Why the 12th Century?

Y

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!