Treason: Legal, Ethical, and Political Issues in the Middle Ages with an Emphasis on Medieval Heroic Poetry

Journal of Philosophy and Ethics Volume 1, Issue 4, 2019, PP 13-29 ISSN 2642-8415 Treason: Legal, Ethical, and Political Issues in the Middle Ages with an Emphasis on Medieval Heroic Poetry Dr. Albrecht Classen* University Distinguished Professor, Grand Knight Commander of the Most Noble Order of the Three Lions (GKCL), Director of Undergraduate Studies, Dept. of German Studies, Tucson, The University of Arizona, USA *Corresponding Author: Dr. Albrecht Classen, University Distinguished Professor, Grand Knight Commander of the Most Noble Order of the Three Lions (GKCL), Director of Undergraduate Studies, Dept. of German Studies, Tucson, The University of Arizona, USA, Email: [email protected] ABSTRACT Pre-modern literature offers powerful examples of unethical behavior, especially treason, which was regarded both through a legal and a theological lens and severely condemned by those suffering from it. Its full history is still waiting to be written, but the present article already offers some critical avenues into this complex field which depends heavily on the political, economic, and religious conditions at the time when the alleged treason takes place. We observe, in particular, the strong emphasis on treason as a catalyst for catastrophic consequences in medieval heroic epic poetry. After a broad overview of the legal and literary discourse on treason from the Middle Ages to the age of the Baroque, this article examines „classical‟ works from the Middle Ages such as the Nibelungenlied, the Chanson de Roland, and Njáls Saga. Keywords: treason, Middle Ages, early modern age, Nibelungenlied, Chanson de Roland, El Poema de Mío Cid, Njáls Saga, early modern encyclopedias INTRODUCTION A comparative analysis of this topic, ‗treason,‘ will thus allow us to gain a deeper understanding Hardly any motif appears as often in medieval of fundamental ethical and legal concerns as and early modern literature as ‗treason,‘ although discussed especially by poets of heroic epics and there is surprisingly little critical reflection on this courtly romances, and this in close parallel to phenomenon in the relevant scholarship. For contemporary law books and legal treatises. Of instance, treason proves to be a ubiquitous theme course, the phenomenon itself was determined in Shakespeare‘s plays,1 and so also in the by many different factors, and each text mourning plays by his near contemporary highlights, so to speak, another aspect relevant Andreas Gryphius, not to mention many other for the discourse on treason, as we might say tragedies composed throughout time. But this is more globally speaking. The entire world of not at all limited to that genre and that period, as courtly love, erotic literature, and the like knows countless examples from medieval and early of numerous cases of treason, adultery and modern literature, politics, and law indicate subsequent murder/manslaughter by the jealous most convincingly. Etymological research has husband, for instance, as a punishment of the long confirmed how much people throughout wife‘s action, but here I want to probe the times, hence also poets and artists, have been meaning of treason primarily within the heroic concerned with the issue of treason.2 From early genre because a true hero emerges particularly on in antiquity, the legal discourse has always at that point in time when s/he faces an extreme included the case of treason directed against a form of treason and has to struggle hard against lord or an entire army (Tacitus, Germania ch. many odds.4 12). Treason was identified in many early medieval Germanic laws as a severe breach of all However, I also want to embed the literary loyalty and personal commitment and was analysis into the historical and legal context and punished by hanging and loss of all property. thus gain solid evidence for the fundamental Since the time of the Frankish rulers, treason discourse on treason in many sectors of pre- increasingly pertained primarily to the relationship modern society. Consequently, I will first examine between the king and his vassals.3 the larger issue from a historical, cultural, but Journal of Philosophy and Ethics V1 ● 14 ● 2019 13 Treason: Legal, Ethical, and Political Issues in the Middle Ages with an Emphasis on Medieval Heroic Poetry also discursive perspective, before I will focus definition of treason is thus critically contingent on a selection of heroic poems. and reflects the political structure and ideology, as much of the relevant chronicle literature TREASON AND LEGAL HISTORY concerning wars, political conflicts, and religious Some historians of medieval law have already tensions indicates.11 examined this issue in relative details, and have Consequently, focusing on treason allows us to highlighted the multifaceted character of this 5 identify the essential discourse at any specific problematic term, treason, but its great relevance time, and we can thus easily move from the for medieval culture and literature at large history of law to cultural history because poets proves to be a significant desideratum, which 6 have regularly embedded cases of treason, as this article intends to address. Each of the they perceived it, into their narratives, and used examples chosen for this study has already been treason as the foil for their protagonist to rise investigated by numerous scholars dealing with above the crowd and to display his innocence or a large variety of thematic approaches, but only brilliance, unless the traitors triumph altogether.12 the comparative analysis will allow us to gain a better understanding of the universal concern TREASON IN THE MIDDLE AGES with the topic of ‗treason,‘ which was apparently Altogether, the charge of treason represents one of fundamental concern for pre-modern, but of the strongest possible against any individual certainly also for modern society. who has allegedly undermined the fundamental DEFINITION bond of loyalty and mutual trust that represents the basic glue that holds all parts of a society or Treason itself is not easy to define and needs to community together, which was, of course, of be viewed from many different perspectives, central importance in the Middle Ages which much depending on the context within the were determined, above all, by feudalism and narrative and material framework. This was the personal commitment of a vassal to his lord.13 already the case in the pre-modern world when And yet, without entering any contemporary the courts had to struggle hard to come to terms polemics, we are only too aware today of how with this issue, which was often highly contested topical the charge of treason continues to be and debated from many perspectives, as the case 7 since numerous people in many parts of our of England illustrates above all. As Richard world are being taken to court for allegedly Firth Green observes, ―In the late fourteenth having committed that crime, which undermines century, the complex Middle English word or even endangers, at least according to the legal trouthe, which had earlier meant something like charge, the well-being of an entire country. ‗integrity‘ or ‗dependability,‘ began to take on its modern sense of ‗conformity to fact.‘ At the Only recently, a team of researchers has come same time, the meaning of its antonym, tresoun, together to explore the issue of treason more began to move from ‗personal betrayal‘ to ‗a closely by applying a medieval lens, which crime against the state.‘‖8 promises to shed more light on the sensitive questions involved and provides already significant Treason is a highly political issue, and those broader confirmation for the observation of how who liberate a country from its dictator, for much ‗treason‘ as a topic mattered within the example, or at least attempt to achieve that goal, literary discourse throughout time.14 The such as Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg who contributions reveal, however, the complexity of attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1944, the matter and the easy, hence almost slippery are either identified as national heroes or as applicability of the term ‗treason‘ to many traitors, all depending on the outcome and different situations and conditions, such as the consequences of their efforts.9 In fact, recent breaking of feudal bonds, marital commitments, political opinions voiced by representatives of and pledges of friendship. Treason easily defies the right-wing faction in Germany tried even to our efforts to define it specifically, and much cast von Stauffenberg as a villain who betrayed depends on the circumstances. the German Reich and its Führer.10 Since the rise of Donald Trump to the presidency of the Treason concerns the legal, the political, the United States in 2017, the public has been ethical, the moral, and the religious dimension, bitterly embroiled in charges and counter- so we can recognize here a central concern for charges of treason, so the issue at stake is of all societies; hence also for the medieval world.15 central importance in politics, the law, ethics, ―Bisclavret‖ by Marie de France (ca. 1190) and sociology, both past and present. The illustrates, for instance, the catastrophic 14 Journal of Philosophy and Ethics V1 ● 14 ● 2019 Treason: Legal, Ethical, and Political Issues in the Middle Ages with an Emphasis on Medieval Heroic Poetry consequences when the husband hides a terrible TREASON IN THE MIDDLE AGES AND secret—he regularly turns into a werewolf — BEYOND: HISTORICAL AND RELIGIOUS and is eventually forced by his wife to reveal it. PERSPECTIVES She is so frightened that she betrays him by having his clothes taken by another knight, There would be hardly any culture around the which condemns him to stay a werewolf, an globe where treason would not have presumably outcast of courtly society.16 This clearly constitutes occurred at least once (whether it actually a case of marital treason. Little wonder then that happened or whether it was only claimed to a didactic writers such as Hugo of Trimberg have occurred), or where treason would not included numerous references to treason in his have been addressed by legal authors, poets, or 22 voluminous moralizing Der Renner from the historians.

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