Royal Society of Edinburgh Sir Walter Scott Prize Lecture the Middle

Royal Society of Edinburgh Sir Walter Scott Prize Lecture The Middle Ages and the Movies Robert Bartlett FBA FRSE Bishop Wardlaw Professor of Medieval History Emeritus, University of St Andrews Monday 11 December 2017 Report by Jeremy Watson “From where do we get our image of history?”, Professor Bartlett asked at the start of his entertaining romp through how the Middle Ages are depicted by the movies. He said it was fitting that he was discussing this subject as part of the Sir Walter Scott Prize Lecture, as the 19th-Century author, through novels such as Ivanhoe, had contributed so much to what we think we know about medieval history. In the past, most of our sense of what actually happened either came from written fact or written fiction. However, over the last 130 years, the film age arrived. Documentaries are there to give us the facts; the movies, by and large, are giving us the fiction. For many people, film is now the medium through which we learn about great historical characters and events. However, the lines between fact and fiction are becoming ever more blurred, Professor Bartlett said, and not just in film but in books too. Novels such as Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall – about Henry VIII’s fixer Thomas Cromwell – are great examples of the blending of fact and fiction to recreate a historical world that can then transferred to the screen. So successful has this been that it has even spawned a verb to describe this merger in literature – to be “Wolfhalled.” How much influence authors of historical books have over what appears on screen is a moveable feast, however. Some have total control of the screenplay; others are content to just get access to the set. Even within the category of historical films there are genres, such as the ‘sword and sandal’ epics loosely based on ancient Rome. This genre, in turn, may have influenced contemporary depictions of life in what we might think of as the Middle Ages, in productions such as Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. These films and TV programmes provide many people with their idea of the Middle Ages, but here the question of historical accuracy rears its head. “Does accuracy matter?”, Professor Bartlett asked. Some producers and directors do strive for an accurate depiction of the age they are attempting to capture. One of the best examples is Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, in which a knight (Max Von Sydow) plays chess with “Death” in mid-14th-Century Sweden. Contrast that with Mel Gibson’s Braveheart (1995), about 13th-Century Scottish ‘freedom fighter’ William Wallace, in which the hero has a relationship with a French princess who did not step foot in Scotland until after he had been executed. The film also has distinctively Highland scenes, suggesting Wallace was from northern Scotland, when he actually came from lowland Paisley. Large parts of the film are merely a fictional construct, 1 but many cinema-goers perceive it as real history. As the screenwriter Randall Wallace (no relation) said: “Don’t let the facts get in the way of the truth!” However, accuracy can matter if film-makers set out to provide a certain point of view (POV) that is cavalier with the facts in support of a particular notion, such as nationalism, Professor Bartlett suggested. Gibson’s Braveheart is one example, with its emphasis on Scottish nationalism. Another is El Cid, directed by Anthony Mann and starring Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren, about a Castilian knight’s struggles to unify Spain. The 11th-Century Christian knight is depicted fraternising with ‘good Muslims’ to avert the threat of ‘bad’ Muslims, with Spanish nationalism the driving force; even though, factually speaking, Spain did not actually exist at that time. El Cid was produced in Franco’s Catholic Spain, so the message that could be taken from the film is that alliances with unpalatable bedfellows can be contemplated if the prize is national unity. What differentiates film from books – and perhaps gives it more influence in shaping perceptions of history – is the camera. Wallace and El Cid are portrayed in certain ways that may be markedly different from the reality, but those images have a potent effect on how we see these characters and the events in which they take part. What is more difficult is depicting the systems under which many people in the Middle Ages actually lived, such as feudalism. The camera also allows the viewer to take sides, by shooting from a particular POV that can easily fit into a contemporary political agenda. The camera shows us the characters it wants us to see in a certain light, Professor Bartlett argued, and then surveys the world from his or her point of view. One example is the 1938 film Alexander Nevsky, in which a 13th-Century Russian prince defends his homeland against an army of Teutonic knights from the west, with distinct parallels to what was coming in the late 1930s – communist Russia fighting Nazi Germany. The film is shot from a Russian point of view, with quaking but steadfast Russian foot soldiers facing a mighty, well armed and equipped foe across a frozen lake. In 1938, Hitler was on the rise. Stalin was worried and needed to rally his nation’s fighting spirit. In the film, Nevsky’s forces prevail and Sergei Eisenstein, the Director, is later awarded the Order of Lenin. However, films depicting nationalism can be dangerous to a nation’s interests if circumstances change, Professor Bartlett demonstrated. At the beginning of World War Two, when Russia and Germany were not at war, Hitler and Stalin ‘shared’ Poland and the Alexander Nevsky film was withdrawn from circulation for fear of causing offence. It was only shown again after Germany invaded Russia in 1941 and Russia was becoming the friend of the Allies. Historical films may be about the past, but they are firmly rooted in the present, Professor Bartlett concluded. Q and A Q: Are historical inaccuracies in films dangerous? A: They can be if the film is overly propagandist and people get sucked in. However, films such as Braveheart and El Cid could only be construed as such in the unlikely event that viewers regard them as their primary source of historical fact. 2 Q: Is cinema too limited a form of conveying the reality of history? A: Not necessarily. It can show complex ideas such as feudalism if it finds the right device to do so. In some films, the hardships and injustices of medieval feudalism are shown through the Right of the First Night (jus primae noctis), in which a feudal lord has the right to spend the first night of a woman’s marriage with her. It gets the idea across. Q: Is Monty Python and the Holy Grail historically accurate? A: This film is a parody of the Middle Ages. My own feeling is that the ‘Middle Ages’, as we like to think of them, are a romanticised Sir Walter Scott creation. Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a parody of that creation. Q: Which film do you think is the most plausible representation of the Middle Ages? A: The Seventh Seal. Although a 1928 film about Joan of Arc (The Passion of Joan of Arc), based on the actual transcripts from her trial, runs it close. The Vote of Thanks was offered by Professor Rab Houston FRSE. Opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent the views of the RSE, nor of its Fellows. The Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland’s National Academy, is Scottish Charity No. SC000470 3 .

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