Comparing Crusade Rhetoric in the Songs of the Troubadours and Trouvères
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
The Poets, the Popes, and the Chroniclers: Comparing Crusade Rhetoric in the Songs of the Troubadours and Trouvères with Crusade Literature, 1145-1291 by Victoria Choin A Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts Approved April 2019 by the Graduate Supervisory Committee: Catherine Saucier, Chair Markus Cruse Amy Holbrook Kay Norton ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY May 2019 ©2019 Victoria Choin All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT The call to crusade in 1145 prompted a movement fueled not only by religious writings and sermons, but by calls to arms in secular song. During the mid-twelfth to thirteenth centuries, French Trouvères and Occitan Troubadours wrote over one hundred crusade songs, the majority of which are rife with propaganda and support for the crusades and the attacks against the Saracens and the East. The crusade song corpus not only deals with sacred motivations to go overseas, such as the crusade indulgence present in papal bulls, but also summons biblical figures and epic persons as motivation to crusade. Previous scholars have not adequately defined the genre of a crusade song, and have overlooked connections to the crusading rhetoric of the genre of crusade literature. I offer a precise definition of crusade song and examine commonalities between crusade literature and song. During the crusades, troubadours and trouvères wrote crusade songs to draw support for the campaigns. The propaganda in these songs demonstrates that the authors had an understanding of current events and may have had some knowledge of other crusading literature, such as papal calls to crusade, crusade sermons, the Old French Crusade Cycle, and various crusade chronicles. These documents show how the themes and allusions present in crusade song have broader connotations and connections to crusade culture in Medieval Europe. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first like to express my appreciation to Dr. Catherine Saucier, for the valuable guidance, suggestions, and critiques during the planning and development of this thesis. The time she has given to this project, and the encouragements received, deserve acknowledgement. I would also like to thank Dr. Mark Cruse for answering all of my many questions on Old French and Medieval French literature. My thanks are also extended to the rest of my committee, Drs. Kay Norton and Amy Holbrook, for agreeing to be a part of the supervisory committee and for their comments on my drafts. Special thanks is given to my mother, Jeannette, for helping me during the editing stage of this project, for reading several drafts, and for all of the support she has given me over the years. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………………………………………….v CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………...………1 Crusading and Song………………………………………………………….……3 The Crusade Songs of Troubadours and Trouvères………………………....……9 Sources, Manuscripts and Crusading Language………………....…………........15 Plan of Inquiry…………...………………………………………………............18 2 SACRED MOTIVATIONS TO CRUSADE IN SONG, AS MIRRORED IN CRUSADE DOCUMENTS…………………………………………………...........20 Remission of Sin…………………………………………………………………21 God as Proclaimer of Crusade…………………...………........…………………25 Promise of Eternal Life…………………………………………………………..28 Crusaders as “Heirs” to the Holy Land…………………………………………..33 The Recovery of the True Cross…………………………………………………35 Crusade as Pilgrimage……………………………………………………………38 Conclusions………………………………………………………………………40 3 THE PORTRAYAL OF SAINTS AND BIBLICAL FIGURES IN CRUSADE SONG……………………………………………………………………………….44 The Passion of Christ…………………………………………………………….45 The Day of Judgment and the Antichrist………………………………...………48 Portrayal of Biblical and Religious Figures……………………………………...52 iii CHAPTER Page Conclusions………………………………………………………………………64 4 CHARLEMAGNE AND OTHER EPIC PERSONS REPRESENTED IN SONG AS THE IDEAL CRUSADER………………………………………..……………66 The Nine Worthies in Crusade Literature and Song……………………..………67 Charlemagne as the Ideal Leader…………………………………………..…….70 Roland as the Ideal Warrior……………………………………………………...75 Alexander the Great at the Ideal Crusader……………………………………….77 The Use of Charlemagne, Roland, and Alexander the Great in Crusade Song….82 Conclusions………………………………………………………………………88 5 CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………………..90 BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………………......95 APPENDIX A TIMELINE OF CRUSADE EVENTS AS WELL AS DATES OF TROUBADOURS, TROUVÈRES AND THEIR PATRONS…………………...102 B LIST OF CRUSADE SONGS……………………………………………………106 C LIST OF MANUSCRIPTS……………………………………………………….111 D CHEVALIER, MULT ESTES GUARIZ…………………………………………...114 E OIES, SEIGNEUR, PERCEUS……………………………………………………117 F BE.M PAC D’IVERNS…………………………………………………………….119 G AHI! AMOURS CON DURE DEPARTIE...............................................................123 H ARA POT HOM CONOISSER……………………………………………………132 I KARITATZ ET AMOR E FES……………………………………………………...136 iv APPENDIX Page J JERUSALEM, SI PLAINT ET LI PAÏS…………………………………………….139 K FORT CAUZA, ES QUE TOT LO MAJOR DAN…………………………………142 L NO M’AGRAD IVERNS NI PASCORS……………………………………………148 M SELECTED TEXTS OF CRUSADE SONGS…………………………………...151 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Refrain of Chevalier, mult estes guariz………………………………………….31 2. Excerpt of Oies, seigneur, perceus………………………………………………34 3. Excerpt of Ara pot hom conoisser……………………………………………….46 4. Excerpt of Karitatz ez amors e fes……………………………………………….56 5. Excerpt of Be.m pac d’iverns…………………………………………………….63 6. Excerpt of Be.m pac d’iverns…………………………………………………….63 7. Excerpt of Fort cauza es que tot lo major dan………………………………......84 8. Excerpt of Fort cauza es que tot lo major dan…………………………………..85 vi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION On November 12, 1239, a group of Christian knights disagreed with crusade leaders (including Thibaut de Champagne, king of Navarre [1201-1253]), and went ahead into battle without the rest of the company. Most of the six-hundred men were either killed or captured, including prominent members of the crusade such as the counts Henry of Bar and Amaury of Montfort.1 Philippe de Nanteuil, a knight under Thibaut and a trouvère, was also captured. While imprisoned he wrote several songs, one of which is interpolated in the text of the Rothelin Continuation of William of Tyre’s History, which chronicles the events in the Holy Land from 1229-1261. Philippe begins his song En chantant vueil mon duel faire by mourning the loss of the count of Bar and the count of Montfort, and then blames the other Christians for not riding out to battle with them: In song I’ll mourn to ease my grief for Montfort, noble count, who bore his fame so well. He came to Syria- sad loss to France!- there to make war. But soon his warfare ceased for from his first assault God allowed no return. Ah France, admired and loved, now all your joy is turned to endless tears. Always in future now, silent, you’ll grieve. This was the tragedy: 1 Janet Shirley, trans., Crusader Syria in the Thirteenth Century: The Rothelin Continuation of the History of William of Tyre with Part of the Eracles or Acre Text (Brookfield, VT: Ashgate, 1999), 49-51. 1 no sooner did they come than both your counts were lost. Ah count of Bar, your loss strikes cruelly at France. When Frenchmen hear the news how they will grieve! Poor France, stripped of her sons, such brave and valiant knights! Accursed the day that changed these noble men to slaves and prisoners! If the Hospitallers, Templars2 and brother knights had shown our men the way, had ridden as they should, then all our chivalry would not in prison lie, nor Saracens still live. But this they did not do. Great was the error here, some would say treachery. My song, made up of grief, of grief and pity mixed, go and find Pity, beg for God and friendship’s sake, she run to find the host, tell them, make sure they know, that they must not break faith! Make them put out their strength and get our people back, by warfare or by wealth.3 En chantant is one of many trouvère and troubadour songs about the crusades. It was not uncommon for imprisoned knights to write songs. In fact, many crusade songs were written while on campaign. What is unique about Philippe de Nanteuil’s song is that it is 2 Hospitallers (Knights of the Order of St John of Jerusalem) and Templars were military and religious orders founded to protect and defend the Christians in the Holy Land. 3 Ibid, 52-53. 2 recorded in a crusade chronicle, and provides a direct eye-witness testimony. In this example, Philippe implores the Christian army to aid in his personal release from prison. Crusading and Song The crusades, armed expeditions that were proclaimed by the Pope for which certain privileges were granted, were multi-national events spanning several hundred years. Although historians debate the end of the entire crusade movement, the period between 1095-1291 was the most active.4 The crusades started in November 1095 with Pope Urban II’s papal bull. The Pope calls the nobility to arm themselves and defend the Holy Land against the Saracen invaders and to recover the Christian relics that were being held hostage. The first crusade (1096-1099) was by far the most successful, resulting in the capture of Jerusalem in 1099 and the establishment of the Latin Kingdom in the East.5 In 1144, the Christian-held city of Edessa was lost to the Muslims, prompting Pope Eugene III to write a letter to the French King Louis VII that started the second crusade (1147-1149). Jonathan Riley-Smith calls the second crusade a “fiasco,” resulting in the defeat of both Christian armies.6 There are only three extant songs from the second crusade: one trouvère song, Chevalier, mult estes guariz, and two songs by the 4 In The Oxford History of the Crusades, the crusades are still present in the twenty-first century. Other historians put the end of the crusades with Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt in 1798, and another view on the end of the crusades is 1291, when there was no longer hope of regaining the Holy Land. 5 The Latin Kingdom is the name given to the Christian government rule of the Holy Land. The capital moved constantly as the Christian forces combatted the Muslims (the first capital was Jerusalem; the last capital was Acre).