Realities of Love and Adultery in Christian Courts
Within the Christian world view, much has been discussed about adultery. The Ten Commandments include a direct condemnation--Thou shalt not commit adultery--and indirectly--Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife. However, adultery is common throughout history and throughout society. In the Christian world, although frowned upon by the church, consensual adultery is a common sin amongst Christians. In several of the Lais attributed to Marie de France a theme of romantic love and adultery exists. Marie shows us that even in the middle ages, at least at the courts of nobility, there was a reality of adultery. However, like all sins, even if they occur they do not go unpunished. Unless, the adultery is between equals and embraces true romantic love.
In Guigemar, our hero is not of immediate interest to Marie or consumers of her stories as he is not romantically inclined. This is soon remedied by a strange and mystical hunting accident: an arrow shot at a deer rebounds and strikes the knight in his leg. He is warned by the deer that the resulting wound will never heal without the care of a woman with whom he experiences true love. Urged on initially by the need to preserve his quality of life, the previously unloving, Guigemar falls in love with a married woman. This is romantic and true love as we see when the woman's maiden tells him:
My lord, you are in love: mind you do not conceal the fact too long. Your love may well have found a true home. The man who wishes to love my lady must keep her constantly in his thoughts and, if you remain faithful to each other, the love between you will be right and proper (Burgess and Busby 48).
He is unable to act on the maiden's suggestions as he is thwarted by her lady's husband first and then by another man who wants the lady for himself. He wins the day against the second man, Meriaduc by a traitorous act: switching to fight for the enemy of the man they agreed to serve. We see from Marie in Guigemar even adultery accompanied by treachery and murder can be forgiven if there is true love: "with great joy he took away his beloved. Now his tribulations were over" (53).
In Equitan, we see adultery as being non-redeemable if it is not romantic love between equals. Equitan, the king falls for the wife of his seneschal. As they are not equals, true love cannot exist and as we see, punishment is inevitable from foreshadowing by the wife herself:
You are a king of great nobility; I am not wealthy enough to be the object of your love or passion. If you had your way with me, I know well and am in no doubt that you would soon abandon me and I should be very much worse off (57).
The wife goes on to say that "love is not honourable, unless it is based on equality." (57). However, the king tries to force the issue by saying he would marry her if her husband were dead. So, the wife arranges a plan to kill her husband but it backfires and the king dies by accident. Evident from this violent end is that adulterous love initiated by a king towards his vassal violates the courtly code of conduct more than the sin of adultery itself.
Indeed, this story becomes a cautionary tale of sin. The sin being adultery initiated by one superior in the hierarchy of the Court. So, unlike the story Equitan, murderous thoughts cannot even be excused, let alone murder: "Evil can easily rebound on him who seeks another's misfortune" (59).
In Lanval, our hero is first seduced by a mysterious, beautiful and wealthy woman. He is sworn to keep their mysterious love and pact a secret. Lanval's resultant wealth and generosity attracts the attention of the queen. As his lover is invisible to all but him when they are together, the queen believes he is single. Shocked that her vassal would scorn her advances, she cannot believe he loves women over men. Suffering with accusations of homosexuality he breaks his vow to his mistress and tells the queen his story. His pride gets him into trouble and he breaks the promise with his lover to speak of their love to no one. The queen enraged with Lanval's insistence that his mistress is of greater beauty than the queen herself, proceeds to her king and claims less than chivalrous advances from Lanval.
In Marie's tale, the queen must not succeed as she has approached a vassal with intentions of adultery. However, Lanval by rejecting her advances and not sharing his love with her is given reprieve from breaking the vow with his true love. At the last minute, his fair maiden arrives to rescue our hero:
King, I have loved one of your vassals, Lanval, whom you see there. Because of what he said, he was accused in your court, and I do not wish him to come to any harm. You should know that the queen was wrong, as he never sought her love. (80).
Perhaps due only to physical separation, the sin in Laüstic is not against the commandment--Thou shalt not commit adultery--but rather to the commandment that--Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife. However, there is adultery in the minds of our hero and his neighbor's wife, as we learn from Marie: "He loved his neighbour's wife and so persistently did he request her love, so frequent were his entreaties and so many qualities did he possess that she loved him above all things" (94).
As the story ends, their love is never consummated, but remained in their hearts through the symbol of a nightingale in a gold casket. The knight lives to continue coveting his neighbor's wife apparently without a hope of anything more to come of their love for each other. Perhaps this is true love in minds of 12th century courtiers and not punishment for sin.
In a time when sin against Church teachings could be severally punished, it can be seen that at least in the elevated and exclusive world of the Christian courts of nobility, poetry and troubadours were extolling worlds where women and love were empowered far beyond the realities of the real world. This is not dissimilar to the world we live in as Christians today. The media available to us sometimes romanticizes true love and adultery. The Catholic and Protestant churches all frown on sins such as adultery, but they are generally accepted by society as part of our lives and the world we live in.
Works Cited
Burgess, Glyn Sheridan, and Keith Busby. The Lais of Marie De France. Translated with an Introduction. 2nd ed. London: Pengiun Classics, 1999. Print.
