u Ottawa L'UniversiW canadienne Canada's university Ifmfl FACULTE DES ETUDES SUPERIEURES 1^=1 FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND ET POSTOCTORALES U Ottawa POSDOCTORAL STUDIES [.'University eanadienne Canada's university Reginald Webber TUTEWMLXTHfSE7XuTHWorfHESTS~ Ph.D. (English) GRADE/DEGREE Department of English 7AlJULT§rKoll7DEPAlTEMETTf7w^^ Late Medieval Benedictine Anxieties and the Politics of John Lydgate TITRE DE LA THESE / TITLE OF THESIS Dr. Andrew Taylor DIRECTEUR (DIRECTRICEJ DE LA'THESE / THESIS SUPERVISOR „___„„„„________ EXAMINATEURS (EXAMINATRICES) DE LA THESE / THESIS EXAMINERS Dr. David Carlson Dr. Geoff Rector Dr. Richard Firth Green Dr. Nicholas von Maltzahn Gary W. Slater Le Doyen de la Faculte des etudes superieures et postdoctorales / Dean of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Late Medieval Benedictine Anxieties and the Politics of John Lydgate Reginald Webber Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the PhD degree in English Department of English Faculty of Arts University of Ottawa Library and Bibliotheque et 1*1 Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-41649-5 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-41649-5 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, prefer, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans loan, distribute and sell theses le monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non­ sur support microforme, papier, electronique commercial purposes, in microform, et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. this thesis. Neither the thesis Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels de nor substantial extracts from it celle-ci ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement may be printed or otherwise reproduits sans son autorisation. reproduced without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne Privacy Act some supporting sur la protection de la vie privee, forms may have been removed quelques formulaires secondaires from this thesis. ont ete enleves de cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires in the document page count, aient inclus dans la pagination, their removal does not represent il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. any loss of content from the thesis. •*• Canada © Reginald Webber, Ottawa, Canada, 2008 Table of Contents Abstract Acknowledgements Introduction 1 Organization and Summary 25 Chapter 1: Ricardian Lydgate and the "Lancastrian Thesis" 38 Lydgate and the Literary Vernacular 46 Life of Our Lady 53 The Chaucerian Poems of Courtly Love 61 hopes Fabules 67 Serpent of Division 82 Chapter 2: Anti-War Dissension under Henry V 92 Patronage 95 Defence of Holy Church 99 Troy Book Ill Siege of Thebes 129 Chapter 3: Collaboration and Resistance during the Minority Years 148 Poems for the Duke 154 "Praise of Peace" and the "Mumming at Eltham." 165 Coronation and Succession Propaganda 172 Henry VI's Triumphal Entry into London 184 Retreat 194 Chapter 4: Fall of Princes: Paradise (not necessarily) Lost 197 The Poet-Patron Relationship 199 Lydgate's Political Theory 211 Lydgate's Body Politic 215 Fortune and Free Will 222 Chapter 5: "Judas non dormit": The Struggle with the Bishops 239 Life of St. Edmund 247 Cartae Versificatae 256 Afterward 275 APPENDICES 283 APPENDIX A-Chronology of Important Dates 283 APPENDDC B-Invocation to Mars 285 APPENDIX C -Lancastrian Genealogy 286 APPENDIX D-Carta Regis HenriciPrimi 287 BIBLIOGRAPHY 292 LYDGATE'S WORKS (by editor) 292 MANUSCRIPT SOURCES 294 PRINTED SOURCES 296 Abstract In Reform and Cultural Revolution, James Simpson has argued that the many affiliations of John Lydgate (1370-1449) mitigate against the traditional critical portrayal of the poet as a mere Lancastrian propagandist. My dissertation explores the influence of Lydgate's major affiliation, his Benedictine monasticism, on his political work. I argue that the autonomy of the Benedictine order was already under siege a hundred years before the Tudor dissolution of the monasteries and that the resulting anxieties and remedial strategies of the Benedictine order could not help but have an impact on the work of a fifteenth-century Benedictine poet. I attempt to show that, far from being uniformly "pro-Lancastrian," Lydgate's political poetry (which comprises just about all of his secular work and much of his religious work) is often openly resistant to the main activities of the Lancastrian regime: the usurpation and murder of Richard II; the suppression of the alien priories and the taxation of the church; the invasion of Normandy and the continuation of the war in France after the Treaty of Troyes and the death of Henry V; and the encroachment of the Lancastrian hierarchical church-under the direction of a succession of powerful archbishops of Canterbury-on the autonomy of the religious orders, the monks in particular. I read Lydgate's works as a reflection of Benedictine policy that, more often than not, stands in opposition not only to the Lancastrian dynasty, but to the official hierarchy of the orthodox church in England, and I reconstruct the poet as a Benedictine spokesman very much in control of his own voice. Acknowledgements For his help in turning speculation into argument, for his kindness and encouragement, I thank my thesis advisor, Dr. Andrew Taylor. Dr. Richard Firth Green, who by his own example taught future generations the meaning of the term "literary historicism," has done me a great honour to read my thesis as external examiner. Thanks also to Dr. Nicholas Von Maltzahn who first accepted me into the Masters programme after a long exile from the halls of academe; to Dr. David Carlson whose provocative and engaging seminars on Chaucer and Langland taught me to challenge authority of all kinds and inspired me to explore the politics of the medieval church into which I was born and bred-a church whose authority still haunts me today; and to Dr. Geoffrey Rector who showed me the Middle Ages does not begin with Richard II, and that Malory did not invent the legend of King Arthur. This project was partially funded by a generous scholarship grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council; I thank Dr. Andrew Taylor and my good friends Dr. Frans De Bruyn, and Dr. Peter Webb whose close reading of my project proposal helped my application through the funding process. I wish also to thank my colleagues in the Federal government who prefer to remain anonymous but whose kindness and understanding have allowed me to keep my options open. As a librarian I would be remiss if I did not thank the library profession without which no research would ever be possible, and in particular the staff at the following institutions: the British Library, the Bodleian in Oxford, Trinity College in Cambridge, University of Toronto, St. Paul University, Carleton University and especially the ILL unit at the University of Ottawa who kept me supplied with a constant stream of hard-to-find material. On a personal note I wish to thank my friends at the university local for their scintillating conversation at the end of many a stressful week. A special thanks to Dr. Colleen Franklin, one such friend, who proof-read my entire thesis, including the Latin and the Middle English bits, and was always there to offer advice and encouragement. For my many trips to London I wish to thank my daughter Kate, Richard, my soon to be son-in- law, and my dear friend Shirlee MacCrimmon for their hospitality and companionship in the big city. To my wife Barbara, my other children, Matthew and Monica, and to my extended family, living and dead, I thank you all for being there. The English church-like the church all over Europe—was divided and subdivided by factions who fought each other on one issue and joined on another, only to split apart when some new controversy presented itself. The effect of these shifting alliances and internecine fights was to make the church incapable of uniting against the greatest threat to its traditional understanding of itself. That threat in the sixteenth century was not heresy, but secular government. (Marius, Thomas More, 253) 1 Introduction Ac there shal come a kyng and confesse yow religiouses And bete yow as the bible telleth, for brekynge of youre reule And amende monyales, monkes, and chanouns And putten hem to her penaunce adpristinum statum ire And barounes with erles beten hem, thorugh Beatus virres techyng And thanne shal the abbot of Abyngdoun and all his issue for evere Have a knok of a kyng, and incurable the wounde. {Piers Plowman B 10.314-24) John Lydgate (1370-1449) was a Benedictine monk from the Abbey of Bury St. Edmunds. While this may seem like a commonplace observation, its implications for the understanding of Lydgate's poetry have never been adequately explored. In fact, one could make the observation (and some have) that Lydgate's pre-Reformation monasticism is at least one reason his work has been so badly denigrated over the years (Dane and Bessemyer). Joseph Ritson's vitriolic condemnation of Lydgate as "a voluminous, prosaick, and drivelling monk" (Schirmer 258) reflects a persistent anti-monastic bias that, even today, limits discussion of the poet's work.