A Lesson in Holy Kingship: the Thirteenth-Century La Estoire De Seint a Edward Ie Rei (Cambridge University Library, MS Ee

A lesson in holy kingship: the thirteenth-century La estoire de Seint A edward Ie Rei (Cambridge University Library, MS Ee. iii.59). Dr Judith Collard, Art History and Theory, University of Otago, Box 56 Dunedin, New Zealand. email: [email protected] Abstract century illustrated vitae which were written in In this article a manuscript from the Latin and frequently kept in the monastery Cambridge University Library, viz.: La estoire de which housed the saint's relics, or which took Sainte Aedward Ie Rei is discussed with particular their place as part of larger hagiographical reference to its authorship and its possible date of collections, the vernacular text of the Estoire manufacture as well as highlighting its special manuscript clearly indicated it was intended insights into the nature of medieval kingship. for a lay audience. 1 This is confirmed by its dedication to Queen Eleanor of Provence. The lavishly illustrated life of St Wormald considered the text to be closer to a Edward the Confessor (1042-1066), La romance than to a monastic libel/us, which estoire de Sainte Aedward Ie Rei could include the saint's life and miracles, (Cambridge, University Library MS Ee. iii. prayers and even music for the Office. The 59), is one of the more celebrated function of the Estoire text was significantly manuscripts from the mid-thirteenth different from these earlier works, being century. The Life explores such topical written to entertain and inbrm. themes as good government, legitimacy One of the intriguing aspects of the and the grandeur of the king's ancestry. work is the way that it brings together several The work provides for Henry 111(1216-72) prominent themes in thirteenth-century royal and his contemporaries an ideal model of imagery within the confines of a single book. saintly kingship acceptable to God and In it we find combined the Royal Court's beneficial to the people. Its text and fascination with art and the reading of illustrations reflects the close association of vernacular texts, Henry Ill's patronage of the the saint's cult with the king. Much of the cult of St Edward at Westminster, and the scholarship around this work has, however, interest in the deeds of kings found in focussed more on Matthew Paris' possible contemporary histories. It also reflects authorship, the manuscript's date and concerns about the respective duties of the provenance rather than the manuscript's king and his barons in governing the land. contents and structure. While I shall Thirteenth-century England's political history consider the debates aroune the work's was shaped by this issue. Henry Ill's reign production, I am also interested in began just two years after his father, John, exploring the contents of the manuscript, signed the Magna Carta, and Henry himself the image of kingship that it presents and faced several struggles with his magnates. how these may contribute to an These finally erupted in the Baronial understanding of the manuscript. 2 This finely illustrated manuscript Rebellion of 1258. While these events were consists of 37 folios and its dimensions are not referred to in the text, the work does 280 x 192 mm. It is almost complete, mirror contemporary debates about the missing but one folio (ff. 35, 35v), with only nature of good kingship which found more the first page lacking illustration. The text is pacific expression in, for example, Henry de written in Anglo-Norman verse and is Bracton's political treatises.3 arranged in three or, occasionally, two Much stress was placed on the columns, above which are placed framed legitimacy of and continuity of the royal line tinted drawings. Beneath each illustration is within the historical literature of the period, as also found accompanying explanatory the contemporary popularity of genealogical rubric verses. rolls attested.4 Legitimacy and nobility of Unlike earlier eleventh and twelfth- blood not only controlled who had the right to 52 Digitised by the University of Pretoria, Library Services sit upon the throne, but also impacted on I. The date and provenance of the Estoire the nation's well-being. The most obvious Most studies of this manuscript have example of the practical implications of an focused on the question of its date and insecure succession was the Norman attribution. In most recent studies, while there Conquest, resulting in part from Edward has been a general agreement concerning a the Confessor's childlessness. The date to the late 1250s, the provenance possession of saintly forebears was also remains unclear, although discussion has considered to enhance the status of the focused on whether Matthew Paris was the royal family and, indeed, the nation. The writer and illustrator.9 presence of saints in the royal line was In his introduction to the 1920 also of international significance. During facsimile, however, M.R. James dated the the thirteenth century, European royal Estoire to the 1240s. He argued that work families sought to have members must have been completed before the canonised to enhance the prestige of their Barons' Revolt because some of the text, lines. which praised Henry and painted an image of national unity, would otherwise have been highly inappropriate. the third Henry who has filled the [royal stock of England] with his favour, and throughout the kingdom gives both light and clear brightness everywhere, as the sun and moon. Now are kings, now are barons, and the kingdom, of a common blood of Figure 1. England and of Normandy.10 Legitimacy and continuity of the This text is an interesting one royal line are strongly articulated from the because it underlines the Englishness of very opening of the Estoire. England was Henry III by emphasising that his immediate described as unique for having had so ancestors, through the marriage of Henry I many holy and good kings who now and Matilda of Scotland, combined both the reigned in Heaven, as well as such great Anglo-Saxon line of kings and their Norman warriors as Arthur, Edmund and Cnut. conquerors. I would argue that the passage (Figure1). The poem listed kings who were referred to the union of blood rather than to powerful ' through good counsel and politics, and its message was directed to the intelligence, such as Oswin and Edmund; Royal Court in general rather than to the Edward the Confessor is included in this barons. It also seems unlikely that the revolt would have halted the production of royal number.5 Later in the poem, Edward's line panegyrics. was described again, emphasising his James also suggested that the book descent: he was of the sixth generation was produced by Matthew Paris for from Alfred, but the tenth King, as Cnut and presentation to Queen Eleanor of Provence, his two sons were included in the list of after the completion of a new shrine for the kings, as conquerors.6 Reference was also saint in 1241.11 Such a dating is extremely made to the marriage of Edgar, Edward's problematic as the shrine was not completed grandfather, to the daughter of Duke at this time, but rather just begun. The Richard of Normandy, underlining attribution to Paris also precludes the Edward's kinship with William Duke of possibility that the work was written after his Normandy.7 The same section reminded death in 1259 .. the reader of Henry Ill's own familial The attribution of the work to Paris is connection with the saint, in part through its a controversial one; scholars seem to be dedication to Eleanor, his wife. The work divided on this issue by discipline. ' The pointed to the continuing importance of his principal textual scholars, Vaughan and heritage for the prestige of the throne. 8 Wallace, support the traditional case first 53 Digitised by the University of Pretoria, Library Services proposed by James, while art historia~s, in text itself. particular Nigel Morgan, challenge this on Now I pray you, gentle King Edward, stylistic grounds. 12 These differing opinions To have regard to me a sinner, highlight one of the inherent tensions in the Who has translated from the Latin, study of illuminated manuscripts, the According to my knowledge and genius, relationship between text and image. Each Your history into French, may be the work of separate artists though, That memory of thee may spread, unless the illustration is to be purely And for lay people who letters decorative, the imagery is dependent on Know not, in portraiture the contents of the written page. While this Have I clearly figured it principle is accepted when discussing such in this present book .... 17 texts as Psalters, in the present case the temptation to identify both tasks with a From this evidence Vaughan has particular figure is strong, especially as argued that it would be unlikely that two Matthew Paris is known to have written and different people would translate and illustrate illustrated similar works. Yet even with a Life of St Edward at this date, and that the Matthew Paris' saints' vitae, this separation Estoire was probably the same Life referred can be made, notably in the London Lives to in the Dublin manuscript. 18 of the Offas (British Library, Cotton MS Thus, on the basis of these Nero D. I.) where only the first four folios references, and as the manuscript is were in Paris' hand, the rest being illus- illustrated in a technique close to that used trated later in the fourteenth century.13 In by Matthew Paris, it was not surprising that that example the identification with Paris James and Vaughan should ascribe the was obvious as we have an autograph works to him, although neither considered it text.

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