping it under the +stronger rule of men, and more still by preventing it from passing under +the control of foreign princes who had married French princesses. As a +French constitutional lawyer has remarked: "France is the only one of +the great states of Europe where we see the crown remaining for more +than eight centuries in the same family.... It is to the Salic Law that +France owes the long persistence of the Capetian dynasty."</p> + +<p>In the first half of the fourteenth century it was a danger of exactly +the kind alluded to above that menaced the kingdom of France: a foreign +prince claimed the throne as his heritage through his mother. In order +to understand the absolute futility of the claim made by Edward III. of +England, based on the alleged rights of his mother, Isabelle de France, +daughter of Philippe le Bel, it is necessary only to recall that both +Isabelle's brothers, Louis le Hutin and Charles le Bel, had left +daughters who would have had prior rights if any woman could have +inherited. The potent reasons of public polity which would also have +absolutely excluded Isabelle and Edward III. have been mentioned above, +and are stated in a different way by Froissart. He says that after the +death of Charles IV., "the twelve peers and all the barons of France +would not give the realm to Isabel the sister (of Charles IV., Louis X., +and Philippe V.), who was queen of England, because they said and +maintained, and yet do, that the realm of France is so noble that it +ought not to go to a woman, and so consequently not to Isabel, nor to +the king of England her eldest son: for they determined the son of the +woman to have no right nor succession by his mother, since they declared +the mother to have no right: so that by these reasons the twelve peers +and barons of France by their common accord did give the realm of France +to the lord Philip of Valois, nephew sometime to Philip le Beau king of +France." Then, as all the world knows, ensued the great wars between +France and England of which Froissart tells with such evident enjoyment +of deeds of valor and splendid martial pageants; for, he says, "sith the +time of the good Charlemagne, king of France, there never fell so great +adventures."</p> + +<p>The history of the Hundred Years' War is quite beyond the scope of this +volume; but let us be humble camp followers of the great armies that +march across Froissart's pages, where perchance we may find some women +as amazons, as heroines, or as pitiful victims in this sanguinary and +ruinous conflict.</p> + +<p>The first woman whom we note in this period, Jeanne de Montfort, was a +veritable heroine of the wars, one known to us, through the enthusiastic +record of Froissart, as an amazon, but hardly known at all as a woman. +The only really interesting part of her career is that occurring during +the wars in Brittany, and so we shall begin her history with these +events. Marguerite, or Jeanne,--as she was called, perhaps because her +husband's name was Jean,--de Montfort, wife of the Count de Montfort, +was sister to the Count of Flanders. The countess, whom we shall call +Jeanne, was already a matron when events in her husband's native +Brittany called for his and her presence there. For generations, +Brittany had been ruled by a line of princes who were regarded by the +native population with far greater affection and respect than any king +of France could inspire; for they were of an ancient house, associated +with all the poetic legends of the land which, poets tell us, had been +of the domain of the noble King Arthur. Half of Brittany was rather +inclined to sympathy with France, owing to admixture of French blood, +while the other half, <i>Bretagne bretonnante</i>, clung to the Celtic +traditions and to those of England, the land once dominated by their +race across the channel; but Bretons of any part of Brittany were +Bretons first and always; the allegiance to their dukes was paramount; +that to the King of France was quite an afterthought.</p> + +<p>When John III., Duke of Brittany and a descendant of that Pierre +Mauclerc who caused such serious trouble to Blanche de Castille, died +without issue in 1341, he left the succession to his duchy in a very +uncertain state. He himself had intended that the ducal crown should go +to his niece, Jeanne de Penthièvre, the wife of Charles de Blois, rather +than to Jean de Montfort, who was only a half-brother on the mother's +side. To the ordinary mind it would seem that Jean de Montfort had at +least a reasonable claim; but the Count de Blois was a nephew of +Philippe VI., who would therefore throw all his influence against the +family of Montfort, long allied in one way or another with England.</p> + +<p>Both Montfort and his wife realized that if the succession were left to +the adjudication of the French Court of Peers, their claim would receive +no consideration. Supported in his bold act by the ambitious and +courageous Jeanne, the Count de Montfort, immediately after his +half-brother's death, "went incontinent to Nantes, the sovereign city of +all Bretayne," where his liberal promises and general fair conduct won +him the confidence of the citizens, so that "he was received as their +chief lord, as most next of blood to his brother deceased, and so (they) +did to him homage and fealty. Then he and his wife, who had both the +hearts of a lion, determined with their counsel to call a court and to +keep a solemn feast at Nantes at a day limited, against the which day +they sent for all the nobles and counsels of the good towns of Bretayne, +to be there to do their homage and fealty to him as to their sovereign +lord."</p> + +<p>While the new duke and duchess were waiting and hoping for a large +accession of Breton knights on the day appointed for doing homage, the +duke heard of a large treasure collected by the late duke and stored at +Limoges. Leaving Jeanne at Nantes, he took a small body of knights and +went to Limoges, where he was favorably received, and secured the +treasure, with which he returned to Nantes in time for the appointed day +of homage. But the Breton nobles were not at all inclined to flock to +his banner and hail him as rightful duke, only one knight, Hervé de +Leon, appeared to do homage; and though seven out of nine bishops, and +the burgesses of Nantes, Limoges, and some other towns, had declared for +Montfort, his position was by no means secure. Nevertheless, he and +Jeanne held their little court with what state they could, and +determined to use the treasure taken from Limoges to pay for the defence +of their duchy, hiring mercenaries, "so that they had a great number +afoot and a-horseback, nobles and other of divers countries." With the +aid of these forces,--not always required, for some places were quite +ready to receive him as their lord,--Montfort took certain towns and +fortresses, such as Brest, Rennes, Hennebon, and Vannes.</p> + +<p>Charles de Blois, baffled by the promptness and activity of Montfort and +appalled at the rapidity with which the latter was making himself actual +if not rightful Duke of Brittany, appealed to the King of France, +presenting the claim of his wife, Jeanne de Penthièvre. Montfort, +summoned to appear before the French court, went first to England and +did homage to Edward III. for Brittany. Returning to France, he obeyed +the summons of Philippe, and went to Paris with a splendid retinue, says +Froissart, of four hundred horse, leaving his countess to keep watch for +him in Brittany. The show of force with which Montfort presented himself +before the king did not have the effect of intimidating the latter, if +it had been so intended, and Montfort moderated his tone in the +interview with Philippe, denying positively that he had sworn fealty to +Edward III., and merely urging his rights as nearest of kin to the late +Duke of Brittany. Philippe appointed a day for the meeting of the Court +of Peers to sit in judgment on the claims of the two heirs, and forbade +Montfort to leave Paris during the next fifteen days. Montfort saw, from +the reception accorded him by the crafty Philippe, that his case was +already judged; "he sat and imagined many doubts"; if he remained in +Paris and the verdict of the Peers went against him there was the +certainty of arrest and imprisonment until he should have made an +accounting for the treasure seized at Limoges and delivered up all the +towns he had captured. Therefore he determined upon the course that +would at least give him a chance of active resistance if the worst came +to the worst; he fled from Paris secretly, and was with his wife in +Nantes before the king was aware that the bird had flown. The event +justified his distrust, for on September 7, 1341, the Court of Peers +adjudged the duchy of Brittany to Jeanne de Penthièvre and Charles de +Blois.</p> + +<p>By the aid and counsel of his wife Montfort gathered his forces and +garrisoned the towns he had taken, while Charles de Blois led a French +army against him and soon had him beleaguered in Nantes. The events of +this siege would not concern us, since the Countess Jeanne was not in +Nantes, were it not for the peculiar interest attaching to certain +episodes and the light they throw upon the remarkable character of +Charles de Blois. This man was reputed a saint in his own day, so much +so that, under Pope Urban V., an inquiry was held and a favorable report +made but never acted upon for a formal canonization. We learn some most +curious things from <i>The Life and Miracles of Charles, Duke of Brittany, +of the House of France</i>, in regard to what was in those days considered +evidence of saintliness. "He confessed himself morning and evening, and +heard mass four or five times daily.... Did he meet a priest, down he +flung himself from his horse upon his knees in the mud.... He put +pebbles in his shoes." When he prayed he beat himself in the breast till +he turned black in the face. Next his skin he wore a coarse garment of +sackcloth, and "he did not change his sackcloth, although full of lice +to a wonder; and when his groom of the chambers was about to clean the +said sackcloth of them, the lord Charles said: 'Let be; remove not a +single louse;' and said they did him no harm, and when they stung him he +remembered his God." Truly, at such a price salvation would seem dear to +many of us! Yet the history of the early Church is full of saints whose +fanaticism assumed this extraordinary type, the predilection for bodily +filth. With all this piety, Charles de Blois was unrelentingly cruel and +even immoral; for he began the siege of Nantes by cutting off the heads +of thirty knightly partisans of Montfort and throwing them over the +walls, and when he himself lay dead on the battlefield "a bastard son of +his, called Sir Jean de Blois, was slain by his side."</p> + +<p>Nantes was treacherously captured and Montfort treacherously seized and +imprisoned by the holy Charles de Blois, who sent his rival to be +confined in the tower of the Louvre at Paris. But the war was not over +because the count was captured; there was still the countess to deal +with, that lady, who, according to the enthusiastic Jean Froissart, "had +the courage of a man and the heart of a lion. She was in the city of +Rennes when her lord was taken, and howbeit that she had great sorrow at +her heart, yet she valiantly recomforted her friends and soldiers, and +showed them a little son that she had, called John, and said: 'Ah! sirs, +be not cast down because of my lord, whom we have lost: he was but one +man. See here my little child, who shall be, by the grace of God, his +restorer (avenger) and who shall do well for you. I have riches in +abundance, and I will give you thereof and will provide you with such a +captain that you shall all be recomforted.' When she had thus comforted +her friends and soldiers in Rennes, then she went to all her other +fortresses and good towns, and led ever with her John her young son, and +did to them as she did at Rennes, and fortified all her garrisons of +everything that they wanted, and paid largely and gave freely, whereas +she thought it well employed."</p> + +<p>Jeanne herself was no mean strategist and captain, and she selected for +herself and her young son the strong castle of Hennebon, on the coast of +Brittany, where they passed the winter, she keeping up her connection +with the various garrisons and making preparations to resist Charles de +Blois when he should have reduced Rennes. The siege of this latter place +was not ended until May, 1342, when the citizens surrendered the town +and did homage to Charles de Blois, who was then left free to undertake +the capture of Jeanne de Montfort and her son. "The Earl being in +prison, if they might get the Countess and her son it should make an end +of all their war." Accordingly, the French army laid siege to Hennebon, +establishing as complete a cordon around it as they could by land, the +sea side necessarily remaining open, since they had no fleet to blockade +the port.</p> + +<p>This siege of Hennebon is one of those romantic episodes of history +learned or absorbed almost unconsciously in childhood, which lingers as +a precious memory in the hearts of all who love the brave days of old. +Even France could but forgive the fair and gallant Countess Jeanne, +fighting so valiantly for the heritage of her husband; and whether in +French or in English histories, we find a page or two reserved for +Jeanne de Montfort, a picture of her, maybe, and all because the genius +of Froissart has left us such a vivid narrative of the events at +Hennebon. We shall tell the story, familiar to most of our readers, as +nearly as possible in the style of Froissart.</p> + +<p>"When the countess and her company understood that the Frenchmen were +coming to lay siege to the town of Hennebon, then it was commanded to +sound the watch-bell alarm, and every man to be armed and draw to their +defence." After some preliminary skirmishes, in which the French lost +more than the Bretons, Charles's army encamped for the night about +Hennebon. Next day the siege began with minor attacks, followed on the +third day by a general assault. "The Countess herself ware harness on +her body and rode on a great courser from street to street, desiring her +people to make good defence, and she caused damosels and other women to +tear up the pavements of the streets and carry stones to the battlements +to cast upon their enemies, and great pots full of quicklime."</p> + +<p>"The Countess de Montfort did here a hardy feat of arms, and one which +should not be forgotten. She had mounted a tower to see how her people +fought and how the Frenchmen were ordered (<i>i. e.</i>, disposed for the +assault) without. She saw how that all the lords and all other people of +the host were all gone out of their field to the assault. Then she +bethought her of a great feat, and mounted once more her courser, all +armed as she was, and caused three hundred men a-horseback to be ready, +and went with them to another gate where was no assault. She and her +company sallied out, and dashed into the camp of the French lords, and +cut down tents and fired huts, the camp being guarded by none but +varlets and boys, who ran away. When the lords of France looked behind +them and saw their lodgings afire and heard the cry and noise there, +they returned to the camp crying 'Treason! treason!' so that all the +assault was left.</p> + +<p>"When the Countess saw that, she drew together her company, and when she +saw that she could not enter again into the town without great damage, +she went straight away toward the castle of Brest, which is but three +leagues from there. When Sir Louis of Spain, who was marshal of the +host, was come to the field, and saw their lodgings burning and the +Countess and her company going away, he followed after her with a great +force of men at arms. He chased her so near that he slew and hurt divers +of them that were behind, evil horsed; but the Countess and the most +part of her company rode so well that they came to Brest, where they +were received with great joy by the townspeople."</p> + +<p>The astonishment and chagrin of the French knights upon hearing that the +whole scheme had been conceived and actually carried out by a woman may +well be imagined. They moved their scorched finery into other huts made +of boughs, and prepared to capture the countess if she should return; +but Jeanne was too good a captain to fall into the trap. Her faithful +garrison in Hennebon, not knowing that she had reached Brest safely, +were tormented by the misrepresentations of the besiegers, who told them +they should never see her more. Five days of anxiety passed in this way, +without any tidings of Jeanne. "The Countess did so much at Brest that +she got together five hundred men, well armed and well mounted. And then +she set out from Brest, and by the sunrising she came along by the one +side of the host, and so came to one of the gates of Hennebon, the which +was opened for her, and therein she entered and all her company, with +great noise of trumpets and cymbals." Too late aware of the return of +the valiant lady, the French nevertheless delivered another determined +assault upon Hennebon, in which they lost more than did the defenders. +Seeing the folly of confining all of his men to the siege of Hennebon, +Charles de Blois drew off with part of his army and laid siege to Auray, +while Louis of Spain and Hervé de Leon, now on the side of the French, +were left in charge of the operations at Hennebon.</p> + +<p>The besiegers had several large and powerful catapults, with which they +so battered the walls of the town that the citizens "were sore abashed, +and began to think of surrender." Among those in high place within +Hennebon was the Bishop Guy de Leon, uncle of Hervé de Leon, who now +held a parley with his nephew and agreed to use his influence toward +bringing about a surrender. "The Countess was suspicious of some evil +design the moment the Bishop returned to the castle, and she prayed the +lords of Brittany not to play her false and abandon her, for God's sake; +for that she was in great hopes that she would have succor from England +before three days. Howbeit the Bishop spake so much and showed so many +reasons to the lords that they were in a great trouble all that night. +The next morning they drew to council again, so that they were near of +accord to have given up the town, and Sir Hervé was come near to the +town to have taken possession thereof. Then the Countess looked down +along the sea, out at a window in the castle, and began to smile for +great joy that she had to see the succors coming, the which she had so +long desired. Then she cried out aloud and said twice: 'I see the +succors of England coming.' Then they of the town ran to the walls and +saw a great number of ships great and small coming towards Hennebon."</p> + +<p>We heave a sigh of relief with Jeanne de Montfort; for our sympathies +are always with those who fight the good fight. And all the poetry of +chivalry is suggested in the scene that followed, a scene in whose +enthusiasm and half hysterical joy we can partly sympathize, for we know +that the siege of Hennebon will be raised and that the lady and her son +will go free. The ships in the offing were, indeed, the long delayed +reinforcements which Amaury de Clisson had gone to fetch from England +and which contrary winds had kept at sea sixty days. Bishop Guy de Leon, +in a rage because the surrender he had arranged was not to take place, +at once left the castle, and went over to the enemy: not an irreparable +loss, one would fancy, that counsellor who was ready to treat with the +countess's enemies behind her back.</p> + +<p>The departure of a lukewarm adherent could not mar the joy of the loyal +defenders of Hennebon. "Then the Countess dressed up halls and chambers +to lodge the lords of England that were coming, with much joy, and did +send to meet them with great courtesy. And when they were a-land she +came to them with great reverence and feasted them the best she might, +and thanked them right humbly, for great had been her need. And all the +company, knights and squires and others, she caused to be lodged at +their ease in the castle and in the town, and the next day prepared a +sumptuous feast for them."</p> + +<p>The leader of the English forces which came to the relief of Hennebon +was that chivalrous Sir Walter de Manny, known and loved by all admirers +of Froissart and the Black Prince. This bold and doughty knight had no +sooner tasted of the Countess Jeanne's good cheer than he began looking +about him for some adventure that might profit her and her beleaguered +garrison. The huge catapults erected by the French were still doing +damage to the town, and one of these Sir Walter determined to put out of +action. With the aid of some of the Breton knights a rapid sally was +made, and the "engine" was pulled to pieces, there being but a handful +of men in immediate proximity to defend it. But when the French knights +saw what was happening and hurried to the rescue it behooved the English +knights to beat a retreat. Nevertheless, Sir Walter de Manny cried: "Let +me never more be loved by my dear lady, if I have not one bout with +these fellows." So he and some others rode full tilt at the French +knights, and then, says Froissart, with his love of a fight and of the +comic, there "were several turned heels over head... and many noble +deeds were done on both sides," till Sir Walter drew off his men and +retired to the shelter of the castle walls. "Then the Countess descended +down from the castle with a glad cheer and came and kissed Sir Walter de +Manny and his companions, one after another, two or three times, like a +valiant lady."</p> + +<p>Neither the lady nor Sir Walter shall we blame for this kiss, given with +no thought of unfaithfulness to the husband for whom she was fighting; +it was sheer mad joy that inspired her, and the little incident is +typical of the character of this good lady, so full-blooded, so staunch, +so sturdy a warrior.</p> + +<p>Temporarily worsted at Hennebon, Charles de Blois retired from before it +and went to besiege and capture other places in Brittany. Jeanne de +Montfort had not sufficient troops to make head against him in these +enterprises, and had to look on from Hennebon while he took Dinan, +Vannes, Auray, and other places, in spite of the diversions created by +Sir Walter de Manny and the English allies. After the capitulation of +Carhaix, Charles de Blois returned to the attack upon Hennebon, where he +was joined by his lieutenant, Louis of Spain, disgruntled by a recent +defeat at Quimperle inflicted by Walter de Manny. The siege was again +fruitless, and, during a truce agreed upon between the combatants, the +countess obtained a chance to enlist more active assistance.</p> + +<p>Jeanne hurried over to England to implore more aid from Edward. At that +time the great king was unworthily occupied in his pursuit of the +Countess of Salisbury, in whose honor tournaments were held and +magnificent feasts given in London. In these gayeties the Countess de +Montfort must have shared with but a sad heart; for that heart was set +upon securing aid to win back her husband's patrimony in Brittany, now +all overrun by the adherents of Charles de Blois. At length Edward did +grant her plea, and she set sail for Brittany with a force of men at +arms under command of Robert d'Artois.</p> + +<p>Louis of Spain, with a fleet of Genoese ships, was waiting for the +English off the coast of Guernsey, where a great naval battle was +fought. As the ships neared each other, the Genoese crossbowmen hailed +arrows upon the English, who hastened to grapple. "And when the lords, +knights, and squires came near together, there was a sore battle. The +countess that day was worth a man; she had the heart of a lion, and in +her hand she wielded a sharp glaive, wherewith she fought fiercely." The +English had the better of this hand-to-hand contest, but both sides were +glad to draw off in the night. The elements roused to battle, and a +great tempest wrought much havoc among the ships. After having some of +their stores captured and ships wrecked, the English "took a little +haven not far from the city of Vannes, whereof they were right glad."</p> + +<p>The first task of the countess and her allies was the capture of Vannes, +which was accomplished without serious loss. Leaving Robert d'Artois +with a garrison to hold this city, Jeanne and Walter de Manny went to +loyal Hennebon, while English forces under the Earls of Pembroke and +Salisbury laid siege to Rennes. But Hervé de Leon and Olivier de +Clisson, that rough and sturdy knight called "the butcher," recovered +Vannes, during the defence of which Robert d'Artois was sorely wounded. +He came to Hennebon to recover from his wounds, but grew worse, and +finally returned to England, where he died. This ally of the Countess de +Montfort was the same Robert d'Artois who had sought to deprive the +Countess Mahaut of her heritage. He was a man of most unhappy character, +and rested under the cloud of charges of forgery and other malpractices. +To conclude briefly the part of his story which connects him with Mahaut +d'Artois, we may recall the claim he made upon Artois just before +Mahaut's death, based upon documents forged for him by the wicked Jeanne +de Divion. When Jeanne was brought up to be interrogated, her whole +story broke down the attempts to employ the black art against the king, +which she ascribed to Mahaut, and the documents she had pretended to +discover in the archives of Thierry d'Hireçon--all was shown to be but +puerile fabrication. It was in vain for her to protest that she had +acted in these things at the instigation of the wife of Robert d'Artois; +she was burned as a witch and a forger. Robert, terrified by the +unmasking of his complicity in the forgery, did not await his trial, but +fled to Flanders and thence to England, while his wife, Jeanne de +Valois, although she was the king's sister, was banished to Normandy. It +was the utter wreck of the fortunes of the pair. We regret to find the +name of Jeanne de Montfort linked with that of this pitiful, disgraced +knight, whom people did not hesitate to accuse of having poisoned his +aunt, Mahaut d'Artois, and her daughter, Jeanne, both of whom had died +suddenly within a few months of each other.</p> + +<p>The war was now to assume proportions far greater than had been at first +contemplated; it was become a war between the two kingdoms, and in this +greater drama we all but lose sight of Jeanne de Montfort. Michelet +remarks that, with curious inconsistency, Philippe VI. was upholding in +Brittany the right of the female line, while he denied that right in his +own kingdom, and Edward III. espoused the right of the male line in +Brittany and maintained that of the female in France. The inconsistency +mattered not to either monarch; in each case merely a pretext was sought +for increasing the dignity of his own crown.</p> + +<p>Jean de Montfort, in whose behalf his countess had been conducting the +war in Brittany, escaped from his prison in the Louvre in the spring of +1345, and made his way to England. Furnished with an army by Edward, he +returned to Brittany, but was repulsed before Quimper, and died at +Hennebon, in September, leaving his claims to his young son and their +prosecution to his heroic widow. With the aid of the English, Jeanne +continued the struggle, and had the usual fortunes of war, now victor, +now vanquished, in a strife that came to be known as the war of the +three ladies. The three ladies were Jeanne herself, Jeanne de Clisson, +and Jeanne de Penthièvre. Jeanne de Clisson and her boy fled from the +French to the Countess of Montfort, after Philippe VI., in 1345, had +treacherously seized and executed Olivier de Clisson; Jeanne de +Penthièvre was left, like Jeanne de Montfort, to support her own claims, +for Charles de Blois, her husband, coming into Brittany and laying siege +to the fortress of La Roche-Darien, had been surprised and captured by +the Countess de Montfort at the head of her English troops. While he was +held prisoner in England, Jeanne de Penthièvre made herself the head of +her party, a leader in field and in council not unworthy to rival Jeanne +de Montfort.</p> + +<p>Fortune favored the cause of the house of Montfort, and Jeanne had the +pleasure of seeing her son win first a temporary advantage, then a +complete victory over the house of Blois. At the battle of Auray Charles +was slain, and the treaty of Guerande, negotiated soon after (1364), +finally recognized the young Jean de Montfort as Duke of Brittany, while +Jeanne de Penthièvre had to content herself with the county of +Penthièvre and the viscounty of Limoges. Brittany was weary of the war +which had desolated the land from 1342 to 1364, and the battle of Auray +had been the decisive struggle, in which both sides had determined to +win or lose all.</p> + +<p>Of the private character of Jeanne de Montfort we cannot speak with any +degree of assurance, since the information we possess is very slight. +Hume has ventured to characterize her as "the most extraordinary woman +of the age," which is in some respects true enough. In those qualities +admired by chivalry she was unquestionably an extraordinary woman; +courageous and personally valiant, with a head to plan daring exploits +and a heart to conduct her through the thick of the danger, impulsive +and generous, a free-handed ruler, and an admirer of those deeds of +chivalrous daring in others which she was only too ready to share +herself. No Eleanor of Guienne have we here, masquerading in tinsel +armor at the head of a troop of stage amazons, but a gallant lady +charging her foes sword in hand. One cannot read her story without +enthusiasm; and yet one would gladly know more of the woman before +bestowing unreserved praise upon the countess "who was worth a man in +the fight," and "who had the heart of a lion."</p> + +<p>With all the brilliance and the heroism of these wars between England +and France, the glory is not untarnished; for the very patterns of +chivalry were too often guilty of most atrocious cruelties. Charles, the +saintly Count of Blois, cutting off the heads of the Breton knights and +throwing them over the walls of Nantes; Philippe VI. inviting the +Bretons to a tourney, and then seizing and executing them; the Count de +Lisle hurling from a catapult, over the walls of Auberoche, the +miserable servant who had ventured to bear letters from the garrison +through his lines; these, and more than these, are the sort of things +one finds even in the pages of Froissart, who was so careful to conceal +the unpleasant and to bring into the light of genius the chivalrous +episodes in his chronicle of the wars. For the weak and the fallen there +is little of pity; a word as some brave knight falls, a word of the +sorrow of those dependent upon him, and on we go to fresh fields, fresh +knightly exploits and pageants. Though the very spirit of chivalry is in +the air, how little thought is given to woman! It is only the rare +masculine qualities of a Jeanne de Montfort that can win her grudging +notice from Froissart.</p> + +<p>When such is the spirit animating the great chronicler of the age, it is +rather remarkable that we find even three or four women winning such +fame as to be remembered. The great war will in time bring forth the +greatest heroine of France; yet it may be questioned whether Jeanne +d'Arc would have received even fair treatment at the hands of Froissart, +if the knight-chronicler had lived to see the glory of this wonderful +peasant girl illumine all France. We may guess that Jeanne the saint, +even Jeanne the valiant warrior (he loved warriors better than saints), +would have been for him but Jeanne the peasant, the miserable child of +some more miserable Jacques Bonhomme, to whom the courtly chronicler +would have referred with contempt, scorn, or brutal hate.</p> + +<p>The horrors of war are not allowed on the scene in the chronicles from +which we draw most of our information about Jeanne de Montfort; but it +is pleasant to find in these same pages at least one recognition of the +higher and better role of woman, as intercessor for the distressed. We +allude, of course, to the famous and beautiful story of Philippa of +Hainault saving the citizens of Calais, a story which we shall venture +to sketch once more, in order to bring before our readers a famous +character and a famous scene in history.</p> + +<p>For eight months the English army had lain before Calais, while the king +stubbornly persevered in his determination to reduce the town and the +garrison as stubbornly determined to resist to the death. Edward had +built for his camp a regular town about Calais, and starvation had at +last reduced the citizens to the point of submission. Jean de Vienne, +the commander of the garrison, parleyed with Edward's representatives, +but no terms could be obtained; the absolute surrender of the entire +garrison was demanded, with the threat of death for the bravest of them, +or Edward would go on with the siege till there should be absolute +necessity of yielding. To these terms Jean de Vienne nobly refused to +consent. Walter de Manny and other knights pleaded with the king to be +more merciful, if not out of kindness of heart then at least out of +policy, for fear of reprisals on the part of the French. The peculiarly +harsh and puerile conditions then proposed by Edward are well known: +"Sir Walter de Manny, say then to the captain of Calais that the +greatest grace that he and his shall find in me is that six of the chief +burgesses of the town come out to me bareheaded, barefooted, and +bare-legged, and in their shirts, with halters about their necks, and +with the keys of the town and the castle in their hands. With these six +will I deal as pleases me; the rest I will admit to mercy."</p> + +<p>Jean de Vienne announced the terms to the citizens, and even he wept +that he should have to bring them such cruel terms. "After a little +while there rose the most rich burgess of the town, called Eustace de +St. Pierre, and said openly: 'Sirs, great and small, great mischief it +should be to suffer to die such people as be in this town, by famine or +otherwise, when there is a means to save them.... As for my part, I have +so good trust in our Lord God, that if I die in the quarrel to save the +residue, that God would pardon me of all my sins; wherefore to save them +I will be the first to put my life in jeopardy.'"</p> + +<p>Beside the quiet heroism of this rich merchant of old Calais, what +tinsel seems the glory of the best of Froissart's favorite knights! +"King Edward may have been the victor,... as being the strongest, but +you are the hero of the siege of Calais! Your story is sacred, and your +name has been blessed for five hundred years. Wherever men speak of +patriotism and sacrifice, Eustace de Saint-Pierre shall be beloved and +remembered. I prostrate myself before the bare feet which stood before +King Edward. What collar of chivalry is to be compared to that glorious +order which you wear? Think,... how out of the myriad millions of our +race, you, and some few more, stand forth as exemplars of duty and +honour." Well does Eustace de Saint-Pierre merit the enthusiastic +phrases which we have copied from one who was no historian, but a great +man with a great heart William Makepeace Thackeray! For "greater love +hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."</p> + +<p>Heroism was contagious in those days as for all time, and the example of +Eustace de Saint-Pierre was speedily followed by five of his fellow +townsmen. Let us now pass to the heroine of the story, Queen Philippa. +When the six burgesses, in their humble state, were led to the feet of +the haughty and relentless Edward, all pleas were vain to save them, the +king turning away in wrath even from the faithful Walter de Manny and +commanding that the hangman be summoned. "Then the Queen, being great +with child, kneeled down, and sore weeping said: 'Ah, gentle sir, sith I +passed the sea in great peril I have desired nothing of you; therefore +now I humbly require you in the honour of the son of the Virgin Mary and +for the love of me that ye will take mercy of these six burgesses.' The +King beheld the Queen and stood still in a study a space, and then said: +'Ah, dame, I would ye had been as now in some other place; ye make such +request to me that I cannot deny you. Wherefore I give them to you, to +do your pleasure with them.' Then the Queen caused them to be brought +into her chamber, and made the halters to be taken from their necks, and +caused them to be new clothed, and gave them their dinner at their +leisure; and then she gave each of them six nobles, and made them to be +brought out of the host in safeguard and set at their liberty."</p> + +<p>A noble picture is this of the clemency of a woman where the prayers of +men availed not; and we join Jean Froissart in honoring his royal +patroness and mistress, "the most gentle Queen, most liberal and most +courteous that ever was Queen in her days, the which was the fair lady +Philippa of Hainault, Queen of England and Ireland." But it was not for +her mercifulness alone or even in chief that Froissart admired her; he +chiefly praises her because she was a woman warrior almost as determined +and successful as Jeanne de Montfort, and had come to Calais fresh from +her victories over the Scots, of which Froissart gives a careful and +glowing account.</p> + +<a name="c10" id="c10"></a><br><br> + +<h3>CHAPTER X</h3> + +<h3>AT THE COURT OF THE MAD KING</h3> + +<p>That France which had known queens good and bad, from Constance in the +tenth to Blanche of Castille in the thirteenth century, was delivered +over, toward the close of the fourteenth, to the hands of one of the +worst women in her history. The woes of France under the rule of the mad +King Charles VI. would have been enough to bear; but the Court of France +was led in a veritable saturnalia by the licentious Queen Isabeau de +Bavière. Once more, in Isabeau, we find a woman whose life-story cannot +be told without at the same time telling much of the history of France; +but it is not because the queen does anything good that we must tell of +the government of the kingdom during her ascendancy; she does nothing +but indulge her vulgar tastes for pleasure and debauchery, to satisfy +which she would pawn France itself.</p> + +<p>In 1380, died the wise though unlovely Charles V., leaving the kingdom +temporarily free from the English and in just that nice state of balance +between recuperation and ruin when a little thing would suffice to turn +the scale either way. His son and heir was a boy of twelve, already +madly fond of pleasure, already filling his weak head with fantastic +tales of chivalry and romantic devotion to such sturdy warriors as Du +Guesclin, whom he could never hope to rival. His reign begins in a +dream--a dream of his meeting a fantastic flying hart, which he took for +his emblem. The dream goes on, in mad festivities encouraged by Philippe +le Hardi, Duke of Burgundy, who had chief charge of the boy. This +Philippe--that same brave son of King John whom we see at Poitiers +fighting by his father's side--was a great man, though not lovable; he +was too acute a politician to be altogether admirable. In one of the +grand shows arranged for the boy king on the occasion of the double +marriage of the son and the daughter of Philippe de Bourgogne to the +daughter and the son of Duke Alberic of Bavaria, the Duchess of Brabant, +whom Froissart calls a woman "full of good counsel," suggested to the +king's uncles that it would be well to find a wife for the young king in +the same powerful family now allied to the house of Burgundy. Nothing +could have better suited the plans of Philippe de Bourgogne, who +accordingly sent portrait painters to reproduce the charms of the +respective candidates for the hand of the king, and from the portraits +selected Isabeau de Bavière, daughter of Etienne II. and a princess of +the great Italian family of Visconti.</p> + +<p>The young Isabeau, whose portrait showed her to be the most beautiful of +the princesses to be chosen from, was brought into Brabant by her uncle, +under pretext of a pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint John of Amiens, +while the Duke of Burgundy at the same time found an excuse for +conducting Charles to Amiens, without giving him the slightest hint of +the purpose of the journey. Isabeau was presented to the king by the +Duchesses of Brabant and Bourgogne, and kneeled low before him, lifting +up her sweet girlish face to him in lieu of speaking in a tongue as yet +unknown to her. Then Charles took her by the hand, raised her and looked +at her pensively; "and in this look the sweet thought of love did enter +into his heart." After the ladies had withdrawn from the royal presence, +the Sire de la Rivière, an old minister of Charles V., asked the king: +"Sire, what think you of this young lady? shall she remain with us?" "By +my faith, yes," replied Charles, "we wish no other, for she pleases us." +There was no tarrying for elaborate ceremonies, fond as the king was of +them; Charles insisted on an immediate wedding. He and the young German +princess were married on July 17, 1385, four days after this first +interview. The bride was but fourteen, and the groom not quite +seventeen; it was one of those infamous child marriages of which the +history of Europe is too full.</p> + +<p>Isabeau de Bavière was already of a slothful habit, to be roused only by +her love of amusement, to purchase which neither she nor her young +husband would spare anything. Luxury and wild extravagance in dress, in +entertainments, even in funerals, was characteristic of the age; the +whole kingdom gave itself up to extravagance and debauchery; existence +was one mad revel, with no thought of who should pay the piper; all must +dance and caper as if bitten by the tarantula. The very costumes are +wild: "Here (we see) men-women comically tricked out, and effeminately +trailing on the ground robes twelve ells long; there, others, whose +figures are distinctly defined by their short Bohemian jackets and tight +pantaloons, though with sleeves floating down to the ground; here, +men-beasts, embroidered all over with animals of every kind; there, +men-music, pricked all over with notes, from which one could sing before +or behind; while others placarded themselves with a scrawl of signs and +letters, which, no doubt, said nothing good.... Rational beings did not +hesitate to disguise themselves in the satanic, bestial shapes which +grin down upon us from the eaves of churches. Women wore horns on their +heads, men on their feet the peaks of their shoes were twisted up into +horns, griffins, serpents' tails. The women, above all, would have made +our spirits (of the age of Saint Louis) tremble; with their bosoms +exposed, they haughtily paraded high above the heads of the men their +gigantic hennin (the peaked and horned headdress) with its scaffolding +of horns, requiring them to turn sideways and stoop as often as they +went in or out of a room."</p> + +<p>With all this outlandish fashion of dress the young queen was in perfect +accord; and the life of the court was one succession of brilliant +entertainments, wicked in their sensuality no less than in their waste +of the revenues of a kingdom already impoverished by long wars. During +the early years of her presence--we cannot call it her rule--in France, +Isabeau took no part in politics; neither did her husband, for that +matter, since he left the government in the hands of his uncles, chief +of whom was Philippe de Bourgogne. We shall therefore have little to +record at first beyond some of the more noteworthy of the doings at the +court.</p> + +<p>The first of these, and one of the most scandalous, occurred in May, +1388; and the occasion which it was intended to celebrate merits some +attention from those who would appreciate the utter incapacity of +Charles VI. even at this period. To understand the circumstances we must +go back to the time when Charles V. lay dying, and his brother, Louis, +Duke of Anjou, waited in an adjoining room till the breath should be out +of the king's body. When the king was really dead, out came Louis to +seize upon the plate and other movables of value. Hearing that Charles +had concealed a considerable treasure in the walls of his palace at +Melun, and being unable to discover the hiding place, this affectionate +brother sent for the treasurer of the late king, and uttered the grim +threat: "You will find that money for me, or off goes your head." The +executioner was there with his ax--the treasure was found; and Louis +carried it off to squander it in prosecuting his claims to the throne of +Naples. Now he was dead, and his two sons were about to leave France to +continue the fight for Naples. So far from remembering with resentment +the enormous sums formerly stolen from him by this very family, Charles +VI. must needs squander more in a splendid show to celebrate the +knighting of the princes of Anjou.</p> + +<p>That ceremony in which the young soldier of God swore to defend the +right, with all the solemn and impressive ritual that the Church could +devise to sanctify and dignify his act, was to be turned into a vile +debauch. In the ancient abbey of Saint-Denis, beside the tombs of the +great dead who had glorified France, were lodged "the Queen and a bevy +of illustrious ladies." Monastery or no monastery, the monks must harbor +these fair guests, whom all the rules of their order would have rigidly +excluded. Says the chronicle of a monk of Saint-Denis: "To gaze on their +exceeding beauty you would have said it was a meeting of the heathen +goddesses." And so they were, heathen goddesses, with a lawless Venus at +their head. But the festival, be it remembered, was a religious one; we +go "to hear mass every morning." The religious services over, the day +was given up to magnificent tourneys and rich banquets, and the nights +to balls, masked balls, "to hide blushes." For three days and three +nights was this revel maintained, the mad Bacchanals scrupling not to +defile even the most sacred places by their orgies, which the presence +of the king and queen rather encouraged than checked. It was the queen +herself, indeed, who loved all this. One does not wonder that people +began to whisper that she had already shown more than decorous affection +for her brother-in-law, the brilliant Louis d'Orléans; in the +<i>pervigilium Veneris</i>, the "wake of Venus," as they called the balls at +Saint-Denis, who could say what might have happened?</p> + +<p>The king attained his majority; in a sudden fit of impatience, he threw +off the control of his uncles, till now the rulers of France, and set up +his own government. The royal princes had not been good governors; each +one was too intent upon his own interests to consider those of France; +and accordingly France hated them, and hoped for better things from the +young king and his sober government of humble counsellors. But Charles +needed excitement; in lieu of war there were fetes, upon which he +squandered money till the people groaned and the councillors trembled. +Any excuse was sufficient for holding a fête. Of a sudden, Charles and +Isabeau remembered that the queen had never been crowned and had never +made a royal entry into Paris. The city was ordered to make unexampled +preparations to receive Isabeau as queen; she had been living in Paris a +good part of the time during the four years since her marriage, but that +did not do away with the necessity for a formal introduction to the +capital of her dominions.</p> + +<p>With his usual love of the spectacular, Froissart gives us an account, +covering many pages, of the reception of Isabeau. The Parisians dressed +themselves in gay costumes of scarlet, and green, and gold, each vying +with his neighbor and rivalling, as far as he dared, the gorgeousness of +the courtiers and nobles. The fountains ran wine and milk, the balconies +and windows were festooned with flowers and crowded with eager +spectators, while musicians played before the doors of many houses and +miracle plays were given on the street corners. On August 22nd, the +young queen, hailed at every step by the acclamations of the throngs in +the streets, and accompanied by a crowd of noble ladies borne in +sumptuous litters, passed from Saint-Denis to Paris. At the Porte +Saint-Denis there was a canopy representing "heaven, made full of stars, +and within it young children apparelled like angels," and an "image of +Our Lady herself," holding the infant Saviour. Two of the angels, let +down from heaven by ropes, placed a golden crown upon Isabeau's head, +singing: "Sweet lady amid the <i>fleur-de-lis</i>, are you not from heaven?"</p> + +<p>"Then when the Queen and the ladies were passed by," having greatly +admired this "high heaven richly apparelled with the arms of France, the +device of the king," they proceeded along the street till they came to a +place where was a fountain, "which was covered over with a cloth of fine +azure, painted full of flower-de-luces of gold.... And out of this +fountain there issued in great streams spiced drinks and claret, and +about this fountain there were young maidens richly apparelled, with +rich chaplets on their heads, singing melodiously: great pleasure it was +to hear them. And they held in their hands cups and goblets of gold, +offering and giving to drink all such as passed by; and the Queen rested +there and regaled herself and regarded them, having great pleasure in +that device, and so did all other ladies and damosels that saw it."</p> + +<p>Passing onward to where stood the Church of Saint James, "all the street +of Saint-Denis was covered over with cloths of silk and camlet, such +plenty as though such cloths should cost nothing. And I, Sir John +Froissart, author of this history, was present and saw all this and had +great wonder where such number of cloths of silk were gotten; there was +as great plenty as though they had been in Alexandria or Damascus; and +all the houses on both sides of the great street of Saint-Denis were +hanged with cloths of Arras of divers histories, the which was pleasure +to behold."</p> + +<p>At the "bridge of Paris," hard by Notre-Dame, fresh wonders awaited the +queen. A master tumbler, from Genoa, "had tied a cord on the highest +house of the bridge of Saint-Michael over all the houses, and the other +end was tied on the highest tower in Our Lady's church. And as the Queen +passed by, and was in the street called Our Lady's street, because it +was late, this said master with two burning candles in his hands issued +out of a little stage that he had made on the height of Our Lady's +tower, and singing he went upon the cord all along the great street, so +that all saw him and had marvel how it might be." This tumbler, dressed +as an angel, gave another crown to Isabeau, and then mounting skyward +disappeared through a slit in the canopy over the bridge, as if he were +returning to heaven.</p> + +<p>In the great Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Isabeau was crowned, saying, says +Froissart,--not without an equivocation of which he himself was +doubtless quite unconscious,--"what prayers she pleased." But the +festivities were not over; we have omitted many a detail given by +Froissart plays and dumb shows presenting indiscriminately the sacred +histories of Scripture and the legends of French heroes, castles full of +mock monsters, representations of the entire heavenly hierarchy and of +the dream which had suggested to Charles the emblem of the flying hart. +With gay balls at night and jousts and miracle plays by day, the +celebration was continued for several days. The merchants of Paris +presented to the queen and to Valentine Visconti, the new Duchess of +Orléans, most costly jewels, rich sets of plate, in gold and silver, +cups, and salvers, and dishes of gold, "whereat everyone marvelled +greatly," and the royal pair were greatly pleased.</p> + +<p>Who was to pay for all the display in this entry of the queen? The +citizens of Paris had fondly hoped that, what with their show of loyal +joy and their presents,--aggregating some sixty thousand crowns in +gold,--the king would be pleased to remit certain oppressive taxes. On +the contrary, it was the citizens of Paris who were compelled to pay for +all this fine foolery. Charles departed from Paris a few days after the +conclusion of his fête, leaving behind him an increased tax and an +ordinance prohibiting, under penalty of death, the use of certain silver +coins of small value; this latter restriction, which was intended to +favor the circulation of his new and debased coinage, inflicted peculiar +hardships upon the poor. Thus, Isabeau was already inflicting much +misery upon the poor of that capital which had lavished so much upon +her; and before we bestow our commiseration upon the miserable king in +after days, it is well to remember the miseries of his subjects.</p> + +<p>Life had been as yet but a dream for Charles and his queen; though +France was rapidly going to ruin under their extravagant and heedless +rule, could they not chase away care in revels surpassing any that +France had yet seen? But the dream was soon to become a nightmare, the +hideous nightmare of insanity, for this heedless monarch.</p> + +<p>It was not until three years after the coronation of Isabeau that her +unfortunate husband had the first attack of what was, unmistakably, +insanity, though to any reasonable creature the behavior of the whole +court would have seemed mad enough from the beginning. One of those acts +of lawless private vengeance which were so soon to become dreadfully +familiar in France first excited the king almost to the point of frenzy. +A certain Pierre de Craon, a noble who had already distinguished himself +by robbing the late Duke of Anjou, was driven from Paris by the Duke of +Orléans, to whose wife he had imprudently revealed some of the +infidelities of her too licentious husband. He fled to Jean de Montfort, +who persuaded him that the person chiefly responsible for his disgrace +was the renowned Olivier de Clisson, Conétable of France. Secretly +returning to Paris, Pierre de Craon lay in wait for the constable one +night and fell upon him with a band of bravoes. The brave De Clisson was +seriously wounded, and the villains fled, thinking him slain. Charles, +who favored De Clisson, was furious at the outrage, and breathed +vengeance against Craon. As Jean de Montfort constituted himself the +defender of this wretch, and refused to deliver him up to justice, the +lands belonging to Craon were devastated, his wife and children were +driven forth, and war was declared upon Brittany.</p> + +<p>The king had always had a passionate love for the more theatrical side +of war, and, as soon as the constable was able to ride, the king and his +forces marched upon Brittany. We may pass over the earlier part of his +campaign, taken up in aimless marches and as aimless parleying. On +August 5, 1392, during a spell of intensely hot weather, Charles marched +out of Mans. He had been suffering from a fever, was much weakened, and +had for days been greatly harassed by the heat and the baffling of his +delayed vengeance; he was moody, and "his spirits sore troubled and +travailed," when, as he rode through the forest of Mans, there suddenly +rushed to his horse's head a wild figure, half clothed, and manifestly +mad. Seizing the king's bridle, the apparition exclaimed, with that +strange earnestness so often noticeable in those whose reason is +unbalanced: "Sir King, ride no further forward, for thou art betrayed." +The servants hastily drove away the poor madman, and sought to restore +the king's peace of mind, more seriously disturbed than ever by a +happening that might well have startled even a person in strong health. +On rode the cavalcade, out over the open plains, where a blazing sun +beat full upon the king's head, protected only by a thin cap. Suddenly +Charles started, checked his horse, drew his sword, and charged upon the +pages who rode beside him, crying, as if in the heat of battle: "On, on! +down with these traitors!" Madly pursuing the pages, he put to flight +even the Duke of Orléans, and was not overpowered and disarmed until he +and his horse were quite exhausted.</p> + +<p>He recognized none of those about him, and only physical weakness +prevented him from becoming again a frantic lunatic. The poor weak +brain, over-excited and worn-out by the long years of debauchery, was +hopelessly overthrown; though sane at times, and even for considerable +periods, Charles VI. was evermore incapable of ruling, being a mere +helpless and unhappy tool in the hands of the heartless people who could +win sufficient power to rule what was left of France.</p> + +<p>The queen was no Blanche de Castille, able to rule a kingdom, and the +king's uncle, Philippe de Bourgogne, was at first the real power in +France. He was opposed by Isabeau de Bavière and her paramour and +brother-in-law, Louis d'Orléans, brother of the king; and the history of +the next few years is largely a record of shameless intrigues between +these people to obtain control of the mad king, in whose name many an +odious thing was done. The regency should, by rights, have devolved upon +the king's eldest brother, Louis d'Orléans, who was twenty-one years of +age at the time of Charles's madness; but the Dukes of Burgundy and +Berri set him aside for "his too great youth." There might have been +found some precedent for recognizing Isabeau as regent; but there is no +evidence that she ever made any serious efforts to establish her claim; +for she was content with that which the Duke of Burgundy was quite +willing to allow her, viz., the squandering of money--not his money--in +her pleasures. Isabeau was nominally associated in the council that +exercised the powers of regency, but she was really under the control of +the Duchess of Burgundy, whom the chroniclers call "a haughty and cruel +woman."</p> + +<p>With such care as the doctors of the period were likely to give him, +there was not much hope of the permanent restoration of the king's +reason. One learned physician, however, did have the correct idea as to +the cause of Charles's malady and prescribed a moderate diet and a quiet +life for him. Under this wise treatment Charles soon recovered as much +reason as he had ever had; but the regimen imposed by the physician's +orders was as distasteful to the king as it was to Isabeau. The queen, +under pretext of furnishing diversions for him, began again the wild +life of debauchery which had been the prime cause of Charles's insanity. +It was at one of these festivals that occurred the famous "dance of +savages" that so nearly deprived France of her mad king.</p> + +<p>The chronicler of Saint-Denis says that "it was an evil custom of the +time in many parts of France to indulge unreproved in all sorts of +indecent follies at the marriage of a widow, and to assume with their +extravagant masks and disguises the liberty of making all sorts of +obscene remarks to the bride and bridegroom." It was at a sort of +charivari held one night (January 29, 1393) in celebration of the +marriage of one of Isabeau's German waiting women, a widow, that Hugues +de Guisay, one of those panders to the follies of the rich and +extravagant who plan their "amusements" for them, undertook to divert +the mad king, the queen, and the whole court. He devised "six coats made +of linen cloth covered with pitch and thereon flax like hair." Charles +put on one of these, and he and his five satyr-like companions, much +delighted with their resemblance to things of horrid form, pranced in +among the other revellers. The five were linked together by a chain, the +king, fortunately, being loose and preceding them. As the wretched +Charles, in his disgraceful costume, was trying to fulfil the part of a +satyr indeed by teasing and exchanging coarse jests with the young +Duchess of Berri, Louis d'Orléans came into the room. Wishing to +discover who it was so disguised--we refuse to credit the account which +says he acted in mere heedless desire to see what would happen--he held +a torch too near one of the tow-clad gallants. In an instant the whole +five unhappy victims of folly were in a blaze. "Save the King! save the +King!" cried one of them as he burned. Fortunately the Duchess of Berri, +guessing that it was the king who stood by her, covered him with her +cloak and prevented his costume from catching fire. Four of the others, +whom not a soul in this gay assemblage seems to have made serious +attempts to rescue, were burned to death, one escaping by jumping into a +large tub of water in the pantry. Among those who died was the wanton +deviser of this foolish and dangerous amusement; and as his body was +borne to the tomb through the streets of Paris the people cursed him and +called out after him, as he had been wont to speak to the poor when it +pleased him to amuse himself with them: "Bark, dog!"</p> + +<p>Wonderful to relate, this scene of horror at the dance of savages does +not appear to have occasioned an immediate relapse on the part of the +king. Isabeau, who had manifested extreme terror and sympathy at the +moment of her husband's peril, joined him in making virtuous resolutions +to lead a more regular and sober life. But the love of pleasure was too +firmly rooted; there were renewed debauches, and Charles became more +violently mad than before, knowing neither his wife nor his children, +and even denying his own identity. And so it continued throughout his +life: following the regimen of his doctors, Charles would have a lucid +interval; then he chased the doctors from the palace and went back to +debauchery and to madness. Astrologers were sent for to enlist the +sidereal powers in his behalf; one astrologer brought a book which he +affirmed the Lord had sent to Adam by the hand of an angel; what good it +had done to Adam appeareth not, but it certainly did not relieve the +king. Then there were two Austin friars (!) who made a draught of +powdered pearls and enlisted all the forces of sorcery in the king's +behalf; but the king did not recover, and the friars were handed over to +the Inquisition, condemned, and decapitated.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile any affection that Isabeau may have felt for her husband had +passed away. She had found the Duke of Burgundy at last unendurably +parsimonious; Louis d'Orléans was far more liberal with the money of the +kingdom; besides, he was a handsome rake, whom all the women loved; it +was inevitable that Isabeau should ally herself with the man who was +willing not only to share her wanton pleasures but to squeeze out of the +people the money required for them. The people, particularly the people +of Paris, hated the Duke of Orléans because he was always imposing more +taxes, and loved the Duke of Burgundy because he was politic enough to +pretend to reduce taxes. It is therefore not surprising that we have so +many accounts of the outrageous conduct of Isabeau de Bavière and Louis +d'Orléans; for if the people are long-suffering, they yet do not forget.</p> + +<p>In order to meet some part of the expenses incurred by the prodigality +of the court, Louis d'Orléans and the queen, in 1405, imposed a new tax. +The prisons were soon crowded with poor wretches who could not pay the +impost even by selling all their belongings, to the very straw of their +beds. While the queen amused herself the people cursed. Not knowing what +could become of the great sums raised and squandered by the worthless +pair, the people said that Isabeau sent cartloads of gold into Bavaria +and that Louis wasted it in magnificent structures on his domain at +Couci and at Pierrefonds.</p> + +<p>The wild accusations of a maddened people, however, were not without +excuse. This miserable wanton who was Queen of France left her husband, +the poor, good-natured madman, and her children to the care of servants +whose wages, in the midst of all this waste of the public money, she +forgot to pay. The servants neglected both children and husband; the +King of France was allowed to remain in filth and rags, covered with +vermin that made repulsive sores upon him, while the little dauphin was +but a half starved ragamuffin. One of the physicians discovered in what +state Charles was: he had refused to bathe or to change his clothes for +five months, and there was danger of his dying from sheer filth. +Disguising some of his attendants in fearful costumes, the physician +sent them into the mad king's den, where they terrified him into +passivity and managed to bathe him, dress his sores, and change his +clothes before the fit of terror passed away. When Charles next had a +lucid interval he learned of the neglect of Isabeau, thanked those who +had been more tender than his wife, and gave one lady, who had tried to +care for the dauphin, a goblet of gold.</p> + +<p>The indignation of the people was great; all classes united in +abhorrence of this shameless wife and mother. An Austin friar, bolder +than the rest, preached a sermon before Isabeau and openly reproved her +wantonness: "At your court reigns dame Venus, and her waiting maids are +Lechery and Gormandise." The queen and her idle and vicious courtiers +wished him punished for his effrontery; but Charles, hearing what he had +said, declared that he liked such sermons, sent for the preacher, +listened with interest and attention to his recital of the woes of the +kingdom, projected reforms--and went mad again.</p> + +<p>While the fit of reform was on, Louis d'Orléans, terrified by a storm +that had overtaken him and Isabeau in one of their pleasure-jaunts, +vowed to repent and pay his debts. At these glad tidings over eight +hundred creditors assembled; but the clouds rolled away, and with them +went Louis's desire to be honest. He laughed at the creditors and gave +secret orders to debase the coinage.</p> + +<p>The poor king was just sane enough to realize that things were going +wrong; he appealed for help to the Duke of Burgundy. The vigorous and +pitiless Jean Sans Peur, who had succeeded Philippe le Hardi in +Burgundy, came down upon Paris, and Isabeau fled with Orléans to Melun, +abandoning Charles, but planning to carry off next day the royal +children and those of the Duke of Burgundy. Jean de Bourgogne, however, +overtook the children and brought them back to Paris, where he now +(August, 1405) established himself in the Louvre.</p> + +<p>So outrageous had been the spoliation under Isabeau and Louis that the +Parisians welcomed Jean as a deliverer. The queen, under cover of a +pretended right to appropriate goods for royal uses, had systematically +not only taken the necessaries of life, provisions and the like, but had +seized merchandise, jewels, money stored away by the owners, and +furniture, plundering even the hospitals, and storing these stolen goods +with the intention of selling them at auction. Greed was her +predominating trait, and so we are not surprised to find her hatred of +Jean Sans Peur increasing to the point of virulence when she was +deprived of the opportunity of robbing unmolested. Unfortunately for +her, Orléans was not a man of ability or energy sufficient to cope +successfully with Jean de Bourgogne, and the struggle between the two +dukes merely exhausted the resources of Orléans without seriously +impairing those of his opponent. Isabeau, moreover, was not +bloodthirsty; both her indolence and her interest impelled her to favor +the peace between the two dukes which was brought about in the closing +months of 1407.</p> + +<p>Louis was ill; in mere kindness his cousin of Burgundy visited him, and +a reconciliation was effected. As soon as Louis was recovered from his +indisposition the two, accompanied by the old Duke de Berri, who was +anxious to promote peace, heard mass and took communion together, +swearing fraternal love for each other. This was on Sunday, November 27, +1407. On the next Wednesday evening Louis d' Orléans went as usual to +sup with Isabeau at the Hotel Barbette, and was in particularly high +spirits, attempting to divert the queen, who had been much distressed at +the birth of a stillborn child, a love child, as people said. About +eight o'clock in the evening, a message, apparently from the king, +summoned Louis, and as he went in response to the summons, accompanied +by but a few pages and servants, he was set upon and hacked to pieces in +the streets of Paris by a gang of ruffians under one Raoul d'Octonville.</p> + +<p>The assassins made good their escape before people knew what had +happened. When the death of the king's brother was discovered, great was +the consternation; for all knew that such a crime had not been committed +by an obscure scoundrel, and the question was asked, what great man had +hired the assassins? In a few days Jean de Bourgogne, in a mood between +terror and impudent bravado, confessed that he was guilty of the foul +murder of the man to whom he had so recently sworn amity in the sight of +God. Fearing that even his rank could not sufficiently shield him from +punishment for this shedding of the blood royal, Jean fled from Paris to +his own dominions.</p> + +<p>The dead man had been neither a good brother nor a good prince; with all +of those facile graces which might have made him lovable to all men and +did make him fascinating to most women he had combined no sterling +qualities. He was not cruel; that is the only relatively good trait--and +even that but negative--that we can set over against his reckless +frivolity and licentiousness, his shameless infidelity and disregard of +oaths and the most sacred obligations. He was not mourned in Paris, +which was shocked but not grieved at his death; he was not sincerely +mourned by the infamous queen whom he had led away from her duty to her +pitiful, insane husband; but he was mourned by the woman whom he had +most deeply wronged--his wife.</p> + +<p>This wife was the lovely Italian, Valentine Visconti, daughter of the +Duke of Milan, who had married Louis in 1389 and was a sharer in the +splendors of the gorgeous entry of Isabeau de Bavière into Paris. From +the first she had just cause of complaint--and yet never complained--of +the infidelity of a husband whom she loved with her whole heart, but +whose love she could not retain. Froissart, who was no friend of hers, +tells us a most curious and extraordinary story of one of Valentine's +rivals, whom Louis had preferred to his wife as early as 1392. It +appears that Louis d'Orléans had rashly confided the details of an amour +to that Pierre de Craon whom we have mentioned before, and this knight +revealed them to Valentine. The young duchess sent at once for the lady +to whom Louis was devoting himself: "Wilt thou do me wrong with my lord, +my husband?" The woman was abashed, and in her confusion confessed her +guilt. Then said Valentine: "Thus it is: I am informed that my lord +loveth you, and you him, and the matter is so far gone between you that +in such a place and at such a time he promised you a thousand crowns of +gold to be his paramour; howbeit, you did refuse it as then, wherein you +did wisely, and therefore I pardon you; but I charge you on your life +that you commune nor talk no more with him, but suffer him to pass and +hearken no more to his commanding." From the treatment he received at +the next meeting with his lady-love, Louis discovered that something was +amiss, and she finally told him of the interview with Valentine. Louis +then went home to his wife, "and showed her more token of love than ever +he did before," finally wheedling her into telling him who had been the +talebearer. The sequel we know: how Craon was driven from court, and +returned to attempt the assassination of De Clisson.</p> + +<p>But if her husband did not love her, the king manifested a real and +innocent affection for Valentine, his "dear sister," remembering her and +asking for her when, in his madness, he knew no other. Yet even out of +this there was to come evil for Valentine; for the Duchess of Burgundy, +fearing the growth of the Orléans influence over the king, spread evil +reports about the innocent relations between Charles and Valentine. +Adding to these insinuations an accusation far more dangerous than that +of adultery would have been in such a court, the Burgundians asserted +that the king's insanity was produced and continued by the power of +witchcraft; and this accusation, fastened upon Valentine, obtained such +credit that her husband had to remove her from court to a sort of exile +in his own dominions. We find even worse accusations credited by the +unsympathetic Froissart, who reports that she had unwittingly poisoned +her own child in an attempt to poison the dauphin, for "this lady was of +high mind, envious and covetous of the delights and state of this world. +Gladly she would have seen the Duke her husband attain to the crown of +France, she had not cared how."</p> + +<p>Through good report and evil report the poor duchess had lived on, +loving her husband and leading a life at least far more regular than +that of the court, though she possessed the Italian love of the artistic +and the beautiful and was very extravagant. The king, now often idiotic +when he was not raving, had been turned completely against her. To amuse +and distract him, and also to strengthen the Burgundian influence, the +Duke of Burgundy provided him with a fair child as playmate and +mistress. To the sway once held by Valentine over Charles there now +succeeded Odette. She was little more than a child, but she became +mistress as well as playfellow of the mad king. Of humble origin (<i>filia +cujusdam mercatoris equorum</i> daughter of a certain horse dealer), she +wears in court history a name better than that she was born to, Odette +de Champdivers; and the people, indulgent of the sin of the mad king, +called her "la petite reine." She was happy, it seems, and kind to the +king, amused him, was loved by him; and, more true to him than was quite +pleasing to the Burgundians, did not play false to France in later years +when Burgundy and England were leagued together, but is said to have +used her influence over the king rather for France than for Burgundy. Of +her we know little more than that she died about 1424, leaving a +daughter whose legitimacy was recognized by Charles VII., and who was +honorably married to a petty gentleman of Poitou.</p> + +<p>When the handsome, elegant, but unfaithful Louis was murdered, Valentine +was at Blois with her children; the eldest was but sixteen, old enough +to feel the loss, but not old enough to avenge it. But Valentine +determined to avenge her husband; her grief gave her energy. She came at +once to Paris with her youngest son and her daughter-in-law, that +Isabelle de France who was already a widow from the death of Richard +II., and now affianced to the young Duke d'Orléans. The king, sane at +the time, was inexpressibly shocked by the murder of his brother, and +was moved to tears when Valentine came before him to demand justice upon +the murderer. He promised to act, and probably really meant what he +said, but his mind was not capable of sustained effort. Jean de +Bourgogne was making active preparations for a descent upon Paris with a +retinue so formidable in numbers as to be an army; and Valentine retired +to Blois, to bide her time. Jean, hardly opposed by Isabeau or any of +the few who might be supposed either to exercise some authority or to +sympathize with the Orléans faction, came to Paris, boldly hired lawyers +and quibbling theologians to justify the "death which he had inflicted +upon the person of the Duke d'Orléans," and made the poor madman who was +king issue letters patent declaring that he, the king, "took out of his +heart all displeasure against his very dear and well-beloved cousin of +Burgundy for having put out of the world his brother of Orléans."</p> + +<p>Isabeau, who had shown herself utterly incapable of action in this +crisis, remained at Melun until the arrogant and dangerous Duke of +Burgundy had forced matters in this way and had been called away to +repress a rebellion of Liège. Then she and her allies, with three +thousand troops, entered Paris (August 26, 1408). Valentine came next +day, and with her the young Charles d'Orléans, destined to become famous +as one of France's sweetest poets, although kept a prisoner in England +for twenty-five years. The king being once more incapacitated, it was +decided that Isabeau should preside at the hearing of the formal +complaint of the Duchess of Orléans. When the mourning widow and the +youthful Duke of Orléans came before the council to demand a hearing, +their plea was readily granted, for the menacing figure of Jean Sans +Peur was no longer there to intimidate Isabeau and the friends of his +victim. The next day, before the young Duke of Guyenne, who acted in the +place of the king, the legal and ecclesiastical dignitaries employed by +Valentine exerted themselves to exculpate Louis d'Orléans from the +charges of sorcery and tyranny and to show that Jean de Bourgogne should +be punished for the murder. The arguments of the Orléans advocates were +far superior to the shallow, sophistical, utterly shameless harangues +which had been delivered in defence of Jean. The legal advocate asked, +on behalf of Valentine and her children, that Jean be compelled to come +humbly to the Louvre and there to apologize to the king and to the widow +and her children; that his houses in Paris be razed; that he be ordered +to expend great sums in founding churches and convents, in expiation of +his crime; and that he be banished beyond seas for twenty years, and, +after his return, be not suffered to approach nearer than one hundred +leagues to the queen and the Orléans princes.</p> + +<p>But Valentine, though she prevailed on the queen and the princes of the +council to agree to summon Jean de Bourgogne to trial before the Court +of Parliament, was impotent to prosecute her cause. For Jean, after a +ferocious suppression of the rebellious citizens of Liège, came boldly +back to Paris, was received as a victor and a friend by the people of +Paris, and so overawed the other members of the council that the Orléans +sympathizers dared not even dream of prosecuting the trial of this +unabashed murderer.</p> + +<p>Valentine de Milan and her sons retired to Blois, fearing even further +outrages from the triumphant Burgundians. Well might she now have +justified the pathetic motto which she had assumed at her husband's +tragic death: <i>Rien ne m'est plus, plus ne m'est rien,</i>--"There is +nothing more for me, nothing matters more." This inscription, which she +caused to be placed in the Franciscan Church at Blois, must have borne +an added bitterness to her heart when she saw the selfish Isabeau making +friends with the murderer of Louis. The wretched queen and the impotent +members of the council were glad to make peace with Jean; they accepted +his hospitality and cowered before him. Isabeau, caring nothing for the +power of the crown, caring nothing for her husband or her children, +caring indeed for but one thing, money, eagerly accepted that from the +hands still red with the blood of the man she had loved.</p> + +<p>With her children about her, Valentine languished at Blois for a year. +She had sought out one of Louis's natural sons, for whom she manifested +affection and who, she used to say, was her own by rights, and more +fitted to avenge his father than any of the other children. Valentine +was in this a good judge, for the spirited, ardent lad whom she loved +for his father's sake was none other than Jean, Comte de Dunois, +afterward famous among the martial heroes of France as "Le Batard +d'Orléans." Valentine died on December 4, 1408, and well might they say +that she had died of a broken heart; for the one great emotion of her +life had been the passionate devotion to one of the most despicable men +that ever had a faithful wife--a devotion generous enough, indeed, to +excuse even follies and infidelities.</p> + +<p>It was well for Valentine that death came when it did, for it saved her +from still further sorrows and humiliations. Four months after her +death, her unhappy sons were led to Chartres to go through the forms of +a solemn reconciliation with their father's murderer. The duke expressed +his contrition for "the fact of the murder committed upon Louis +d'Orléans, howbeit this was done for the good of the king and the +kingdom, as he was ready to prove, if desired." With such insulting +phrases the sons were compelled to be satisfied, and they were forced to +swear, with tears that they could not restrain, to harbor no ill +feelings against their dear cousin of Burgundy, for whom the king, the +queen, and the princes of the blood all interceded.</p> + +<p>In this shameful mockery of a peace, ratified in the great cathedral of +Chartres, Isabeau de Bavière had acted for the Duke of Burgundy. She was +soon to give still further proof of her heartlessness and ingratitude, +when Jean de Bourgogne arbitrarily arrested, tortured, and executed Jean +de Montaigu, superintendent of finances, who had been an old servant of +the queen, who had even given her that splendid Hotel Barbette in which +she had last supped with Louis d'Orléans, and who had drawn up the +treaty of reconciliation between the houses of Burgundy and Orléans. +Isabeau might have interceded in his behalf, and did make some move to +do so; but a promise that her son should share in the confiscated wealth +of Montaigu was enough to purchase her consent to the latter's death.</p> + +<p>Isabeau was at this time busying herself less and less about affairs of +state; since she had leagued herself in secret with Jean de Bourgogne +she had no cares but those attendant upon providing pleasures and +amusements for herself. Her son, the dauphin, following in Isabeau's +footsteps, was scandalizing all Paris by his orgies. At last, the people +of Paris rose in one of their occasional sincere but futile attempts to +reform the manners of a corrupt court. We shall not deal with the +horrors of this outburst, one of the many little wavelets of popular +indignation presaging, but presaging only to heedless revellers, the +great tidal wave that was to envelop and bear down the just and the +unjust alike some four hundred years later. The butchers and bakers and +honest workingmen, led chiefly by a surgeon, Jean de Troyes, came by +thousands to reform the morals of the dauphin. This miserable debauchee, +as well as the rest of the court, trembled before them, and willingly +conceded anything that could be asked. Even the poor mad king, whom the +people loved and did not blame, had the white hood, emblem of the +commune, placed upon his head, and smiled pitifully at his rough but +well-meaning subjects. Forthwith, Isabeau equipped her head with a white +hood, and so did all the court, the judges, and even the learned doctors +of the University. But Isabeau's white hood was not wide enough to cover +the scandalous horns of her headdress. Rising to the point of fury upon +hearing that the dauphin, probably at the instigation of his mother, had +been in communication with the Orleanist forces to induce them to march +upon Paris, the Cabochiens, as the communists called themselves, in May, +1413, invaded the palace itself and arrested Louis de Bavière, the +queen's brother, and as many as fifteen of the ladies of her suite +probably such as had made themselves peculiarly conspicuous and +offensive by the extravagance and the indecency of their costumes. +Isabeau wept, and pleaded vainly for a respite for her brother, then on +the eve of his marriage; the stern moralists from the markets of Paris +were inexorable and Louis went to jail unmarried, while Isabeau went to +bed sick with childish fury.</p> + +<p>For a moment turning our attention from the queen, let us advert to the +political conditions in France. From the time of the assassination of +Louis d' Orléans there had been civil war, with rare and brief intervals +of peace, between the partisans of Burgundy and those of Orléans, now +led by Bernard d'Armagnac, whose daughter Charles d'Orléans had married +after the early death of his first wife, Isabelle de France. While civil +war in itself would have caused misery and ruin enough, its horrors were +enhanced by the crafty policy of Henry IV. of England, who, when he was +not able to intervene in person, responded to the solicitations of first +one party and then the other, and thus caused Armagnacs and Bourguignons +to exhaust themselves in fruitless strife. It was the craft of Henry IV. +and the folly of France that prepared the way for Agincourt, that +crushing victory of the great Henry V., who in the presence of the +overwhelming French army proclaimed, in Shakespeare's paraphrase of his +words:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i30"> "We are enow</p> +<p class="i14"> To do our country loss; and if to live,</p> +<p class="i14"> The fewer men, the greater share of honor.</p> +<p class="i14"> God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more!"</p> +</div></div> + +<p>The event justified King Harry's boastful confidence: the chivalry of +France found itself discredited, dead, or in captivity. And yet, even in +the hour of France's distress, the indolent Isabeau could hardly be +prevailed upon to take any action in behalf of her son, the dauphin, +Louis de Guienne who, in fact, lived but a little over two months after +Agincourt, and was succeeded by Jean de Touraine. In two years more +(1417) Jean de Touraine was dead, poisoned, it was said, by Bernard +d'Armagnac; the new dauphin, Charles, was a boy of but fourteen years.</p> + +<p>This Charles, one of the most uncomfortably cold and contemptible +personages in history, had been reared by the queen and the Armagnac +party with sentiments of the bitterest hatred against the Burgundians. +Determined to win complete control of Charles, Bernard d'Armagnac sought +to discredit Isabeau with her son and with the king. There was no +difficulty in finding pretexts, for the sober-minded Juvenal des Ursins +tells us that in the chateau of Vincennes, whither Isabeau had retired +to revel more at ease, "many shameful things were done" by the queen and +her troop of rakes and gaudily dressed ladies; but indecency in dress +was not the only scandal that Bernard revealed to the king, who was at +the time in better mental condition than for years.</p> + +<p>As he rode back from the chateau one evening the king met Loys de +Boisbourdon, whom he knew to be one of Isabeau's associates. Suddenly +suspicious and resolved to know the whole truth, Charles had him +arrested and put to the question (<i>i.e.</i>, tortured). Such horrors were +revealed by this unlucky sharer of the queen's pleasures that Charles +deemed them not fit for further circulation, and accordingly Loys de +Boisbourdon carried his secrets with him into a sack, which was +inscribed: <i>Laissez passer la justice du roi</i>, "Make way for the justice +of the king," and the waters of the Seine covered the sack and the +sinner. The mad king's justice, of which we read with a certain joyful +sympathy, was not ended, for he sent the queen and the duchess of +Bavaria to Blois, and later to Tours, where they were compelled to live +under surveillance and in salutary simplicity. The dauphin seized some +moneys belonging to Isabeau, who henceforth cherished the most +unrelenting hatred for her own son, accusing him of being responsible +for her exile. The real grief to her, we may feel sure, was the loss of +her money.</p> + +<p>From this time, we find Isabeau intriguing with the Duke of Burgundy. As +Jean was marching upon Paris he came into the neighborhood of Tours. The +pious Isabeau was suddenly filled with a desire to hear mass at a +particular convent some distance outside the walls. While she was +engaged in her devotions the troops of Burgundy, in ambush, surrounded +the convent and "captured" Isabeau and her guardians. The queen and her +ally, styling themselves governors of France, established a parliament +at Amiens, sent out decrees by authority of the "council of the queen +and the duke," and fought the dauphin on paper and in the field. When in +June, 1418, the Parisians, provoked beyond endurance by the exactions +and the arrogance of the Armagnac nobles, massacred every Armagnac that +they could find, Isabeau stood too much in awe of these fierce men of +the common people to enter Paris. Had she not seen their violence +before, merely because she lived in luxury while they starved? She +waited for the arrival of Jean de Bourgogne, and the two entered Paris +together on July 14th. The dauphin, the sole hope of France, fled before +the armies of his mother.</p> + +<p>As early as May, 1419, the queen had been in negotiation with the +English to disinherit her son, when the sudden death of Jean Sans Peur, +who was assassinated at a conference with the dauphin in September, +1419, interrupted her plans; but she was determined at all hazards not +to fall into the hands of her son. She wrote a letter of condolence to +the widowed Duchess of Burgundy, and promised the new duke, Philippe le +Bon, to assist him in punishing the dauphin. Philippe, like all this +race of Burgundian dukes, was a man of action, a man of strong +character, slightly more scrupulous than his father, and yet not +entirely without inclination to sacrifice honor to policy. It is not to +be wondered at that, justly indignant at the treacherous murder of his +father, he should have sacrificed the interests of France to satisfy his +resentment against the dauphin.</p> + +<p>The queen, the Duke of Burgundy, and the unhappy king, a mere tool in +their hands, treated at once with Henry V. It was stipulated in the +preliminaries that Henry should aid them and be aided by them in war +upon the dauphin. The selfish mother who thus enlisted even foreigners +in her war against her son was capable of yet worse things. It was +agreed that Henry should marry Catherine de France, the youngest +daughter of Isabeau, and should at once receive control of the entire +kingdom, in consideration of the incapacity of Charles VI.</p> + +<p>Isabeau de Bavière was merely a wanton, an idle, vain, shallow-hearted +seeker after pleasure, utterly incapable of taking seriously her role as +Queen of France. With such love as her heart was capable of feeling, she +loved Catherine, while her mean nature could never forgive the son who +was the heir of France. We need not be surprised, therefore, to find her +signing and causing the king to sign a treaty which violated every +principle of patriotism and honor. By the treaty signed at Troyes on May +21, 1420, Charles, Duke of Touraine, Dauphin of France, was +disinherited; the very principles of the Salic law were set at naught; +and the heritage of Charles was bestowed, not even upon one of his elder +sisters, but upon that Catherine of France, the youngest child, now +Queen of England, and, in failure of heirs of her body, upon her +husband, Henry V. of England. The two nations were to be merged, each +retaining its distinctive laws, but both were to be under the rule of +English sovereigns, and Henry was to aid in restoring peace and in +destroying "the rebels" under Charles, "called the Dauphin." One of the +bribes paid to Isabeau for selling the kingdom of her son was a pension; +for we find an ordinance of Henry, "heir and regent of France," granting +to the queen the sum of two thousand francs per month.</p> + +<p>Isabeau's enjoyment of her pension was not destined to be of long +continuance. The brilliant Henry V. died on August 31, 1422; and less +than two months later died Charles VI., <i>le bien aimé</i>. During thirty of +the forty-two years of his reign he had been incapacitated by madness or +by idiocy, and in the intervals France had been worse misgoverned than +ever before in her history; so that, with wars foreign and domestic and +with the shameless extravagance of the court, the kingdom had been +reduced to a deplorable state, scores dying in the streets of Paris of +sheer hunger while the English king was spending his first triumphant +winter in that city. For all these evils and miseries the people placed +the blame where, in good truth, it belonged, on the queen and the royal +princes. For the mad king there was nothing but a compassionate love, a +tender sympathy; the people pitied this kindly unfortunate, abandoned by +his wife, used as a tool by first one set of princes and then another.</p> + +<p>At the funeral of Charles VI. not a single prince of France was present; +the English Bedford conducted the whole sad affair. "As the body of the +King was put in the sepulchre beside his predecessors, the heralds broke +their rods and cast them into the grave... And then the Berri +king-at-arms, accompanied by several heralds and pursuivants, cried out +over the grave: 'May God have mercy upon the very noble and very +excellent Prince Charles, sixth of the name, our lawful and sovereign +lord!' And after this the aforesaid king-at-arms cried out: 'May God +grant long life and prosperity to Henry, by the grace of God King of +France and of England, our sovereign lord!' And then the heralds raised +aloft their truncheons with the fleur-de-lis, crying: <i>'Vive le roi! +Vive le roi!'</i> And some of those present answered <i>Noël</i> (the ancient +salutation to the King); but there were some who wept."</p> + +<p>Thus the wretched Isabeau's work was, it seemed, complete, her son being +a fugitive before the arms of the foreigner, while her infant grandson +was King of France. From this time she disappears completely from the +scene of action, drawing her meagre pension from the hands of the +English, who treated her with deserved contempt, and cursed by all +France for the memory of her evil deeds. We catch but a fleeting glimpse +of her, living in obscurity at the royal palace of Saint-Pol. When on +December 2, 1431, the young King Henry VI. made his solemn entry into +his capital of Paris, the royal procession passed by the windows of the +palace, and the boy king, looking up, saw an old woman in faded finery, +surrounded by a bevy of women attendants. They, told him it was his +grand-mother, the frivolous and once beautiful Isabeau de Bavière, and +he doffed his cap, while Isabeau bowed to him and turned aside to weep. +Did she weep from sincere contrition, or merely from regret of the +departed luxury and extravagance of her life? She was not to live many +years longer; but it was long enough to know that France had survived +even her treachery and that her son was at peace with the Duke of +Burgundy. So far from rejoicing, it is said that she died of regret that +the treaty of Troyes had come to naught, her death occurring on +September 24, 1435. She died with outward show of piety, and was buried +as meanly, says a contemporary, as if she had been a humble +<i>bourgeoise</i>, but four persons being present at the graveside.</p> + +<p>The very portraits of Isabeau de Bavière, and of other women of her +court, suggest sensuality. They are fat, and of the earth, earthy, +suggesting lives led in indolence and the pursuit of pleasures not of +the highest. As Michelet says, "Obesity is a characteristic of the +figures of this sensual epoch. See the statues at Saint Denys; those of +the fourteenth century are clearly portraits. See, in particular, the +statue of the Duke de Berri in the subterranean chapel of Bourges, with +the ignoble fat dog lying at his feet." As was the epoch, so was the +queen; she was not actively bad, except where interference with her +pleasures was threatened; she was merely a vain and utterly incapable +woman of low tastes and cold heart who was called upon to be Queen of +France in the most disastrous period of the history of that land. We +need not think her a second Fredegonde, as some historians have tried to +represent her; for her follies and her vices were such as to cause +abhorrence by their puerility or their bestiality rather than to stir +the deeper feelings of fear and hate excited by the greater among the +bad women of history.</p> + +<a name="c11" id="c11"></a><br><br> + +<h3>CHAPTER XI</h3> + +<h3>CHRISTINE DE PISAN</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i18">"Seulete suy et seulete veuil estre,</p> +<p class="i18">Seulete m'a mon doulz ami laissiée,</p> +<p class="i18">Seulete suy sans compagnon ne maistre,</p> +<p class="i18">Seulete suy dolente et courrouciée,</p> +<p class="i18">Seulete suy en langueur mesaisiée,</p> +<p class="i18">Seulete suy plus que nulle esgarée,</p> +<p class="i18">Seulete suy sans amis demourée."</p><br> + +<p class="i10">Alone am I in the world, and alone would I remain,</p> +<p class="i10">Alone has my dear love left me,</p> +<p class="i10">Alone am I, a poor lone woman, without companion or master,</p> +<p class="i10">Alone am I, stricken with sorrow and anguish of mind,</p> +<p class="i10">Alone am I, and ill at ease,</p> +<p class="i10">Alone am I, more lonely than one who has lost her way, </p> +<p class="i10">Alone have I been left without friends.</p> +</div></div> + +<p>This complaint of one who has lost her lover, or been betrayed and +forsaken by him, might well have been the lament of France, betrayed by +Isabeau de Bavière and left naked to her enemies. But the author of the +lament, though one ready enough to find matter for her pen in the +condition of her adopted country, had no thought of France in this case; +for the little <i>ballade</i> was composed by Christine de Pisan with no +other reference than to her own life.</p> + +<p>The age of the mad king and the bad queen would not have been, one would +think, favorable to the advancement of literature; and yet some of the +best literature of medieval France was composed while Isabeau de Bavière +was still alive. We shall allude at this time to but two writers, +Froissart, of whom we have already said something, and Christine de +Pisan, both of whom were writing between 1380 and 1400. Christine, the +first professional authoress in France of whose life we have record, is +well worthy of study both as an authoress and as a woman.</p> + +<p>The fourteenth century was the heyday of the astrologer as it was of the +witch, and the wise Charles V., "le Salomon de la France," was not alone +in his superstition when he placed his reliance upon the predictions of +the learned doctor, Thomas of Pisa, whom he had summoned from Italy to +be court astrologer. We are told that the nobles and great ones of the +earth at that time "dared do nothing new without the commands of +astrology; they dared neither build castles, nor churches, nor begin +war, nor even so much as put on a new robe, undertake a journey, nor go +out of their houses without the consent of the stars." Whether or not +this be somewhat of an exaggeration, there is no question that Thomas de +Pisan occupied, at the court of Charles V., a position not only +lucrative but dignified. Established in the Louvre itself, the Italian +scholar sent for his wife and daughter to make their home in France. The +daughter, then (1368) but five years of age, was already a precocious +little lady, and was presented to the king when she arrived in France. +Charles was pleased with the graces of the child, and made her his +especial protegée, promising that she should have as good an education +and place at his court as any <i>demoiselle</i> of noble birth. Charles was +himself a scholar and capable of appreciating the nobility of +intelligence; and in this case he had not judged amiss.</p> + +<p>It is from the works of Christine herself--<i>La Vision de Christine</i>, in +prose, <i>La Mutation de Fortune</i>, and <i>Le Chemin de Long Estude</i>,--in +verse that we learn most of her story, which was happy and uneventful up +to her fourteenth year. At this time she had already acquired, under her +father's careful tuition, a remarkable familiarity with the classic +authors of Rome, and could turn off as neat Latin verses as any boy in +the schools, and could also write French verse. It was most fortunate +for her that her father, "not thinking girls any more unfit for learning +than boys," allowed her to "glean some straws of learning." Before she +was fifteen Christine was married to a notary, Etienne Castel, a Picard +gentleman of good birth and excellent character, whom she loved +tenderly.</p> + +<p>The prosperity of her family was first threatened in 1380, when her good +patron King Charles died. Then her father, who had lavishly expended a +large part of the handsome stipend he received as astrologer, found +himself suddenly reduced almost to poverty, and he did not long survive +his royal patron. The earnings of her husband not being sufficient to +maintain the family, Christine cast about for a means to put to use the +education she had received, and had already begun, by some small works, +her career as an authoress, when the sudden death of her husband, +carried off by the plague in 1389, left her alone and without resources, +and under the necessity of providing some sort of support for her mother +and her three children.</p> + +<p>She never ceased to mourn for her husband, and the pages of her works +are filled with poems which, like the little <i>ballade</i> that heads this +chapter, hold tender allusion to her loss. Though to modern ears the +perpetual repetition of this strain of mourning grows monotonous, some +of the sweetest of her poems are those inspired by this sentiment, +expressed with a directness and a simplicity that must appeal to any +lover of truth and poetry. "He loved me," she sings, "and 'twas right +that he should, for I had come to him as a girl-bride; we two had made +such wise provision in all our love that our two hearts were moved in +all things, whether of joy or of sorrow, by a common wish, more united +in love than the hearts of brother and sister."</p> + +<p>She too might have wished to die, she says, in order to follow the loved +one, but that there were the children and the mother whom she alone +could care for. The energy of her character at last saved the fortunes +of her family. Her first task, the saving of some last remnants of the +property of her father and her husband, was rendered more difficult by +the almost interminable delays of the courts and the dishonesty of +advocates and opponents who had more influence with the "blind goddess" +than the daughter of the old astrologer. She herself gives an +interesting picture of her difficulties, all bravely met for the sake of +her children, and in time overcome. Not the least of her worries was the +determination to conceal from her friends the desperate state of her +fortunes; she was too proud to appear poor: "There is no sorrow equal to +this, and no one who has not experienced it can know what it means.... +Under a furred mantle and a cloak of scarlet, well saved, but not often +renewed, there was many a shiver, and in a bed properly appointed with +all things of comfort, many a sleepless night. But our meal was always a +simple one, as befits a widow."</p> + +<p>But from the more sordid cares, the covering of her poverty under +threadbare finery that did not keep out the cold, and the vulgar +loungers who would ogle her and leer at her as she went about the +courts, there was a refuge in the pursuits which were to earn her bread. +At first Christine sang of her lost husband, and the grace and +earnestness of these poems pleased the fashionable public of the day. +Her style was the result of long and careful preparation, and her mind +almost unconsciously reflected the things which she had read and admired +in classic literature; and thus she transmitted to her readers much +information, not in itself new or original, but strange to them, and +therefore interesting. Some of the great personages of the court still +remembered the little Italian protegée of Charles V., and asked her to +write for them poems of love, in less lugubrious vein. We have seen that +the troubadours thought it almost a truism: "Without love, no poesy," +for love was their only theme; but here we find a woman who frankly +admits that she has loved and loves no more, and who yet undertakes to +write love poems for a price, and does write some exquisite ones. Poetry +made to order can never seem spontaneous after we know that the poet has +found inspiration not at the shrine of Phoebus but at that of Plutus; +but many of the poetic masterpieces have been composed under stress of +dire poverty, of which we are fortunately not always aware when reading +them. And so, among the six or seven score little <i>ballades</i> and <i>jeux</i> +which in Christine's works are marked <i>à vendre</i>--for sale--there are +many that we could read with more sincere pleasure if we did not doubt +the genuineness of the sentiment expressed. These little poems, many of +them really graceful and charming playthings of a moment, lose so much +in translation that I shall not attempt to render into English their +ephemeral charm. The French of five hundred years ago is not "Frenshe of +Paris" to most of us: rather is it of the school of "Stratford atte +Bow," or of some other school we have never attended, and therefore I +have chosen to give, with some changes in orthography, one of the +simplest of Christine's <i>jeux à vendre</i>. It is a lover's song in praise +of his lady beautiful and good:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Je vous vens la rose de mai?</p> +<p class="i14"> Oncques en ma vie n'aimai</p> +<p class="i14"> Autant dame ne damoiselle</p> +<p class="i14"> Que je fais vous, gente femelle,</p> +<p class="i14"> Si me retenez à ami,</p> +<p class="i14"> Car tout avez le coeur de mi (moi).</p> +<p class="i14"> ..........................................</p> +<p class="i14"> Je vous vens l'oiselet en gage?</p> +<p class="i14"> Si vous êtes faulx, c'est dommage,</p> +<p class="i14"> Car vous êtes et belle et doulx,</p> +<p class="i14"> Si n'ayez telle tache en vous,</p> +<p class="i14"> Et digne serez d'être aimée,</p> +<p class="i14"> Belle et bonne et bien renommée."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>In other poems written for her courtly admirers Christine does not +hesitate to voice sentiments quite out of keeping with the manners of +her patrons. It is thus that she says: "If true honor is to be +reapportioned, many do I know who will have but a little share in it, +despite their thinking that they have all that wealth, beauty, noble +birth, and fine clothes can give, and that therefore they are very +princes. But however noble he be in outward show, no man is noble who +lends himself to evil deeds or evil words. Thus some there are in whose +boasting there is not one word of truth, who will tell you that the +fairest ladies in the land have honored them with love. Good Lord! what +gentility! How ill it becomes a noble man to lie and tell false tales of +women! Such fellows are but villains, pure and simple; and should there +be a redistribution of honors, theirs should be cut down."</p> + +<p>Not infrequently, alas, the pride of learning mars her verse; it is +overloaded with pedantic allusions, stiff with learning, and too +manifestly the product of a learned head rather than of an overflowing +heart. Where these faults appear less, or not at all, is in the poems +inspired by genuine feeling for her loved ones; there the real heart of +the woman, bravely struggling to bear up and smile before the world, is +laid bare to us in sudden glimpses of unpremeditated poetry. It is an +old theme, but one of pathos ever fresh, that we find in the following +lines:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Je chante par couverture (<i>i. e.</i>, contenance),</p> +<p class="i14"> Mais mieux pleurassent mes oeil (yeux),</p> +<p class="i14"> Ne nul ne sait le travail</p> +<p class="i14"> Que mon pauvre coeur endure.</p> +<p class="i14"> Pour ce (je) muce (cache) ma douleur</p> +<p class="i14"> Qu'en nul je ne vois pitie.</p> +<p class="i14"> Plus on a cause de pleur (pleurer),</p> +<p class="i14"> Moins on trouve d'amitié.</p> +<p class="i14"> Pour ce plainte ne murmure</p> +<p class="i14"> Ne fais de mon piteux deuil.</p> +<p class="i14"> Ainçois (plutôt) (je) ris quand pleurer veuil (veux),</p> +<p class="i14"> Et sans rime et sans mesure</p> +<p class="i14"> Je chante par couverture."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>It is, you see, the old <i>motif</i>, in melodramatic pathos that of the +harlequin Dorkins, who must play his part in the pantomime even though +his child lie dying, in tragedy that of Lady Macbeth, who must play the +queen by day and suffer the torments of the murderess at night. It is +not the novelty but the universality and truth of the idea or sentiment +that makes Christine's verses rank as poetry.</p> + +<p>But love songs alone could not support a family of five; the Church, so +often the refuge of forlorn women, might have offered Christine a +refuge, but not support for those dependent on her, since she had not +sufficient influence to assure herself of any office of dignity and +emolument in the convents of the proud and wealthy. Her pen must be her +resource; and thus Christine de Pisan became not merely an authoress, +but the first authoress to support herself by her pen. For some of her +shorter poems she received not inconsiderable sums; but longer works, +works of more permanent value must be undertaken, and Christine +valiantly set to work.</p> + +<p>Her first task was to secure a patron, for only some great lord could +afford to pay sums sufficient to enable her to live: there was no eager +public of thousands, educated by the printing press to expect, to +welcome, to demand fresh intellectual food. One of her patrons was the +great Duke of Burgundy, Philippe le Hardi, to whom she dedicated a very +long and partly autobiographical poem called <i>La Mutation de Fortune</i>. +She tells her story with rather too much display of the fact that she +knows all the famous apologues and anecdotes that might apply to her +case; still, it is an earnest and in some ways interesting account of +how she had been compelled to take up a profession not then regarded as +befitting a woman how,--as she says, she had turned herself "from woman +to man." She read this work to Philippe de Bourgogne in that same palace +where she had once been a familiar inmate, where she had played as a +child, where she had learned to know the famous men through whose aid +Charles V. had well-nigh regenerated France. It is not surprising that +Philippe de Bourgogne should think of her as specially fitted to +undertake a task requiring intimate knowledge of that king and his time. +The duke, sending for her one day as she sat in the midst of a pile of +books, pen in hand, asked her to undertake the writing of a life of his +great brother.</p> + +<p>With ready devotion she set about writing the life of Charles V., of the +king who, "when I was a child, gave me my bread." In due time her book, +<i>Le Livre des faits et bonnes moeurs du roi Charles V.</i>, was completed; +but he for whom she had written it had died in 1404, before half was +done. The loss of her generous friend and protector was a serious blow +to the poetess. Her mother had also died; while Christine must plod +wearily on, though "her heart was filled with joy when she remembered +that the day was not very far off when she herself would go to join the +loved ones."</p> + +<p>The history of Charles V. is a work of which one hardly knows what to +say. As history, it is manifestly a failure, for Christine had either no +wish or no opportunity to present facts in a narrative at once accurate, +detailed, and clear; her work lacks both the accuracy and the breadth of +view of genuine history; it is rather, as one critic remarks, an +<i>éloge</i>, a eulogy upon Charles V.--which, indeed, had been what Philippe +desired. The book is in prose, and though the style lacks the clearness +and vividness to which we are accustomed in such men of genius as +Villehardouin, Joinville, and her own contemporary, Froissart, we must +remember that these men had reached the high-water mark of French style, +not to be equalled, in sober truth, till the Renaissance, the "New +Birth," had regenerated the fallen life and literature of Europe. As +prose of the early fifteenth century, Christine's work is better than +any other then written, except that of Froissart; and not a little of +his charm comes less from the style than from the matters of which he +chose to write. There is in Christine's book little of the gorgeousness +of chivalry: was not the king in whose praise she wrote a king who won +his battles at the council table, while Du Guesclin, upon the field of +battle, gave the hard knocks which his sovereign, weak and sickly, could +neither give nor take? Where Christine does succeed is in her portraits +of the king and his courtiers, whose characters she knew perfectly and +whose good and bad traits she does not scruple to depict with such even +justice as she may. To quote the words of one of her most recent +critics, who does not fail to call attention to the awkward Latinisms of +her diction and the lopsided Ciceronian periods in her attempts at +elevation or eloquence: "No one has made us feel more distinctly the +winning grace of the Duke d'Orléans, brother of Charles VI., nor has any +one better depicted the physical aspect of Charles V.; clearly do we see +the long face, the broad forehead, the prominent eyes, and the thin +lips; the beard is very thick, the cheekbones high and prominent, the +skin brown and pale, the whole countenance thin to emaciation; it is the +face of an ascetic, tempered by the gentleness of the expression and +something staid and thoughtful in the whole look. Nor is there mere +banality and commonplace in the moral portrait of the king; if she +praises his chevalerie (chivalry), she does not conceal the fact that, +weak and sickly, his hand never drew the sword from the day of his +accession to the day of his death."</p> + +<p>The mere list of Christine's works would fill much space, and in the end +we should not be much edified thereby; for she was a voluminous writer, +really a hack writer, and therefore turned out a huge pile of +ill-considered stuff, in prose and in verse, which she well knew would +win no fame for her it were sufficient could it but win bread for her +children! Much of this work is mere paraphrase of Latin authors of great +repute and much read in the Middle Ages, though now all but forgotten: +the moral Seneca, the martial Vegetius and Frontinus, Valerius Maximus, +and honest Plutarch (whom critics praise, and only unfortunate boys +read). It is from these and the like of these that she gleaned much of +such works as <i>L'Epître d'Othéa à Hector</i>, on the training of a prince; +<i>Le Chemin de Long Estude</i>, a long moral poem (1402); <i>Le Livre de +Prudence; Le Livre des Faits d'armes et de chevalerie; Le Livre de +Police</i> (political economy). With such compilations, doubtless both +useful and interesting when there were fewer books of general +information, encyclopedias and the like, Christine filled many a +manuscript, and much of her work still remains in manuscript, though the +<i>Société des anciens textes français</i> is slowly reprinting her works, +which will fill four large volumes with verse alone and overflow into +several more with prose.</p> + +<p>With the great mass of the work left by Christine de Pisan we shall not +even attempt to deal; but the presentation of one of her favorite +enthusiasms will prove, we hope, of some interest. Though forced to earn +her own bread and so to compete with men, Christine never forgot that +she was a woman; neither in conduct nor in her writings did she ever so +behave or so write as to forfeit that dearest of her privileges as a +woman, the respect of men. Not only did she respect herself, but she was +determined that men should respect her, and moreover that they should +not with impunity malign woman. We have shown in a previous chapter how +outrageous was the literary attitude toward the fair sex, whom the +satirists, big and little, were never tired of belaboring as the authors +of all the evil in the world. Marriage and love are, of course, fertile +subjects of satiric humor, as when the groom is told, in the <i>sermon +joyeux</i> on the <i>Maux de mariage</i> (Misfortunes of Marriage), that, from +the very wedding day: "all his money will take wings and fly away, but +his wife will stay," and stay, and stay, until he is dead and buried, +and then, as the church bell tolls his knell his dear wife will be +thinking of how she can manage to marry his servant. "Verily," says +another, speaking of the pilgrimage of marriage, "'tis a road to which +there is no end till the weaker of the two be dead." It was this +attitude against which Christine entered a vigorous protest, and she got +into a little war of words with two of her contemporaries.</p> + +<p>In several of the minor poems noted above there are allusions to the +wrong of boastfulness, mendacity, and evil speaking about women; but in +the <i>Épître au Dieu d'Amour</i> (properly the Epistle <i>of</i>, not <i>to</i>, the +God of Love), she brings upon the scene Love himself, who complains of +and ridicules tale-telling and blabbing gallants, always ready to +recount imaginary conquests of any woman whose name is mentioned. What +honor is there, she asks, in deceiving a woman? This was in May, 1399, +and it was not many years before she began to assault the chief citadel +of the scorners of womanhood, the great <i>Roman de la Rose</i>. Her <i>Dit de +la Rose</i> is dated on a day of all others most propitious to lovers, +Saint Valentine's day, in the year 1402. Her poem contains the graceful +conception of an order of chivalry whose symbol shall be the rose (so +long fraught with evil associations through the influence of ungenerous +clerks), and the chief of the vows exacted of the good knights shall be, +never to be licentious, in word or in deed, with regard to women. The +gauntlet thus thrown down before the admirers of the satirist one might +almost say misogynist Jean de Meung, was not long in finding those +willing to take it up. Two secretaries of Charles VI., Jean de Montreuil +and Gonthier Col, assumed the defence of the <i>Roman de la Rose</i>, and +various letters, sometimes couched in terms of good-humored raillery, +sometimes sly and cutting, were exchanged between them and Christine. +Which side, considered merely as debaters, really had the better of the +literary duel we need not care; for the common-sense and the moral point +of view was certainly not that which justified general condemnation of +woman as an inferior and wicked creature, and also justified the +degradation of the noblest emotions to mere sensuality. Christine, +however, thought that she had made out such a good case for maligned +femininity that she collected her letters and the answers, and dedicated +the whole correspondence to Isabeau de Bavière. It would be a pleasant +relief to the gaudy colors in the picture of that unworthy queen if we +could feel that she appreciated the delicate compliment thus paid her, +or in any way encouraged the worthy defender of her sex.</p> + +<p>This collection of prose and verse was not the only plea Christine made +for women. She composed two other works, in prose, whose dominant notion +is the rehabilitation of honest womanhood. The first of these, called +<i>La Cité des Dames</i>, is one of those compilations descending in the main +from Boccaccio's Latin work, <i>De Claris Mulieribus</i>, "Concerning Famous +Women," of which Chaucer's <i>Legend of Good Women</i> and Tennyson's <i>Dream +of Fair Women</i> are the greatest examples: the present work itself, +indeed, is a record of this nature. But that which Chaucer and Tennyson +treat poetically, imaginatively, with all the art of minds supremely +artistic, Christine treats in a rather matter-of-fact way; that is, she +is concerned to tell such anecdotes of famous women as will support her +thesis of the essential nobility of the feminine character. In this way +she has accumulated a considerable amount of evidence showing the +patience, the devotion, the fidelity, the heroism of which women are +capable under all circumstances of life. The heroines of antiquity are +not alone in eliciting Christine's praises; for she devotes some +attention to the patterns of virtue in her own day, to princesses, and +to simple bourgeoises, and to one Anastasia, who is of peculiar interest +to us because she was a fine illuminator, and may have been the artist +who executed the beautiful illuminations in the manuscripts of +Christine's own works.</p> + +<p>The second of the prose works in behalf of women is the <i>Livre des Trois +Vertus</i>, or <i>Trésor de la Cité des Dames</i>, a book of sage counsel to +women of all classes and full of information most valuable for the +historian of manners. It is from this book that one receives the best +impression of the fine moral character and catholicity of view of this +woman living a life of hardship and struggle in the dark days of the mad +king. She is no prude, but simple and charitable in her conception of +the problems of life. Though herself a literary woman, she does not +place too great stress upon learning for her sex: "This woman in love +with scholarship intends, to be sure, that woman should acquire +learning; but it must be for the purpose of developing her intelligence, +of raising her heart to higher things, not of widening her field of +ambitions, dethroning man and reigning in his stead."</p> + +<p>The prodigious activity of this authoress can best be appreciated by +reference to her own statement that, by the year 1405, she had "produced +fifteen works of importance, without counting other special little +<i>dittiés</i>, which together fill about seventy sheets of large size." The +chief part of her work was already done; for the disturbed condition of +the kingdom after the murder of Louis d'Orléans (1407) interrupted her +labors. She had thoroughly naturalized herself in her adopted country, +and this fervent patriot, who grieved that she was helpless to save +France, must have suffered intensely during the dark years that +followed. In 1410, she wrote a <i>Lamentation</i> upon the horrors of civil +war, and two years later, after the overthrow of the communist +government of Paris, the Cabochiens, she wrote a <i>Livre de la Paix</i>, +full of harsh but just criticisms upon those butchers and bakers who +would reform the whole world if first allowed to destroy it. Then came +the greater sorrows of Agincourt and the English conquest. Christine +fled from Paris, no longer the home of those princes who had favored +her, and found refuge in a convent, probably the convent at Poissy to +which her daughter had already retired. It was the breaking up of her +little family, her two sons going back to Italy to seek a more favorable +field for their peaceful talents, and the mother remaining in seclusion +for eleven years.</p> + +<p>It was probably not long before her death, of which we do not know the +precise date, that the good lady heard in her cloister the glad news of +the coming of the Maid of Orléans and of the consecration of the king at +Rheims. All her love for her dear land of France welled up in her heart, +and in gladness and wonder she sang the <i>Dittié de Jeanne d'Arc</i>, the +praise of this "girl of sixteen years... before whom enemies fly, not +one dare stand.... Oh! what honor to our sex! our sex, that God loves, +it would seem." We cannot better conclude this account of a pure and +noble woman--of one who loved her husband, her children and her country, +and who, above all, preserved respect for herself and for her womanhood +in an evil age--than in the words of her triumphant song of joy which +proclaims that France is saved, and that it is a woman who saves France:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Chose est bien digne de mémoire</p> +<p class="i14"> Que Dieu par une vierge tendre</p> +<p class="i14"> Sur France si grand' grâce estendre.</p> +<p class="i14"> Tu Johanne, de bonne heure née,</p> +<p class="i14"> Benoist (Béni) soit (le) Ciel qui te créa,</p> +<p class="i14"> Par miracle fut (elle) envoyée</p> +<p class="i14"> Au roi pour sa provision;</p> +<p class="i14"> Son fait n'est pas illusion,</p> +<p class="i14"> Car bien a été éprouvée....</p> +<p class="i14"> Par conseil en conclusion</p> +<p class="i14"> A l'effet la chose est prouvée,</p> +<p class="i14"> Et sa belle vie, par (ma) foi,</p> +<p class="i14"> Par quoi (laquelle) on ajoute plus (de) foi</p> +<p class="i14"> A son fait, quoi qu'elle fasse,</p> +<p class="i14"> Toujours en Dieu devant la face....</p> +<p class="i14"> Hée! quel honneur au féminin</p> +<p class="i14"> Sexe! que Dieu l'aime, il appert!"</p> +</div></div> + +<a name="c12" id="c12"></a><br><br> + +<h3>CHAPTER XII</h3> + +<h3>THE SAVIOR OF FRANCE</h3> + +<p><i>Cettelle ne vient pas de la terre; elle est envoyée du ciel.</i> Thus it +is that a contemporary, a great politician and satirist, Alain Chartier, +expresses his convictions regarding the Maid of Orléans. To Christine de +Pisan, too, she seemed, as we have seen, a messenger from God. It was a +time when all good patriots wept, when the fair land of France was a +prey to the spoiler, when Armagnac, Bourguignon, and hated Saxon roamed +at will over the land and laid it waste. In one of Alain Chartier's +political satires, <i>Le Quadriloge invectif</i>, the three estates of the +realm nobles, clergy, commons are in turn appealed to by La France, to +"have pity of their common mother." The commons, or <i>Peuple</i>, replies: +"It is the labor of my hands that feeds and clothes these cowardly +loafers, and they oppress me with famine and the sword.... They live +upon me, and I am slowly dying under them.... The banners of the host +are raised, they say, against our enemies, but no deeds are done except +against me." It was a complaint but too true, as was that in Chartier's +<i>Livre de I'Espérance</i>: "The nights are too short for the shameless +pleasures (of the gentlemen at court), and the days too short for +sleeping.... It would seem that noble estate means no more than license +to do wrong and yet go unpunished."</p> + +<p>In this disregard of the moral law as well as of patriotic duties the +dauphin himself led the way. One hardly knows what verdict to pass upon +this man, for his character was a blend of qualities that might have +made greatness and that yet resulted in nothing but meanness, littleness +of soul, and ingratitude. It is not the acid meanness of Louis XI, his +son, for that had a purpose; what in Louis XI was true vinegar, sharp +and biting, had not yet gone through the full process of fermentation in +Charles VII. and was simply a fluid evil to the taste, with no useful +properties. Reared at a court where pleasure was the only law, under the +evil influence of Isabeau de Bavière--whenever she thought to trouble +herself about him--and, later, of the savage and unscrupulous Bernard +d'Armagnac, who wished to retain power for himself and hence debauched +the young prince, it is not surprising to find Charles a libertine, and +one easily controlled by any favorite who happened to be in the +ascendant. As a boy of sixteen he had been made an accomplice, whether +constructively guilty or not of the actual crime, in the murder of Duke +Jean de Bourgogne. At nineteen he was proclaimed King of France by his +handful of followers, while the victorious English were proclaiming +Henry VI. in Paris (1422). Defeat followed defeat for his armies, owing +partly to the demoralization of the troops, partly to the inability of +the leaders to maintain any sort of discipline among the bands of half +savage men at arms from Gascony, Brittany, Scotland, and even Italy and +Spain. Yet for most of the disasters, Charles himself was to blame, +since he continued to lead a life of slothful pleasure, making no +serious efforts to control himself or to take an active part in the +affairs of his ruined kingdom.</p> + +<p>The salvation of France was to come from a woman, one as nearly a saint +as mortal can be; but some part of the preparation for the coming of +that saint was made by other women, not by any means saintly. The wife +of Charles VII. was Marie d'Anjou, who, with her husband, was under the +domination of her mother, Yolande d'Aragon, one of those active, able, +but unscrupulous women who rule by intrigue, who are content to let +others claim the glory so long as the real secret of power is theirs. +Queen Yolande, anxious to preserve the dignity of the house of Anjou for +her son Rene, needed the support of France, and she hated England. She +gained a remarkable ascendency over Charles VII., and used this most +wisely for the good of France, though some of her methods may seem of a +sort to disconcert prevailing opinions.</p> + +<p>Seeing that Charles was by nature a libertine, she determined to make +use of that side of his character, although at the expense of her own +daughter. It was she who presented to Charles that famous and lovely +<i>Dame de beauté</i>, Agnes Sorel. The rôle played by this mistress of the +king is truly admirable as well as remarkable. Agnes was no vulgar +woman, but an Aspasia of her time, of noble birth, beautiful, and of a +character gentle as well as essentially good. It is no paradox to +pronounce her good, though she led a life condemned by moral laws; for +the laxity of the age must be considered, as well as the methods of the +mistress herself. Even the wife of her royal lover respected Agnes +Sorel, and there was friendship between them. So far from seeking to +surround herself with idle and vicious companions and encouraging +Charles in offending useful friends or wise counsellors, she used her +influence, in conjunction with Yolande, to establish the credit of the +Constable de Richemont, the most useful of Charles's allies at this +time.</p> + +<p>Legend has gilded her portrait for us, and much that is told of her is +not susceptible of proof, but the tendency of her influence is shown by +one little incident. Charles, unable to win back his kingdom, unable to +maintain himself in it north of the Loire, unable to find money to pay +his troops, was yet able to build a chateau at Loches for Agnes Sorel. +Here he was basking in her smiles and heedless of the distress of +France, when accident gave Agnes a chance to rouse his nobler feelings. +Charles had, to amuse the passing hour, called a fortune teller to the +chateau, and stood by while the man told the fortune of his well-beloved +Agnes. The mountebank, with the cunning of his kind, thought to flatter +this vain and lovely lady by prophesying: "Some day thou shalt be the +wife of the greatest king on earth." Agnes, with ready wit, rose at once +to her occasion. "If that be my true fortune," said she to the dauphin, +"I must leave you this instant and go marry the King of England; for I +see that, in the sloth that confines you here, you will not long be King +of France." The shot told, and Charles was stung into momentary +activity. Throughout her life Agnes continued to exert a salutary +influence upon him; and when she died,--poisoned, it was said, by the +then dauphin, afterward Louis XI,--evil favorites soon replaced the wise +counsellors at the king's board, and his last years were as full of +misery as had been those before Jeanne came mysteriously out of the east +and gave him his crown.</p> + +<p>It was not Charles, the miserable, ungrateful voluptuary whose character +we have attempted to show, that was loved and saved by Jeanne d'Arc; it +was France, represented to her in the person of the dauphin. For her, +Charles was a symbol, a mere incarnate <i>patrie</i> for whose salvation she +was commissioned by the Lord of Hosts; the man himself was nothing; in +her simple peasant's heart, she hardly thought of him as a man, rather +as a sort of divinity that could do no wrong, that must be worshipped, +that must first of all be saved and set up safely in its tabernacle of +Rouen. Unworthier idol never was created than this insensible thing +called the dauphin, with as little care for the victims crushed beneath +him as if he had been in very truth a mere wooden Juggernaut or Mumbo +Jumbo; but all of us worship unworthy idols and are quite unconscious of +their unworthiness. And, as in the case of Jeanne, if worship and +worshipper be pure, what matter if the idol be a little unsteady on the +pedestal to which our blind devotion has raised it?</p> + +<p>The worship of Jeanne for the dauphin had begun in very childhood, when +this dream-guided little maid of Lorraine hardly knew what "king" or +"kingdom" meant. Writers have remarked, as De Quincey and Michelet, upon +the fact that Jeanne was born in a border land, on the marches of +Lorraine and Champagne, in the debatable land between the great parties +of Orléans and Burgundy; but the mere situation of this little village +of Domremy upon the great Franco-German highway is a geographical fact +that could be conned over and over, and then forgotten, without our +being one whit the better or the worse. The dead fact is nevertheless a +fruitful seed of thought, if we but allow it to come to germination. We +may recall that in the present day the most enthusiastic of those +patriots of France who are ever clamoring misguidedly for war are the +people of this one-time border of France. However misguided may be the +demonstrations of the crowds who annually drape in mourning the statue +of Strasbourg on the Place de la Concorde, an enthusiastic patriotism is +their inspiration. "The outposts of France, as one may call the great +frontier provinces," De Quincey says, "were of all localities the most +devoted to the Fleurs de Lys. To witness, at any great crisis, the +generous devotion to these lilies of the little fiery cousin (Lorraine) +that in gentler weather was forever tilting at the breast of France, +could not but fan the zeal of France's legitimate daughters; whilst to +occupy a post of honour on the frontiers against an old hereditary enemy +of France would naturally stimulate this zeal by a sentiment of martial +pride, by a sense of danger always threatening, and of hatred always +smouldering.... The eye that watched for the gleams of lance or helmet +from the hostile frontier, the ear that listened for the groaning of +wheels, made the highroad itself, with its relations to centres so +remote, into a manual of patriotic duty."</p> + +<p>Nursed in an atmosphere of patriotism, therefore, the little Jeanne had +the horrors of war brought vividly before her when a band of brigands, +nominally English or Burgundian partisans, rushed down upon Domremy, +sacked the town, burned the church, and drove many of the inhabitants, +including Jeanne's family, into temporary exile. The family came back +again, and the immediate ravages of the soldiers were repaired, but +Jeanne never forgot, and told in after years how she would shiver with +horror and then weep from sheer pity at seeing her village friends come +back wounded and bleeding from some affray with the English.</p> + +<p>Jeanne, the daughter of one who is described as a <i>simple laboureur</i> +(which may mean that he was an independent farmer in a small way, not a +mere laborer), was born in 1412, and was therefore old enough to see and +to appreciate the worst of the miseries of France and to understand the +tales of war and of English outrages brought to her father's door by +many a traveller on the great highway that passed through Domremy; and +her heart was filled with pity for the poor dauphin, repudiated by his +own mother, exiled from his kingdom by the English, wandering aimlessly +from province to province where the arms of his enemies made it safe for +him to pass. The child's mind could but be stirred and filled with those +vague, generous dreams of sacrifice, of heroism, of impossible +achievements, which, like other visions, fade "into the light of common +day" with most of us. Not so with Jeanne, in whom from the start there +was something mystical, something that set her apart from other +children.</p> + +<p>With her work-a-day life we are not concerned, nor with those members of +her family who stand for none of the things of the spirit for which she +was to serve. Her father, of whom even tradition has been able to make +neither a monster nor a hero, was merely a commonplace peasant, +apparently amiable and kindly, but manifestly incapable of sympathy with +things ethereal and supernatural; we need not go so far as De Quincey +and deny him patriotism: "He would greatly have preferred... the saving +of a pound or so of bacon to saving the Oriflamme of France." And so +with her brothers, Jean and Pierre; though ennobled by the king, and +though doubtless very good fellows, they were certainly very far from +being noble in spirit, or in any way comparable to their sister. For +Jeanne's nobility was based upon no accident of birth or favor of a +prince: it was the gift of God.</p> + +<p>The life of Jeanne d'Arc was probably not essentially different from +that of other girls of her class, at least up to her fourteenth or +fifteenth year. From the testimony of those who recalled the childhood +of the heroine long after she had become a heroine we must turn with +some distrust; for motives the most diverse may have induced, and +doubtless did induce, them to conceal or even to misrepresent many +things in this simple story. But there seems to be no doubt that Jeanne +tended sheep, like her sister and other children of the neighborhood, +that she learned all the simple little domestic arts, and "was a good +girl, diligent at her work"; she herself refers with pride to her skill +as a needlewoman: "My mother taught me so well that I could sew as well +as any woman in Rouen," and Rouen was one of the centres of fine work; +but of reading and writing, even the rudiments of education, she knew +nothing. Of one other thing, too, there is no doubt, though the +legend-mongers have doubtless colored the picture a little here also; +this is that the child was pious, manifesting greater devoutness than +was common among her class. And in this devoutness, too, a thing more +significant still, she manifested a diffidence, a desire to withdraw +herself and her prayers from the profanation of vulgar and inquisitive +eyes.</p> + +<p>Much has been made of the mysterious associations of forests +fairy-haunted, of trees where the children danced and hung garlands in +honor of some fairy queen, whom the good <i>curé</i> of the village devoutly +exorcised every spring. What community in a land neighbored by mountains +but has its "little people," whether fairies, hobgoblins, or gnomes? The +learned doctors at Jeanne's trial were trying to fasten upon her some +preposterous charge of witchcraft and association with the powers of +evil; it was their business to drag in the fairies and to show that +Jeanne knew more of such things than was good for the glory of God; and +ever since, the biographers have seized upon what scanty ravellings of +childish legend Jeanne could recall upon her trial, and have woven of +them fine cobwebs of filmy pattern, to show how the whole soil of +Domremy, more than any other particular spot in France, produced +mushroom crops of fairies, and that a very miasma of enchantment was in +the air. The mass of fanciful and sometimes exquisite rhetoric on this +theme in the lives of Jeanne would surely have convicted her of +witchcraft in the fifteenth century. In good truth, Jeanne probably had +as firm belief in fairies as you and I once had in Hop-o'-my-Thumb and +Red Ridinghood; but those were childish things, in no way connected with +her mission.</p> + +<p>That which is of importance to note is that she was always a gentle and +tender-hearted girl, ready to nurse the sick or to play with the +children. "Well do I know it," says an aged peasant who testified for +her memory years after she was dead, "I was then but a child, and she +nursed me." But most important of all is the knowledge that her enemies +could not find in Domremy one witness to testify against her; there was +in her native village no envious wretch, no Ascalaphus, who could +concoct a probable tale of any sort to the injury of one who had as a +child led a life so pure, so good, but likewise so uneventful.</p> + +<p>At what time Jeanne began to see visions we cannot tell exactly; it is +probable that the dreams of childhood, long indulged, merged at first +unconsciously into visions that seemed to her as real as things seen +with the bodily eye. By her own account, it was some six or seven years +after she first felt called by the heavenly voices before she found +courage to attempt the apparently impossible things they commanded. One +vision she remembered all her life long, because it was kept constantly +before her mind by the great passion of her life. She herself tells of +this one, and neither persuasions nor ridicule nor the terrors of the +prison could shake her absolute faith in its reality. "Long had she +heard celestial voices, sometimes counselling her to be a good girl, +sometimes specially recommending to her the practice of piety and the +careful guarding of her virginity, sometimes echoing in unison with her +own thoughts as they told her of the woes of France and the groans of +the people. One day as she sat working and musing in the garden next to +the church wall, there came a bright and blinding light, a heavenly +effulgence stronger than the midday sun; then out of this glory came the +voice, soft, yet commanding, of a man, whose glorious winged figure she +could see dimly, saying: 'Jeanne, arise! go to the succor of the +Dauphin, and thou shalt restore his kingdom to him.' The poor girl, all +abashed, fell upon her knees: 'Messire, how can I do this, since I am +but a poor girl, and know not how to ride or to lead men-at-arms?' But +the voice insisted: 'Thou shalt go to the Sire de Baudricourt, +commanding for the King at Vaucouleurs, and he will conduct thee to the +Dauphin. Fear not; Saint Margaret and Saint Catherine will aid thee.'"</p> + +<p>Jeanne was in tears, for the fear of the thing, not daring as yet to +confide in anyone. But the voices continued to importune her, and again +she saw the angel, him whom in her simple fashion she described as +<i>moult prudhomme</i> (a very noble man), and whom she now recognized to be +the very Saint Michael whose image she had seen in her church, +triumphing over the dragon. And with him came fair women, all in white, +with lights and troops of angels all about them, the holy and brave +virgins Margaret and Catherine. They had come, as Saint Michael the +Archangel had promised, to be her spiritual guides and comforters; and +their blessed forms were never far from her, and their voices whispered +to her to be of good cheer, for that through her and her alone France +would be saved.</p> + +<p>Tortured by doubts and fears, she revealed these visions to her mother, +from whom she had learned her <i>Ave, Pater, Credo</i>, the sweet and simple +faith that meant so much to her. Her mother was half inclined to believe +in Jeanne, and was at least sympathetic; but her father could see in +these visions but childish nonsense that would lead his daughter astray. +For him there was no faith in such things; can one blame him if he +thought them but the silly moonings of a child, and dealt with that +child sternly in the hope of saving her? He declared that he would drown +Jeanne with his own hands rather than see her ride off with men-at-arms +into that France of which he and she knew nothing but that it was from +end to end given over to war and pillage. Thinking that marriage might +dispel her illusions about saving France,--as indeed it would,--they +persecuted her to marry a young villager who had fallen desperately in +love with her and claimed that she had promised to marry him. With a +courage that must have surprised even herself, she went before the +ecclesiastical court of Toul and told her story so frankly that the +judge dismissed the desperate lover. Not for her were the joys and +sorrows of a wife and mother.</p> + +<p>With all her determination and masculine contempt for those things that +are terrors to most women, Jeanne loved her home. In after years she was +ever sighing for the quiet life of her father's cottage, where she might +sit and spin with her mother, or wander forth over the fields with her +sister to tend the sheep. What a piteous struggle must there have been +in her breast! On the one hand, an angry father, whom she loved, a +mother whom she loved better, a safe home, and in it all that her simple +heart desired; on the other, the great and terrible world, the armies of +rough men, the dissolute courtiers, the long journeys over an unknown +country, for one who had hardly stirred out of sight of Domremy church +tower. Love of home, so strong in the hearts of all women, so precious +to the peasant woman of France above all others, must be renounced for +love of country. There have been no better or more determined patriots +than women, as Cæsar found when the women of Gaul cheered their husbands +on to the contest with his legions; but these women were fighting at +home, as it were upon the threshold; they did not go forth to lead +armies in offensive warfare; theirs was the steady courage of +desperation, not the active courage which must sustain itself, keep its +own fires alive, instead of relying upon the stimulus of impulse and a +desperate crisis. All the fears and heartbreakings of the struggle in +Jeanne's mind have been hidden from us, for she speaks not of them; +having fought out this battle with herself and decided that France needs +her more than does her mother, she does not allow herself to turn back, +and we get but a plaintive reminiscence here and there, since she has +locked up this grief in her heart.</p> + +<p>The opportunity to attempt the execution of the commands imposed by her +voices was long in coming; she had become a subject of common talk in +her village; everywhere she met discouraging incredulity, if not +ridicule. It was not that there was lack of belief in marvels, for the +land was filled with stories of portents and wonders in which the people +did not hesitate to believe. There was the holy peasant whom the great +captain, Xaintrailles, brought before the court to display upon his +hands and feet the very marks of the cross, the stigmata, and who was +said to sweat blood upon the day of the Passion. There was Catherine de +la Rochelle, who saw visions of angels and who proclaimed herself +commissioned to discover treasures for the dauphin. In these and the +like the people of Domremy may have believed; but not in their own +little peasant girl; for had they not known her when she was but like +the rest, a simple shepherdess?</p> + +<p>In one member of her family Jeanne found faith, and to him she turned +for help. This was her uncle, whose wife she was sent to nurse and whose +spark of faith she kindled during this stay till, what with her urging +and that of his wife, the good man' went to Vaucouleurs and carried +Jeanne's message to Baudricourt. Is it any wonder that the seigneur +smiled derisively at this foolish peasant who came to him with a message +from a girl declaring that he must give her soldiers to accomplish that +which the best captains of France could not accomplish? He was not +unduly harsh, merely contemptuous in his rebuff: "Whip the girl well, +and send her home to her father." There are so many with "missions" in +this world, missions that are but vain imaginings, profiting naught; the +more experience one has had in the world the more one learns to distrust +these missions; and beyond a doubt the chastisement suggested by the +Sire de Baudricourt would, in nine cases out of ten, have ended the +mission and cured the hysterical enthusiast.</p> + +<p>We say nine cases out of ten, or ninety-nine out of a hundred, or any +further multiples you please, with careless assurance that there is no +tenth case, and that fate will not take our wager and prove us fools, no +matter what the odds we offer. But there is that tenth case, and the +world is caught, the wise world, as here in the case of the peasant lass +of Lorraine, at whom all in Domremy smiled indulgently, whom all in +France were soon to worship.</p> + +<p>It was the month of February, 1429, when the eyes of all France were +fixed upon one city, Orléans. To the shattered French party it was the +last hope of their dauphin; to the English it was the barrier which shut +them off from the south of France. Since October the siege had been in +progress, and England had given the command of her besieging forces to +the best captains, while Dunois held out for France and for his +half-brother, that Charles d'Orléans who had been a prisoner in England +ever since Agincourt. But neither the skill of Dunois nor the gay +courage of the citizens could cope with famine; it looked as if Orléans +must fall, and all France mourned in advance the fate of the gallant +city. Charles, the dauphin, wept at Chinon, and was without hope or +counsel. In the heart of the daughter of Domremy one fervent prayer +replaced all others: that Orléans might be saved! Her voices grew more +and more importunate, crying to her ceaselessly that it was for her to +save Orléans. With this more definite and immediate aim in mind she +found courage to make another appeal to Baudricourt. She persuaded her +uncle to accompany her, and the two trudged on foot to Vaucouleurs, +where Jeanne was lodged with a wheelwright, her mother's cousin.</p> + +<p>Impatient at the persistence of this mad girl, Baudricourt nevertheless +consented to see her, probably thinking that he would thus more easily +rid himself of her. In her simple peasant's dress of red cloth the young +mystic stood before him. She was not tall, but was well proportioned and +sturdy; in her features there was nothing remarkable, merely a +regularity that failed of absolute beauty by being commonplace; still, +it was a comely face, and even the sceptic Baudricourt could not fail to +note the honesty and gentleness of the expression, or the deep and +dreamy eyes, the sole feature that revealed some gleams of the great +spirit within. Without hesitation or embarrassment and yet without +effrontery she answered his questions, and uttered her message to the +dauphin: "My lord, I come to you in the name of God, bidding you enjoin +the dauphin to hold firm and to set no day of battle with the enemy at +this time, for God will send him aid about Mid-Lent. The kingdom is not +his alone, but God's. Nevertheless, the Lord meaneth that he shall be +King, despite his enemies; and it is I who shall lead him to be crowned +at Rheims."</p> + +<p>Baudricourt could not surrender at once to the faint belief aroused in +him by Jeanne's earnestness, but the faint belief was already there, and +he dismissed her kindly to reflect upon what she had said. The <i>curé</i> of +the parish was called into consultation, and the knight and the priest +agreed that it was quite possible that Satan might have a hand in all +this, and the two visited Jeanne, the priest exorcising the evil spirit, +whereat Jeanne did not fly away or disappear with a flash and a bad +smell of powder and brimstone. Her simple piety satisfied and touched +the priest.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, rumors of her wonderful visions and of her sanctity began to +be current among the people and to find credence. Had it not been +prophesied by the mighty Merlin that France should be lost through a +wicked woman and saved by a pure virgin? Who could the wicked woman be +other than Isabeau de Bavière, who had sold France and disinherited and +denied her own son? And here was Jeanne, a pure child, come to redeem +France. It was criminal in Baudricourt to doubt, to reject the +assistance thus sent by God himself. Crowds of people, gentles and mere +laborers, visited Jeanne, and all were sure of one thing at least, that +she was a good girl, while many went away firm believers in her mission. +A gentleman, Jean de Metz, thinking to jest with her, said: "Well, +sweetheart, then we must all turn English, since the King will be driven +out of France." But there was no thought of jest in her, as she +complained of Baudricourt's refusal to send her to the dauphin: "And yet +they must get me to the Dauphin before Mid-Lent, were I to wear out my +legs to the knees walking there. For no one in this world, kings, nor +dukes, nor daughter of the king of Scotland, can win back the kingdom of +France; and there is for him no other help save in me, albeit I should +far rather stay beside my poor mother and spin.... For this is not my +work, fighting battles; but I needs must go to do that which is +commanded, for my Lord so wills it."</p> + +<p>Baudricourt hesitated to assume the responsibility of any action in the +matter. He took Jeanne to see the old Duke de Lorraine, his feudal +superior. Duke Charles, at that time under the domination of a mistress, +Alison du May, of great wit and beauty, was ill, and thought the +miraculous maiden of Domremy might restore him to health and the arms of +Alison. Jeanne, very wisely and frankly, told him to put away his +paramour and take back his wife and lead a decent life. She was no +worker of vulgar miracles to profit a worn-out old roué.</p> + +<p>Coming back to Vaucouleurs, she found the authorities more ready to give +her a hearing, for the situation in Orléans had become desperate, and +the gallant citizens, who had entered into the siege with as much +eagerness as if it had been but play, found enthusiasm very exhausting +and food supplies very scant. Jeanne had predicted the date and the +disastrous result of the battle of Rouvray, "the battle of the Herrings" +(February 12, 1429), and the people of Vaucouleurs believed in her. +Grudgingly and half-heartedly, the Sire de Baudricourt was compelled to +yield to her request and to despatch her to the dauphin. Some citizens +of the town subscribed a sum to equip her with horse and armor, and the +Sire de Baudricourt himself gave her a sword. For the long journey +through a rough country the poor girl, with no woman companion, could +not retain her simple gown, but must be dressed as a man-at-arms. On the +very eve of her departure, she was subjected to another severe trial to +her feelings: her parents, hearing of her determination, sent to +implore, to command, her not to go; and Jeanne, unable to write, had to +dictate a letter asking their forgiveness for her disobedience.</p> + +<p>Her little troop, consisting of two gentlemen and a few men of their +following, had to traverse part of the country where the Burgundian +interest was strong, for the dauphin was then holding his court at +Chinon, near Tours. And the dangers of the road infested by hostile +troops were not the only dangers, for among her own companions there +were many misgivings: they knew not whether to reverence her as a saint +or to destroy her as a witch. The latter course, indeed, they were very +near pursuing; but the innocence and the harmless, hopeful, confident +demeanor of the girl moved their hearts to pity.</p> + +<p>She arrived at Chinon on February 24th, and sent word to Charles that +she had much to tell him that would comfort his heart, and that she had +come one hundred and fifty leagues to see him; but Charles had no will +of his own, and his councillors wrangled about what should be done. +There was a strong party opposed to Jeanne, but her friends, headed by +Queen Yolande, carried the day, and she was admitted to see the king, +or, as she continued to call him until after the consecration at Rheims, +the dauphin. The story of how this country maiden was introduced into +the throng of dazzling courtiers and left to divine which was the chosen +of the Lord has been too often told, and too generally credited, to need +either retelling or defence; the whole story of Jeanne d'Arc is so +little short of what we would call miraculous that it seems a petty +thing to balk at this one detail. Whether by divine inspiration, or by +mere luck, or by the friendly and secret guidance of her followers, +Jeanne did discover Charles, and spoke without fear as she knelt at the +feet of this unworthy prince whom she had come so far to save: "Gentle +Dauphin, I am called Jeanne la Pucelle; the King of Heaven sends you +word by me that you shall be consecrated and crowned in the city of +Rheims, and that you shall be his lieutenant in France. Give me, +therefore, soldiers, that I may raise the siege of Orléans and take you +to Rheims to be consecrated. It is God's will that your enemies, the +English, shall go back to their own land; and woe be unto them if they +do not go; for the kingdom shall be and remain your own."</p> + +<p>The dauphin could but be struck by these words, uttered with such +directness and earnestness; but he still doubted of the divine mission +of the peasant girl. Might she not be an impostor, hired by his enemies? +Might she not be, if nothing worse, merely a poor demented creature? His +mind had been much tormented by doubts of his own legitimacy. The +English openly proclaimed him no son of Charles VI.; his mother's +intimacy with Orléans was too notorious and too recent a scandal to be +concealed, and he had been born at the very moment when that intimacy +was at its height, while she who was his mother had acted as if there +were good reason why he should not inherit the crown; is it any wonder +that the wretched young prince himself half believed the allegations of +his foes? He desired reassurance on this point, and it was doubtless to +ask some question of the kind that he now led Jeanne d'Arc aside and +seemed to converse with her in low tones. All that passed between them +has never been told, since Jeanne refused to reveal it; but the +courtiers saw his countenance light up, and it was known that she had +told him good news, and this much she confessed to having said: "I am +sent from God to assure you that you are the true heir of France, the +son of the King."</p> + +<p>The dauphin may have been momentarily converted to faith in Jeanne la +Pucelle; but he was vacillating, and some of his wisest councillors, +including the chancellor, would not believe in her. She must first be +proved no witch and a pure virgin. To both these tests Jeanne submitted +willingly and courageously, and from both she came out vindicated. As +they prepared to take her to Poitiers, where some half dozen learned +doctors of the church were to focus their wisdom upon this poor child, +she said: "Well do I see that many a hard trial awaits me in Poitiers; +but God will aid me. Let us go, then, with stout hearts." During the +interrogation to which she was subjected by the theologians, the one +dominant characteristic of the girl --not of the saint--was strongly +brought out: her common sense. Her answers, though naive and utterly +unsophisticated, by their frankness and good sense frequently +discomfited the most adroit catechists. One of the doctors objected: "If +God wishes to deliver the people of France he has no need of +men-at-arms." With readiness and rational, half-humorous shrewdness, +Jeanne replied: "Ah! my God! the men-at-arms will fight, and God will +give the victory." Then Brother Seguin, "a very sour man," with a strong +twang of his native Limoges, would fain know "what tongue these Heavenly +visitors spoke?" "A better than thine," replied Jeanne. "I did not come +to show signs or work miracles in Poitiers; the sign I shall give you +will be to raise the siege of Orléans. Give me soldiers, few or many, +and I will go."</p> + +<p>Confident of coming out scathless from the examination of the doctors, +Jeanne grew weary of the long delay and dictated a letter to the English +regent, Bedford, announcing to him that "the Maid has come from God to +drive you out of France." Finally, the representatives of the Church +gave it as their opinion that it would be lawful to employ this maid, if +in very truth she were a maid, "for the hand of God works in mysterious +ways!" Her purity of life and of body were more easily established than +her orthodoxy, and now there remained nothing but to grant her prayer +and let her march on to Orléans. For Orléans, too, had heard of its +advocate, and the gallant Dunois sent entreaty after entreaty that they +would send the maid to him.</p> + +<p>A little retinue was provided as her personal escort, under command of a +staunch and staid old knight, Jean Daulon, with a page, two heralds, a +steward, two valets, and Jeanne's brother, Pierre d'Arc. Clothed in pure +white armor--white as symbolizing the purity of the heroine--and mounted +upon her black horse, glorious must have been the sight of the sweet +maid, a very <i>sursum corda</i> to every loyal heart in France. One can see +through the mists of years the seraphic smile of tender triumph with +which she looked up at her banner, the holy banner that was of white +with <i>fleurs-de-lis</i> upon it, and on one side the Lord of Hosts Himself, +with angels by His side, holding the world in His hands. And then she +waved aloft the sacred sword of Saint Catherine with its five crosses, +which she had discovered hid behind the altar of Saint Catherine de +Fierbois; the word was at last: "On to Orléans!"</p> + +<p>No greater contrast could have been than that here set before the eyes +of wondering France: on the one hand, the chaste, kindly, simple-hearted +Jeanne; on the other, leaders and soldiers brutalized by long years of +desultory civil war. Think of a Sire de Giac, who gave poison to his +wife and then, setting her astride a horse, made her gallop till she +died. When he was brought to justice he prayed that his right hand, +vowed to the service of the devil, might be cut off before his +execution, lest the astute ruler of Hades seize the said hand and drag +the whole body along with it. Or think, again, of Gilles de Retz, the +Marquis de Laval, whose murders of children (to the number of one +hundred and sixty, some say) were so atrocious that he was at last +seized, tried, condemned to death at the stake and to eternal, if +mistaken, association with that nursery horror, Bluebeard. Think of him +riding beside Jeanne la Pucelle, nay, standing beside her at the +coronation in Rheims and fetching the sacred ampulla! What an associate +for her was even that brave and loyal friend Etienne Vignoles, nicknamed +Lahire (the Barker), who was wont to say, in extenuation of the +universal practice of plundering and brigandage among the so-called +soldiers, "Were God to turn man-at-arms, He too would pillage!" It was +he who prayed before a battle, with less reverence but surely not with +less fervency than some other pious soldiers: <i>Sire Dieu, je te prie de +faire pour Lahire ce que Lahire ferait pour toi, si tu étais capitaine +et si Lahire était Dieu</i> (Sir God, I pray thee to do for Lahire what +Lahire would do for thee, if thou were a soldier and Lahire were God). +It is a most excellent and comprehensive prayer, good to prefer when one +has not time to remind the Deity of each little thing He should do.</p> + +<p>With an army composed of such men, Jeanne d'Arc set out for Orléans; but +she sadly doubted if her saints would be coadjutors to such unrepentant +sinners. Accordingly, she insisted that the morals of the camp be +reformed. Lahire must swear no more dreadful, soul-blasting oaths; he +obeyed, but the good-hearted girl, seeing him at a loss for unseasoned +speech, relented so far as to permit him to swear "by his baton." But +the reform did not end with puerile matters; the Pucelle would have no +loose women about the camp; all her soldiers must go humbly and confess +their sins before they dared to follow her sacred banner; in the open +air upon the banks of the Loire she raised an altar, and all must take +communion with her. No need of the dauphin's order to Dunois, +Xaintrailles, Lahire, Boussac, and the other captains to respect the +person and obey the commands of Jeanne la Pucelle; the enthusiasm +inspired by her innocent face, the patriotism of her unselfish heart, +that mysterious power which, sometimes and only sometimes, the good and +pure and utterly defenseless exert upon evil natures these were far +stronger motives than the commands of a prince so weak that he could not +maintain his own in half of France. It was a crusade upon which this +fair young saint was leading them; and something of the old ardor of the +crusaders inspired her followers.</p> + +<a name="c13" id="c13"></a><br><br> + +<h3>CHAPTER XIII</h3> + +<h3>THE TRIUMPH AND MARTYRDOM OF JEANNE D'ARC</h3> + +<p>WHILE the army of Jeanne d'Arc, starting with but four or five thousand +men and gathering numbers from every side as it goes, is marching toward +Orléans, let us look at the military situation of that town and of the +English cause in France. To begin with, the force of the besiegers had +never been large; during the long siege it had been reduced by disease, +by loss in battle, by defections, till the English army itself was +almost in as great straits as the garrison. Moreover, in order to secure +themselves, the English had constructed a dozen or more small forts, or +<i>bastilles</i>, on both sides of the Loire, and the garrisons of these +places had no sure means of intercommunication. It is true that plans +were on foot for reinforcing the besiegers, but the political conditions +in France and England were such as very seriously to handicap Bedford. +There was never hearty cooperation between him and the all-powerful +Cardinal Winchester; the Duke of Gloucester was wrangling with +Winchester, and had not long ago seriously offended Bedford's most +important ally, Philippe de Bourgogne, by marrying Jacqueline of +Flanders and espousing her cause against the Burgundians. Though +Gloucester had since married another lady--bigamy was but a small +matter--and had patched up matters with Philippe de Bourgogne, the +latter was showing distinct signs of estrangement from the English. Much +depended therefore on the successful termination of the siege of +Orléans, and the English power, apparently at its climax, needed but a +slight check to start it on the decline.</p> + +<p>All this must lead us to ponder upon the achievements of that force now +collected under the white banner of Jeanne, and to ask ourselves, were +those achievements indeed so marvellous, from a military point of view? +When the chemist has evaporated his solution of a salt almost to the +point of crystallization, and yet it will not crystallize, a mere +splinter cast into the dish will suddenly gather to itself the +hesitating particles, and the crystals form as if by magic. The figure +will help us to understand the condition of the dauphin's cause and the +kind of influence exerted by Jeanne d'Arc. She was the nucleus, lacking +which the French forces might have continued mere floating and helpless +bands, without a leader, without a common cause; above all, without hope +or enthusiasm. There was no lack of valiant soldiers on the side of the +dauphin, the Constable de Richemont, Dunois, Xaintrailles, Lahire, +Gilles de Retz, Armagnac; all these were either in Jeanne's army or in +Orléans. It was her presence, her influence, that enabled them to +combine successfully. She was essential to them, no doubt; but had she +herself not said wisely and well: "The men-at-arms will fight, and God +will give the victory "?</p> + +<p>The captains of the dauphin's army thoroughly appreciated the value, the +inestimable value, of the enthusiasm aroused by the Maid, and they made +shrewd use of it; but they had no intention of trusting the whole +campaign to spiritual direction, whether of saints or devils; and some +of them were not a little inclined to view Jeanne as hardly better than +a witch. It might have been better for France had they trusted to the +guidance of the heroine. She would have marched up to Orléans on the +side of the river held most strongly by the English and have defied +them, be the risk what it might. By a deception she was led to cross the +Loire, and was indignant when, on reaching Orléans, she discovered that +the river lay between her and the town.</p> + +<p>Dunois, commander-in-chief in Orléans, seeing her from the ramparts, +crossed the river at once and came to give her reverent and joyful +greeting. After reproaching him and the other captains for placing more +reliance upon human prudence than upon Divine behests, she said: "I +bring you the best succor that ever knight or city had; it is the succor +of the King of Heaven, and comes not from me, but from God." It was the +29th of April, and that same evening, at eight o'clock, Jeanne entered +Orléans with provisions and an escort, the main body of the army +retiring to Blois to cross the Loire.</p> + +<p>Orléans went mad with joy at the advent of its heaven-sent deliverer. As +she rode through the streets the crowds blocked her way, and eager +admirers rudely jostled each other in the struggle but to touch the +horse that bore her. With sweet kindliness, she thanked them, losing +none of her humility, and exhorting them to thank not her, but God and +the dauphin. For that night and the rest of her stay in Orléans she was +lodged with the wife of the treasurer of Charles d'Orléans, and slept +with one of the daughters of the house. Sturdy and healthy as she was, +the unaccustomed rough life of the camp, sleeping with her armor on and +none but men about her, had occasioned her great fatigue.</p> + +<p>The operations of the siege had been suspended by the English, who +sullenly kept to their <i>bastilles</i>. Jeanne insisted upon an immediate +attack, and during the week that followed she was with difficulty +restrained from rash enterprises. Indeed, she could not always be +restrained, and her rashness was not infrequently rewarded with +unexpected success. Warned of the approach of English reinforcements +under Sir John Fastolf, she conjured Dunois to let her know without +delay of his coming. She suspected Dunois of intending to engage Fastolf +without her, and in her nervous eagerness to be up and doing for France +she precipitated a successful attack upon the bastilles. She had retired +to rest for a few hours in the middle of the day when the noise of a +tumult in the streets aroused her; the cry was that the French were +being slaughtered at one of the gates. Leaping from her couch, and +hardly taking time to have half of her armor buckled on, she mounted her +horse and, seizing her banner as it was reached to her from a window, +galloped toward the gates. On the way, she met the wounded and her heart +was moved at the sight of blood. Without the authority of Dunois the +garrison had undertaken an assault upon the <i>bastille</i> of Saint-Loup, +which stood most directly across the path of those who would bring +supplies into Orléans. The French had been beaten back, but with the +arrival of Jeanne hope and courage returned. Jeanne in person led a +fresh assault, while Talbot, the English commander, vainly strove to +rally his men and dissipate their fears of "the witch." The English were +forced to retire, and the fort fell into the hands of Jeanne, who, +lapsing at once from warrior into woman after this first experience of +an actual battle, wept over the slain, cared for the wounded, and did +her best to protect the English prisoners from her own savage followers.</p> + +<p>The military success was not great, but the mere fact of success in this +first active enterprise enhanced Jeanne's credit in the eyes of her own +party. Nevertheless, the military chiefs hesitated to trust her, perhaps +because they were jealous of her; and while she was spending Ascension +day in fasting and prayer they held a council at which it was determined +to attack the principal English fort under cover of a feint upon one on +the other side of Orléans. She was told only of the feigned attack, but +Dunois later confessed the truth, refusing, however, to allow her to +proceed to the assault in person. As she watched the battle from afar, +saw the French carry and burn one fort, and then saw them repulsed from +before another, her impatience could no longer be restrained. Crossing +the river with a few followers, she rallied her people, who followed her +charmed standard and captured the fort, which Jeanne fired with her own +hand.</p> + +<p>Once more the wisdom or the expediency of her seemingly rash counsels +had been vindicated; but still the leaders hesitated, and determined to +await reinforcements before attacking the fort of Les Tournelles, in +which the English had now concentrated a considerable part of their +forces. "Nay," said Jeanne, "you have been at your councils, but I have +been at mine. Know that the counsel of my King and Lord shall prevail +over yours." She ordered her chaplain to be ready to attend her at break +of day: "For I shall have much to do, more than I have done any day yet. +Blood shall issue from my body, for I shall be wounded." With the +English daily awaiting reinforcements, it is difficult to comprehend +what could have induced experienced military leaders to meditate delay +instead of pursuing the advantage already gained; yet they shut the +gates next morning to keep Jeanne in, and her host, Milet, begged her to +remain quietly to sup with him. "Keep your supper," she said; "I shall +bring back some <i>Goddems</i> to eat it with us." The national oath, which +Figaro was to consider sufficient for all conversation in English, was +manifestly familiar and characteristic three centuries before his time.</p> + +<p>In spite of the orders of their chiefs the men-at-arms followed their +idol, forced the gates, and charged upon the English fort. As the sun +rose over the Loire the desperate struggle began, the English defending +themselves with determination and driving back column after column till +the dead and wounded lay in heaps beneath the walls of Les Tournelles. +Sword in hand, La Pucelle placed a ladder against the wall, and as she +mounted an arrow pierced her shoulder. As she fell fainting to the earth +the English sallied forth to capture her, but she was rescued by the +Sire de Gamaches, who had been one of those who refused to serve as a +captain in an army dominated by "a mere girl, who may have been God +knows what." Though sceptical of her mission, he was a gallant soldier, +and succeeded in removing the wounded heroine to a place of safety.</p> + +<p>If the pain of the wound and the sight of her own blood had unnerved +Jeanne, the spectacle of their wounded deliverer completely demoralized +her soldiers. They pressed about her offering to dress the wound, to +remove the arrow, to charm away the pain by magic incantations. She +would have none of the works of Satan for her healing. Praying to her +saints for strength, she rallied her courage, pulled the arrow out with +her own hands, and had the wound dressed with oil. It was nearly dark, +and the captains were for retiring, but Jeanne's spirits inspired her to +continue the fight. The Sire de Daulon, her knight, rushed back to the +fosse of the fort to recover the sacred banner, dropped there in the +confusion of the fray. As he raised it to the breeze its folds were +opened, and the disheartened French soldiers charged again. "If my +banner but touch the walls," said Jeanne, "the fort will fall." Wounded +as she was, she mounted her horse and rode toward the fort. Panic seized +the English at what seemed to them a miraculous restoration to life of +one whom they thought dead, and their excited imaginations saw the +heavenly hosts, led by Michael, fighting on the French side. Attempting +a hurried evacuation, the English captain, Glasdale, was precipitated +into the Loire from a frail bridge on which he was crossing; the fort +was taken, and the remnant of its defenders put to the sword.</p> + +<a name="ill6" id="ill6"></a> + +<p class="mid"><img alt="" src="images/006.png"><br> +<b><i>JEANNE D'ARC<br> +After the painting by Jean J. Scherrer</i></b></p> + +<blockquote><b><i>Orléans went mad with joy at the advent of its heaven-sent deliverer. As +she rode through the streets the crowds blocked her way, and eager +admirers rudely jostled each other in the struggle but to touch the +horse that bore her. With sweet kindliness, she thanked them, losing +none of her humility, and exhorting them to thank not her, but God and +the dauphin. For that night and the rest of her stay in Orléans she was +lodged with the wife of the treasurer of Charles d'Orléans, and slept +with one of the daughters of the house. Sturdy and healthy as she was, +the unaccustomed rough life of the camp, sleeping with her armor on and +none but men about her, had occasioned her great fatigue.</i></b></blockquote> + +<p>The last of the English defences south of the Loire was destroyed, and +the next day, May 8, 1429, Talbot and Suffolk led their army in retreat. +As it was Sunday, Jeanne let them depart unmolested, but ere the last of +the English columns had disappeared an altar was raised in the plain and +the holy maid was joined by her army and by the people of Orléans in a +Mass to celebrate their deliverance.</p> + +<p>It had taken nine days only for this courageous and resolute girl to +undo months of work on the part of the English. Her steadfast faith in +herself, her refusal to be turned aside from her duty, had worked the +miracle; and for it all she thanked God, and prayed for support in what +yet remained to do. To France, indeed, she seemed a miracle herself; and +learned doctors of the Church undertook to prove, forsooth, that what +she had done was of God, not of the devil, while Frenchmen who had held +aloof from the despised and discredited heir of France began to ask +themselves whether, after all, he were not the lawful ruler of France, +since God had sent this inspired leader of his armies.</p> + +<p>Sweet is the savor of triumph; to all who are touched with ambition the +mere joy of victory, with the homage of men and the flattery that follow +in the train of victory, is so sweet that in vainglory they forget what +yet remains to be done. But in Jeanne there was no ambition; she +rejoiced and gave thanks to God that through her he had saved Orléans; +but the glory was God's, not hers. Orléans, too, was but the first stage +in her career, of whose brief duration she warned her friends, and of +whose tragic end her earnest heart may already have had some +forebodings. "You must use me quickly," she said, "for I shall last but +one year." In that brief year there was much to be accomplished: yet for +long she was compelled to rest, or to fret, while timid or selfish +advisers held back the dauphin from granting her prayer to be allowed to +march at once to Rheims. With practically all the intervening country in +the hands of the English, such a march seemed the extreme of folly. It +would be risking too much for the empty ceremony of consecrating the +dauphin at Rheims. But to Jeanne that consecration was the one thing +needed to complete her share in the rehabilitation of France, the one +thing which her celestial guardians now insisted on her undertaking, and +for which they promised her their support. Moreover, the English were +already demoralized, filled with fear of this "witch," for whom they had +nothing but words of contempt that only veneered their hearty dread of +her. Whether witch or mere woman, they feared the influence of this +Jeanne upon French imagination; and as aliens in the land, they +exaggerated the danger of a sudden wave of national feeling that would +sweep them from France, while they saw disaffection on all sides. All +this the French captains could not, of course, have known; but they +should have appreciated the importance of following up the advantage won +at Orléans and of using the enthusiasm kindled by La Pucelle before +there should be time for it to cool. It was only after much wrangling, +and fresh ecclesiastical debate as to the sources of her inspiration, +that Jeanne's counsel at length prevailed and she was allowed to set out +for Rheims.</p> + +<p>Before this decision was reached, however, other victories had come to +crown Jeanne's banner and to make the approach to Rheims less of a +military hazard. Suffolk had retired to Jargeau, on the Loire, and this +place must be reduced before the French could venture northward. Jeanne +led in the assault, and narrowly missed death from a huge stone that +crushed her helmet. Nevertheless, Jargeau fell, and Suffolk himself was +among the prisoners. De Richemont and his Bretons came to join the +forces of the dauphin, and they went in search of the second English +army, under Talbot and Fastolf, encamped no one knew where in that +Beauce which the war had rendered almost a desert. As the French army +moved cautiously forward in the wilderness, the vanguard started a deer, +which ran straight into the English lines. Warned of their presence by +the cries of the English soldiers, the French were enabled to come upon +them suddenly, and the bloody victory of Patay (June 18th) was won: two +thousand Englishmen were left dead upon the field and Talbot was carried +off a prisoner.</p> + +<p>No longer could the enthusiasm of her followers be quelled; and though +old captains shook their heads, the dauphin and the court were forced to +yield to the popular clamor for an immediate attempt to reach Rheims. +Marching around Paris by way of Auxerre, only Troyes blocked the way, +and its garrison, panic-struck, evacuated the town after a show of +resistance. On July 9th Charles entered Troyes, where, with +characteristic selfishness, he would have let the English march away +with their prisoners but for the intervention of Jeanne. Less than a +week later he entered Rheims in triumph, with Jeanne beside him. She it +was, we would fain think, whom the people welcomed with transports of +joy, not the dauphin whom she was to make a king. Well might the people +crowd about her, hold up their infants for her to bless, and beg but to +touch the hem of her garment; for kings in plenty shall the earth know, +while there may be but one Jeanne d'Arc. On July 17th Jeanne stood in +the cathedral, with her blessed banner, while the ancient ceremonies of +the consecration were performed, and the dauphin, now anointed from the +sacred ampulla, was King of France in name and in right, let the English +proclaim Henry VI. as they would.</p> + +<p>In that gathering of the nobles and chief priests of France what one was +there who considered the ceremony with such unselfish purity of heart as +this peasant girl of Lorraine! To some it was merely an idle spectacle, +a court function like another; to some it was a political event full of +promise, from which they themselves might hope for advantages more or +less selfish; to Jeanne d'Arc it was the sacred fulfilment of that which +God had promised her. Her task was completed now; how gladly would she +have left the scene, without a thought of worldly advancement, content +to have been Jeanne la Pucelle, through whom France was to be saved, +content to be once more merely Jeanne the shepherdess.</p> + +<p>When the crown was placed on the dauphin's head Jeanne knelt before him, +and wept as she embraced his knees. "O gentle king," she said, "now is +fulfilled the will of God, who was pleased that I should raise the siege +of Orléans and should bring you to your city of Rheims to be crowned and +anointed, in proof that you are true king and rightful possessor of the +realm of France." She herself felt that her mission was accomplished, +and besought the king to allow her to return to her home, "to my father +and mother, to keep their sheep for them, as was my wont." But Jeanne +was too useful to be allowed to retire, and though she no longer heard +the call of her divine monitors Charles insisted on her remaining to +help him to win back his kingdom; but "all that was to be done she had +now accomplished; what remained was--to suffer."</p> + +<p>As she rode through the streets of Rheims she exclaimed: "O why can I +not die here!" "And where, then, will you die?" asked the archbishop. "I +know not; it will be where God pleases. I have done what my Lord +commanded me to do. Now I would that it might please Him to send me back +to keep my sheep with my sister and my mother." Her courage was as high +as ever, the brave heart faltered not, but it was no longer inspired. +"She began to hear those voices, no longer from heaven, but from the +hearth, those voices that vainly call disheartened man, sick of ambition +and glory, to the home of his earliest affections, to the humble +occupations of his childhood, to the obscurity of his early days." +Hearken to those voices, Jeanne, and strive no longer to awaken faint +echoes of thy heavenly voices:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i20"> "The oracles are dumb,...</p> +<p class="i14"> No nightly trance or breathed spell</p> +<p class="i14"> Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>This portion of Jeanne's life has always seemed to me the most pitiful, +the period when "her God had forsaken her," when her heart warned her +that her divine task was done, and when yet that heart yearned to do +more for France. In the hour of supreme trial strength came to her with +the thought that her suffering was the will of God; but now what was the +will of God? In vain she prayed for guidance; there was nothing but the +timidity and the yearning for rest of this girlish heart on the one +hand, and the pleading of the king and the courtiers on the other. It +was not to be expected that Jeanne, always willing to sacrifice herself, +should do anything else than consent still to be, as she had been for +three glorious months, the leader of France, the bodily representative +of national feeling. With or without inspiration, she could serve.</p> + +<p>Disaster followed upon disaster in her brief subsequent career; but +always she was the same honest, hopeful, pure girl, striving her utmost +to discipline her army, to restrain the cruelty of her soldiers, to win +for the dauphin a reconciliation with his cousin of Burgundy. Some of +her biographers have noted, or pretended to note, a lamentable change in +her character at this time. It is said that she became less scrupulous +of shedding blood, less careful in enforcing moral and religious +discipline among her followers, above all, less gentle and patient in +temper. But Jeanne had never been able to compel absolute obedience from +soldiers little better than banditti, and when the notion of her +sanctity began to fade away as the men saw her in the daily life of the +camp, and saw her a mere human creature, fallible like themselves, her +strongest hold on them was loosened. She had never been, since her +mission was assumed, a mere dainty, meek, unresisting heroine of +romance, a paragon of grace and beauty for whom knights risked their +lives while she sat by and smiled and dressed the wounds of the victor +after the fight. She had definitely and from the first taken an active +part in the real business of fighting, had on more than one occasion +displayed her prowess in the field. A generation after her death, when +all France had come to regard her as a martyr, a priest testified that +"she would not use her sword, nor would she slay anyone"; but this +testimony is certainly at variance with all that we know of the actual +behavior of Jeanne in battle, and seems sufficiently contradicted by her +own statement that the sword she used at Compiègne was "excellent, +either for cutting or thrusting." She made the statement frankly, +without any suspicion of its apparent inconsistency with her professions +of a divine mission. We have no doubt that Jeanne delivered many a good +stroke in deadly earnest, and we do not respect her the less for it. We +need not even sorrow, but rather rejoice, at that display of honest +indignation against the unruly and immoral in her camp, when she broke +her sword of Saint Catherine over one rascal's head.</p> + +<p>Town after town had thrown open its gates at sight of the white banner +and the Maid of Orléans; but Paris still remained in the hands of the +English. Jeanne was averse to making any attack upon Paris; her heart +misgave her, but she yielded to the will of the king. The assault that +followed (September 8, 1429), in which she behaved with desperate but +hopeless courage, fighting on in spite of a severe wound, resulted in a +disastrous repulse, the French losing heavily. Jeanne, who had opposed +making the attack, was nevertheless held responsible for the result. +Faith in her was rudely shaken, and even those courtiers who had fawned +upon her now said that her impiety--they, of course, were qualified to +pronounce upon such a point--had been fitly rebuked in this defeat: had +she not ventured to deliver the assault upon the anniversary of the +Nativity of Our Lady? "The Armagnacs," says the journal of a pious +citizen of Paris, "were so filled with wickedness and unbelief, that, on +the word of a creature in the shape of a woman with them, called La +Pucelle (what it might be God alone knows!), they conspired on the +anniversary of the Nativity of Our Lady... to attack Paris."</p> + +<p>Jeanne, utterly disheartened by her defeat, and half believing that she +had merited this rebuke from heaven, humbled herself before God and +before the king, and renounced her arms, laying her sword upon the altar +of Saint-Denis. But though willing to shift the blame for failures upon +her, Charles was not willing to dispense with her services if there was +anything more to be hoped from them. She was induced to take up arms +again; but we will pass over in silence the details of her later valiant +but hopeless service and speak only of her last feat of arms.</p> + +<p>The Burgundians, though their duke was already in secret correspondence +with Charles, had laid siege to Compiègne. Jeanne, with a small body of +troops succeeded in forcing her way into the town, and that same day +(May 23, 1430) led a sortie that at first drove back the besiegers. The +Burgundians rallied, however, and Jeanne's troops were beaten back into +the town. As she herself, bringing up the rear in the retreat, turned to +drive back a band of the pursuers that her troops might reach the gates +in safety, she was left alone; and the drawbridge of Compiègne rose, +cutting her off from rescue or from escape. Surrender, Jeanne, there is +no hope for thee; France is weary of thee; for hast thou not done all +that France could hope from thee? Jeanne herself had said that she +feared nothing but treachery. Whatever the immediate motive of those who +raised the drawbridge at Compiègne, whether they were bribed by the +Burgundians or merely exasperated because the heroine had not performed +miracles, the act was clear treachery, and the pitiful little moat of +this town was the impassable barrier that shut Jeanne d'Arc out of that +France she had saved.</p> + +<p>An archer of Picardy was her immediate captor, and he delivered her, for +a price, to his commander, Jean de Luxembourg. A great prize was this +witch who had all but ruined the English cause in France, and proud must +have been her captor: his prisoner was a girl of eighteen. But had she +not fallen into good hands? Jean de Luxembourg was not only a member of +one of the most distinguished families of Europe, but he was a knight, a +leader in that grand organization of chivalry whose first object and +proudest boast was protection of the weak, and gentleness and courtesy +toward women. As Michelet remarks: "It was a hard trial for the chivalry +of the day." The age of chivalry was already gone, though the name was +on the lips of all: chivalry, even if it could have withstood the +phenomenal progress in the condition of the lower orders of +society,--have we not said that the peasant brothers of Jeanne were +ennobled by royal letters patent?--and the invention of firearms, which +tended to equalize all men on the field of battle, could not have +withstood the debasing influence of years of guerrilla warfare. The +knight had not only lost his physical superiority on the battlefield, +but he had lost something infinitely more precious--his lofty ideals. +Knightly orders continued to be founded, but they were the amusements of +dilettanti in honor and ancient custom. Furthermore, even had chivalry +not faded from its theoretic brilliancy, it is entirely possible that +Jeanne would have been deemed beyond the pale of its protection. As the +leper was shunned, as the Jewish usurer was persecuted by mediaeval +society, so was the witch outlawed by public sentiment; and it was as a +witch that the English were resolved to treat the deliverer of Orléans.</p> + +<p>Confined at first in the camp at Margny, near Compiègne, Jeanne was +subsequently removed to the Château de Beaulieu, near Loches, the very +place from which Agnes Sorel took her title of Dame de Beaulieu. The +Maid was removed again to Beaurevoir, and it is pleasant to record the +kindly sympathy displayed by the ladies of Jean de Luxembourg's family, +who ministered to her comfort, provided her with women's clothes, and +did whatever charity suggested to calm her distressed mind. But nothing +could reconcile Jeanne to captivity; she felt that she was in danger of +falling into the hands of the English, and she yearned for an +opportunity to succor Compiègne. In one of her attempted escapes she +threw herself from a high tower, though her conscience warned her +against the sin of self-destruction. Hurt in the fall, she was unable to +make good her escape, and was taken and nursed back to health by the +ladies of Luxembourg.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the great ones of the earth were haggling over the price +which should be paid for their victim, and Charles VII. made no effort +to save her. Jean de Luxembourg sold her to Philippe de Bourgogne, and +he treated with the English representative. This representative has had +heaped upon his head the contemptuous anathemas of historians, both +French and English; nor is he undeserving of the most severe phrases yet +coined to express reprobation. Pierre Cauchon--it is a wonder so few +have thought of the swinish suggestiveness of the very name--was merely +a time-serving priest whose shameless policy of intrigue had already got +him made Bishop of Beauvais, and would soon, he fondly hoped, give him +the archbishopric of Rouen. In furtherance of his ambitious projects he +had become thoroughly English, and fawned upon the rich Cardinal +Winchester; but though Winchester nominated him to the archbishopric, +neither the Pope nor the cathedral chapter of Rouen would consent to +receive him as archbishop. Cauchon, as Bishop of Beauvais, claimed the +right to try the heretical sorceress who had been captured on the +borders of the diocese. In the same document in which he preferred this +claim he made offers, on behalf of the English, to buy his victim. A +king's ransom, ten thousand livres in gold, was offered for Jeanne, and +as refusal would have involved not only the loss of this sum, but the +loss of English friendship, the Duke of Burgundy sold his captive, who +was delivered up to the ecclesiastical authorities and the English party +in November, 1430.</p> + +<p>Under the barbarous customs then in vogue it would not have been +impossible for the English to put her to death under military law; the +inviolability of prisoners of war was by no means an established +principle among the nations. But La Pucelle's death alone would not +suffice; she must first be discredited in the eyes of the world; it must +be shown that the consecration of Charles VII. had been effected with +the aid of one condemned by the laws of God and of the Church, that the +consecration was, in fact, but an impious mockery of religious rites, +because a sorceress had led him to the altar. For this reason it was +determined to deliver Jeanne to the mercies of the ecclesiastical +courts. Cauchon was rector of the University of Paris, and could command +the assent of that body to whatever seemed to him expedient; the +representative of the Inquisition, who seemed decidedly averse to having +anything to do with the proceedings, was likewise overawed by Cauchon +and by the English cardinal. All that remained to do was to constitute +the court and to bring the accused before it for trial.</p> + +<p>Rouen was to be the scene of the trial, and here Cauchon began his +proceedings early in January, 1431. The charge against Jeanne was to be +the working of magic; but the acute and punctilious Norman lawyers +picked so many flaws in the paltry charges and in the documents +presented in their support, that Cauchon was compelled to change his +intention, and substituted the charge of heresy. It was under this +preposterous indictment that the pious Jeanne was brought face to face +with her judges on February 21st. For months she had been kept in close +confinement, loaded with fetters, and kept under the guardianship of +men. The sturdy girl had lost much of her vigor, as, indeed, had been +the intention of her captors. But though the body was weakened, the +spirit was yet unbroken; and Jeanne met the accusing judges, whom she +knew to be already resolved upon her destruction, with the same firmness +and untutored practical sagacity that had marked her bearing in the +first encounter with those who sought to entangle her in the subtleties +of metaphysics and theology. Of metaphysics and theology she knew not so +much as the names, but she had a clear head and a thorough understanding +of the fundamental principles of justice and of faith. So long as her +physical strength lasted, the most adroit and insinuating queries of the +prosecution could not trap her into compromising answers. Counsel for +the defendant there was none; her own wit must defend her in the contest +with judges who were at the same time prosecutors.</p> + +<p>Being admonished by the insidious Cauchon to answer truly and without +evasion or subterfuge whatever should be asked, she checkmated this move +at once: "I do not know what you mean to question me about; you might +ask me things which I would not tell you." She would speak the truth on +all things, she said, and the whole truth, except on those things +concerning her king or concerning her visions. Not till she had been +brought before them for the third time, worn out by their persistence +and by the increasing horrors of imprisonment, did she modify this so +far as to consent to tell what she knew, but not all that she knew, and +to answer unreservedly on points of faith. Never would she consent to +testify against herself on the points which she saw that they wished to +establish: "It is a common saying, even in the mouths of children, that +people are often hanged for telling the truth." Complaining of the +hardship of being kept in irons, she was told it was because she had +attempted to escape. "It is true, and it is allowable for any prisoner." +Asked to repeat those divinely sincere and simple prayers which +constituted the main part of the faith she had learned as a little +child, she pronounced herself quite willing to repeat the Lord's Prayer +and the Hail Mary, if Bishop Cauchon would first hear her in confession, +an office which he declined.</p> + +<p>Throughout the tedious, soul-racking trial, lasting, in various +forms,--now before the whole court, now in her prison, now in private +inquests,--from the end of February till the end of May, the same +steadfastness and caution prevailed in her answers. She told them freely +of her visions, for now her saints had come back to her and inspired +her, as she said, to answer boldly. If she came from God, they asked, +did she think herself in a state of grace, incapable of committing a +mortal sin? "If I am not in a state of grace," she replied, "may God be +pleased to receive me into it; if I am, may God be pleased to keep me in +it." Not one of the theologians present could have devised an answer +more truly orthodox, more truly Christian in spirit, or more +discomfiting to the casuists. On this occasion the judges were struck +dumb, and very prudently adjourned the court for that day. Not +hesitating at any meanness, one of her persecutors asked whether Saint +Michael appeared to her naked? She answered him in the very spirit and +almost in the very words of the Scriptures, as we learn from the record: +"Not comprehending the vile insinuation, Joanna, whose poverty suggested +to her simplicity that it might be the <i>costliness</i> of suitable robes +which caused the demur, asked them if they fancied God, who clothed the +flowers of the valleys, unable to find raiment for his servants." Again +and again, questions were put to her, in answering which, if she had +been tainted with the least suspicion of imposture, she would have been +tempted to pretend to powers greater than she had: "Do Saint Catherine +and Saint Margaret hate the English?" "They love what our Lord loves, +and hate what He hates."</p> + +<p>Proof of her guilt, in the legal sense, there was none, and so much even +the lawyers of Rouen recognized; but out of her own answers the +ministers of the God of Justice were enabled, after months of juggling, +to torture proof sufficient to convict her in their own eyes. When the +wolf in Æsop's fable, seeks a pretext for devouring the lamb, we know +from the beginning that that pretext will be found: "You have muddied +the stream," cries the wolf, as he raises his head from drinking. "Nay, +good sir, I am lower down the stream than you are." "If it was not you, +it was one of your family." There was no hope for this lamb of France. +"Never from the foundations of the earth," says De Quincey, "was there +such a trial as this, if it were laid open in all its beauty of defence +and all its hellishness of attack. Oh, child of France! shepherdess, +peasant girl! Trodden under foot by all around thee, how I honor thy +flashing intellect, quick as God's lightning, and true as God's +lightning to its mark,... confounding the malice of the ensnarer, and +making dumb the oracles of falsehood!... 'Would you examine me as a +witness against myself?' was the question by which many times she defied +their arts. Continually she showed that their interrogations were +irrelevant to any business before the court, or that entered into the +ridiculous charges against her."</p> + +<p>In the midst of the proceedings, about Palm Sunday, the poor girl fell +ill, and there was some fear that through death she might escape the +exemplary punishment they were preparing for her against the anticipated +conviction. Her illness may have been chiefly mental and nervous +exhaustion, helped on by what would have been to her one of the most +severe trials, homesickness. This is the impression left upon our minds +by Lamartine and by Michelet as well as by De Quincey: "A country girl, +born on the skirts of a forest, and having ever lived in the open air of +heaven, she was compelled to pass this fine Palm Sunday hi the depths of +a dungeon." In the general rejoicing of Easter, while the bells of Rouen +steeples rang forth the glad tidings of salvation for all, of relief +from pain and sorrow, there lay in the castle dungeon a peasant girl, +sick in body, sick in mind, dreaming of the fresh green fields, and the +forests just now beginning to put forth their tender leaves, hearing the +bells of her own far-away church in Domremy, and the homely talk of old +friends as they plodded by on their way to that church. She woke in the +morning with the sound of the bells in her ears, and on that holy +morning, as oh many another for many weary weeks, there were the double +chains upon her limbs padlocked to a transverse beam at the foot of her +rough bed. And in the room, watching every move and torturing her with +coarse jests or terrifying her with yet more cruel threats, were four or +five soldiers, no woman near to minister to her wants or to shield her +modesty. With such torture, with the added mental torture of almost +daily cross-questioning whose object was to force her into the jaws of +death, is it any wonder that Jeanne was ill, well-nigh reduced to the +frenzy of despair? Yet this forlorn creature, even when confronted with +the threat of actual torture, never made an admission that would +seriously conflict with the simple statement of her faith and of her +mission which she had volunteered at the very beginning. Refusing to +retract anything, she yet signified her willingness to submit to the +authority of the Church. This was all that Cauchon had been able to +accomplish after more than two months' labor. A highly theatrical +ceremony was arranged to dignify what they called her formal abjuration. +Two scaffolds were erected in the cemetery of Saint-Ouen. On one sat +Cardinal Winchester, Cauchon, and the other dignitaries. On the other, +chained hand and foot and fastened at the waist to a post, surrounded by +clerks who might take down any chance words and by the ministers of +torture with their dread instruments, stood the poor child whom they had +dragged from the prison. After a tedious and impious harangue by a +famous preacher, whose false statements she would not listen to in +silence, Jeanne consented to sign an abjuration which did not affect the +validity of her claim. When the notary presented the pen to her +unpractised fingers she smiled and blushed a little at her ignorance and +awkwardness. She drew a circle upon the parchment at the place +indicated, and then, the notary guiding her hand, made a cross within +the circle. Then the Church admitted her to its <i>grace</i>, and the +sentence was read to her: imprisonment for the rest of her life, "on the +bread of grief and the water of anguish."</p> + +<p>And so, being now received into the mercy of the Church, she was +conducted back to her prison. It is a relief, in the midst of this cruel +scene, to hear some expressing compassion and imploring her to sign the +abjuration to save herself, though some there are who clamor loudly: +"Let her be burnt!" The test of her sincerity in the new penitence was +to be her willingness to wear garments befitting her sex. She had clung +to her man's attire as the best, and indeed the only, safeguard to her +honor, constantly threatened by her keepers and even attempted, we are +told, by one brutal knight. Relying upon the good faith of her +ecclesiastical custodians, now that she had done what they asked, Jeanne +consented to put on the women's clothes they gave her. But Cauchon had +no intention of allowing her to escape the last punishment. His judges +had assured the English, who complained that Jeanne would not be burned +after all: "Do not fear, we shall soon have her again."</p> + +<p>On May 24th she had signed her act of submission and had put aside the +costume forbidden by the Church. On the morning of the 27th, when she +wished to rise and dress herself, the guard had taken away her robes and +left but the old forbidden garments. She expostulated, and at first +refused to get up; but being at length constrained to do so, she put on +the man's apparel. The wolf had made good and sufficient pretext for +devouring the lamb; technically, Jeanne might be considered to have +relapsed, and with the old dress to have resumed the old faults +reprobated by Holy Church.</p> + +<p>The judges were at once notified of Jeanne's disobedience, and Cauchon +rejoiced that "she was caught." The next day, being Monday after +Trinity, he returned to interrogate the prisoner upon the matter of the +change of dress. Her courage had returned with the realization that they +had not dealt fairly with her and meant to find pretexts for her +destruction. She would neither excuse herself for again assuming her +warrior garments nor consent to return to those prescribed by custom for +her sex. As long as she was guarded by men, she said, it was more seemly +and more safe that she should be dressed as a man; if they would put her +in a safe and proper prison, she would submit to whatever the Church +decreed. But Cauchon knew that her death was deemed requisite by his +English friends, and he was determined to give her no such fair +opportunity. On Tuesday a fresh tribunal was hastily constituted to pass +upon the deplorable relapse into error of one for whom, to shield her +from death, the Church had done all that in it lay. Needless to say, +this tribunal, a mere mockery of a court, decided on the evidence +submitted that Jeanne was guilty of fatal disobedience to the Church and +that she must suffer death as a heretic. It was to be but a step from +passing sentence to the execution of that sentence, for Cauchon's +masters were already impatient at the long delay.</p> + +<p>The next morning a priest was sent to Jeanne to notify her of the +sentence. One sudden burst of feeling, half fear, half indignation, for +a moment overwhelmed the courage of the girl. She wept bitterly when +told that she must prepare herself to die by fire that very day: "Alas! +will they treat me so cruelly and horribly! Must my body, pure as from +birth, never corrupted or soiled in sin, be this day consumed and +reduced to ashes! Oh, oh! I had rather be beheaded seven times over than +burnt on this wise.... Oh! I appeal to God, the great Judge of all, for +the wrongs and injuries done me!" And then this heretic, this sorceress, +asked that she be allowed to confess and to receive the Communion, that +holy symbol of the universal brotherhood of the followers of Christ. +Cauchon did not, perhaps dared not, deny her this; but he wished to +divest the ceremony of part of its pomp. When the Eucharist was brought +to him without stole and without lights, the courageous monk Martin +l'Advenu refused to administer it thus, and sent a complaint to the +cathedral; whereupon the chapter, always ready to spite Cauchon, sent an +escort of priests and acolytes, who chanted litanies as they passed +through the streets and conjured the kneeling people to pray for Jeanne.</p> + +<p>By nine o'clock the victim had received the Communion, and was dressed +in female attire and placed on a cart, ready to start for the place of +execution. Brother Martin and the merciful Austin friar Isambart +accompanied her on that dreadful journey of the cart through the streets +of Rouen to the old fish market. If there had been any tendency to +sympathetic manifestations on the part of the crowd, the guard of eight +hundred English soldiers would have sufficed to suppress them; and +Jeanne, who had now given up hope of deliverance, of succor from her +king, from her divine guardians, was heard only to ejaculate: "Rouen, +Rouen! must I then die here?" In the market place had been erected two +platforms, one for the cardinal and dignitaries, the other for the +prisoner, the bailli, the judges, and the preacher who was to enhance +the bitterness of death by rehearsing the particulars of her guilt. But +what is that lofty scaffolding of wood and plaster standing apart? It is +the altar upon which the sacrifice is to be offered, built high that all +may see the tortures of an innocent maid as the flames mount rapidly up +its flimsy mass. A sermon began the proceedings, the eloquent Master +Nicholas Mildy outdoing himself upon the text: "When one limb of the +Church is sick, the whole Church is sick." After him came that pitiful +tool, the Bishop of Beauvais, who exhorted Jeanne to repentance and to +forgiveness of her enemies. There was small need of this, for Jeanne +knelt and prayed so humbly, so earnestly, so pitifully, that all were +moved to tears, while she asked the priests to pray for her soul and to +say a Mass for her. Then Cauchon, in spite of his tears, read to her the +act of condemnation, concluding: "Therefore, we pronounce you to be a +rotten limb, and as such to be lopped off from the Church. We deliver +you over to the secular power, <i>praying it at the same time to mitigate +its sentence, and to spare you death</i>, and the mutilation of your +members." The unblushing hypocrisy of this recommendation to mercy, with +the pyre already reared in full sight of all, could only be surpassed by +that of the diabolical fiction of ecclesiastical law as administered by +the Inquisition; viz., that Holy Church executed no capital sentence, +merely handed its victim over to the "secular arm."</p> + +<p>So now Jeanne, no longer under the merciful protection of the Church, +was delivered over to the civil authorities and conducted to the top of +the pyre. She asked for a cross; a tender-hearted Englishman handed her +two sticks which he had hastily fashioned into a rude cross, and Jeanne +kissed the simple emblem and put it in her bosom. But Isambart fetched a +crucifix for her from the very altar of the neighboring church of +Saint-Sauveur, and this she kissed passionately, desiring him to hold it +aloft where she might see it to the last as the smoke and flame mounted. +Isambart ascended the pile with her, and the executioner fastened her +body to the post in the centre. With her eyes fixed upon the image of +Him who died for the world, mayhap she did not note the lying placard +above her head: "Heretic, relapser, apostate, idolater." In this hour of +supreme trial no moment of fatal weakness came to deprive her of our +absolute admiration. She spoke no word of deserved reproach against her +rude executioners, against the soldiers who had hustled her across the +market place, against the miserable Charles for whom she suffered all +these tortures and who had abandoned her. "Whether I have done well, or +whether I have done ill, my King is not to blame; it was not he who +counselled me." Even the miserable Cauchon was greeted, as he hovered +about the foot of the pile to catch her last words, with nothing more +bitter than: "Bishop! Bishop! I die through you!... Had you confined me +in the prisons of the Church, this would not have happened."</p> + +<p>While the good monk lingers by her side, pouring into that saintly ear +such words of comfort and hope as faith may suggest, the executioner +applies his torch and Jeanne sees the flames rush upward. "Jesus!" she +cries, then exhorts the monk, "Fly, father! and when the flame shall +cover me hold aloft the crucifix, that I may see it as I die, and repeat +for me your holy words until the end." She thought of others, not of +herself, even in this hour: who shall impugn her courage, or say she +knew not how to die as nobly as she had lived? In the first spasm of +pain, as the flames touched her body, she shrieked. After this but a few +broken sentences came to the ears of those at the foot of the pile, +sometimes appeals to the saints who had guided her, sometimes a +despairing cry of anguish not to be suppressed. And then in the midst of +the gathering flames they saw her head fall forward on her breast as she +moaned, "Jesus!"</p> + +<p>The voice that had aroused France from her lethargy was hushed forever; +the great spirit of Jeanne d'Arc had gone to God, whence it came. Shall +we stand by the smoking pyre till the last embers turn gray and cold, +till Winchester orders the handful of ashes that remained to be swept +into the Seine? Or shall we turn away, sick with horror, filled already +with vain regret of the deed done, as did many in that dense crowd of +her enemies? "We have burnt a saint!" cries one. "I saw a dove fly from +her mouth and wing its way to heaven!" avers another.</p> + +<p>Those who are actors in what the world learns to designate as great +historical crises seldom realize the magnitude of the events of which +they are immediate witnesses. In spite of the superstitious terror of a +few and the pity of many, it is probable that not one in the great crowd +hurrying away from the scene of Jeanne d'Arc's martyrdom realized that +she was a martyr or that the cause for which she had died was near its +hour of triumph. Their fear was but of one whom they deemed a favored +ally of the powers of evil; their pity was but for one whom they deemed +a simple girl, and for whose anguish they grieved as they would have +grieved for that of their own daughters or sisters. The pity of it, that +one so young, so gentle, so innocent of worldly taint should suffer this +cruel death! After all, 'this is the truest compassion, dispensed with +even justice, without regard to person or rank, without thought as to +whether the sufferer be the repentant thief or the Divine Master upon +the Cross, the nameless woman taken in adultery or this girl of Lorraine +who was to be acknowledged as the greatest woman in French history. Yet +for us the knowledge that heartless political schemers had tortured to +the death a woman becomes knowledge of far more moment when we know that +Jeanne d'Arc was the woman, and our indignation against her persecutors +is enhanced in proportion to our estimate of the greatness and the +goodness of the heroine.</p> + +<p>In the course of our narrative we have taken occasion, from time to +time, to present estimates of the character of Jeanne d'Arc; perhaps it +may be well, now that her meteoric career has ended in the flames of the +market place of Rouen, to consider once more the character of this +heroine in its main features. The results of her activity in French +history, though not in all cases immediately apparent, were so +marvellous that our judgment may well be unduly influenced. On the one +hand, in our desire to emphasize the extraordinary nature of her deeds, +we may tend to depreciate the actual abilities of Jeanne; on the other, +the glory of the deeds may blind us to the shortcomings of the woman.</p> + +<p>In her own day, and especially after her death, her contemporaries in +France had begun to regard her as a saint, and a veritable cult of +Jeanne d'Arc soon grew up, encrusting the simple facts of her story with +endless and fantastic arabesques of legend. Charles VII., who had +abandoned the woman in her hour of need, who had made no earnest effort +to succor the leader to whom he owed his crown, entered with +considerable energy and enthusiasm into the cult of the saint. It was +due to his initiative that, in 1455, Pope Calixtus III. gave order that +Jeanne's trial be revised. It was at best but cold and tardy gratitude +on Charles's part, this rehabilitation of the memory of the girl whom he +had used and then dropped when she was no longer serviceable; but we +must in justice say that he in every way furthered the investigation +into the facts of an episode in his life which he must have now regarded +with poignant regret and shame, more poignant as the glory of the lost +heroine was brought into full light. In this exhaustive inquiry into the +career of Jeanne d'Arc witnesses from far and near were examined and +documents rescued from oblivion, and at the end of the eight months' +proceedings the new court, with a mass of testimony before it which +fills volumes, reversed the partisan decision of the court of Rouen, +acquitted the heroine of the false charges brought against her, and not +only vindicated her honor, but pronounced favorably upon her claims to +sanctity. Jeanne was already canonized in popular imagination, and +though the official sanction of Rome was long in the granting, in the +hearts of all France she had a veneration far more precious than any +ever vouchsafed to a saint.</p> + +<p>Jeanne d'Arc did not regard herself as a saint, nor was she free from +human faults of temper and of conduct that accord but ill with sanctity. +Her outbursts of wholesome wrath, some one or two of which we have +noted, mark her as that which she was, no patient martyr, but a strong, +healthy woman, normal in many things, and blessed with much practical +sense, in spite of her visions. It was this very fact in Jeanne's life +that enabled her enemies to seize upon the manifestations of her +likeness to other women of her class and time and to draw Jeanne as but +a common, coarse, immodest woman. In the disgusting Joan of +Shakespeare's <i>Henry VI.</i> (if it be his), and in the shameless wanton of +Voltaire's <i>Pucelle d'Orléans</i> there is just this much of truth to life, +that the true Jeanne was a peasant lass and, in all things not directly +connected with her great deeds, spoke and acted as one of her class +would have acted and spoken, with far greater freedom than would be +consistent with modesty in a more cultured society. We do not mean to +say that there is the least justification or excuse for these attempts +to defame Jeanne d'Arc; to condemn her as a common virago because she +sometimes uttered her commands with too little regard for propriety in +speech would be like condemning Washington because he could and did, on +occasion, swear a good round oath. But the proper defence of Jeanne +d'Arc against Shakespeare and Voltaire is neither to vilify them nor to +obscure the human side of her character and exalt her to something +altogether faultless and divine, something altogether "too bright and +good for human nature's daily food."</p> + +<p>With or without the poetic praises of biographers, Jeanne d'Arc deserves +her place as, all things considered, one of the most remarkable figures +in the world's history. In spite of human defects, she is "the one pure +figure which rises out of the greed, the lust, the selfishness and +unbelief of the time." How can we draw our sketch to a conclusion better +than in the words of a great Englishman, himself in some things the +arch-prophet of divine enthusiasm? In his comment upon Schiller's +<i>Jungfrau von Orléans</i>, Carlyle says: "Feelings so deep and earnest as +hers can never be an object of ridicule: whoever pursues a purpose of +any sort with such fervid devotedness is entitled to awaken emotions, at +least of a serious kind, in the hearts of others. Enthusiasm puts on a +different shape in every different age: always in some degree sublime, +often it is dangerous; its very essence is a tendency to error and +exaggeration; yet it is the fundamental quality of strong souls; the +true nobility of blood, in which all greatness of thought or action has +its rise. Quicquid vult valde vult is ever the first and surest test of +mental capability. This peasant girl, who felt within her such fiery +vehemence of resolution that she could subdue the minds of kings and +captains to her will and lead armies on to battle, conquering, till her +country was cleared of its invaders, must evidently have possessed the +elements of a majestic character.... Jeanne d'Arc must have been a +creature of shadowy yet far-glancing dreams, of unutterable feelings, of +'thoughts that wandered through eternity.' Who can tell the trials and +the triumphs, the splendors and the terrors, of which her simple spirit +was the scene!... Hers were errors, but errors which a generous soul +alone could have committed, and which generous souls would have done +more than pardon. Her darkness and delusions were of the understanding +only; but they make the radiance of her heart more touching and +apparent; as clouds are gilded by the orient light into something more +beautiful than azure itself."</p> + +<p>Great and pure and noble was thy faith, Maid of Orléans! And of a truth +it wrought miracles, for thy brave and steadfast heart divined what was +to be done and faltered not by the wayside. And yet, adoring thee as a +saint, let us love thee as a simple girl, "Jehanne la bonne Lorraine"!</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "Berthe au grand pied, Bietris, Allys</p> +<p class="i14"> Harembourges, qui tint le Mayne,</p> +<p class="i14"> Et Jehanne la bonne Lorraine</p> +<p class="i14"> Qu'Anglois bruslèrent à Rouen:</p> +<p class="i14"> Où sont-ilz, Vierge Souveraine?</p> +<p class="i16"> Mais où sont les neiges d'antan?"</p> +</div></div> + +<a name="c14" id="c14"></a><br><br> + +<h3>CHAPTER XIV</h3> + +<h3>THE RISE OF THE MONARCHY</h3> + +<p>HISTORIANS, having a predilection for exactness, are concerned to find +dates not only for kings and queens and battles and treaties, but for +those great changes in the manners and morals of mankind which begin +unconsciously, are wrought out in silence, and present themselves to the +historian as accomplished revolutions before he is at all aware that +anything of moment is going on. A revolution of this kind was in +progress throughout Christendom in the fifteenth century; and its +results are so astonishing, so bewildering in their magnitude and in +their infinite ramifications that we resort to figurative language and +call the movement the Renaissance, the Revival of Learning. It is, +indeed, a new birth, a new life, rather newer and altogether more +astonishing than any mere return of the learning of the ancients could +have been; but the leaven in the decaying mass of feudalism operated +slowly, and did not come to full power until long after the period which +must be a limit for this book; therefore, we can but note certain +significant facts in the mighty process which was to transform the +feudal lady of the chateau into the lady of the court and of the +brilliant literary salon, to substitute a Catherine de Medicis, or a +Marguerite de Navarre, or a Madame de La Fayette, for an Eleanor of +Guienne, a Mahaut d'Artois, or a Christine de Pisan. As nearly as can be +determined, the age of feudalism ends in the fifteenth century; but the +soul of the old civilization leaves its body imperceptibly and enters +into that of the new: it "melts, and makes no noise,"</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i14"> "As virtuous men pass mildly away,</p> +<p class="i16"> And whisper to their souls to go,</p> +<p class="i14"> Whilst some of their sad friends do say</p> +<p class="i16"> Now his breath goes, and some say no."</p> +</div></div> + +<p>Jeanne d'Arc herself, we have said in the preceding chapter, was no +product of chivalry, found no chivalry to shield her. The old was +already in her time yielding place to the new; for during the fifteenth +century feudalism as well as chivalry was going to its death in France +and in nearly all Europe. In France the civil wars had not only +demoralized chivalry, they had also served to sever the intimate ties +that bound the feudal lord and his family to the soil of their fief +almost as rigidly as the villain was bound. Some families were utterly +destroyed, some sought new lands, and found them in parts of the country +far distant from their ancient holdings. With all his theoretically +arbitrary power, the old baron, reared amid the peasants he was to +govern, felt a certain kinship with them, and was often regardful of +their time-honored customs and privileges, forgoing in their favor what +arbitrary despotism or caprice suggested. No such ties bound the new +nobles to their new vassals; the hold of the feudal lord upon his +vassals was weakened, as was their influence upon him. Many new families +had risen into prominence, and kings no longer hesitated to ennoble +parvenus, a sure sign that the solidarity of the ancient nobility of the +soil was broken. This had come to pass in France by the time the great +Louis XI. ascended the throne, not a generation after Jeanne d'Arc, and +the same process was going on in England through the Wars of the Roses. +Louis was the determined enemy of feudalism, which he would have +uprooted utterly. Much he did uproot; more he would have done, had he +lived.</p> + +<p>In the midst of this generation of struggles between the king and the +faltering remnants of feudalism there are two or three instances in +which the women as well as the men of the middle class deserve mention. +Before we deal with the short and sad career of the last of the great +house of Bourgogne, Marie, daughter of Charles le téméraire, we may +glance at the simple story of a woman who defended Beauvais from this +same Charles.</p> + +<p>The danger from England had passed; there was no longer need of a Jeanne +d'Arc to drive out the insolent <i>Goddems</i>; but a new enemy was found for +France in the person of that great Duke of Burgundy whom modern history +has named Charles the Bold, more properly Charles the Rash, or, as his +contemporaries first called him, the Terrible, "that wild bull wearing a +crown, that wild boar who rushed straight ahead, his eyes shut." In the +spring of 1472, while Louis XI was intent upon reducing to submission +the rebellious Duke of Brittany, Charles le téméraire, impatient at the +tricky diplomacy which baffled him, declared war upon France and marched +at once into Picardy with a great army, ravaging and burning as he went. +Louis, unwilling to be diverted from his attempt upon the Duke of +Brittany, whom he was holding fast in his grip, could spare few troops, +and gave orders that the small towns be abandoned and resistance be +concentrated in the larger cities. The brave little town of Nesle was +the first to offer a determined but hopeless resistance to the enraged +Burgundian: Nesle was carried by assault, its defenders put to the sword +or mutilated by the lopping off of their right hands. The very church +ran with blood as Charles rode into it, commending the savage butchery +of the inhabitants by his soldiers.</p> + +<p>Beauvais was the next place of importance in his path, and the terrible +news of the slaughter and the burning at Nesle was enough to inspire +terror among its citizens. Yet these honest citizens, who had enjoyed +liberal charters from France, were moved by a spirit of patriotism that +is the best testimony to the fair treatment they had received from the +subtle Louis. The fortifications of the town were antiquated, in no wise +adapted to resist the powerful artillery that Charles was bringing with +him, even had they been in good repair; as it was, they were going to +ruin. And even had their walls been good and strong, the citizens had no +garrison to help them to defend the town, and no munitions of war. A +general meeting of the citizens debated the question of absolute +submission, or of a resistance which, after the fate of Nesle, they felt +must be to the bitter end. The vote was unanimous for resistance; they +would do their duty and hold out for the king, though the last man +should perish beneath the ruins. At once they began repairing the walls, +closing up gates and posterns, and barricading the streets.</p> + +<p>On the 27th of June, the bell of the great cathedral sounded the tocsin: +the Burgundian army was in sight. And against this great army of +disciplined soldiers must stand the volunteer defenders of the city. The +assault began at once, after the Burgundian herald had summoned the +town: "In the name of the Duke, I summon the captain and the inhabitants +of the city to submit humbly to his pleasure."</p> + +<p>Upon the walls the citizens had piled stones to hurl upon the +assailants, and pots of hot oil and hot water were at hand to be emptied +on their heads. Foremost in this work were the women of the town, while +the men were left free to use their crossbows, arquebuses, axes. One +figure stands out prominently in this band of heroic women; it is that +of a young girl of eighteen, who constitutes herself leader, marshals +her companions, and drives from their homes timid maids and matrons, +urging them on to bear stones to the ramparts, if they will do no more.</p> + +<p>Like the great savior of France, this girl is named Jeanne; like her, +too, she is of lowly birth, a good, honest girl of the people. Jeanne +Laisné, daughter of a simple artisan, Mathieu Laisné, was born about +1454, in Beauvais. She was a wool-carder, one used to earning her own +bread, and hence full of the energy and courage born of independence, +not yet broken by years of severe toil. She was comely, too; perhaps an +indispensable requirement in one who would win the unrestricted praise +of the historians of a gallant race. Whether beautiful or not, Jeanne +was a very Deborah of her class, inspired with that fervent love of +home, of <i>patrie</i>, which is innate in every good woman, and which is +sometimes strongest in those who have to thank the <i>patrie</i> for no +favors of fortune. No heavenly spirits guided her, no prophecies proceed +from her; her sole inspiration was courage and the determination to help +in the defence of Beauvais. It would have been so easy for her to assume +the role of a Jeanne d'Arc; she might even have pretended to be La +Pucelle come to life again, as did several impostors who had recently +won temporary credit, notably one who was brought to Charles VII., +pretended to recognize him by divine inspiration, and confessed her +imposture only when the king received her in good faith and referred to +"the secret between me and thee." It is to the credit of this new Jeanne +that she made no false pretensions, but simply served her native city +and lived her life as merely the Jeanne whom all had known, and whom all +respected.</p> + +<p>Of her deeds during the siege there is not much to tell in detail, +though it was her spirit and energy that insured the coöperation of +other women. At first she and her band of amazons aided the men so +effectually that the Burgundians were repulsed with heavy loss. But +Charles was bent upon carrying the town by assault. His soldiers were +urged on to the attack day after day, and still they saw the women of +the town battling against them and were driven back from the walls, +which the artillery, short of ammunition, could not breach. They carried +one of the gates; Jeanne and her fellow townsmen fired it, and the fire +burned so fiercely that for a week approach on that side was cut off.</p> + +<p>On the 9th of July, says the Canon of Beauvais, Jean de Bonneuil, "the +Burgundians began the assault upon the gates of the Hotel-Dieu and of +Bresle, in which assault the women bore (around the walls) the body of +Saint Agadresme, patron saint of Beauvais." But the repulse of this +assault was not to be due to the miraculous intervention of Saint +Agadresme; it was again Jeanne Laisné, now surnamed Hachette, from the +ax she wielded, who saved the city. "It is not to be forgotten," +continues the chronicler, "that in the said assault, while the +Burgundians were setting up their ladders and mounting upon the walls, +one of the said women of Beauvais, called Jeanne Laisné, did, without +other aid or arm, seize and snatch away from one of the said Burgundians +the standard which he bore and carry it to the church of the Jacobins, +where was the shrine of Saint Agadresme." Jeanne had remained on the +ramparts while the enemy came on to the assault; and as the standard +bearer planted the Burgundian flag in a breach, she smote him with her +ax, so that he fell back into the fosse. Others hurried to her aid, and +repelled once more the disheartened assailants.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, succor had come for Beauvais; at first only a handful of +men-at-arms from Noyon, then at last a large body of troops under the +best leaders in France effected an entrance into the town, and enabled +it to withstand an assault lasting from dawn until noon, in which the +duke sacrificed scores of his men to no purpose. Not till he found his +army too much depleted and discouraged for further offensive operations, +however, did Charles retire from before Beauvais, burning and pillaging +as he marched toward Normandy. On July 22nd the besiegers were gone.</p> + +<p>The heroism of Jeanne Hachette, as everyone now called her, had proved +contagious: "All the women of the town, high and low, showed themselves +to be so valiant during this siege that they surpassed in boldness the +men of other towns." It was to the women, so all were willing to admit, +that the preservation of Beauvais had been due; and now it was for +Louis, as well as for the citizens, to make some visible and worthy +acknowledgment of the debt. Louis, who, says Michelet, "in his devout +speculations... often took the saints and Our Lady for partners, keeping +an open account with them, and trading for profit or loss, (thinking) by +charities... by petty sums in advance, to secure their interest for some +capital stroke," Louis had vowed a whole "town of silver" for the safety +of Beauvais, and abstention from all flesh until the vow should be +fulfilled. With all his superstition, and all his meanness and harshness +to the nobles, he would do unexpectedly generous things to reward and to +encourage the commons, whom he loved and on whom he relied when noble +lords might play him false. In the present instance he granted special +privileges to the women of Beauvais; and his ordinances to that effect +are curious in that they attempt to propitiate Saint Agadresme--who +might be useful in connection with the "open account" mentioned +above--and at the same time to offer more substantial rewards to the +wives of Beauvais.</p> + +<p>The first of these ordinances, dated 1473, establishes an annual +procession in honor of Saint Agadresme and of the deliverance of the +city, and specially exempts the women of Beauvais from the operation of +the sumptuary laws. After rehearsing the most dramatic incident of the +siege, and praising the <i>très grande audace, constance et vertu,... +oultre existimation du sexe féminin</i>, the text of the edict continues: +"(The King) decrees that every year a procession be held, at the cost of +our receipt and domains in the said city; and we order that henceforth +forever the women in this procession shall precede the men and march +immediately after the priests upon that day; and furthermore, they (the +women) may, upon the day of their weddings or at any other times that it +may please them, wear and adorn themselves with any raiment, ornaments, +or jewels (that they may desire), without being subject to question, +reproof, or prosecution, no matter of what rank of life they may be."</p> + +<p>More interesting to us, because more directly concerning the heroine +herself, is the edict from which we learn of the special favors granted +her. Beginning with a recital of the brave deeds done at Beauvais, and +especially of the <i>bonne et vertueuse résistance</i> of <i>notre chière et +amée Jeanne Laisné, fille de Mathieu Laisné</i>, the king's edict proceeds: +"For these reasons, and also because of and in favor of the marriage of +Colin Pilon and (Jeanne), which marriage was, by our help, arranged for, +agreed upon, and celebrated, and also for divers other reasons and +considerations, we have granted and now do grant, by special grace, in +these present letters, that the said Colin Pilon, and Jeanne, his wife, +each one of them, shall be and remain for life exempt and free from all +taxes that are and that may be in the future imposed and exacted in our +name throughout our kingdom, whether for the maintenance or keep of our +armies and soldiers or for any other cause whatsoever, and (they shall +also be exempt) from the duties of watch and ward, wheresoever in our +kingdom they may take up their abode. Given at Senlis, this 22nd day of +February, in the year of grace one thousand four hundred and +seventy-four."</p> + +<p>It will be seen from this that Jeanne was already married, and that the +king himself had taken some sort of personal interest in her case, +supplying the very necessary <i>dot</i> for the bride. She had not sought an +alliance out of her own class, for Colin Pilon was a simple man-at-arms, +who did not live long to enjoy either the love of his wife or the favor +of the king, for he fell at the siege of Nancy, in 1477. A few years +later, Jeanne married a cousin, one Fourquet, a soldier of fortune, at +one time in the personal guard of the king. Henceforth nothing more is +known of her, not even the date of her death. But popular fancy +associated her so intimately with the siege of Beauvais that, be her +real surname what it might, she was always Jeanne Hachette; and even in +the nineteenth century a certain Pierre Fourquet d'Hachette, claiming +descent from the humble heroine, received a pension from Charles X. In +Beauvais, too, her name and the memory of her good service were kept +alive not only by the annual parade on the festival of Saint Agadresme, +but also by a faded, ancient standard, borne by the young girls in the +procession, at other times carefully guarded among the treasures of the +city. It was a standard of white damasked cloth, bearing figures and +mottoes in gilt and colored paints. Even now one can decipher the +haughty device of Charles le téméraire: <i>Je l'ay emprins</i> (I have +undertaken it), and beside it the emblems of the great order of the +Golden Fleece. It is the very standard that the girl snatched from the +Burgundian soldier more than four centuries ago.</p> + +<p>The story of Jeanne Hachette is but an episode, of course; but in +reading it we should remember that, however small the part she played in +the great history of the world, she had one rare trait, a trait often +distinctive of the best figures in history, though not always of the +most notable--modesty. Like Jeanne d'Arc, her task once accomplished she +was content to be what she had been before; more fortunate than that +other Jeanne, she lived to see herself honored, and was not spoiled +thereby any more than Jeanne d'Arc was spoiled by her far greater +triumphs.</p> + +<p>If Jeanne Hachette was a representative of that class now about to +assume greater importance in the life of France, namely the artisans, +the unfortunate daughter of Charles le téméraire was, in her character +as well as in the events of her life, as surely representative of +disappearing feudalism and chivalry. Marie de Bourgogne was all her life +but the plaything of a court that would use her in its pageants and in +its schemes of aggrandizement with utter disregard of what might be her +personal preferences. Reared amidst surroundings that suggested the pomp +and glory of chivalry and were eloquent of feminine dependence if not of +feminine inferiority, she was suddenly left to cope with one of the +ablest and one of the most unscrupulous politicians in history.</p> + +<p>Marie de Bourgogne was born at Brussels in 1457, being the first child +born of the union of Isabelle de Bourbon and the haughty young Count de +Charolais, who had been most unwilling to espouse this bride of his +father's choice and who yet made a devoted and faithful husband. When +Marie was born she was still but the daughter of the Count de Charolais, +for ten years more of life remained for the worn out old Philippe le +Bon. Still, she was prospective heiress of the great duchy of Burgundy, +though none could yet foresee that she was the only hope of the great +family that had made itself, in the hundred years of its existence, the +most dangerous enemy, the most indispensable ally of France, nay, even +the rival of France among the great powers of Europe.</p> + +<p>The little countess was but eight years of age when her mother died, +scarcely old enough to appreciate the loss, except perhaps to grieve +that she must be reared by a great lady of her grandfather's court, the +Countess of Crèvecoeur. Three years more, and she had to take part in +the greeting given to her father's second wife, Margaret of York. Little +could Marie have understood of the political significance of this union +which united the fortunes of the house of Burgundy with those of a +family whose brief ascendency was marked by almost continual war and by +political crimes of the darkest hue: the brothers of her stepmother were +the handsome voluptuary, Edward IV., "false, fleeting, perjured +Clarence, that stabbed" young Edward of Lancaster "in the field by +Tewkesbury," and the dark-minded Richard of Gloucester. It was a union +of sinister omen for Charles, and one that had been opposed by his +father: no good did or could come of it for Charles, and yet, to spite +France, he persevered in his design, and brought Marie to take her small +part in the brilliant reception accorded Margaret at Bruges. Marie must +have witnessed and enjoyed the great show, and the famous tournament of +the <i>perron d'or</i> (golden beam), in which her father condescended to +break a lance or two in honor of his bride; but she is hardly mentioned +in the glowing accounts of these festivities, in which the ancient +glories of chivalry were revived and surpassed. She was but a daughter, +and though her father loved her it was only natural that he should yet +hope for a son who might wear his ducal coronet.</p> + +<p>But the years passed, and still there was no son: Mademoiselle de +Bourgogne seemed fated to wear that ducal coronet. Charles grew in +power, in arrogance, in ambition; it was to be no longer a mere coronet, +but a crown; he would found a new dynasty that would eclipse that of the +elder branch of the Valois; at one time the very crown was made ready +and exposed to the admiring yet fearful eyes of his future subjects. +Marie, who had grown into a handsome if not beautiful girl, carefully +trained in all the accomplishments that befitted her rank, became a +personage of great importance in the ambitious schemes of her father. +According to the custom of princes, her name was used as a lure in +securing desirable alliances; and her wishes were but little regarded in +the selection of her future husband. She was merely a sort of asset to +be reckoned among the other properties of which Charles might dispose to +the highest bidder in furtherance of his projects. Her charms would +naturally be set forth to the best advantage, therefore, in the pages of +loyal Burgundian chroniclers, and in the midst of the diplomatic +bargaining we forget not only that Marie was a girl, with at least some +girlish fancies and preferences and romantic dreams, but we fail to +distinguish the actual features of the girl. If one may judge from the +portraits, Marie could not have been really a beauty; though there are +upon the face the indefinable marks of high breeding, its lines are too +heavy, moulded too obviously on the pattern of the features of her +redoubtable father; above all, there is that heavy lip and protruding +jaw, so very noticeable in her descendants as to become a distinguishing +family mark, albeit they call it Austrian, not Burgundian. But she was a +comely girl; besides, would suitors hang back because the richest +heiress in Europe was not at the same time a Venus?</p> + +<p>Charles met with no difficulty in finding suitors for his daughter's +hand; there was merely the embarrassment of choice among so many who +might be considered or who considered themselves eligible. At length, in +1473, Marie was betrothed to Nicholas of Calabria. But Nicholas died, +and Marie was again to be disposed of; the betrothal had been too +absolutely a matter of politics to justify any delay in seeking a new +husband now that death had removed Nicholas. It happened that just at +this time Charles was very eager to propitiate the empire, in +furtherance of those schemes of monarchy that now began to assume +definite shape in his imagination. The Archduke Maximilian, though +somewhat more than three years younger than Marie, and though poor, was +nevertheless the son of the emperor, and might be considered useful to +Burgundy. The negotiations were conducted quietly; Charles did not, it +appears, wish to show himself too anxious; perhaps he was thinking that +circumstances might change, and therefore did not wish to commit himself +to this match beyond the power of recall.</p> + +<p>For the present, however, the noble lovers, who had never met, were both +rather young; there was no need to hurry matters, since Charles himself +was still in the prime of life. The disastrous campaign of the great +duke in Switzerland has been described many a time, by historians +friendly and unfriendly, and by a great romancer who loved all chivalry +and who yet could not withhold his admiration from the intrepid Swiss +freemen who bore down the power of Burgundy at Granson, at Morat, and at +Nancy. Yet, whether we consider Charles a great ruler and leader or a +mere military ruffian, no one can look without pity upon that +snow-covered battlefield of Nancy, where a generous foe and the +heartbroken servants of "the pride of chivalry" must look in vain for +two days for the body of Charles; none could surely tell how he had +fallen; and when they found his frozen body the dogs had eaten half of +one cheek, and the wounds on the head rendered it almost unrecognizable.</p> + +<p>Mademoiselle de Bourgogne, as she was now to be known in earnest, was +far away in Ghent when the fatal news of her father's death was brought. +Before it could reach her it had reached the crafty old king. For Louis +it was the sweetest news he could have heard; his greatest foe was +providentially removed, and as his adversary in Burgundy there was now +but a girl scarcely grown, a girl whose selfish advisers he well knew +how to bribe or to ruin, as suited his interest. Well may we believe +that when the news of Charles's death reached that French court where so +many of the nobles had felt him to be their only help against the +anti-feudal policy of Louis, "not one ate half he could at dinner," as +the shrewd Comines says; now that the pillar of independent baronage was +gone, who could tell what the king might do?</p> + +<p>Marie de Bourgogne was almost a prisoner among her too devoted subjects, +the burghers of Ghent. She and her counsellors realized from the first +that the real danger was to come from Louis XI, who would now seek to +re-annex to the crown those large portions of the Burgundian domain that +had originally come from France. Perhaps the letter of the feudal law +was on the side of the king, who claimed the right of wardship over his +female vassal; but Marie knew full well that this claim was but the +first of a long series that would culminate in the actual seizure of +French Burgundy as soon as Louis should feel himself strong enough. But +though Louis was the ultimate and the greater danger, he could be put +off, it was thought, by conciliatory messages; an immediate danger lay +in turbulent Flanders, which even the strong duke could not master, and +which now, in the midst of much exuberant devotion for mademoiselle, +kept her in a state of constant uneasiness. Something must be done to +quiet the Flemings.</p> + +<p>Marie, in imitation of all new-made sovereigns whose crowns are none too +secure, began by granting most liberal charters and privileges to her +loyal subjects in Flanders. For the most part, the liberties thus +granted had been ancient liberties, temporarily denied under the +Burgundians, and now resumed by the people with or without the official +consent of their duchess. The Ghenters at once exercised their right of +being their own judges, and arrested the magistrates who had dared to +surrender the city's liberties to Charles and had governed in his name. +But neither the granting of privileges to Flanders nor the grateful +affection of the Ghenters could defend from Louis Picardy and the +coveted towns on the Somme; money must be had, and the generous commons +of Flanders were appealed to. This congress of the estates of Flanders, +Artois, Hainault, Brabant, and Namur met at Ghent on February 3, 1477, +less than a month after the death of Charles. Marie repeated to the +delegates her assurances, her oaths, her promises, and granted the +"Great Privilege," a sort of Magna Charta and Bill of Rights in the +history of Holland. The special privileges enumerated in this grant are +not novel; the grant was intended merely as a formal restatement--to be +formally ratified by the sovereign--of those inalienable and +indefeasible rights of the subject which were not recognized in most +countries for many a decade to come. "It was a recapitulation and +recognition of ancient rights, not an acquisition of new privileges. It +was a restoration, not a revolution." The nature of the rights asserted +by the subject and admitted by the sovereign may be easily gathered from +a glance at one or two. "Offices shall be conferred by the duchess upon +natives alone; and no man shall fill two offices. No office shall be +farmed out. The great Council and Supreme Court of the provinces shall +be re-established.... No new taxes may be imposed but by consent of the +estates. No war, whether offensive or defensive, shall be begun by the +duchess or any of her successors without the consent of the estates.... +No money shall be coined, nor shall its value be raised or lowered, +except by consent of the estates." If the principles here enunciated +could have been made good in practice, the liberties of Marie's subjects +would indeed have been secure; but much of this Great Privilege, as well +as of the similar charters granted to other provinces, was pure theory, +and Marie no more meant to abide by her oath of ratification than King +John had meant to observe the provisions of Magna Charta. For the +present, however, she must feign to be right well pleased, though her +cautious and devoted subjects had not granted her the aid she wanted, to +be used as she saw fit. All negotiations would be conducted in her name, +of course, but in dealing with Louis she must be guided by the counsel +of the estates; and the estates would levy an army of a hundred thousand +men for her--when it suited them to do so. That was the sum and +substance of all that Marie could cajole them into granting.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, Louis was making ready to seize Burgundy and Picardy, +advancing now one pretext, now another, for his acts, seeking to give +every seizure the appearance of legality, but bent on seizing, right or +wrong. Marie despatched two of her father's oldest advisers, the +chancellor Hugonet and the lord of Humbercourt, as ambassadors to Louis, +to delay his proceedings. Though faithful to the interests of their +duchess, Hugonet and Humbercourt were no match for the crafty king. He +had already tampered with other servants of Burgundy, and had found few +who could not be made to see that French gold or French titles were +better worth considering than any favors received from a master who +could no longer reward. Of this class was the Lord of Crèvecoeur, whose +mother had been the guardian of the young duchess when she had no +mother, and to whom one of the most important charges in Burgundy had +been deputed, the governorship of Picardy and of the towns on the Somme. +Crèvecoeur was a knight of the Toison d'Or, and had received countless +other favors from Charles, whose daughter he was now willing to betray. +What Louis most desired was Arras; this my Lord of Crèvecoeur held for +Burgundy; might there not be found some legal subterfuge or quibble +authorizing him to hold it for the king? Louis cajoled, entreated, +almost menaced, the Burgundian envoys, till they, thinking he would have +Arras anyway, yielded so far as to issue an order to Crèvecoeur, signed +by the chancellor, Hugonet, authorizing him to open the gates of the +town to the king. Louis entered Arras on March 4th, and Marie soon found +that her troubles had but just begun.</p> + +<p>When the news of the surrender of Arras reached Ghent the citizens were +furious, and demanded satisfaction from those who had betrayed the +public trust. A fresh embassy went, from the States this time, to meet +Louis, who was advancing through Picardy. Marie had to consent to this +embassy, and doubtless thought that little harm would come of it; but +the unscrupulous Louis knew how to deal with the burghers, and no +considerations of honor hindered him from using any means in his power +to sow the seeds of suspicion between the burghers and their duchess. +When the embassy remonstrated with him for the desire to despoil the +young heiress and told him that "there was no harm in her, that they +could answer for her prudence and good faith, since she had publicly +sworn to be guided by the Council of the States in all things," Louis +assumed an injured air. "You are deceived," he said, "your mistress +means to be guided by the advice of persons who do not desire peace." +The envoys, thinking that Marie had been perfectly sincere and frank, +refused to credit ill of her. Then Louis showed them a private note, in +Marie's own hand, telling him that she would be guided solely by the +advice of the court party and of Hugonet and Humbercourt in particular, +and begging him to keep this secret from the envoys of the States.</p> + +<p>Enraged and mortified by this scandalous duplicity the burgher envoys +returned hastily to Ghent. The duchess received them in solemn audience, +seated upon her throne and surrounded by her courtiers. With great show +of indignation she denied the allegations of the king. "Here is your own +letter," said the chief of the envoys, drawing it forth from his bosom. +Marie was overwhelmed with confusion, and knew not what to say. She +trembled even for her own safety, now that this royal personage, in +defiance of the comity of princes, had betrayed her to her own subjects. +The duplicity of which she had been guilty was not so reprehensible as +it seems to us; the blame of it rests more upon her advisers than upon +her, and she was but a weak girl, encompassed by selfish intriguers and +plotters who sought to rob her of that which she had been taught to +regard as her unquestioned right.</p> + +<p>The most conspicuous of her counsellors, though not by any means the +ones solely responsible for this unfortunate letter, were Hugonet and +Humbercourt, who, feeling that the Ghenters would take vengeance upon +them, threw themselves into a monastery immediately after the fatal +audience, but were dragged out of the sanctuary that very night. Marie, +faithful to those who had been faithful to her, would gladly have saved +them, but upon the mere rumor that the prisoners would be allowed to +escape the Ghenters flew to arms, congregated in the Friday market +place, and, asserting their ancient right of permanent assembly in time +of danger, camped there day and night till the two envoys were tried and +executed. Marie might have claimed that the unhappy victims, being ducal +officers, should be delivered over to the Grand Council for trial; but +in view of the excited state of popular feeling even that was not to be +thought of. And when she nominated a commission in which thirty out of +thirty-six were citizens of Ghent, that too was insufficient assurance +that the accused would be convicted; the citizens would have the whole +affair in their own hands; their privileges had been tampered with, and +they alone should punish the offenders. Marie did not even yet relax her +efforts on behalf of Hugonet and Humbercourt; her determined fidelity to +what she considered a sacred duty the protection of those who had risked +themselves in her service is the best trait in her character. The +gratitude of princes is not usually a burdensome obligation to them; but +the best principles of chivalry had been instilled into Marie, and, like +her rash but generous father, she would risk all on a point of honor. +She sent representatives of the nobles to sit with the burgher's court, +though they could take no part in the proceedings, and must be mere +spectators of a judgment already resolved upon. When the supreme moment +approached, Marie herself went to implore mercy for her servants. +Dressed as a simple Flemish maiden, with the citizen's cap upon her +head, she went on foot and unattended by guard or courtier or even so +much as a lady of her suite, through the angry crowd in the market place +to the Town Hall, where the court sat.</p> + +<p>But the judges themselves were more overawed by the relentless crowd +whose angry murmurs penetrated to them than by the presence of their +lady. Pity her they did; but as one of them said, pointing to the crowd: +"We must satisfy the people." Not daunted by this failure, Marie went +among the people themselves, those loving yet terrible subjects who had +gathered to see that their will was carried out. In Friday market place +she went from one to another, weeping, with clasped hands imploring them +not to punish servants who had merely obeyed her commands. The sight of +this defenceless girl, braving dangers in such a cause and venturing +among a people whom she had offended, moved many to hearken to her plea. +The men began to separate into two parties, those who could hear and see +their lady inclining to her side, those farther off, removed from the +direct influence of her presence, clamoring for justice upon the +accused. Pikes were ranged against pikes, and there was imminent danger +of a conflict; but the partisans of the duchess were in the minority, +and their enthusiasm in her cause waned when they realized the danger of +a civil broil. Marie's courageous appeal served only to hurry on the +trial, since the judges were determined not to risk another scene +fraught with such dangers.</p> + +<p>Hugonet and Humbercourt were put to the torture, and confessed what was +enough to convict them, though it was what everyone already knew: that +they had surrendered Arras. Humbercourt, a knight of the Toison d'Or, +appealed to that body, which alone had jurisdiction over its members; +but legal forms could not be respected in this crisis. When the court +presented the confessions and the sentence to the young duchess, a +formality with which, in all their disregard of legal forms, they +thought it necessary to comply, she protested again, wept, entreated. +All was vain: "Madam," said they, "you have sworn to do justice not only +upon the poor, but upon the rich."</p> + +<p>The two nobles were placed in the condemned cart--where, on account of +the injuries received in the torture, they could not stand--and led to +execution. The people had succeeded in destroying those who had dared to +disregard their wishes; the sovereign of Burgundy was completely in +their power. They declared themselves her most fitting guardians and +counsellors, deprived her of the comfort of having even members of her +family about her, and proposed to find a husband for her more suitable +than any suggested by the nobles.</p> + +<p>To all of this Marie was forced to submit with what grace she could; but +upon the matter of a husband she was resolved to have something to say +for herself. No less than six suitors had some sort of claim to her, +besides the one to whom her father had betrothed her in 1473. There was +the dauphin, a mere boy of eight, for whom Louis was intriguing; there +was, at the other extreme, the worthless and worn-out profligate, +Clarence, whom Margaret of York hoped to establish in this new and rich +nest; there was the fierce and cruel Adolphus of Guelders, who had ended +a career of crime in prison, and whom the Ghenters meant to take out of +prison that he might be their duke and leader: then there were the +English Lord Rivers, brother of England's queen, and the son of the Lord +of Ravenstein, and the son of the Duke of Cleves. In the whole list +there was not one whom the poor girl could have considered with anything +but aversion. The worst of all, both politically and personally, was the +dauphin; the idea of contracting a marriage with a mere child, and that +child the son of her most dangerous enemy, was revolting to Marie's +feelings, so lately excited by the death of her two servants, betrayed +by Louis. At her very court she was surrounded by spies, who, pretending +to sympathize with her and console her, reported to Louis or to the +emperor all the intimate confidences of the poor girl.</p> + +<p>The interest of Austria finally seemed to be in the ascendant, for now +Margaret, despairing of making Clarence acceptable either to the young +lady or to her subjects or even to Edward IV., had thrown her influence +on the side of Maximilian, and the influence of France in the Burgundian +councils had been ruined by the manifest determination of the king to +absorb all French Burgundy, all Flanders, if he could get it. There had +not been sufficient time for the growth of real national feeling in the +ill-assorted and scattered provinces of the duchy; but the non-French +parts of Burgundy, at least, by no means relished the idea of losing +their identity and becoming parts of France.</p> + +<p>Personal reasons also inclined Marie to favor the Austrian suitor. +Maximilian had been in some sort the choice of her father, and this +alone would have some weight with her. Besides, he was young; report +said he was handsome: "The hairs of his august head are, after the +German fashion, golden, lustrous, curiously adorned, and of becoming +length. His port is lordly." And report spoke no ill of this fair young +golden-haired Teuton; he might be some three years younger than +Mademoiselle de Bourgogne, but he was already a man and a bold hunter, +though as yet he had had no opportunity of showing whether he were +capable of leading armies, a very necessary accomplishment in one who +would undertake the care of Mademoiselle and her much coveted heritage. +He was poor: but was not she rich enough to make up the deficiency? On +the whole, Mademoiselle was so favorably impressed with what the +Austrian advocates could tell her that she determined to receive the +embassy then on the way to present the formal claim of Maximilian.</p> + +<p>The Duke of Cleves, who had hopes for his own son, did his best to delay +the ambassadors, and, failing that, to make Marie promise to give them +an audience and then send them about their business. She had already had +enough of diplomatic experience to make her cautious. The Duke of Cleves +was not taken into her confidence, but was permitted to hope that +Mademoiselle would not settle the matter with the Austrian envoys.</p> + +<p>The envoys came, and were received in public audience, where their chief +rehearsed the details of the negotiations between the late duke and +emperor, and ended by presenting a letter written by Mademoiselle +herself in acknowledgment of the betrothal, and a diamond sent by her as +a token. Then Marie, to the utter dismay of the intriguers, quietly +replied, of her own accord: "I wrote that letter by the wish and command +of my lord and father, and sent that diamond; I own to the contents."</p> + +<p>Marie and Maximilian were formally married on April 27th, and the +people, weary of the state of uncertainty in which they had been kept, +seemed content to make the best of the marriage. The prince was a +German, did not speak their language or understand their customs; but +then he was prepossessing, and would doubtless make as good a defender +of their liberties as could be found. With the marriage, Marie +practically ceased to appear as a direct participant in political +affairs. Her new husband was devoted to her, and for a time things +looked more encouraging for this last scion of a great race. True, Louis +sent his barber-surgeon, Olivier, to protest, in the name of the +suzerain, against the marriage of his feudal ward without his consent. +But the Flemish nobles and their lady laughed at the barber, who really +came more to spy than in the hope that this mediaeval protest would +avail aught. Later, in his first battle, Maximilian completely defeated +the French army under the traitor Lord Crèvecoeur, at Guinegatte, August +7, 1479.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, a son had been born to the young couple, and their domestic +happiness was unclouded. Fortune was not to smile on them long, however, +for the Flemings were constitutionally rebellious, now refusing to grant +Maximilian supplies necessary for defence, till he actually had to pawn +his wife's jewels, now blaming all their misfortunes on this foreigner, +now distracting his attention from the still encroaching French king by +riots and revolts. In the unequal contest the French were destined to +win; and ere Marie had been married five years an accident cost her her +life and left Maximilian almost as helpless in the hands of the Flemings +as she had been. She had been hunting, a sport of which both she and +Maximilian were passionately fond, when her horse threw her. The +injuries might not have proved fatal if medical aid had been resorted to +in time; but Marie, with pitiful false modesty, refused to submit to the +examination of the surgeons, and died, after lingering three weeks, +March 26, 1482. Her infant son, Philippe le Beau, remained as the +nominal heir of Burgundy; but the guarding of the duchy was a hopeless +task when a regency must control affairs, and so with Marie passed away +the last independent ruler of the house of Burgundy, whose greatness was +to be transmitted to and surpassed by the son of this Philippe, the +great Emperor Charles V.</p> + +<p>The brief and troubled life of Marie de Bourgogne affords but little +opportunity for an estimate of her capabilities. She was reared under +conditions the most unfavorable to the development of independence, +self-reliance, and capacity for practical affairs; for feudalism, even +at its best, as we have seen, produced but few women who were capable of +ruling a nation, and the spectacular chivalry of the Burgundian court +found no place for woman but as an angelic, gracious, beautiful +spectator of its great shows, one infinitely removed by every detail of +her education and of her social life from the sordid cares of life and +of politics. Marie was not of that rare type that might, even under such +conditions, rise to power; she was not strong enough of will to mark out +a policy of her own and bend men and conditions to serve that policy. In +not one of her public acts as duchess can we find that she was +uninfluenced by those around her; she was indeed swayed first by one set +of counsellors, then by another, the natural result being inconsistency, +duplicity, and inefficiency. But where the mere woman appears, where +there is room for the operation of impulses purely personal, as in the +case of Hugonet and Humbercourt and in the selection of her husband, +Marie displays nobler feelings; and though the cause of civilization was +to be advanced by the dismemberment of the heterogeneous Burgundian +duchy and the annexation of the greater part of it to France, our +sympathy is not with the spider who sat spinning his meshes of intrigue +in the den at Plessis-lez-Tours, but with the generous, impulsive young +ruler whom we know he will fatally entangle. With Marie in Burgundy, as +with the passionate and unhappy Marguerite of Anjou in England, we are +inclined to forgive the ruler who could not rule, or who resorted to +infamous means in her struggles to rule, when we remember that both were +women brought face to face with tremendous problems and made the sport +of crafty, cruel, unscrupulous foes and faithless friends.</p> + +<a name="c15" id="c15"></a><br><br> + +<h3>CHAPTER XV</h3> + +<h3>ANNE DE BEAUJEU:<br>THE CONSOLIDATION OF THE KINGDOM</h3> + +<p><i>C'est la moins folle femme du monde, car, de femme sage il n'y en a +point</i> (she is the least foolish woman in the world; there are no wise +ones). The cynical old king, Louis XI., sums up for us in this epigram +his estimate of the daughter whom he loved and trusted more than any +other person of his own blood. This daughter, Anne de France, was but a +young woman when her father died, but the tortuous policy and the +sagacious aims of Louis XI. had become familiar to her as a mere girl, +and she lived to continue and in some sort to carry to successful +terminations the principal schemes cherished by her father.</p> + +<p>Almost from her very birth, Louis had used her in his intrigues, +proposing her marriage now with this prince, now with that, according as +the needs of the moment suggested. When the chief of his enemies, +Charles le Téméraire, lost his first wife, Louis proposed that he marry +the princess Anne, at that time a child of two years, and offered as her +dowry Champagne, if Charles would agree that Normandy should revert to +the Crown without question. Yet, a year later, 1466, when Louis had +obtained possession of Normandy and had no further immediate need of +Charles, he offered Anne to the son of the Duke of Calabria. Neither +bargain was meant to be kept; but Charles, partly out of anger at the +king's bad faith, married Margaret of York. Seven years later, when +Louis had made up his mind to conciliate the house of Bourbon, Anne was +betrothed to Pierre de Bourbon, Sire de Beaujeu; and as no new alliance +presented itself as desirable, Anne de France became Anne de Beaujeu.</p> + +<p>Anne was enough like her father in the hardness and crafty resoluteness +of her character to win his confidence. We see her intrusted with the +care of one of the most important of those noble wards whom Louis loved +to bring to his court and keep under tutelage, Marguerite, the little +daughter of Maximilian and Marie de Bourgogne. When the fear of +assassination had driven the king to immure himself in +Plessis-lez-Tours, and to hedge himself about with such fantastic and +intricate defences that none but his favored lowborn servants could +enter with ease and hope of return, he would sometimes admit this +favored daughter. And when, in the imminence of death, he determined +that the silly dauphin, jealously guarded at Amboise, should learn +something and should know that the power of the sceptre was soon to pass +to him, it was Anne de Beaujeu again on whom he relied. He enjoined the +dauphin Charles to keep about him the faithful servants who had made +France; especially did he recommend "Master Oliver," without whom, he +said, "I should have been nothing." But, before all others, the dauphin +was to honor and obey his wise sister, Anne de Beaujeu, the least +foolish woman in the world.</p> + +<p>In spite of astrologers; in spite of liberal doses of that expensive +panacea, potable gold, administered by his insolent physician, Jacques +Coictier; in spite of a second anointing from the sacred <i>ampulla</i>, +brought from Rheims for that special purpose; in spite of all the silver +saints stuck on the rim of his cap the spirit went out of the body of +Louis XI, and France welcomed his death as a deliverance. In his zeal +for the destruction of feudalism and the upbuilding of a national +government, he had become a tyrant. But the work he had begun must go +on, if France was not to step back fifty or a hundred years in progress. +The new king, Charles VIII, was but a boy of fourteen, and deplorably +immature. He could hardly read and write, nor did natural intelligence +supply the defects of education; for he was weak in mind, weak in body, +and easily influenced for good or for ill. With such a tool ready for +the hand of any ambitious noble who would destroy France, the outlook +was not cheering. But it was the good fortune of France to find a ruler +who could and did control the king till such time as the fruits of the +wise despotism of Louis could be safely gathered; and this ruler was a +woman.</p> + +<p>As Charles had already attained the legal majority prescribed for the +heir to the throne, there could be no regency. But Anne de Beaujeu and +her husband had been named by the late king as the tutors of Charles, to +the exclusion of Louis d'Orléans, who, as first prince of the blood +royal, had a prescriptive right to the guardianship. And just as Blanche +de Castille, under different conditions and by different means, had +managed to displace Philippe Hurepel, so Anne now managed to outwit and +supplant Louis d'Orléans.</p> + +<p>She had already laid the foundations of her influence by making friends +of the best counsellors and captains of the late king. And her brother, +to whom she was a divinity to be worshipped and feared, was already so +accustomed to submission to her will that it did not occur to him to +resist her authority now. In default of a regent, there was a royal +council, and in this council Anne managed to assure herself of a +powerful following. To be sure, at first there was nothing to fear, +since Louis d' Orléans, young and fond of pleasure, was engaged in +satisfying his tastes after the long and irksome restraint to which he +had been subjected by Louis XI; and so, in place of politics, he took +pleasure, availing himself of every distraction that could help him to +forget the terrible days of the old king, or the ugly face and crooked +body of the king's daughter, who was his wife. Nevertheless, Louis +d'Orléans was the natural leader of the opposition to the control of +Anne de Beaujeu, and the latter lost no time in securing for herself, +through her husband, a majority in the council, a body composed of such +diverse elements, and so uncertain of its own mind, that it was easy for +a determined leader to carry her policies through its divided and +hesitating ranks.</p> + +<p>Anne was only twenty-two, but already there was coming to be a special +significance attached to her sobriquet, <i>Madame la Grande</i>; for the +imperious will, the boldness and shrewdness combined, the restless +energy, the constant watchfulness of the woman made itself felt +throughout that government in which she had no legal standing. Her +governing was done under constitutional forms, in the name of the king, +in the name of the council; but people knew that she had dictated to the +king what he should do, and had imposed her will upon the council. Until +the States-General had met, voted supplies, been promised reforms, and +then dissolved, Anne was very guarded, very conciliatory in her policy; +the unjust acts of Louis XI were set right--where it did not cost too +much to do so--and certain obnoxious persons, such as Olivier le Daim, +were sacrificed to popular hatred. As soon as the States-General had +been disposed of, however, the two parties in the council began to +assume a more hostile attitude toward each other, and the charge that +Madame la Grande was meddling in things that concerned her not was +raised by the Duke of Orléans. His cousin, Dunois, and other persons +anxious for the restriction of the royal power, persuaded Louis +d'Orléans that it was an outrage that a woman should reduce him to the +second place in the national council, and make herself virtually queen +of France. Incited by these plotters, Louis determined to loosen the +hold of Anne upon the young king.</p> + +<p>Violating a solemn oath he had taken, under Louis XI, to abstain from +compromising relations with the enemies of France, he began to seek +allies against the Beaujeu faction, and turned first to Brittany. But a +temporary eclipse of the Breton favorite, Landois, who had ruled his +master almost as Olivier had ruled Louis, made the visit of Orléans a +fruitless one, and he returned to Paris to resort to means more in +conformity with his tastes. The young king was intensely fond of +brilliant festivities; romantic love of the spectacular side of chivalry +was his ruling passion; and therefore Louis sought to alienate him from +Anne by providing him with amusements. Jousts and tourneys, balls, +masquerades, all as brilliant and attractive as Louis could make them, +filled the two months after Charles's royal entry into his "well beloved +city of Paris" (July 5, 1484). Charles was beginning to think that his +"fair cousin of Orléans" was a very delightful companion, and so much +more obliging than that high tempered and dictatorial sister whom he had +been obeying; besides, what right had she to dictate to him: was he not +a king? Before the danger grew acute, before these vague questionings in +the royal head assumed definite shape, Anne picked up her precious +sovereign and carried him away from gay Paris and the temptations of the +fascinating Louis. Then it was that Louis left the court, resolved not +to return until he had overthrown the Beaujeu party.</p> + +<p>The great nobles of the land were ready enough to unite in opposition to +the arbitrary rule of a woman, and of a woman who had not the shadow of +a constitutional right to rule. But though discontent was general among +the nobles, they yet lacked energy and direction, while the commons took +but little interest in a mere squabble among their rulers. Perhaps the +general opinion was somewhat like that of the University of Paris, to +which Louis had appealed, namely, that the power was in the hands best +fitted to wield it. Undoubtedly, the Parliament of Paris was of this +opinion; for when Louis presented a long petition reciting his +grievances and protesting against the usurpation of Madame de Beaujeu, +who held in unlawful subjection the person of the king, who intended to +keep the said king in tutelage until his twenty-first year, who had +unlawfully levied taxes, and who meditated the destruction of the +petitioner,--when Louis presented these charges, and besought the +Parliament to command that the king be brought back to Paris, the +president very prudently gave answer that the court of Parliament was a +court of law, and had nothing to do with administrative matters, and +that no one had a right thus to appear before the court to remonstrate +against the administrative acts of the sovereign. There was little +comfort in all this for Louis; and while he was still hesitating in +Paris, Anne sent a troop of men-at-arms to arrest him. A hasty flight +alone saved him, and he at once repaired to Alencon, where the duke +received him as a friend in distress; while Anne, hastening back to +Paris, deprived Orléans and his accomplices of their honors and military +commands.</p> + +<p>The forces of the discontented princes would have been superior to those +at the disposal of Anne, if they could have been brought together; but +their domains were scattered, and they themselves were vacillating, +jealous of each other, reluctant to resort at once to foreign aid. With +her usual promptness, Anne intercepted their communications, seized and +executed summarily their spies, and herself negotiated with Brittany and +with the Flemish towns; while Dunois and Orléans were surprised and +captured in Beaugency by La Trémoille, commanding for Anne. For the +moment, the rebellion had been put down without serious loss. Dunois was +exiled to Asti, and Louis of Orléans, who had not even been able to win +the support of his own city, came back to court in October, 1485.</p> + +<p>A new danger, however, threatened Anne's supremacy during the next +spring, when Maximilian of Austria, now titular King of the Romans, +invaded Artois. Jubilant at the prospect of securing such an ally +against Madame la Grande, a new league of the great nobles signed a +secret treaty with Maximilian in December. With the Dukes of Orléans, +Brittany, Lorraine, and Bourbon, the Counts of Dunois, Nevers, +Angoulème, and a host of others thus leagued against her, the situation +of Madame de Beaujeu was most precarious. Besides actual warfare, she +had to fear continual plots having for their object the capture of the +young king. The great Philippe de Comines, along with Louis d'Orléans, +was implicated in one of these plots, and was seized by the watchful +Anne, while Louis fled to Brittany and urged its duke to invade France.</p> + +<p>Anne did not hesitate as to her course, but marched into southern +France, taking the king, the warrant of her authority, with her. This +sudden diversion disconcerted the nobles, and one town after another +opened its gates to Charles VIII., till, in March, 1487, he entered +Bordeaux in triumph, and the old Duke of Bourbon and the Count of +Angoulème made their submission. The Breton nobles, angry at the +interference in their affairs by the rebellious French princes, who had +completely won the confidence of the weak Duke Francois II., resolved to +expel the foreigners, and appealed to Anne to help them. She responded +by despatching a force of twelve thousand men into Brittany and +besieging the duke and Louis d'Orléans in Nantes. But the town having +received reinforcements from Maximilian, the royal army raised the siege +and occupied strategic points in Brittany. While the season forbade +military operations, Anne returned to Paris with her king, and had +resort to law in her contest with the rebels. She issued a summons to +the Dukes of Orléans and Brittany to appear before the court of +Parliament. Upon their failure to appear, however, another summons was +issued; but no sentence was passed, since Anne did not care to push +matters to extremes in the case of these great personages, whom she +hoped to conciliate; but Dunois, Comines, and others of the rebels were +condemned for contumacy, their goods were confiscated, and, if their +persons could be laid hold of, they were imprisoned. Comines, historian +and scholar as he was, and favorite of Louis XI, had a taste of +imprisonment in one of those famous iron cages of which his old master +had been so fond.</p> + +<p>In the spring of 1488 the power of the house of Beaujeu was increased by +the death of the Duke of Bourbon, to whose duchy Anne's husband was +heir. Nevertheless, fortune was not favoring Anne in all things; for the +Breton nobles, having repented of their rebellion against their own +duke, and beginning to suspect that Madame Anne meant to keep her troops +in Brittany, now changed sides, and expelled the French garrisons from +some of the towns. In retaliation, Anne's general, Louis de La +Trémoille, began a vigorous campaign in Brittany early in April, which +culminated in the decisive victory of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier (July +27th). The Breton army was completely routed, and the rebel nobles, +including Louis d' Orléans and the Prince of Orange, fell into the power +of Anne. Louis, her most dangerous enemy, was confined in the tower of +Bourges, where he might meditate, without endangering the public peace, +upon the injustice of allowing a woman to govern France. Within a month +after the battle, Francois II., humbly suing for peace to his +"sovereign" Charles VIII., signed a treaty in which he promised to +exclude from his court and dukedom the enemies of France, and to +negotiate no marriage for his daughters without the advice and consent +of Charles. In the name of Charles, as usual, all this was done; but it +was really a signal triumph for Anne de Beaujeu. The pride of her Breton +adversary was broken, and he did not long survive the treaty; some have +declared that he died of chagrin at being no longer able to betroth his +daughters first to one suitor and then to another. Whether of chagrin or +of some more ordinary complaint, he died in September, 1488, and it then +developed that his eldest daughter, Anne, a girl of not quite twelve, +had indeed been promised to three parties simultaneously.</p> + +<p>Out of the confused situation in Brittany it was Madame de Beaujeu's +task to make profit for France. The eldest daughter and heiress of the +late duke, Anne de Bretagne, was enjoined by the royal council from +assuming her title of duchess until authorized to do so by the king, who +claimed not only the feudal wardship of the heiress of Brittany, but her +very coronet itself, under the terms of a treaty between the Crown and +certain of the great barons of Brittany, including Marshal de Rieux, +then guardian of Anne de Bretagne. This treaty, dating from 1484, had +recognized the claims of the king as superior to those of the female +heirs in Brittany, as in other fiefs where the court was endeavoring to +enforce the <i>Loi Salique</i>. But Marshal de Rieux and his friends had now +changed their views, seeing that the pretensions of the crown would +result in the extinction of Brittany as a distinct and independent +province; they preferred governing the province through the young +duchess to being governed by Madame la Grande.</p> + +<p>Madame la Grande was well aware that her claims on behalf of the king +would not be peaceably admitted; she was prepared to encounter armed +resistance, and probably foresaw her opportunity in the quarrels that +would inevitably break out among the Bretons as to who was to control +the heiress, and, above all, as to who was to marry her. The ducal court +of Brittany soon became the hotbed of intrigue, where divided counsel +prevailed, and where alliances were made on all sides and adhered to on +none. With the aid of Maximilian, of the Spaniards, and of the +English,--all of whom were more or less concerned, and more or less +willing to support Brittany against France,--the Bretons could have +offered successful resistance to the French armies. But the jealousies +of the Breton nobles, the craft and ability of Anne de Beaujeu, and the +feminine caprice of Anne de Bretagne, made ineffective the best efforts +of France's enemies. The Sire d'Albret, a man of hideous aspect, of +detestable character, and very nearly four times as old as the bride he +claimed, affirmed that Anne de Bretagne had been promised to him. +Marshal de Rieux, Anne's guardian, upheld the claims of D'Albret, and in +behalf of his protege resorted to fraud, in fabricating proofs of the +alleged betrothal, and to force. Meanwhile, the enterprising Dunois +formed a plot to kidnap the duchess and carry her off to France. Seeking +to escape these two dangers, the poor girl fled to Nantes, where, +however, De Rieux had the gates shut against her. Rennes, more +compassionate and more patriotic, offered her a refuge till the +immediate danger was passed. But there was no rest or safety for her as +long as she remained unmarried. The Sire d'Albret was loathsome to her; +therefore, under the temporary influence of other advisers, she gave her +hand to the ambassador of Maximilian, and was secretly married to this +proxy-husband, with every form and ceremony that could be thought of to +make the strange compact binding.</p> + +<p>A secret of such momentous consequence could not, in the nature of +things, remain a secret for any long period. The mock marriage had taken +place in the summer of 1490. Within a few months, the bride, bursting +with the importance of her new dignity, was actually signing decrees as +"Queen of the Romans," and the troubles in Brittany began with renewed +violence on the part of the disappointed aspirants to the control of the +duchy. Anne de Beaujeu, never dismayed, even by complications that might +to others seem hopeless, at once took advantage of the resentment of +D'Albret and De Rieux, secured the alliance of the latter and bought +outright that of the former, and so was soon able to regain military +supremacy in Brittany, and to begin her plans for breaking off the +marriage between Anne de Bretagne and Maximilian. Had the latter been a +native Burgundian, or had he concentrated his resources for the +attainment of one capital object, the whole history of France might have +been changed: we might have seen a second Burgundian power, now +strengthened by the rugged and yet unsubdued Brittany, hemming France in +on the east, on the west, on the north, and utterly stunting the growth +of that national unity which was to make France a great and homogeneous +power. But Maximilian was busy patching up the power of his Austrian +dominions, and trying to keep on reasonably good terms with his Flemish +subjects; meanwhile, he thought his bride might look out for herself, +and was not aware that Anne de Beaujeu was preparing a coup that would +deprive him forever of Brittany.</p> + +<p>The influence of Anne de Beaujeu was already showing signs of a decline; +and it therefore behooved her to work while it was yet day, for the time +was fast coming when her boy king would no longer submit to sisterly +tyranny. Charles was in his twentieth year when, in the spring of 1491, +he made his first independent move, with a prospect of still more +dangerous manifestations of independence. One evening he left Plessis, +as if to go hunting, and rode toward Bourges. He had secretly given +orders that Louis d'Orléans should be released, and went to meet and be +reconciled with this dangerous adversary of his sister. Louis, who had +been sobered by his confinement, was overjoyed at his release, and met +the king with every manifestation of loyal devotion and respect. +Fortunately, Louis cherished no feelings of resentment against the house +of Beaujeu, and willingly acceded to the formal reconciliation proposed +by the king, signing, with Pierre de Bourbon, a treaty of amity and +fraternal love, in which all past wrongs and differences were to be +forgotten. Louis was faithful to the spirit of this agreement, and +France had no longer to fear his factious activity. And when Dunois, +always ready to plot, always ready to undo his own plots, also agreed to +a reconciliation, the personal power of Anne in the royal council may +have been weakened, but the ultimate triumph of the principles for which +she had contended was assured. Though no longer dominant in all things, +she could yet shape the policy of the kingdom and contrive the ruin of +Maximilian's ambitious schemes.</p> + +<p>To unite France and Brittany had been the dream of the French kings, but +again and again had the dream proved a delusion. Louis XI, always awake +to every possible chance of advantage, had bought the claims of the +heiress of the ancient line of Charles de Blois and Jeanne de +Penthièvre; but no opportunity of profiting by these claims had been +vouchsafed his greedy soul. Now the coveted province seemed more +hopelessly alienated than ever. For Anne de Bretagne was married to +Maximilian, and the young King of France was solemnly betrothed to the +daughter of Maximilian, Marguerite, who had actually been reared at the +French court on purpose to fit her for the post of queen, and who had +already received, by courtesy, the titles and honors of her station, +though her youth still precluded the consummation of the marriage. How +to rob Maximilian of his bride and dispose of his daughter was a problem +that might well have seemed hopeless of solution. But Madame de Beaujeu +was not hopeless, nor was she over-scrupulous.</p> + +<p>Before Maximilian could bring his Austrian-Hungarian war to a +satisfactory conclusion, the French armies had established almost +complete control of Brittany. The young duchess, none too pleased at the +neglect of this treaty-husband, was easily persuaded that the marriage, +contracted against the will of her feudal lord, and never consummated by +a husband who seemed more absorbed in politics than fired by passion, +was not really a religious compact, but a treaty that could be abrogated +like any other treaty. She consented to break off the match with her +King of the Romans, but, having once borne the title of queen, neither +count nor duke would she have for a husband, only a king. Anne de +Beaujeu promptly suggested that the heiress of Brittany should replace +the daughter of Maximilian, and marry Charles VIII. On November 15th +Charles entered Rennes. To Maximilian and the rest of Europe this seemed +but the honest fulfilment of the terms of the treaty of peace extorted +from unwilling Brittany; no one outside of the trusted friends of the +duchess and of the king had the least suspicion that, three days later, +the pair had had an interview, and that, in the presence of Louis +d'Orléans, of Anne and Pierre de Bourbon, of the chancellor of Brittany, +and of a few others, they were formally betrothed.</p> + +<p>Secrecy was essential to the success of the plan. This secret was well +kept, particularly as the time of repression was short, for Anne de +Beaujeu was wise enough to conclude the matter as soon as possible. +Within a month, Charles went to the château of Langeais, in Touraine, +whither Anne de Bretagne followed him. Before the world knew what was +intended, they were married and were on their way to Plessis-lez-Tours, +where the gloomy old den of Louis XI was enlivened by brilliant royal +festivities. The ghost of the old king, however unfriendly to mirth and +jollity, must have looked on approvingly and grinned with joy at the +thought of the splendid and long-coveted dowry that his wise daughter +had won for France. He, too, would have taken a malicious pleasure in +the very means Anne had used to hoodwink and cheat Maximilian. +Duplicity, the most boldfaced trickery, had been resorted to, to lead +Maximilian off the true scent. While the marriage articles that would +rob him of his Breton bride were being arranged, Anne de Beaujeu was +keeping him occupied with the details of an arrangement that would grant +free passage to his bride when she saw fit to repair to the husband who +could not find time to come to her. And while he was carrying on this +negotiation, in good faith, came the news that Charles had robbed him of +his bride and was sending back his daughter. It was a double insult, and +one that might have cost France dearly had Maximilian's power equalled +his anger and resentment. Nothing but "diplomacy" could have +accomplished the union of France and Brittany, that sort of diplomacy +which in a private individual would be condemned by every ethical law, +but which often results most advantageously for the state, and hence is +condoned.</p> + +<p>With this marriage the great role of Anne de Beaujeu ceases; for though +she continued to advise, she could no longer command, and the government +of France was left to Charles VIII. Anne was one of those counsellors +who raised their voices in unheeded protest against the impolitic +rashness of Charles's campaign in Italy, a campaign whose mad +extravagance and disastrous results fully justified all that Anne had +said to dissuade her brother. But in this, as in other matters of less +moment, it was evident that Anne's day of usefulness had passed. By the +time her old rival, Louis d'Orléans, became Louis XII. she had +completely retired from politics, and continued to govern nothing but +her husband, in spite of the generous confidence shown in her by the new +king. Louis XII. cherished no resentment for the injuries inflicted upon +the young Louis d'Orléans by Madame la Grande, and gratefully +acknowledged how important had been her services to the crown. But +Madame la Grande intervened no more in public affairs, though she lived +on until 1522.</p> + +<p>The wisdom and foresight of this great daughter of the hated tyrant of +Plessis may be appreciated more fully if we will but consider for a +moment the history of that Anne de Bretagne whose heritage she had +secured for the crown of France. The early history of this princess has +been already sketched in the preceding pages. She was but fifteen when +Madame la Grande brought about the marriage with Charles VIII. Already, +however, she had manifested traits that accorded but ill with the +character of her royal mate. For she was not only handsome, spirited, +and naturally independent and intelligent, but fond of intellectual +pursuits, almost a scholar, knowing Latin and Greek, that new tongue +that was just becoming the fashion in Europe, the tongue whose rich and +deep literature, so long misunderstood or unknown during the Middle +Ages, was to be most fruitful of inspirations for the Renaissance. +Imagine her yoked with a prince of frivolous disposition, lacking even +in ordinary intelligence, so ignorant that he could scarcely read and +write, and interested chiefly in the idle shows of that chivalry in +whose ranks he could not shine because of his awkward and weak frame. +With admirable appreciation of her duty, Anne sunk the woman in the wife +and queen, subordinating her own personality to that of a man whom she +could not have respected, whom it seems impossible she could have loved. +She resigned into his hands the administration of her own province of +Brittany, and sought no share in the determination of the policy of the +kingdom. Leaving politics to the king and his councillors, she devoted +herself to the petty affairs of her court, regulated its accounts, +decided its points of etiquette, kept its atmosphere pure and healthy, +just as any little Breton housewife would have governed and made +comfortable the home of her husband. Whether she loved Charles or not, +she always treated him with respect.</p> + +<p>The seven years of their married life were passed without a sign from +her that the union had proved anything but the happiest in the world. On +April 7, 1498, Charles, walking hurriedly through a dark corridor of the +Château d'Amboise, where his father had kept him in confinement little +different from imprisonment, struck his head against a scaffolding +carelessly left in place by the workmen who were repairing the chateau, +and died a few hours later. Anne made becoming show of grief, refused to +be consoled, would not, it is said, touch food for three days, and +insisted on wearing black in token of her grief, though as queen she was +entitled to wear white. Grief, she said, had unfitted her for the life +at court; she must return to her native Brittany and seek in the +administration of its affairs to banish the memory of the lost husband.</p> + +<p>The wisdom of Anne de Beaujeu had united Brittany to France; it now +seemed as if the good results of her diplomacy were to be lost. There +had been a stipulation, it is true, in the contract of marriage between +Anne de Bretagne and Charles, that, in case of the death of the king, +his widow could marry none but the successor or the heir presumptive to +the crown of France; but this stipulation now seemed about to prove +unavailing. For the heir presumptive at the time of Anne's widowhood was +the little Count Francois d'Angoulème, a boy not yet out of the nursery, +while the successor of Charles VIII. was already married to Jeanne, +sister of the late king. It was a dilemma as serious as that solved by +Anne de Beaujeu seven years before. But, as has been shown in this case, +"be there a will, and wisdom finds a way," or if not wisdom, the +hocus-pocus of diplomacy. In the present case it was soon apparent that, +on both sides, there was a will; and though the way lay directly over +the bleeding heart of a good woman, that way was found and followed by +Louis XII.</p> + +<p>Before the death of Charles, no one had suspected that Louis cherished +any sentiments but those of loyal respect for Anne de Bretagne. When he +saw her go away, taking with her the dowry that had cost so dear, the +court discovered that the new king was hopelessly enamored of the +mourning Breton widow. Anne was, it is true, personally attractive, and +Louis was known to be not only susceptible to feminine charms but +deplorably unhappy with his own wife; nevertheless, one cannot accord +unquestioning faith to the genuineness of an affection that was so +obviously politic, whether genuine or counterfeit. Anne, too, despite +her widow's weeds and her tears, could not help showing that she left +the court with regret. In justice to her, it cannot be said that she had +betrayed her willingness to return Louis's sentiments; yet he must have +felt reasonably sure of his standing in her heart before he undertook to +make room for her by his side.</p> + +<p>Almost the first scene of our history has to do with just such an +instance of shameless quibbling about sacred things as that we must now +record. Louis's wife, Jeanne de France, was a good, gentle, loving +woman, who had clung with despairing affection to a husband who despised +her, who was unfaithful to her, who was now to humiliate her. The poor +creature was unfortunately ugly, and deformed, and twenty-two years of +unfailing devotion it was in great part owing to her incessant appeals +that the young Charles VIII. had liberated Louis from Bourges--had not +reconciled the ungrateful husband to the marriage. He now bethought +himself that this marriage had been contracted when he was but a youth, +under threat of death from Louis XI, that Jeanne had borne him no +children, and that they were related within the degrees prohibited by +the Church. He appealed to the head of the Church, the notorious +Alexander VI., to annul an incestuous union that was a burden to his +conscience. Needless to say that, in the corrupt papal court of that +period, the appeal was supported by arguments more weighty than +honorable. Needless to say that, in spite of the heartbroken protests of +Jeanne, Alexander, and his son Cæsar Borgia, having received their +price, granted a decree annulling the marriage.</p> + +<p>Having disposed of his wife, Louis sought the disconsolate widow in +Brittany. Anne made some show of reluctance, of inconsolable grief, and +of scruples moral and sentimental. As a matter of fact, however, she had +consented to marry Louis before the divorce from Jeanne had been +secured, and within four months from the death of Charles. The decree of +divorce, brought by magnificent Cæsar Borgia himself, was published in +December, 1498, and the marriage of Anne and Louis XII. was celebrated +at Nantes in January, 1499.</p> + +<p>Anne had profited by her sojourn at the French court; the new contract +of marriage was far from being as favorable to France as that imposed by +Anne de Beaujeu. It was now stipulated that she should retain in her own +hands the administration of Brittany, and that the administrative +offices and the ecclesiastical benefices should be filled by natives of +Brittany only and with the consent of the duchess; that the ancient +rights and privileges so dear to the Bretons should be respected; and +that the province should descend to the second child of the marriage, or +to the second child of her child, if there should be but one born to her +and Louis, or to her own heirs next of kin, in case the marriage should +prove childless. But little hope was left in this contract that the +dearest wish of Anne de Beaujeu should be gratified, and that Brittany +should remain French.</p> + +<p>A complete change of character and of policy in a woman of twenty-three +is very remarkable; and we are therefore surprised to find that the Anne +who returned to Paris as the queen of Louis XII. was a very different +person from the meek lady who had submitted to the ignorant and +light-headed Charles. Not only did she insist upon and exercise her +authority in Brittany, but she made the weight of her will felt in the +affairs of the whole kingdom, pursued with ungenerous vindictiveness +those who thwarted or opposed her, was jealous of her husband, of Madame +de Bourbon, and of Louise de Savoie, mother of the young prince who one +day was to be King Francois I. For her second husband, a man infinitely +more worthy of respect than Charles, she appeared to have little +tenderness. He was always considerate and good humored, admiring her and +loving her even when she was domineering and almost insolent in her +attitude toward him and toward his favorites. Her prudence and her +regard for the decencies of life, too apt to be forgotten in the +dissolute life now fostered by increased luxury and culture, were the +only traits of Queen Anne that could be considered admirable. Her +patronage of art, and of letters to a certain extent, her liberality to +her favorite Bretons, had endeared her to a small circle; but neither +France, which she hated, nor the best counsellors of the king, whom she +thwarted and discomfited by her absolute ascendency over the king, had +any cause to regret the early death of the queen, in 1514. It was +fitting that, according to her wish, her heart should be buried in +Brittany, while the body rested in Saint-Denis; for that heart had been +unwaveringly Breton. To Louis she was <i>ma Bretonne</i>; and Breton she was +in the most marked traits of her character; a woman of more than usual +intellect and ability, with appreciation for art and literature, with a +high sense of domestic virtue, and yet always hard, cold, shrewd, and +narrow-minded.</p> + +<p>The contrast between the two Annes who fill so large a place in the +closing years of the fifteenth century is as complete as it is striking. +Both were so placed by the accident of birth and fortune as to have much +power, for good or for ill, in the destiny of France. But while Anne de +Bretagne showed herself merely a woman, ruled by personal motives, +jealous of power in small things and blind to or unconscious of the +far-reaching results that might spring from the exercise of that power, +Anne de Beaujeu had the broad mind, the far-seeing and calculating +intellect of the statesman. Her intellect, indeed, was essentially +masculine: "Madame de Beaujeu," says a contemporary historian, "would +have been worthy to wear the crown, by her prudence and by her courage, +if nature had not excluded her from the sex in whom the right to rule +was vested." Anne de Bretagne was self-willed and obstinate, seeking the +gratification of mere caprice; Anne de Beaujeu was inflexible and +tenacious of purpose, but that purpose had in view the consolidation of +an empire, not the gratification of some whim or of some petty spite. +One is tempted to compare the daughter of Louis XI. with that other +great woman whose firm hand guided France through a perilous crisis in +the second quarter of the thirteenth century. Blanche de Castille, too, +had to rule and consolidate a kingdom menaced by feudal anarchy during +the minority of the sovereign. But she had constitutional right to +support her regency; Anne de Beaujeu had no such right, and the +difficulties with which she had to contend, though sooner ended, were +more serious in themselves, perhaps, than those domestic intrigues and +rebellions which Blanche could face without having to guard her +frontiers from powerful and hostile neighbors. By her political +achievements Madame la Grande merits comparison with the mother of Saint +Louis. And yet it is in the very success of her tortuous, unscrupulous, +dishonest policy that we find witness against the character of Anne. +Political trickery, political duplicity, however beneficent in its +results, leaves us with a strong aversion to the trickster; even as we +have an unconquerable distrust of and contempt for the spy, howbeit he +has risked life and honor for love of country, even so we grudge our +praise to those who, like Louis XI and his daughter, seek and attain +great ends by despicable means, sacrificing truth, honor, sentiment, to +win for the nation the provinces of a Marie de Bourgogne, who does not +know how to govern them, or the bride of a Maximilian, who does not know +how to keep hold of her.</p> + +<p>Great has been the change in France since Constance came from fair +Provence to scandalize the monkish Robert's court; since Eleanor +d'Aquitaine and her romantic troubadour friends taught France how to +love gracefully and sing of love sweetly; since Mahaut d'Artois was a +<i>paire de France</i>, with feudal power in her domain not to be questioned +even by the sovereign; since Jeanne de Montfort, at the head of her +knights, charged the mailed hosts. Provence has ceased either to +scandalize or to enliven and instruct, for there is no more Provence +save in name; no more gay and immoral troubadours; peers of France, you +too are gone with "the snows of yesteryear," for when Charles VIII. was +crowned at Rheims, the only lay peer, Philippe de Flandre, was not +represented, the ancient domains of the other five having been annexed +to the crown; and "the knights are dust." The little duchy of France, +hedged about by vassals subject only in name, has grown into a great and +almost unified kingdom, where provincial boundaries will soon be but +imaginary lines on the map, a kingdom so rich and powerful, thanks to +Louis XI. and Anne de Beaujeu, that it can afford to let a childish +Charles VIII. dissipate its forces and its treasure in Italian wars, +bringing back nothing more precious than the memory of the culture, the +art, the restless new learning that make Florence, Venice, Milan +glorious in this day of Renaissance. And France will cherish these +memories of Italy, will kindle with enthusiasm for all these new +<i>cinque-cento</i> marvels, will emulate and eclipse Italy. The monarchy is +now the central power, the unquestioned power, in France, for which +blessed consummation France must thank some of the women whose stories +we have told no less than her kings. For without Blanche de Castille, no +Saint Louis; without Jeanne d'Arc, no Charles VII.; without Madame de +Beaujeu, no Charles VIII. Soon the state will be the king, long before +boastful Louis XIV. thunders forth, <i>L'état, c'est moi</i> Already the eyes +of all France are drawn to the court. There power resides, there +literature and the arts will flourish, no longer leading a troubled and +precarious existence. At the most brilliant court in Christendom a +Francis I. no longer will indite Latin hymns, like the good Robert, but +a cynical <i>souvent une femme varie</i>, while his sister, <i>La marguerite +des marguerites de Navarre</i>, will rival Boccaccio with her fashionable +tales of gallant and amorous gentlemen and ladies.</p> + +<p>The age of blood and iron passes away, and with it must pass away the +type of woman we have seen in the pages of this book. In our haste we +might say that the passing age had not been one favorable to the +development of feminine character, and that the new age will give the +world women not only more cultivated and morally better, but also +greater and of more potent influence upon the life of the world; and yet +we must not forget that the very conditions of the Middle Ages most +oppressive to women in general did of necessity bring to the fore women +of strong character. A feudal chatelaine, if she were a Mahaut d'Artois, +could rule, could make her mark in history; a queen of France, in an age +when physical strength seemed essential in warfare, could subdue her +enemies and make herself a great queen, if she were a Blanche de +Castille. Under the new order, however, woman's activities and talents +will be directed into channels more appropriate to her sex; in +literature, in art, in social life, in diplomacy, woman will now play +her part, more quietly, perhaps, but not with less far-reaching +influence on the history of France than if she actually controlled the +armies of France. The really great women from this time forth will be +found not on the throne but in the salon. In writing of Catherine de' +Medici we should have to tell a great deal of the history of France, in +writing of Anne d'Autriche, less; in writing of Madame de Maintenon, +still less; but the life of such a woman as Blanche de Castille is the +history of France, and in the life of such a woman as Jeanne d'Arc is +the very spirit and soul of the nation.</p><br><br> + +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> + +<table cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" border="0" + style="width: 100%; text-align: left;" summary="content"> + <tbody> + <tr> + <td style="vertical-align: top; width: 8%;"> +<br> +<br> +<a href="#c1">I</a><br> +<a href="#c2">II</a><br> +<a href="#c3">III</a><br> +<a href="#c4">IV</a><br> +<a href="#c5">V</a><br> +<a href="#c6">VI</a><br> +<a href="#c7">VII</a><br> +<a href="#c8">VIII</a><br> +<a href="#c9">IX</a><br> +<a href="#c10">X</a><br> +<a href="#c11">XI</a><br> +<a href="#c12">XII</a><br> +<a href="#c13">XIII</a><br> +<a href="#c14">XIV</a><br> +<a href="#c15">XV</a><br> + </td> + <td style="vertical-align: top; width: 92%;"> +DEDICATION<br> +<a href="#pre">PREFACE</a><br> +IN THE DAYS OF THE CAPETIAN KINGS<br> +FAMOUS LOVERS<br> +WOMEN IN EARLY PROVENÇAL AND FRENCH LITERATURE<br> +WOMEN IN THE AGE OF SAINT LOUIS<br> +BLANCHE DE CASTILLE AS REGENT OF FRANCE<br> +THE MOTHER AND THE WIFE OF A SAINT<br> +THE ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY AND LOVE<br> +MARIE DE BRABANT AND MAHAUT D'ARTOIS<br> +JEANNE DE MONTFORT<br> +AT THE COURT OF THE MAD KING<br> +CHRISTINE DE PISAN<br> +THE SAVIOR OF FRANCE<br> +THE TRIUMPH AND MARTYRDOM OF JEANNE D'ARC<br> +THE RISE OF THE MONARCHY<br> +ANNE DE BEAUJEU: THE CONSOLIDATION OF THE KINGDOM<br> + </td> + </tr> + </tbody> +</table> + + + +<br><br> + +<h3>List of Illustrations</h3> + +<table cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" border="0" + style="width: 100%; text-align: left;" summary="illlustrations"> + <tbody> + <tr> + <td style="vertical-align: top; width: 50%;"> +<a href="#ill1">Odette de Champdivers and Charles VI</a><br> +<a href="#ill2">Le droit du seigneur</a><br> +<a href="#ill3">Domestic interior in France, twelfth century</a><br> +<a href="#ill4">Ladies hunting</a><br> +<a href="#ill5">Blanche of Castille, mother of Saint Louis</a><br> +<a href="#ill6">Jeanne d'Arc</a><br> + </td> + <td style="vertical-align: top; width: 50%;"> +<i>Albrecht de Vriendt</i><br> +<i>Lucien Mélingue</i><br> +<i>S. Baron</i><br> +<i>Henri Génois</i><br> +<i>Moreau de Tours</i><br> +<i>Jean J. Scherrer</i><br> + </td> + </tr> + </tbody> +</table> + + + + + +<br><br> + + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Women of Mediæval France, by Pierce Butler + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMEN OF MEDIÆVAL FRANCE *** + +***** This file should be named 32695-h.htm or 32695-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/6/9/32695/ + +Produced by Rénald Lévesque + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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