Elegit Domum Sibi Placabilem: Choice and the Twelfth-Century
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ELEGIT DOMUM SIBI PLACABILEM: CHOICE AND THE TWELFTH-CENTURY RELIGIOUS WOMAN A DISSERTATION IN History And English Presented to the Faculty of the University of Missouri-Kansas City in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY by LINDA DOROTHY BROWN B.A., Southern Methodist University, 1985 M.A., University of Kent at Canterbury, 1988 Kansas City, Missouri 2015 © 2015 LINDA DOROTHY BROWN ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ELEGIT DOMUM SIBI PLACABILEM: CHOICE AND THE TWELFTH-CENTURY RELIGIOUS WOMAN Linda Dorothy Brown, Candidate for the Doctor of Philosophy University of Missouri-Kansas City, 2015 ABSTRACT This dissertation probes medieval sources to identify how and why women made transformative choices in their own lives and analyzes the consequences of those choices. The major case study investigates the life of Marie of Blois-Boulogne, a twelfth-century abbess, countess, wife, and mother. Marie experienced change and tragedy, provoking the need to make choices with religious and political ramifications. As such, her story enables us to examine decision-making in the context of controversy on the one hand and family obligations and personal ambition on the other. Relevant themes—such a child oblation, the holy veil and enclosure, legal and illegal marriage—frame Marie and create a microhistory of the world that she inhabited. Other historical women and literary characters from the eleventh through thirteenth centuries flesh out more of the discussion. These case studies and presentations fit into three body chapters that examine the power exercised by parents, complications of the enclosure, and the end of marital relationships. Medieval chronicle accounts, charters, monastic cartularies, seals, and letters, provide the material evidence for this study. Each type and each example do more than convey raw data, however, as they elicit narratives that form and inform the subject and the reader. These narratives lend themselves to a literary iii critique and examination using Hayden White’s theory of emplotments. This interdisciplinary exercise makes use of four classical modes of plot structure: Tragedy, Comedy, Romance, and Satire. Within this examination, the sources are read for what they omit as much as for what they include. My conclusions prove that women exercised choice and decision-making power that went well beyond the recognized pattern of the either/or of secular marriage or religious profession. Instead, these women’s choices enabled them to realize pragmatic objectives that reinforced family goals; equally their choices reflected personal ambition and aspiration. The attainment of status, adventure, and authority reflect some of the motivations that I have identified. More often than not, these choices and their consequences elicited disapprobation from male leaders. iv APPROVAL PAGE The faculty listed below, appointed by the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences have examined a dissertation titled “Elegit Domum sibi Placabilem: Choice and the Twelfth-Century Religious Woman,” presented by Linda Dorothy Brown, candidate for the Doctor of Philosophy degree, and certify that in their opinion it is worthy of acceptance. Supervisory Committee Linda E. Mitchell, Ph.D., Committee Chair Department of History Virginia Blanton, Ph.D., Committee Co-Chair Department of English Kathy M. Krause, Ph.D. Department of of Foreign Languages & Literatures Carla L. Klausner, Ph.D. Department of History Jennifer Frangos, Ph.D. Department of English v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................. iii ILLUSTRATIONS......................................................................................................................x ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................................. xii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..................................................................................................... xiii CHRONOLOGY......................................................................................................................xvi INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................1 In the Beginning ......................................................................................................................1 So what? .................................................................................................................................2 Twelfth-Century Context .........................................................................................................4 Secular marital status...............................................................................................................5 Licit and illicit marriage ..........................................................................................................9 Religious status and Canon law ............................................................................................. 10 Historiographical debates: interpreting twelfth-century changes ............................................ 14 Sources ................................................................................................................................. 18 Methodologies....................................................................................................................... 21 Chapter One—Ut te ab infantia sponsam sibi eligeret: Religious Status and Idealized Identities ................................................................................................................................................. 33 You were chosen from your infancy ...................................................................................... 36 vi All the Days of Her Life ........................................................................................................ 47 From childhood admitted into the religious habit ................................................................... 52 Extrapolating the ideal ........................................................................................................... 62 Choosing the better part: Mary of Woodstock........................................................................ 66 Le Fresne .............................................................................................................................. 73 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 80 Chapter Two—N’onques ne fu tenue anclose: Daring the Enclosure ......................................... 84 Guarding the Enclosure ......................................................................................................... 87 The Enclosure’s Guardians .................................................................................................... 89 Male Overseers of the Enclosure ........................................................................................... 96 Family and the Enclosure ...................................................................................................... 99 The Family Foundation of Lacock Abbey ............................................................................ 101 Romsey Abbey .................................................................................................................... 108 Religious vows and obedience ............................................................................................. 112 The hortus conclusus and porta clausa ................................................................................. 115 Entombing a secular saint .................................................................................................... 118 Taking an Abbess out of the Enclosure ................................................................................ 122 Breaching the walls of Romsey Abbey ................................................................................ 126 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 132 Chapter Three--Non est honestum ut uxor debeat…suo manere: Women and marital choice ................. 136 vii Enmity and reconciliation .................................................................................................... 138 Sacramentum coniugii divina sancitum institucione non posse solvi .................................... 145 Guildeluëc’s Choice ............................................................................................................ 150 Unheard of?......................................................................................................................... 157 Being a Countess ................................................................................................................. 161 Constance, Two Times a Countess ...................................................................................... 165 Constance: Raymond’s expendable wife.............................................................................. 170 Constance: The Means to an End ......................................................................................... 172 Marie, quondam comitissa boloniensis ................................................................................ 175 Conclusion: Choice and