READING GUIDE (weeks 14-15): Chivalry
A. Chrétien de Troyes: Erec and Enide
This story is a type of fiction called “romance”. Romances differ
from an earlier genre, the chanson de geste (an example of which is The
Song of Roland), in both content and style. They are generally concerned
less with action, although plenty of action takes place, and more with
personal relationships and questions of honor, morality, sex, and chivalry.
Romances were performed orally before mostly aristocratic audiences that
included both men and women. One line of thought sees these stories
directed at the ladies; another sees them directed at the young, powerless
knights whose only hope of gaining wealth and status was an advantageous
marriage to a rich heiress. The debate is still out. Which interpretation
do you find more appealing? Why?
1. Erec and Enide is a work of literature, and as such is fiction.
Why are we using it in a history class? Can we learn about the history
of this period from this text? [I think we can, or else I wouldn’t have
assigned it ...]
2. From this text, what do we learn about how were women supposed to
behave? What types of “jobs” or duties did women have? What social roles
did women play? Were they active? Passive? Did women have power? If so,
what sorts? If not, why not? Who did Chrétien consider to be the
epitome of womanhood in the story? Why was she considered to be so womanly?
What features and feelings defined her womanliness?
3. What were the roles assigned to men? What did they do? (What, especially,
did they do that women could not or should not do?) How did they act? What
feelings and values motivated them? Were they active or passive? Did they
have power? What sort? Who was the ideal male in the story? Why was he
considered to be so manly? What features and feelings defined his manliness?
4. In the chansons de geste, we learn almost nothing about personal
motivation. Roland appears, hacks a lot of Muslims, and then dies nobly,
protesting that he only wished he could kill some more. How are things
different in Erec and Enide? One historian has described this story
as one in which “interior feelings and thought” played a dominant role.
What does she mean? Find some examples of this. What does it tell
us about medieval society at large that popular literature was emphasizing
“interiority”?
5. In medieval literature, the inner moral worth of a person can be
discerned fairly easily by that person’s outward appearance and actions.
Find some examples of positive and negative modeling that fit this stereotype.
6. The story is set at the court of King Arthur. What role does Arthur
play? What model of kingship is presented in this story?
7. Nineteenth-century historians used to argue that there was no concept
of the individual in the Middle Ages. How does Erec and Enide support or
criticize this view? In other words, do we find the concept of individualism
at work here?
8. Honor is one of the most important values motivating the characters
in this romance. Locate examples of honor. How does honor shape interactions
between husbands and wives? Between knights? Other interactions?
9. Chivalry came into being in the 11th and 12th centuries. What
is chivalry? What sets chivalry apart from earlier warrior virtues?
What sets Erec apart from, say, the Song of Roland or the Agreement
between Hugh and William? Find some examples of chivalrous ideals
and virtues in Erec and Enide.
10. Chrétien was one of the first writers to take advantage
of 12th-century popular interest in the Arthurian legends. Remember
that if (and that’s a big if) there was a historical Arthur, he lived in
the 6th century, not the 12th. Chrétien’s tale thus uses a
distant, mythological past as the setting for a story about contemporary
issues (love, duty, warfare, marriage, etc). Why do you think he
did this? What advantages did such a structure offer?
11. What does the ‘Joy of the Court” episode mean (this is the last
extended scene in the story, from circa line 5350 to near the end).
Why did Chrétien include it? What moral or conclusion might
the audience have drawn from hearing about the Joy of the Court?
B. Excerpt from The History of William Marshal, 1226 [Handout]
William Marshal was an extraordinary nobleman of the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries who had the good fortune to have an extraordinary text written
about him. William was the younger son of John Marshal, one of the
royal officers of King Henry I (1100-1135); but where John provided lands
for his elder sons, little William got nothing save a spot in the household
of the Tancarville family (a powerful family of nobles who served as hereditary
chamberlains to the dukes of Normandy). As a result, William had to make
his way up the chain of aristocratic society by learning the values, codes,
and skills of the ideal aristocrat. This meant a healthy dose of warrior
skills, mixed with another healthy dose of loyalty and fidelity, with a
third healthy dose of courtly etiquette thrown in. William’s social
and military skills [he was particularly well-known as a tournament-fighter]
allowed him to move up in society - he served in the household of Henry,
son of King Henry II, until that young man died unexpectedly. He then served
in the royal households of Henry II and Richard the Lion-heart. Ultimately
his years of faithful service won him the hand of an heiress, Isabella
of Striguil, whom King Richard gave to William in 1189. This marriage brought
him a substantial lordship, which later was enhanced into an earldom. Now
securely supported by land and marriage, William was a magnate (or great
lord) of the highest degree. He remained an important royal advisor for
both Richard and John, and helped run the English government during the
minority of John’s son, Henry III. William Marshal died in 1219 as one
of the most powerful men in England. This incredible transformation - from
penniless younger son to important magnate - was the stuff of medieval
legend, and, as a result, an enormous poem was written to glorify William’s
exploits. This poem, written in old-French and called The History of William
Marshal, was written by one of William’s friends and vassals, and was completed
by 1226. The story aptly demonstrates the combination of shrewd ambition,
faithful vassalage, and chivalric values that combined to allow William’s
ascent. Notes: ‘the chamberlain’ is the lord of Tancarville, William’s
lord; ‘tourney’ is another word for tournament.
1. In our excerpt, William is still a knight of the household of the
lord of Tancarville. This means he is not an enfeoffed vassal (a vassal
who has been given land, or a fief); rather, he is part of the military
household that travelled around with the lord, adding to the lord’s prestige
and, of course, protecting the lord when necessary.
2. What economic status does William seem to have? How independent
is he of the lord of Tancarville?
3. How does William act towards his lord? Is he pushy? Accepting? Why?
4. Tournaments were important proving grounds for knights. They provided
an opportunity to train and practice, as well as to make money, for defeated
knights forfeited their horses and sometimes the armor that they wore.
A successful tournament fighter could gain substantial income through ransoms
and the loot he collected. Twelfth-century tournaments also were a bit
different than the Hollywood version; although there were a few one-on-one
combats, the main attraction was the ‘melee’ in which two sides would charge
each other and attempt to dishorse and otherwise capture as many as the
other. Such melees could take place over a large area as well. On
page 193 the author of the History reminds his audience of this, when he
states that the Marshal made his name ‘before the joust-yard’, when ‘tournaments
did not have rules.’
5. What seems to have been William’s strategy in the first tournament?
How did he choose his target?
6. Make sure you understand how such tournaments worked - cf. pp. 194-198.
7. What virtues does William possess? How does he interact with his
fellow knights?
8. What were William’s experiences in the second tournament? Does his
appearance on his own (ie., without the rest of the Lord of Tancarville’s
household) help explain what happened to him?
9. How does this poem express the values of chivalry?