This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ Masculinity, nobility and the moral instruction of the Carolingian lay elite Stone, Rachel Susan The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 11. Oct. 2021 MASCULINITY, NOBILITY AND THE MORAL INSTRUCTION OF THE CAROLINGIAN LAY ELITE Rachel Susan Stone Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, King's College London 2005 ABSTRACT My thesis focuses on the moral instruction given to noble laymen in Carolingian Francia (750-900 AD). It draws on texts from many genres (including moral handbooks for laymen, poetry and legislation) to determine moral expectations about noble laymen in three key areas: behaviour in warfare, the use of power and sexual conduct. I then use the norms revealed in this research to examine concepts of masculinity and nobility in the period. My research shows that many of the assumptions made about early medieval ethics are questionable for this specific culture. Few moral limits were imposed on Frankish warfare, and military actions were justified more by their success than any 'just war' theory. Yet heroism per se was not glorified: the emphasis was on the benefits to the realm achieved either through military or peaceful means. Some scholars have seen Carolingian intellectuals as incapable of theoretical discussions of power. However, the extensive moral comments made on power relations argue against this. Instead they show both an awareness of public/private distinctions and a seemingly deliberate decision to achieve political consensus by sticking to statements of generally acceptable moral principles. Frankish attitudes to sexual behaviour in the period cannot be characterised as motivated mainly by concerns of ritual purity, or as rules imposed by a church fearful of sex on a supposedly unwilling laity. Rather, the new norms suggest complex negotiations as to which sexual and marital restrictions were practical and socially acceptable. My thesis also argues that the first visible developments of specific ethics for lay nobles may have been the initiative of this group itself, as much as of clerical intellectuals, and that Carolingian elite masculinity was not in crisis (in contrast to dominant masculinities in many other historical periods). 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 5 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 6 1.1 PREVIOUS RESEARCH 7 1.2 METHODOLOGY AND PROBLEMS 10 1.3 FRAMEWORK AND ASSUMPTIONS 23 1.4 SOURCES 28 CHAPTER 2: WAR 41 2.1 INTRODUCTION 41 2.2 JUSTIFICATION OF WARFARE 46 2.3 BEHAVIOUR IN WARFARE 60 2.4 CONCLUSIONS 84 CHAPTER 3: POWER 88 3.1 INTRODUCTION 88 3.2 HOUSEHOLD 92 3.3 LORDSHIP 103 3.4 KIN AND FRIENDS 114 3.5 KONIGSNAHE 124 3.6 LAND AND RELATIONSHIPS 132 3.7 OFFICE-HOLDING 139 3.8 JUSTICE AND THE LEGAL SYSTEM 151 3.9 MORAL POWER 167 3.10 MORAL NOBILITY 185 3.11 POWER, MASCULiNITY AND NOBILITY 188 3.12 CONCLUSIONS 193 3 CHAPTER 4: SEX 197 4.1 INTRODUCTION 197 4.2 UNMARRIED MEN 200 4.3 RAPTUS 204 4.4 iNCEST 210 4.5 MARITAL BEHAVIOUR AND SEX 220 4.6 ADULTERY AND POLYGAMY 227 4.7 DIVORCE AND REMARRIAGE 232 4.8 'UNNATURAL' SEX 237 4.9 MASCULINITY, NOBILITY AND SEXUAL BEHAVIOUR 244 4.10 CONCLUSIONS 252 OVERALL CONCLUSIONS 261 ABBREVIATIONS 268 BIBLIOGRAPHY 271 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the tutors who have guided my academic career in its somewhat erratic course over the years, particularly Hilary Priestley, Rosamond McKitterick and Neil Wright. My supervisor, Jinty Nelson, was the initial inspiration for me to look at gendered morality, and her articles and conversation have been a repeated source of ideas and encouragement. I would also like to thank the medievalists at the Institute of Historical Research seminars for our many hours of discussions. My research has taken me to a number of libraries across London and Cambridge and I would like to thank their library staff. The Arts and Humanities Research Board provided me with a part-time award which helped fund my research. I would also like to thank the BFWG Charitable Foundation, whose grant provided much needed additional funding during my final year. My father, Norman Owen, has been a stimulating correspondent on matters of history, gender and patriarchies over the years. My greatest thanks are to my husband, Edward, for his long-lasting emotional and practical support, as well as his editorial expertise. Finally, I want to thank my daughter Eleanor, without whose never-failing enthusiasm and interest this thesis would have been finished in half the time. CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION In about 800, Alcuin, abbot of St Martin of Tours, sent a short moral treatise to Guy, count of the Breton march, entitled De virtutibus et vitis. Alcuin's text was the most influential of several such treatises addressed to noble laymen in the Carolingian period.' Copies were owned by several lay aristocrats, 2 reused by other Carolingian authors,3 and translated into several vernacular languages. 4 More than 140 manuscripts survive, including many from the ninth century.5 Guy had asked Alcuin for a brief exhortation suitable for his military occupation.6 Alcuin's response discussed the virtues and vices, focusing less on doctrine or devotional practices than on how laymen ought to behave. 7 As he added at the end: Do not let either the habitus of a layman or the quality of a secular way of life frighten you, as if in this habitus you were not able to enter the doors of the heavenly life.8 Alcuin's concern about the lay conversatio was not an isolated example. The strenuous attempts at religious reform in the Carolingian period aimed to correct the behaviour of laypeople, as well as clerics. 9 A variety of genres provided implicit and explicit moral instruction for their lay audiences, with an overwhelming emphasis on 'See below p 31. 2 (Riché 1963, 94, 99). DIL 3-6; LM 4-6; (Newhauser 1989, 18-20). (Szarmach 1981, 133-134). (Szarmach 1981; Szarmach 1989, 14-16). 6 DVV introduction: 'me obnixe flagitasti aliquod tuae occupationi, quam te in bellicis rebus habere novimus, exhortamentum brevi sermone conscribere'. DVV conclusion: 'Ut habeas cotidie quasi manualem in conspectu tao libellum, in quo possis teipsurn considerare, quid cavere, vel quid agere debeas'. 8 DVV conclusion: 'Nec te laici habitus vel conversationis saecularis terreat qualitas, quasi in eo habitu vitae caelestis ianuas intrare non valeas.' (McKitterick 1977). 6 men and male behaviour.'0 The nobility," in particular, formed an important part of the audience for many moral works. This thesis focuses on texts providing moral instruction to this elite, lay and often male audience. My aim is firstly to clarify what moral norms were presented to this audience on three broad issues of 'lifestyle': warfare, the use of power and sexual behaviour. I then investigate how moral norms in these areas were used to define ideas of masculinity and nobility. 1.1 PREVIOUS RESEARCH My thesis lies at the intersection of four topics of interest to previous researchers: the development of Western Christian ethics, lay piety in the Carolingian period, the definition and self-image of the Frankish nobility and the changing historical construction of masculinity. Since Delaruelle's discussion of Carolingian moral teaching,' 2 there has been little research on early medieval ethics. 13 Sibylle Mahl complained in 1969 that moral views were not seen as an important part of early medieval intellectual history,' 4 but her hope for more systematic investigation have remained unfulfilled. Studies of moral ideals have tended to concentrate on particular ethical topics, such as marriage, slavery, warfare and attitudes to money. 15 Many studies have been concerned with tracing specific long-term ethical developments, and have often seen the early medieval period as only one (relatively unimportant) era. 16 Much research has not '° (Smith 1998, 7 1-72): 'Rather of Verona did what no Carolingian writer had done before: he addressed married women directly.' (Heene 1997, 260): around 80% of Carolingian hagiography memorialised male saints. ' For definitions of nobility see section 3 of this chapter. 12 (Delaruelle 1954). 13 (Davis 2003), in a recent history of Western ethics, simply states (p 47): 'The renaissance of learning which had its center at the court of Charlemagne (742-8 14) did not give rise to innovation in moral thought.' Because of this lack of research, most of the present thesis is devoted to analysing the prevalent moral views, with less emphasis than ideal on their significance for masculinity and nobility.