Why the 12th Century?

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es, I know. I promised you more Bertran de Born. The thing is, there comes a point where one needs a detailed understanding of history to appreciate what Bertran says. The book The Poems of the Troubadour Bertran de Born edited by William D. Paden, Jr., Tilde Sanhovitch, and Patricia H. Stäblein does a great job of putting de Born’s work in its historical context. It is well worth the read for anyone interested in Bertran’s unique voice and the politics of late 12^th century Aquitaine.

So what is it that interests me enough about that time and place to want to write a series (yes, God help me, a series!) of novels set there? Well…pretty much everything about it: the people, the culture, the music, the politics. There’s so much to work with!

The 12^th century is often seen as a mini-Renaissance. Some historians claim that the accomplishments of the 12^th century outweigh those of the "real" Renaissance, that the strides made in the 12^th century were what made the later Renaissance possible.

I see the 12th century as a transitional time when the values of courtly love, courtesy, generosity of money and spirit, a degree of religious tolerance, and the active pursuit of science and the arts contrasted with a freewheeling society that had not yet locked itself into the strict hierarchy which would characterize the centuries to follow. In the 12^th century, it was difficult, but still possible for a man to rise above his station at birth. To me, it is a century when the personal power of a lord was nearly as important as a king’s and where kings are learning to rule a government as opposed to imposing control on individual men.

There is a new book out I just ordered, The Crisis of the Twelfth Century: Power, Lordship, and the Origins of European Government , by Thomas N. Bisson which looks like it might agree with me on some points. It is purported to argue that the crisis of power in the 12^th century was not that of an oppressed bourgeoisie and peasantry verses an oppressing nobility, but rather a struggle among the upper classes: knight versus lord versus king versus the need for stable, predictable government not subject to the whim of any one person.

Bisson’s book excites me because it seems to hit upon one of the major themes in my WIP: the duel for rights between prince and lord, church and state, father and son, brother and brother.

I am also interested to see if Bisson touches upon the tension between the structured system of Northern France we identify as “feudal” and the less definitive system of personal relationships that characterized land holding in Aquitaine, Gascony, Provence, and Catalonia-Aragon. The distinction is important because it goes beyond the distribution of power. It encompasses a difference in culture that is reflected in language (or dialect), literature, social values, religious tolerance, and inheritance rights.

The difference between the worldviews of North and South is another major theme in my story that is reflected in my characters perceptions of each other and in their motivations and expectations.

It’s easier for most people to understand the ways of the North. The archives of England in particular are well preserved compared to those of the war-torn Continent. As a result, most of us are taught about the Middle Ages and “the feudal system” based on an English model, usually a High Medieval model appropriate to the 14^th century, which does little to shed light on the reality of 12^th century Aquitaine.

In general, the important growth and developments of the 12^th century gets lost in the typical Medieval survey course that tends to focus on the post-12^th century world as though the Medieval world jumped fully-formed from the collapse of Charlemagne’s empire to the dawn of Scholasticism dragging a few troubadours, courtly love, and chivalry in its wake.

Then there’s Hollywood – the ultimate creator of Medieval stereotype. I could work up a serious rant about those guys.

So while the 12^th century has a great deal of exciting people to play with, like Henry II, King of England, Richard Lionheart, the mercenary captain Mercadier, Bertran de Born, and the kings of France and Aragon, writing fiction that communicates the truth and complexity of the period is a challenge – though a fun one!

Ladies' Man. Bertran de Born - Part Two

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 offer another of Bertran’s poems from Poems of the Troubadour Bertran de Born edited by William D. Paden, Jr., Tilde Sanhovitch, and Patricia H. Stäblein, (pages 152- 158) which reads like a sequel to the poem in my previous post. As in all things historical, it is up for debate whether it is an actual sequel or not, though it reads like one.

In this poem, Bertran describes his perfect woman. His goal is to convince his still-angry mistress that the best woman he can imagine doesn’t compare with her.

I think he’s taking a risk. If he got in trouble by looking at other women (why else would a tattle-tale succeed in condemning him?), he’s about to prove his accuser's case. Bertran not only looks at other women, he keeps a list!

On the other hand, I have to give Bertran credit. As he picks a feature he loves from each woman on his list, he’s careful to mention how much he appreciates the whole woman. Bertran may be a bad boy, but he has a sense of survival.

As a writer of historical fiction, I find Bertran’s fresh, direct perspective invaluable. His political comment naturally deals with 12^th century topics, but his writing about love and women is timeless. Bertran’s ideal woman is, of course, young, noble, and beautiful - not very different from today’s worship of the young, rich, and beautiful.

What Bertran’s lady is not is the featureless chattel of medieval stereotype. Instead, she is vibrant, intelligent, fun, competent, influential. She has, as Bertran will tell you, merit.

I.

Lady, since you don’t care for me and have dismissed me without any reason, I don’t know where to seek, for never will I recover such rich joy, and if I don’t find a lady of your kind to suit me, a woman worth you that I have lost---I never want to have a mistress again.

II.

Since I can’t find your equal, a woman so beautiful and worthy, so pretty and gay, with a rich body so full of joy and rich merit so true---until I get you back, I’ll go everywhere seeking a fair quality in each woman to make up an imaginary lady.

III.

A fresh natural color I take, fair Sable, from you, and your sweet loving look, and I am showing a great arrogance in leaving you anything, for you never lacked anything good. I ask my lady Elis for her clever, joking talk to give me help with my lady; then she won’t be stupid or silent.

IV.

I want the would-be viscountess of Chalais to give me at once her bosom and both hands. Then I keep to my road, I don’t turn aside, I rush to Rochechouard for Lady Agnes’ hair, since she will give me some; we know the Isolde’s was not so beautiful---Tristan’s lady, whom all men praised.

V.

Although Lady Audiartz dislikes me, I want her to give me some of her curves, for she wears clothes well, and because she is unflawed---her love was never ripped nor twisted. Of my Better-than-good I ask her agile, fresh, precious body, which makes you see at first glance that you’d like to hold her naked.

VI.

From Lady Faidida, too, I want her pretty teeth as a gift, her welcome and the fine conversation which flows in her home. I want my Fair Mirror to let me have her gaiety and her fine proportions, because she knows how to carry herself well, for which she is famous, and because she never changes or varies.

VII.

Fair Lord, I’ll ask you for nothing else, if only I may be as covetous of this imaginary lady as I am of you, for a lusty love is born, for which my body yearns. I prefer wanting you to screwing any other woman. Then why does my lady refuse me, when she knows I have wanted her so?

VIII.

Papiol, go tell my Magnet in a song that love is unknown here and fallen from high to low.

Next week….Bertran on Christmas Court with Henry II, King of England, and his daughter, Mathilda.

Loving Bertran de Born - Part One

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 quote from The Poems of the Troubadour Bertran de Born edited by William D. Paden, Jr., Tilde Sanhovitch, and Patricia H. Stäblein:

 “The voice of Bertran de Born was among the most eloquent of those that contributed to the development, in late twelfth-century France, of the distinctive knightly ethic which expressed the ideals and fears of the aristocracy of the age.”

That’s a great opening line to a serious academic book, though the word “eloquent” doesn’t quite make it for me. De Born’s voice, in Paden et al’s English translation, is less ‘eloquent’ than it is bloody direct – as Bertran meant it to be. Bertran de Born is not for weenies and he’ll be the first to tell you so. He is one of the most compelling voices of his age: clear, detailed, opinionated and rarely apologetic, though he’ll occasionally toss you a crumb of put-upon humility.

I love Bertran. I love the unflinching courage of his opinions. I don’t care that he’s sexist (he is) or that he’s a war monger (he is). Reading de Born is like sitting down and having a drink with a 12^th century Aquitainian baron. He feels as real as any of my friends, whether he is talking politics or complaining about love.

In the poem below, poor Bertran tries to wriggle out of trouble with his mistress who dumped him thanks to a tattle-tale. The poem is from the Paden book, pages 142 – 148.

I.

Don’t be angry with me, lady---I don’t deserve to suffer for what backbiters have said of me. I beg you for mercy. Don’t let anyone start a fight between you---delicate, loyal, true, humble, and gracious, courteous, and pleasing---and me, my lady, by telling lies.

II.

May I lose my sparrowhawk at first throw, or may lanners kill him on my wrist and drag him away, may I watch them plucking him, if I don’t love thinking of you more than having my desire of any other who would give me her love and take me with her to bed.

III.

I’ll swear you another oath, even stronger, and I cannot pray for worse trouble; if I ever failed you, even in thought, then when we’re alone in a bedroom or garden, let my powers fail me so badly that my companion can’t help me.

IV.

If I sit at the gaming table to play, may I never borrow a penny or be able to enter a man because the board is full; but may I always throw the worst backthrow---if I ever seek or ask for any other lady but you whom I love and desire and hold dear.

V.

May I be the lord of a divided castle and may there be four partners in our tower and let one never like another; may I always need crossbowmen, doctors, mercenaries, and guards and porters—if I ever had the heart to love another lady.

VI.

Shield at neck, may I ride with the storm, and wear a crooked hat on my head, and have a short cinch that cannot be lengthened and long stirrups on a low trotting horse, and at the inn may I find the innkeeper angry—if I have had the heart to court another lady.

VII.

May my lady leave me for another knight, and then may I need I don’t know what; let wind fail me when I’m at sea, let the porters beat me at the king’s court, and in a skirmish may I be the first to flee---if the man did not lie who went tattling to you.

VIII.

Lady, if I have a duck-hunting hawk, beautiful and moulted, a good striker and tame, who can overpower any bird, the swan and the crane and the black and white heron---would I want it to be a badly moulted chicken-hunter, fat and stubborn, that could not fly?

IX.

You false, envious, lying backbiters, since you have made trouble between me and my lady, I’d advise you to leave me alone.

Makes you want to hear her side, doesn't it?  

Turning Medieval

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 suppose turning medieval isn’t quite accurate. I was turned a long time ago, as though I was bitten by something magical. You know how it goes, one good chomp and next thing you’re sprouting fur and howling at the moon? Yeah. Like that. 

Guilty parties abound, but two come immediately to mind. I’m looking at you, Sir Walter Scott. And you, William Shakespeare. Don’t give me your it-ain’t-me faces. Y’all share some responsibility for my situation. 

I blame Will and Walt for addicting me early in life. I was an Army Brat, the perpetual New Kid. By the time I hit fourth grade I had attended five different schools, which did not endear me to the more permanent inmates. I became a haunter of libraries. That’s when Walt pounced and hit me with The Talisman and Ivanhoe. I found Will later and he had bigger supply.

I went from literature to history. Real history, the academic stuff. I tried it all: Rome, Greece, the Renaissance, the Tudors. I enjoyed most of it. But when I got to 1789 I cried craven and ran back to the twelfth century. The guillotine thing gives me the willies. 

The scary thing is, I now know more about the Middle Ages than any period in American history. Like any person with a passion, I want to share the fun, and the occasional rant, in my blog. I want to talk about the medieval people I love, the ones who make me laugh or make me mad, the ones I want to interview, the men I wish I could sleep with. 

And of course, I’ll talk about writing and occasional snippets of weirdness from my own life. 

I hope you’ll join me once a week.