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Religious Identity, Loyalty, And Treason In The Cycle Du Roi 223

Chapter 9 Religious Identity, Loyalty, and Treason in the Cycle du roi

Ana Grinberg

In the vast and varied corpus of medieval epics, romances, and chansons de geste, the breach of loyalty to kin, king, and God bring about diverse forms of betrayal, which has concerned modern scholars interested in the repercus- sions of treason regarding the disloyalty to a feudal lord or king.1 Also known as lèse-majesté, offences against a sovereign include “conspiring or attempting to kill the king, killing his eldest son and heir, aiding the king’s enemy and levying war against him, harboring the children of his mortal enemy, debauching his eldest unmarried daughter, seeking the love of the king’s wife, and, in cases where the defendant is the king’s wife, sexual infidelity.”2 These “breach[es] of the feudal bond between lord and man” are the most common form of high treason in the Middle Ages, but they manifest in a variety of ways.3 Narra- tives in the Cycle du roi, in which Charlemagne and his relatives play a central role, such as Chanson de Roland (composed during the late-eleventh century; hereafter the Roland),4 Fierabras (late-twelfth century),5 and Gui de Bourgogne

1 See: F.W. Maitland, The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1895); and Karen Bosnos, “Treason and Politics in Anglo-Norman Histories,” in Feud, Violence and Practice: Essays in Medieval Studies in Honor of Stephen D. White, ed. Belle S. Tuten and Tracey L. Billado, 293–306 (Farnham: Ashgate, 2010). 2 Stephen D. White, “The Ambiguity of Treason in Anglo-Norman-French Law, c. 1150–c. 1250,” in Law and the Illicit in Medieval Europe, ed. Ruth Mazo Karras, Joel Kaye, and E. Ann Matter, 89–102 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013), 92. 3 W.R.J. Barron, “The Penalties for Treason in Medieval Life and Literature,” Journal of Medieval History 7 (1981): 187–202 at 188. 4 There are several extant versions of this narrative in Anglo-Norman, French, and Franco- Italian. Most notable and better studied among them is Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Digby 23, which is the basis for most modern editions and dates from the twelfth century, approxi- mately 1130–1170. Based on comparative paleography, Malcom Parkes (among others) dates the Oxford Digby 23 manuscript specifically between 1119 and 1149. See: “The Date of the Oxford Manuscript of La Chanson de Roland (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Digby 23),” Medioevo Romanzo 10.2 (1985): 161–75 at 175. All references are to Chanson de Roland, ed. and trans. Ian Short (Paris: Livre de Poche, 1990). Line numbers are given in parentheses. Unless otherwise noted, all translations from French and Spanish are mine. 5 Fierabras is extant in six French or Occitan exemplars and seven fragments. Versions of it also survive in Italian (in diverse dialects), Anglo-Norman, Middle English, Middle Irish, and early

(early-thirteenth century),6 contain diverse accusations of treason, dishonor, and actual treacherous acts between family members that are driven by a di- vergent sense of religious belonging rather than simply recording political acts of betrayal against a lord or king.7 The Roncevaux narrative of the traitorous Ganelon, who betrays Char- lemagne’s nephew Roland and rear-guard to the enemy in the Roland, inspired many medieval chansons de geste, chivalric epics, and romances contained in the Cycle du roi wherein treason and felony pervade distressed familial rela- tionships, exacerbated by the connections established between Christianity and other religions (particularly that of the Saracens), and centered in Iberian soil.8 Among those narratives, Fierabras and Gui de Bourgogne are uneasy pre- quels to the battle in Roncevaux. According to the Roland, Charlemagne has been in the Iberian Peninsula for seven years; however, these two chansons de geste are set before these events. In Fierabras, there is no explicit reference to the time Charlemagne and his army have spent warring against the Saracens; but in Gui de Bourgogne, the Emperor has been away from France for twenty- seven years. Unlike the Roland that focuses on Ganelon and his lineage as the paradigmatic traitors, Fierabras and Gui de Bourgogne recognize Ganelon’s dis- loyal nature but do not dwell on it more than narratively necessary. In both cases, Gui eventually becomes the ruler of Iberia, either as the suzerain over the kingdoms of Huidelon and Escorfaut (in Gui de Bourgogne) or as the king of half the dominion (the other half being under Fierabras’ rule) and husband

modern English. For a thorough list of all known manuscripts, incunabula, post-incunabula, and early editions of Fierabras, see: Ana Grinberg, “(Un)stable Identities: Impersonation, Conversion, and Relocation in Historia del emperador Carlo Magno y los doce pares,” (PhD Dissertation, University of California San Diego, 2013), Appendix, 217–267. All references are from Fierabras: Chanson de geste du XIIe siècle, ed. Marc Le Person (Paris: Honoré Champion, 2003). This edition is based on Madrid, Biblioteca de El Escorial M.III.21, known as manuscript E. Line numbers are given in parentheses. 6 Gui de Bourgogne survives in two manuscripts: London, British Library, MS Harley 527 (ff. 1–32) and Tours, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 937. All textual references here are from Gui de Bourgogne, ed. François Guessard and Henry Michelant (Paris: Jannet, 1858). Line numbers are given in parentheses. For a discussion of familial betrayal in the Arthurian context, see in this volume: Melissa Ridley Elmes, “Treason and the Feast in Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur” and Larissa Tracy, “The Shame Game, from Guinevere to Cersei: Adultery, Treason and Betrayal”; and, in historical narratives, Sarah J. Sprouse, “In Sickness and In Health: The Boethian Narrative of the Two Geralds of Brecon.” 7 All the characters’ names in these narratives have been normalized in English. 8 Though these texts refer to Spain (“Espagne”), this is an anachronism. Not all of the Iberian Peninsula was under Muslim (the fictional “Saracen”) rule, there were various Christian kingdoms by the time these narratives were written down (twelfth century), and most importantly, the population of this area was religiously and ethnically diverse. In this volume, see: Samuel A. Claussen, “Royal Punishment and Reconciliation in Trastámara Castile.”