Chivalry and Crisis at the Court of Juan II of Castile: the Chivalric Writing of Alonso De Cartagena and His Contemporaries
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Chivalry and Crisis at the Court of Juan II of Castile: The Chivalric Writing of Alonso de Cartagena and his Contemporaries. This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. August 2016 James Michael Ellis Trinity Hall 2 3 Declaration This dissertation is the result of my own work and includes nothing which is the outcome of work done in collaboration except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. It is not substantially the same as any that I have submitted, or, is being concurrently submitted for a degree or diploma or other qualification at the University of Cambridge or any other University or similar institution, except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. I further state that no substantial part of my dissertation has already been submitted, or, is being concurrently submitted for any such degree, diploma or other qualification at the University of Cambridge or any other University or similar institution except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. It does not exceed the prescribed word limit for the relevant Degree Committee. 4 5 Abstract This study addresses chivalric writing and court culture during the reign of Juan II of Castile and aims to examine the changing chivalric ideal in Castile during this turbulent period of Castilian history. My thesis argues that political crisis in Castile led to a corresponding crisis in Castilian chivalry as commentators at the royal court tried to correct the failings of the Castilian nobility. The study is based around the work of Alonso de Cartagena, an esteemed diplomat, translator and the Bishop of Burgos in the latter years of Juan II’s reign. Like many of his contemporaries, Cartagena lamented Castile’s descent into civil war and felt compelled to take up his pen in response to the drawn swords of the Castilian nobility. His Doctrinal de los caualleros, produced in 1444 at the height of the civil war, was a highly critical look at chivalry and nobility in the Kingdom of Castile. Cartagena’s view of the chivalric ideal was one which was fundamentally shaped by the civil war. This study seeks to set his ideas in their broader context and argues that they should be seen as part of a wider Castilian debate on chivalry and nobility. This debate involved a number of Cartagena’s contemporaries including, Diego de Valera, Juan Rodríguez del Padrón, Rodrigo Sánchez de Arévalo and the Marquis of Santillana Íñigo López de Mendoza. Cartagena, along with a number of these authors, challenged traditional views on chivalry and nobility and instead argued for a view of knighthood grounded in individual good conduct and personal worth, in place of lineage and inherited status. This study argues that the civil war in Castile paved the way for the development of a rich literature of chivalric reform and facilitated the development of the sort of knightly criticism seen elsewhere in Europe in the later Middle Ages. However, rather than simply being a theoretical discussion, the civil war and unique social pressures on the Iberian Peninsula made the debate highly relevant. Chivalry became a vehicle for political criticism and reform. For Cartagena and his contemporaries, chivalric writing offered a means of ending the civil war by addressing what they saw as endemic issues with the rebellious Castilian nobility. My work has thus argued for a view of chivalry as a changing and developing body of thought shaped by the intellectual and political context in which it developed. Chivalry was, in essence, a code of military ethics governing conduct on and off the battlefield. However, whilst its basic tenants of virtue, honour, prowess at arms and piety were broadly similar across Europe, how they were understood differed greatly. Rather than seeking an all-encompassing definition, I have argued that the focus should fall on the differences and complexities within chivalric thought. 7 Acknowledgements I am, first of all, deeply indebted to my supervisor Professor David Abulafia whose careful guidance has shaped this project from start to finish and without whose support it would not have been possible. I am similarly extremely grateful to the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Royal Masonic Trust whose generous support allowed this project to happen. I would also like to thank Trinity Hall for their generous contributions to research expenses. I must also extend my thanks to Dr Rosemary Horrox for her invaluable advice and guidance. I am similarly very grateful to Dr Nigel Chancellor whose unwavering faith in me and constant support got me through the long process of research and writing. I must also extend my thanks to the staff at the many research libraries that I have visited, but special mention must be given to the staff of Cambridge University Library and the Biblioteca Nacional de España. I would also like to thank my partner Laura, my parents and my friends and colleagues who endured proof reading and numerous lengthy talks on chivalry without complaint. Finally, I would like to thank the men and women of Trinity Hall Boat Club who kept me sane over the last four years. 8 Contents Introduction. 11 1 The Reign of Juan II of Castile and the Life of Alonso de Cartagena. 39 2 Chivalry and Crisis: The Literary Response to Civil War. 61 3 Alonso de Cartagena, Diego de Valera and the Civil War. 81 4 Chivalry and Nobility. 107 5 Chivalry and Humanism. 153 6 Epilogue: In Search of Triumph. 183 Conclusion: Knights, Nobles and Courtiers at the Close of the Middle Ages. 193 Appendix: Study of Cambridge University Library MS. Add. 8586. 197 Bibliography. 211 10 Introduction Alonso de Cartagena was one of fifteenth-century Castile’s more unlikely chivalric commentators. His illustrious career as a churchman and diplomat spanned the turbulent reign of King Juan II and the early years of Enrique IV’s. Alonso, best known as the Bishop of Burgos, a post he effectively inherited from his father in 1439, left a large and complex literary legacy comprising, religious, chivalric and political works and several celebrated translations of classical sources. Amongst this extensive and varied corpus of work is the Doctrinal de los caualleros, a vast legal treatise on knighthood.1 The Doctrinal was a development of ideas which Alonso had first given voice to in his correspondence with the Marquis of Santillana and the Count of Haro.2 Alonso believed that many of his fellow courtiers harboured profoundly misguided views on chivalry, nobility and the office of knighthood and, through the laws of the Siete Partidas, he harked back to an imagined thirteenth-century chivalric golden age. However, Alonso’s ideas were not just nostalgic dreaming of a bygone age, but rather an attempt to propose a new, learned knighthood and his deliberately archaic view masked a scholarly redefinition of what it meant to be a nobleman at court. Whilst Alonso’s views on knighthood have received some scholarly attention, there has been little attempt to understand how his intriguing views on chivalry and nobility fit into the wider context of chivalric culture and writing during the reign of Juan II. Moreover, Alonso’s views on knighthood should be considered in light of his other scholarly writing. The first half of the fifteenth-century in Castile saw the production of a rich corpus of texts which tackled many of the same issues that Alonso so eloquently raised in the Doctrinal. His contemporaries, men like Diego de Valera, Rodrigo Sánchez de Arévalo, Juan Rodríguez del Padrón, Íñigo López de Mendoza, Juan Alfonso de Baena and the poet Juan de Mena in conjunction with the sadly unknown authors of the Avisaçión de la dignidad real, the Qüistión entre dos cavalleros, the Libro de la consolación de España and the Regimiento de vida para un caballero, all sought to grasp the same complex issues which Alonso had discussed.3 It is against this rich literary context that the Doctrinal must be considered and Alonso’s 1 Alonso de Cartagena, ‘Doctrinal de los caualleros’, in The Chivalric Vision of Alfonso de Cartagena: Study and Edition of the Doctrinal de los caualleros, ed. Noel Fallows (Newark Delaware, 1995); Alonso de Cartagena, Doctrinal de los cavalleros. Edición de José María Viña Liste, ed. José María Viña Liste (Santiago de Compostela, 2000). References to the Doctrinal will come from Fallow’s edition of the text. 2 Alonso de Cartagena, ‘Respuesta del muy noble e sabio Obispo de Burgos’, in Prosistas castellanos del siglo XV. Edición y estudio preliminar de D. Mario Penna, ed. Mario Penna, Biblioteca de autores españoles desde la formación del lenguaje hasta nuestros dias 116 (Madrid, 1959), 236–45; Alonso de Cartagena, ‘Respuesta del venerable y sabio señor don Alfonso, Obispo de Burgos, a la questión fecha por el magnífico señor Marqués de Santillana’, in Obras completas: Íñigo López de Mendoza, marqués de Santillana. Edición, introducción y notas de Ángel Gómez Moreno y Maximilian P. A. M. Kerkhof., ed. Ángel Gómez Moreno and Maximilian P. A. M. Kerkhof (Barcelona, 1988), 417–34; Alonso de Cartagena, Un tratado de Alonso de Cartagena sobre la educación y los estudios literarios. El manuscrito, procedencia y contenido, ed. and trans. Jeremy Lawrance (Barcelona, 1979). 3 All translations, unless otherwise stated, are my own. Spanish will used in the text and an English translation given in full in the footnotes. No attempt has been made to modernise the language, spelling or grammar of the source texts. Accentuation and spelling therefore are not standardised and differ between sources used. The translations given tend to be literal and reflect the syntax of the original Spanish source texts.