Tableaux d`époque : les Tristan en vers de Béroul et de Thomas

Transcription

22e CONGRÈS DE LA SOCIÉTÉ
INTERNATIONALE ARTHURIENNE,
22nd CONGRESS OF THE
INTERNATIONAL ARTHURIAN SOCIETY
Rennes 2008
Actes
Proceedings
Réunis et publiés en ligne par
Denis Hüe, Anne Delamaire et Christine Ferlampin-Acher
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SUIVIE DE LA RÉFÉRENCE (JOUR, SESSION)
Chrétien’s Conte du Graal and the Fatal Flaw in
Feudalism
That there are clear parallels in le Conte du Graal between the stories
of Perceval’s family, the Grail castle, and Gauvain at the Roche de Canguin
has already been considered, most recently by Professor Rupert T Pickens.
In A Companion to Chrétien de Troyes, Prof. Pickens has seen these as
elements as being united around the theme of the importance of
transcendent Christian Charity1.
What I would like to suggest is that the parallels cited go beyond
these three key elements, and can be found to run throughout the entire
poem. Further, I would argue that the theme of social collapse presented in
the tale, represents a carefully crafted criticism of the inherent weakness in
the feudal society in which Chrétien lived. A society upon whose hierarchy
he was himself dependent.
Early in the poem Chrétien draws a clear parallel between the
situation of Perceval’s family and the the realm of Logres following the
death of King Uther, as follows:
Perceval’s father is wounded in the thighs and rendered invalid2
In A Companion to Chrétien de Troyes, Norris J Lacy & Joan Trasker Grimbert (ed’s),
Suffolk, D S Brewer, 2005, pp. 185 – 187.
2 Vostre peres, si nel savez,
Fu parmi les jambes navrez
Si que il mehaigna del cors. ll. 435 – 437.
References cited will be to the Keith Busby edition, Chrétien de Troyes, Le Roman de
Perceval, (Edit. Keith Busby), Tubingen, Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1993
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SUIVIE DE LA RÉFÉRENCE (JOUR, SESSION)
1
ACTES DU 22e CONGRÈS DE LA SOCIÉTÉ INTERNATIONALE ARTHURIENNE, RENNES, 2008
PROCEEDINGS OF THE 22nd CONGRESS OF THE INTERNATIONAL ARTHURIAN SOCIETY, 2008
As a result of his incapacity, his extensive lands and great treasures
were all laid ruin3
He fell into great poverty4
And because of this he and his family are forced to go into exile in
the gaste Forest
This came to pass almost immediately after the death of King
Uther5, and was but a microcosm of what was happening throughout the
kingdom. As a consequence of the king’s death:
Lands were laid waste6
Noble men were impoverished, disinherited and wrongfully
brought to destitution7
The poor people degraded….8
so that anyone who could flee did so9
All because the king was dead and unable to maintain the social
order. In the same way Perceval’s family fell into poverty and had to flee
into exile because Perceval’s father was rendered socially and martially
impotent by a wound through the jambes.
Sa grant terre, ses grant tresors,
Que il avoit comme preudom,
Ala tot a perdition, ll. 438 – 440
4 Si chaï en grant povreté. l. 441.
5 ll. 444 - 446
6 Les terres furent escillies l. 447
7 Apovri et deshireté
Et escillié fuerent a tort
Li gentil home apre la mort
Uterpandragon qui rois fu
Et peres le bon rou Artu. ll. 442 - 446
8 et les povres gens avillies, l. 448
The beggars of Orcanie’s dread at the thought is Gawain is dead, taking away his charity, is
also worth noting. Ll.9212 – 14.
9 i s'en fuï qui fuïr pot. l. 449
3
15 JUILLET, AMPHI L2, SESSION 2,
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CHRÉTIEN’S CONTE DU GRAAL AND THE FATAL FLAW IN FEUDALISM
KATHLEEN TOOHEY
This fall, the Lady says, is the common misfortune “overtaking
worthy men who conduct themselves with great honour and valour”.
Whereas “Wickedness, shame and sloth don’t decline.”10
The lady’s situation is made worse when her eldest two sons are
slain in combat after being knighted, causing their father to die of grief. Is
it any wonder that to the Lady of the Gaste forest “knights” are but “those
angels folk complain of that kill everything they come across” 11
The picture of social collapse presented here is very different to the
preceding accounts of events following the death of Uther in Wace and
Geoffrey of Monmouth. There, after Uther’s death, Arthur embarks upon
a war to purge the Saxons from his kingdom, and then launches a campaign
against the Scots12.
Le Conte du Graal is the only romance in which Chrétien places his
tale within the chronology of Arthur’s reign13. Yet there is no reference to
Saxons or Scots. And no reference to any wars that could have been used
to account for the family’s misfortune and the social chaos described.
Rather, all the misfortunes are the direct consequence of either the death of
King Uther or the incapacitation of the Widow’s husband.
Chrétien De Troyes, Arthurian Romances, (tr. D D R Owen), London, J M Dent and
Sons, 1987, pp. 379 – 380. All English quotes and paraphrasing will taken from this
translations unless otherwise indicated.
11 Les angles dont la gent se plaignent,
qui ocïent quanqu'il ataignent ll. 399 – 400
12 Geoffrey of Monmouth, The History of the Kings of Britain, (tr. Lewis Thorpe),
London, Penguin, 1966, pp. 212 – 220. pp. 227 – 241. Wace, Roman de Brut: A History
of the, (Edit. & tr. Judith Weiss), Exeter, University of Exeter Press, 1999. On “Chrétien’s
Literary Background”, see the article by Laurence Harf-Lancner in A Companion to
Chrétien de Troyes, Op.Cit.
13 Leaving aside for the moment some of the apparent anomalies of the later poem.
Perceval was only two years old at the time of King Uther’s death and his father’s
incapacitation, l. 458.
10
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The situation of the Fisher King at the Grail castle is similar to
Perceval’s own family situation.
The king was “… struck by a javelin right through both thighs”
and maimed, so that he has not been able to manage for himself 14. The
ramifications of this are explained to Perceval twice, by his cousin, and by
the Hideous Damsel. Both of whom lay the blame on Perceval for not
asking the critical questions that would have led to the king being healed. 15
Because of which:
The king will never hold any of his lands16
Lands will be laid waste17
Many misfortunes will befall both (Perceval) and others18
Many knights will perish19
Ladies will lose their husbands20
Roi est il, …
Mais il fu en une bataille…
Qu’il fu ferus d’un gavelot
Parmi les hanches ambesdeus
Qu’il ne puet sor cheval monter. ll. 3508 – 3515
15 According to Perceval’s cousin, had he asked, the king would have completely gained the
use of his limbs and governed his lands.
Que tant eüsses amendé
Le buen roi qui est mehaigniez
Que toz eust regaaigniez
Ses membres et terre tenist,
Et si grans biens en avenist! ll. 3587 - 3590
According to the Hideous Damsel:, because he did not ask the rich king will never be healed
of his wounds ll. 4638+
16 Del roi qui terre ne tendra
Ne n'iert de ses plaies garis? ll. 4676 - 4677
17 Terres en seront escillies l. 4679
18 ll. 3571+
19 Et maint chevalier en morront l. 4682
20 Dames en perdront lor maris l. 4678
14
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KATHLEEN TOOHEY
And maidens will be left orphaned and helpless21
The situation Sir Gauvain finds at the Roche de Canguin towards
the end of the poem, is similar.
To there have come:
ladies without husbands or lords wrongly disinherited from lands
and possessions after the death of their husbands
Orphaned damsels
And squires waiting to be knighted by the knight who will prove
himself worthy22
Galloway too, as Prof. Pickens has noted23, is a waste land reached
by travelling through “wild and desolate forests” 24. And the reason why
these people are there may be inferred by the fact that the shelter was built
by Gauvain’s own grandmother, Queen Ygerne, widow of Uther. It has
been built as a refuge for those afflicted by the calamities that befell after
the death of Uther. A refuge even for Gauvain’s own mother and sister
who he did not know were alive.
Thus, four key elements of the tale are tied together by this theme
of lands laid waste, widowed ladies, orphaned children, and people
impoverished and wrongly dispossessed of their lands. All because of the
death or incapacitation of their king or lord protector.
Now, as I acknowledged, these parallels have already been noted
by Prof. Pickens. But what I want to argue is that this same theme runs
throughout the romance.
Et puceles desconseillies,
Qui orfenines remandront ll. 4680 - 81
22 ll. 7561 – 7604
23 A Companion to Chrétien de Troyes, Op. Cit. p. 182
24 Ibid. p. 176. par forés gastes et soutaines l. 7225.
21
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Consider, the situation at the castle of the Lady Blanchefleur.
Here, too:
The land has been laid waste25, only here the devastation has
penetrated the fortress itself26
The lord of the castle has been slain27
Many of the Lady’s knights have been killed or captured 28
The Lady Blanchefleur has been orphaned, as presumably have
been many other damsels
The people have been impoverished. “Nowhere in the entire
fortress was there any mill grinding or oven baking, no wine or loaf, and
nothing that could be sold to make a single penny” 29
“He (Perceval) rode until he saw a strong, well-sited fortress with nothing outside its wall
but sea and stretches of water and wasteland”, Et chevalche tant que il voit .I. chastel fort et bein
seant; Defors les murs n'avoit neant Fors mer et aive et terre gaste. ll. 1706 – 1709.
26 For while he had found the land outside bare and laid waste … he found the streets
devastated and saw the houses in ruin … Thus he found the fortress waste …”.
Car s'il eut bien defors trovee
La terre gaste et escovee,
Dedens rien ne li amenda,
Car partot la ou il ala,
Trova enhermies les rues
Et les maisons vit decheües,
C'ome ne feme n'i avoit.
...
Ensi trova le chastel gaste, ll. 1749 - 1771
25
27
Related by Engygerons – “For I had a hand in her father’s death”, Car a la mort
son pere fui l. 2280
Et se li ai fait tans corrous
Que ses chevaliers li ai tous
Que mors que pris en ceste anee. ll. 2281 – 2283
29 Et nul liu de tot le chastel,
28
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KATHLEEN TOOHEY
The castle is under siege and, but for the intervention of Perceval,
Blanchefleur is under threat of dispossession and would surely have lost her
lands
The same situation, only here Chrétien takes care to describe the
circumstances that have led to this. And what lies behind them. Nothing
but the personal ambition of the knight Clamdeau of the Isles, and his
desire to have the lady as his own30 All within a day’s ride of the castle of
Gornemant de Gohort, the brother of Blanchefleur’s father31. But
Gornemant is doing nothing to aid his besieged niece.
Gauvain finds a similar situation at the start of his adventures.
Only in place of war, we find a tournament, the semblance of war.
We get our first hints when Gauvain is approaching Tintagel and
sees a party of knights heading towards the castle. When he asks who they
are, and where they are going, he is shocked to learn that the party is led by
Sir Meliant de Lis, who is going to undertake a tournament against Tybaut
of Tintagel. “God,” he cries, “wasn’t Meliant brought up in Tybaut’s
house”.32
The castle, when Gauvain approaches it, is in a state of siege with
all the gates blocked save for one small postern gate, which has been
N'il n'i avoit ne pain ne gastel
Ne rien nule qui fust a vendre
Dont l'en poïst .i. denier prendre. ll. 1767 – 1770.
And “Empty of bread and dough, wine cider and ale”,
Qu'il n'i avoit ne pain ne paste
Ne vin ne sydre ne cervoise. ll. 1772 – 1773.
30Arthurian Romances, pp. 401, 405 – 406.
31 And a knight of the Round Table, as reported by Chrétien in Erec and Enide.
32 -Diex! !dist mesire Gavains lors,
Dont ne fu Melians de Lis
En la maison Tibaut norris ? ll. 4839 – 4840.
PAGE 7/21
strongly reinforced33. And although Tybaut has called in all his relatives
and neighbours to support him, his counselors advise not to engage in the
tournament, because they fear Meliant wants to totally destroy them34. For
which reason the sole gate is kept closed and barred.
Thus, the Tintagel episode represents a retelling of the
Blanchefleur episode, only this time the hero has arrived before any real
harm has been done. What might have happened, is hard to say. Perhaps
the outcome would have been less severe given that Meliant has been
identified in Erec as a Knight of the Round Table. But that is mere
speculation. Certainly, on the first day, Meliant was winning and many
knights had been made prisoner, and many horses killed35.
We see a similar agenda threatening in the adventure of the Red
Knight of the forest of Quinqueroy. Here, we find an Arthur who has
been rendered effectively powerless36. We had already learnt from the
charcoal burner, that at this time Arthur has only recently returned from
waging war against Rion, King of the Isles. And he is sad because his
companions have dispersed to their castles.37 Just like Gornemant de
Gohort38.
That the king’s able knights are all absent is affirmed when we
reach court at Carlisle. There, the only knights with Arthur appear to all be
wounded ones, including Sir Kay. By then, Arthur has already been
With copper and a wagonload of iron, ll.4896 – 4907
ll. 4886 - 4895
35 ll. 5158 – 59.
36 The decline of Arthur as an effective king is neatly summarized by Maddox, pp. 1213?later. Where the notion came from, goes beyond the scope of this paper, but certainly
from The Charette poem onwards, Arthur is presented as a less and less effective monarch.
Donald Maddox, The Arthurian Romances of Chretian De Troyes, Cambridge,
Cambridge University Press, 1991, passim
37 Arthurian Romances, p. 385.
38 It is Gornemant, too, who actually knights Perceval, not Arthur. An important point
since in Chrétien, Perceval is never presented as one of Arthur's knights. In Erec and
Enide, we find him staying at Arthur's castle, but he is not included in the list of the knights
of the Round Table.
33
34
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KATHLEEN TOOHEY
dishonored and symbolically impoverished in the theft of his gold cup.
While the queen has been shamed by having wine spilled over her when
Arthur’s cup was snatched, and has gone into a metaphoric exile in her
chambers, from which she may not “come out alive”39.
The Red Knight has demanded that Arthur either give up his lands,
or send someone out to defend them. But no one has gone, and no one
appears to be prepared or able to face the Red Knight. So that it is left to
the unlikely Perceval to save Arthur from his plight.40
Why Arthur could not go out, we can only speculate on. Possibly,
he was also been wounded, or was otherwise incapable of defending his
realm; a point that will be considered below. The poet does not tell us. At
this point all that matters is that Arthur too is at great risk of being
dispossessed, impoverished, and forced into exile with his family.
In the Escavalon episode, we again find a land where the lord has
been slain. The old king is dead. His son has ascended to the throne, and
the town as presented us, seems prosperous. But there is an undercurrent
of violence that threatens chaos, both locally, and in the long term to
Arthur’s kingdom as a whole.
Gauvain, though he had been heading there to answer a charge of
killing the late king, enters the castle naively. A chance encounter has seen
the new king invite Gauvain to stay in his home and enjoy his sister’s
hospitality. At the time, neither knew who the other was, and no one
recognizes Gauvain until a vavasour visiting the castle comes upon Gauvain
and the sister kissing. Recognising Gauvain, he rails against the sister and
rushes off to rally the townsfolk against them.
39
40
Arthurian Romances, pp. 385 – 387.
Arthurian Romances, pp. 386 – 387
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Much has been written41 about the ironic way in which Gauvain’s
situation is presented. But it is important to remember that what Chrétien
is showing here is also a breakdown of the social order in what is otherwise
the most developed urban environment in any of Chrétien’s poems 42. Nor
should it be forgotten that what is taking place represents a major breach of
hospitality, that brings great shame upon both the new king of Escavalon,
and his Steward Guigambresil43. Peter Haidu uses the scene to make his
point about the ironical tone of the poem, noting that Gauvain is caught
making “love to the daughter of a former victim”. But the argument only
works if it is accepted that Gauvain did kill the former King of Escavalon,
and this is never established. The charge is brought by Guigambresil, not
the new king. No details are given of the alleged crime. Gauvain
strenuously denies the charge, and Chrétien himself tells us that Gauvain
has never been seen in Escavalon before44.
Whether the charge is right or not, what matters is that we are
again confronted with a situation where the rightful king is dead. And
though a new king has been appointed, the social order remains fragile
when the monarch is absent. Which, I think, is what Chrétien was showing
us.
To come back to Perceval. When we encounter her, Perceval's
cousin, too, is a damsel whose knight has been taken from her, leaving her
helpless. Only in this case, the violence done to her beloved stems directly
from Perceval's own thoughtlessness. Which can be attributed to the way
his mother had brought him up as a reaction to the violence already done
to her family45.
Peter Haidu, Aesthetic Distance in Chrétien de Troyes: Irony and Comedy in Cliges
and Perceval, Genève, Librairie Droz, 1968, pp. 211 – 220.
42 As noted by Haidu, Op. Cit. p. 219 and footnote.
43 Described at length ll. , translation p. 454. Guigambresil is doubly shamed because,
although his king’s steward, his own orders to the people are ignored when he tells them to
stop.
44 ll. 5751 – 5753. Indeed the only people who seem to know what Gauvain looks like are
Guigambresil and the vavasour who stirs up the riot in the first place.
45 This because Perceval early in the romance had set the Haughty knight of the Heath on a
path of violence, by naively compromising that damsel's honour (by taking her ring).
41
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KATHLEEN TOOHEY
And while Perceval will avenge the knight’s death by defeating the
proud knight, his cousin is left alone to continue grieving in the wilderness.
Which brings me to the story of the Male Pucele. This lady who
foments trouble and does all she can to torment and vilify Gauvain, is
herself, we eventually learn, another damsel whose lover has been slain by a
knight. In this case Guiromelant, who thought he could thus win her love.
The maiden makes her confession towards the end of the romance,
and so makes it clear that she has relented from her malice. Something has
opened her eyes to the wrong she was doing. But what? Clearly, it is not
the defeat of her current lover, the Haughty Knight who guards the passes
to Galloway46. That was done earlier, and after his defeat the damsel still
remains intent on goading Gauvain into doing something that might lead to
his destruction, by tempting him to leap across the Gué Perilleux. Nor is it
because the wrong done to her has been avenged. Gauvain has met with
Guiromelant, but they have not fought, and Guiromelant has not been
defeated.
No, the only change is the crossing of the Gué Perilleux.
The damsel had first goaded Gauvain into attempting the crossing
by boasting that her lover used to cross it, adding that none but the most
courageous dare cross it47. But it is not this alone that prompts Gauvain to
take up the challenge. He, too, has heard of the ford, and that anyone able
to cross it would obtain the highest honour in the world48
At the first attempt, he fails, landing in the river. It is up to his
horse, Gringalet, to rescue him from this indignity. And when they reach
ll. 8646 – 48.
ll. 8478 – 8497.
48 <<tot le pris del monde>>, ll 8507 – 8510. Arthurian Romances, p. 486. A point also later
affirmed by Guiromelant, l. 8586. Arthurian Romances, p. 487.
46
47
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the other bank, Gauvain has to dismount and wipe his steed down, leaving
the beast time to recover before venturing on49. There, he encounters
Guiromelant, who loves Gauvain’s sister, but bitterly hates Gauvain. And
it should by now not surprise us to learn that this hatred springs not from
any offence Gauvain has personally done, but because Gauvain’s father,
King Lot, killed Guiromelant’s father, and Gauvain killed one of his first
cousins.
In many ways Guiromelant epitomises the social flaws of the
society Chrétien is seeking to portray. The Male Pucele was as she was
because he had slain her lover believing he could win her for his own50. In
his eyes, Gauvain must bear the burden for his father’s crime, if crime it
was. A life for a life. And his thinking is so warped that he believes
Gauvain’s sister will support him in this51.
Gauvain’s response to this is telling, noting that “you don’t love
like I do. If I loved a maiden, for her sake I’d love and serve her family.” 52
For all this, Gauvain does not shy from admitting when asked who
he is. Nor from accepting Guiromelant’s challenge to a duel in a week’s
time. Though he does try to urge Guiromelant to seek a more reasonable
settlement, to no avail.
Guiromelant then offers to lead Gauvain to a safe bridge across
the river, but Gauvain declines, insisting on keeping his promise to the
damsel and attempting the Gué Perilleux once more. And this time he is
totally successful.
Clearly, something has changed, and he is more then the man he
once was. It is not just because he has admitted his identity to an enemy.
Arthurian Romances,, Op. Cit.
An offence Guiromelant admits to, Arthurian Romances,, pp. 486 – 7.
51 Arthurian Romances,, p. 489.
52 Ibid. ll. 4772 – 4776.
49
50
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KATHLEEN TOOHEY
He has given his name to Perceval, a potential foe53 and to Tibaut of
Tintagel, to whom he explains that he has never withheld his name when
asked for it, though he never gives it unless asked to do so54. It is the same
situation here, with Gauvain giving his name only when asked.
Here, however, the release of his name is also bound up with the
pledge between Gauvain and Guiromelant to answer honestly any question
the other asks.
What plays out then is a kind of replay of the unasked questions
scene between Perceval and his cousin. As then, Gauvain, when asked,
admits he did not ask the white haired queen who she is, and where she has
come from. And, as then, Guiromelant responds to the admission by
giving Gauvain the answers he needs to know.
But that is where the parallels end, because Gauvain is not
upbraided by Guiromelant for failing to ask that question, and there is no
suggestion that any dire consequences will follow from that failure55. Even
so, it is hard to believe that this admission of an unintended failure is what
marks a change in Gauvain.
What has changed, I believe, is not something in Gauvain. Rather,
the change rests in the choices he makes.
He goes back to the ford, against Guiromelant’s advice that he
have no more to do with the haughty damsel, and despite his offer of a safe
crossing by bridge.
He goes, certainly, to prove that he can cross the ford successfully,
and so obtain the highest honour in the world. But he also goes back to
Arthurian Romances, p. 433, l. 4478+
Arthurian Romances, p. 448, l. 5612+
55 And it should also be remembered that Gauvain does ask many questions leading up to
this moment, including of Guiromelant, the boatman, and of the Queen, herself.
53
54
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keep his promise to the damsel56; the damsel who has promised to stop
persecuting him if he successfully jumps the ford. And in going back via
the ford he not only keeps his word to her, he also allows her the chance to
tell her side of the story.
In the confrontation with Guiromelant, Gauvain has not simply
admitted who he was. He has taken responsibility for his identity. He has
accepted both the challenge of Guiromelant, and responsibility for the
family he did not know he still had. And the people in their care. His
deeds have led to the transformation in the Haughty Damsel. And he has
challenged both Guiromelant and the reader to consider just what it means
to love someone.
Chrétien then reinforces his point through the way the formerly
haughty damsel is now joyously received into the Castle of Maidens refuge
by Gauvain’s mother and grandmother. Because, for all she had done, was
she not also one more victim of the social wrongs that Ygerne had had the
castle built to right. And now we find the wrongs being righted.
Earlier we had been told that the Castle of Maidens was protected
by enchantments. We were given a litany of faults including cowardice,
deceitfulness and avarice, the possession of any of which would ensure the
death of any knight who enters the castle. And we were told that only a
knight who was ideally handsome and wise, free of greed, valiant and bold,
with a noble and loyal heart, free of baseness or other wickedness, could
meet the castle’s enchantments. And such a knight would have lordship of
the castle and would:
Restore their lands to the ladies
Bring an end to the deadly wars
Marry off the maidens
Dub the squires knights
56
ll. 8902+
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KATHLEEN TOOHEY
And remove the hall’s enchantments.57
By the end of the romance as it stands, Gauvain has fulfilled at
least two of these promised outcomes, because he has removed the
enchantments and dubbed the squires, knights. It is reasonable to expect
that the remaining promises would also have been fulfilled.
We also hear that the good that Gauvain does extends both
beyond and well before the Castle of Maidens. Gauvain has sent a
messenger to bring Arthur and his court to the Castle of Maidens. And as
the messenger approaches Orkney we are told that not only is Arthur in
grief because he does not know what has happened to his nephew, but that
even the least people of the city, the cripples, the scurvy and the poor, are
grieving because they fear that they too have lost the knight who through
his bounty, had sustained them out of love and charity. And this, too,
Gauvain is about to put right through his message to the king.58
So how does this relate to the historical context in which the poem
was written?
The dating of Chrétien’s surviving romances remains uncertain, but
it is generally agreed that they will have been written between 1170 and
1191 CE59. We know very little of Chrétien’s life, but we know a great deal
about the times in which he lived. At that time France was divided into a
number of lesser states, some under the direct rule of the king of France, a
great many others under the sway of the king of England. Under the feudal
system of the times, the kings were dependant on the barons of their realms
to help maintain the social order and provide military support at need. But
the barons were frequently in competition with each other both for lands
and influence, and their support could not always be relied upon. A
problem that also beset the Holy Roman Empire to the east.
ll. 7599 – 7604 Arthurian Romances, p. 474.
Arthurian Romances,, pp. 493 – 495.
59 See, for example, DDR Owens comments on the chronology, Chrétien De Troyes,
Arthurian Romances, p. xii.
57
58
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In Britain, the conquest of William, Duke of Normandy, had set
the boundaries of modern England. But this had not resulted in social
order, or a clear line of succession. The Conqueror’s heir and second son,
William II, Rufus, was in dispute with his older brother, Robert, Duke of
Normandy, in the very first year of his reign 60. When Rufus died without
issue in 1100, his younger brother, Henry, seize the throned of England
while Robert was on Crusade. 61 Henry died without a male heir in 1135.
And England was plunged into almost two decades of conflict as Stephen,
grandson of the Conqueror through his daughter, Adela, and Henry I’s
daughter, Matilda, contented for the throne, while the British Barons
choose sides and vied against each other to increase their own power and
influence.62
In France, the reign of King Louis VI between 1108 and 1137 was
marked by 20 years of strife with his own barons, three long campaigns
against Henry I of England in Normandy, and an invasion by the Holy
Roman Emperor, Henry V63 And there was trouble also in Flanders and
Brittany.
The accession of Henry II to the English throne in 115464 initially
offered peace to the realm. By then, Henry, notionally a vassal of the King
of France, held dominion over a far greater kingdom than the French
The Plantagenet Encyclopaedia, (edit. Elizabeth Hallam), Godalming, Surrey, Tiger
books International, 1966, p. 209. See also H A Cronne, The Reign of Stephen 1135 – 54:
Anarchy in England, London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1970, pp. 26, 67 – 68, 82.
61 The Plantagenet Encyclopaedia, (edit. Elizabeth Hallam), Godalming, Surrey, Tiger
books International, 1966, p. 92. Richard Barber, Henry Plantagenet: A Biography, New
York, Roy Publishers, Inc., 1964, p 25.
62 The Plantagenet Encyclopaedia, op.cit., pp. 133, 188. Alison Weir, Eleanor of
Aquitaine, London, Random House, 2000, pp. 82 – 105. During this time the kingdom was
also continually beset by Scots and Welsh border raids.
63 The Plantagenet Encyclopaedia, op.cit., pp. 104 – 108.
64 As a result of a negotiated treaty, after the death of Stephen that allowed Stephen to retain
the crown for the last year of his life. Ibid., p. 188. Weir, op.cit. p. 104.
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KATHLEEN TOOHEY
king65. But by the 1170’s the British kingdom was in turmoil again.
Henry’s first son had died at the age of three. His three eldest sons had
rebelled against him with the encouragement of their mother, Eleanor of
Aquitane, and Louis VII of France. Although the rebellion failed, Henry
the Young King, who Henry II had already crowned King of England in
1170, remained hostile. By 1183 the Young King was dead, and three years
later his brother Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany, died suddenly in Paris in a
tournament while plotting with Philip II of France. Eleanor had been
under house arrest from 1173 to 118566. Richard, the future Richard I, had
changed sides twice, supporting his father in 1183, but joining the King of
France against him in 1188, shortly before Henry’s death67.
By then, also, Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Cantebury, had
been murdered68. The second Crusade 1147 to 49, with all its human cost,
had been a dismal failure, and a third crusade was looming 69.
It may be, as Beate Schmolke-Hasselmann has argued70, that when
Chrétien was writing Erec et Enide, the impression made on him by King
Henry II was still positive, and Henry had given him hope for the future,
and a model for his Arthur.
But would it be any surprise to find that by the time he came to
write the Grail poem, the hopes he had once held, had largely drained away.
And that he was looking darkly at the world in which he lived.
Chrétien was not a member of the royal court of France or Britain,
but those he served had ties to both. Placed as he was, Chrétien must have
As King of England, Duke of Normandy, lord of Anjou and Maine, and also of Aquitaine
through his marriage to Elanor of Aquitaine. Barber, op.cit. p 17. The Plantagenet
Encyclopaedia, op.cit., p. 92.
66 Weir, op.cit. pp. 204 – 246.
67 Ibid., pp. 249 – 252.
68 Weir pp. 192 – 194.
69 The Plantagenet Encyclopaedia, op.cit., pp. 182, 192.,
70 Beate Schmolke-Hasselmann, The Evolution of Arthurian Romance, (tr. Margaret and
Roger Middleton), Cambridge, Cambridge University Trust, 1998, pp232 – 234.
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been aware of the ongoing strife between Henry II and his sons, and of the
events preceding Henry’s accession. And I would argue he also understood
what lay behind this strife, the issue of succession, and the social flaws in
feudal society. It may even be that Chrétien was again modelling the figure
of Arthur in the Grail poem, on Henry II. Only now, it is a troubled king
in his declining years. Which may explain the curious references to
Arthur’s age in the poem, which are inconsistent with other chronological
references71, and his inability to fight his own fights.
Chrétien wanted the world in which he lived to be better than it
was. But he could not say so, openly. So he offered his criticism in his last
poem, encapsulating in that work both the root causes of the problem and
the social consequences that his overlords probably rarely gave thought to.
That when kings and lords are either killed or rendered politically, and
martially, impotent:
Lands will be laid waste
Noble men will be impoverished, and brought to
destitution
Poor people will be degraded
Ladies will lose their husbands
And maidens will be left orphaned
It would be nice to suggest that Chrétien has a solution to offer.
But he was a product of his time, and the best he can offer is not a new
social structure, but a better exemplar for the powers that be.
Thus by the end of the poem, we have in Gauvain a knight who
seeks to bring harmony where he can, who heals the sick and rights past
Perceval is two years old at Uther’s death, and still a youth when he goes to Arthur’s
court, which would make him not much more than. The same age that Geoffrey tells us
Arthur was when he came to the throne. By rights, Arthur should then be around 32 when
the poem starts, but later allusions would have him in his late fifties or even older. Henry II
was 66 at the time of death.
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KATHLEEN TOOHEY
wrongs, wrongs that echo throughout the poem. Who works for the poor
out of simple Christian Charity.
In doing so has proved himself to be the best of all knights, and
worthy of the highest honour in the world.
A knight who is also heir to King Arthur in his decline, which may
explain why Chrétien has him carrying Escalibor72.
Looked at in this light it is Gauvain who must be seen as the true
hero of the poem.
KATHLEEN TOOHEY
l. 5902. Named Chaliburne in Wace’s Brut, and said there to have been made in the isle
of Avalon. Wace, Op. Cit., pp. 234 – 235. The sword here is generally accepted as King
Arthur’s sword. See G D West, An Index of Proper Names in French Arthurian Verse
Romances 1150 – 1300, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1969, p.56.
72
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