Baudouin de Sebourc

Last updated

Baudouin de Sebourc is a fourteenth-century French chanson de geste which probably formed part of a cycle related to the Crusades, [1] and may well be related to Bâtard de Bouillon . [2] The poem was likely composed c. 1350 in Hainaut. [3]

<i>Chanson de geste</i> Medieval narrative in poetic form

The chanson de geste is a medieval narrative, a type of epic poem that appears at the dawn of French literature. The earliest known poems of this genre date from the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, before the emergence of the lyric poetry of the trouvères (troubadours) and the earliest verse romances. They reached their apogee in the period 1150–1250.

The Crusade cycle is an Old French cycle of chansons de geste concerning the First Crusade and its aftermath.

County of Hainaut countship

The County of Hainaut, sometimes given the spelling Hainault, was a historical lordship within the medieval Holy Roman Empire with its capital eventually established at Mons, and named after the river Haine, both now in Belgium. Besides Mons, it included the city of Valenciennes, now in France. It consisted of what is now the Belgian province of Hainaut and the eastern part of the French département of Nord.

Contents

The poem consists of 25,750 lines and is retained in two manuscript copies and was printed in 1841; a critical edition wasn't published until 1940. [1] This edition, by Edmond-René Labande, advanced two ideas about the poem. The first was that it should be dated to the middle of the fourteenth century rather than earlier in that century, and the second that it was written by two poets—the first a very capable writer with a fine sense of humor, the second a much less original one. [4]

Plot

According to Claassens, the plot "is impossible to summarize ... briefly". [3] The main character's father, King Ernoul of Nijmegen, travels to the Orient to deliver his brother from Saracen captivity. In the meantime his seneschal, Gaufroi of Friesland, takes Ernoul's place in his bed and on his throne, having betrayed his king to Sultan Rouge-Lion. Ernoul has four sons, all of whom go their various ways to escape the threat of death at the hands of Gaufroi; Baudouin is the youngest of them. At age two he is taken in at the court of the Lord of Sebourc.

Nijmegen City and municipality in Gelderland, Netherlands

Nijmegen is a city in the Dutch province of Gelderland, on the Waal river close to the German border.

The word seneschal can have several different meanings, all of which reflect certain types of supervising or administering in a historic context. Most commonly, a seneschal was a senior position filled by a court appointment within a royal, ducal, or noble household during the Middle Ages and early Modern period – historically a steward or majordomo of a medieval great house. In a medieval royal household, a seneschal was in charge of domestic arrangements and the administration of servants, which, in the medieval period particularly, meant the seneschal might oversee hundreds of laborers, servants and their associated responsibilities, and have a great deal of power in the community, at a time when the much of the local economy was often based around the wealth and responsibilities of such a household.

Baudouin sires 31 (bastard) children, one of them with his patron's daughter. [3] He falls in love with the sister of the Count of Flanders, Blanche, and runs off with her. They intend to travel to the Orient, and this sets off a series of extraordinary adventures. They get married, but by hook and crook Gaufroi manages to capture Blanche, forcing Baudoin to travel alone, having adventures in places like Baghdad and Jerusalem. He is reunited with his family; together they return and are able to defeat Gaufroi. After a winter in Nijmegen Baudouin returns to help the King of Jerusalem fight off the Saracens, and he leaves, this time with his 31 children.

Background

The poem is closely related to other poems from the Crusade cycle including Les Chétifs and continuations of the 13th-century La conquête de Jérusalem . The poem has historical connections; Baudoin seems to be based on Baldwin II of Jerusalem (d. 1131) and Guy of Lusignan (1150-1194), but his name, "de Sebourc", derives from a town near Valenciennes. [3]

Baldwin II of Jerusalem king of Jerusalem

Baldwin II, also known as Baldwin of Bourcq or Bourg, was Count of Edessa from 1100 to 1118, and King of Jerusalem from 1118 until his death. He accompanied his cousins, Godfrey of Bouillon, and Baldwin of Boulogne, to the Holy Land during the First Crusade. He succeeded Baldwin of Boulogne as the second count of Edessa when his cousin left the county for Jerusalem. He was captured at the Battle of Harran in 1104. He was held first by Sökmen of Mardin, then by Jikirmish of Mosul, and finally by Jawali Saqawa. During his captivity, Tancred, the Crusader ruler of the Principality of Antioch, and Tancred's cousin, Richard of Salerno, governed Edessa as Baldwin's regents.

Guy of Lusignan King of Jerusalem

Guy of Lusignan was a French Poitevin knight, son of Hugh VIII of the Lusignan dynasty. He was king of the crusader state of Jerusalem from 1186 to 1192 by right of marriage to Sibylla of Jerusalem, and of Cyprus from 1192 to 1194. Having arrived in the Holy Land at an unknown date, Guy was hastily married to Sibylla in 1180 to prevent a political incident within the kingdom. As the health of his brother-in-law, Baldwin IV, deteriorated, Guy was appointed regent for his stepson by Sibylla, Baldwin V. Baldwin IV died in 1185, followed shortly by Baldwin V in 1186, leading to the succession of Sibylla and Guy to the throne. Guy's reign was marked by increased hostilities with the Ayyubids ruled by Saladin, culminating in the Battle of Hattin in July 1187—during which Guy was captured—and the fall of Jerusalem itself three months later.

Valenciennes Subprefecture and commune in Hauts-de-France, France

Valenciennes is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.

A central tension in the narrative is between Holland and Friesland, a tension unique to Old French poetry but well known from the literature of the Low Countries. Gaufroi is Frisian, and the Frisian town of Leeuwarden falls to him by treachery. The poem comes from Hainault, and since the Counts of Hainault had become the Counts of Holland by 1299 (after the death of John I, Count of Holland), it appears that Hainault had adopted the animosity that existed between Holland and Friesland. [3]

Leeuwarden City and municipality in Friesland, Netherlands

Leeuwarden, Stadsfries: Liwwadden) is a city and municipality in Friesland in the Netherlands. It is the provincial capital and seat of the States of Friesland. The municipality has a population of 122,293.

John I, Count of Holland 13th-century count of Holland

John I was Count of Holland and son of Count Floris V. John inherited the county in 1296 after the murder of his father.

Legacy

The poem has left no trace in the visual arts, and there are only a few surviving copies. While it exerted little influence on other works, it did, after translation into Middle Dutch, provide a source for names and motifs for the two plays Esmoreit and Gloriant . [3]

Related Research Articles

<i>The Song of Roland</i> literary work

The Song of Roland is an epic poem based on the Battle of Roncevaux Pass in 778, during the reign of Charlemagne. It is the oldest surviving major work of French literature and exists in various manuscript versions, which testify to its enormous and enduring popularity in the 12th to 14th centuries.

Renaud de Montauban legendary knight in chivalric romance, Christian saint

Renaud de Montauban was a fictional hero and knight who was introduced to literature in a 12th-century Old French chanson de geste known as Les Quatre Fils Aymon. The four sons of Duke Aymon are Renaud, Richard, Alard, and Guiscard, and their cousin is the magician Maugris. Renaud possess a magical horse Bayard and the sword Froberge.

The Matter of France, also known as the Carolingian cycle, is a body of literature and legendary material associated with the history of France, in particular involving Charlemagne and his associates. The cycle springs from the Old French chansons de geste, and was later adapted into a variety of art forms, including Renaissance epics and operas. Together with the Matter of Britain, which concerned King Arthur, and the Matter of Rome, comprising material derived from and inspired by classical mythology, it was one of the great literary cycles that figured repeatedly in medieval literature.

<i>Chanson dAntioche</i> chanson de geste

The Chanson d'Antioche is a chanson de geste in 9000 lines of alexandrines in stanzas called laisses, now known in a version composed about 1180 for a courtly French audience and embedded in a quasi-historical cycle of epic poems inspired by the events of 1097–99, the climax of the First Crusade: the conquest of Antioch and of Jerusalem and the origins of the Crusader states. The Chanson was later reworked and incorporated in an extended Crusade cycle, of the 14th century, which was far more fabulous and embroidered, more distinctly romance than epic.

William of Gellone Count of Toulouse and saint

William of Gellone, the medieval William of Orange, was the second Duke of Toulouse from 790 until 811. In 804, he founded the abbey of Gellone. He was canonized a saint in 1066 by Pope Alexander II.

The 12th-century chanson de geste of Garin le Loherain is one of the fiercest and most sanguinary narratives left by the trouvères. This local cycle of Lorraine, which is completed by Hervis de Metz, Girbers de Metz, Ansis, fils de Girbert, and Von, appears to have a historical basis. Although the actions as recorded cannot be identified with specific historical events, the poems are valuable depictions of the savage feudal wars in the 11th and 12th centuries.

La Geste de Garin de Monglane is the second cycle of the three great cycles of chansons de geste created in the early days of the genre. It centres on Garin de Monglane.

Frisian participation in the Crusades

Frisian participation in the Crusades is attested from the very beginning of the First Crusade, but their presence is only felt substantially during the Fifth Crusade. They participated in almost all the major Crusades and the Reconquista. The Frisians are almost always referred to collectively by contemporary chroniclers of the Crusades and few names of individual Frisian crusaders have come down to us. They generally composed a naval force in conjunction with other larger bodies of crusaders.

Esmoreit is a Middle Dutch drama. It is one of the four abele spelen that are contained in the Hulthemse handschrift and consists of 1018 lines in rhyme.

Gloriant is a Middle Dutch drama. It is one of the four abele spelen that are contained in the Hulthemse handschrift and consists of 1142 lines in rhyme.

Aymeri de Narbonne is a legendary hero of Old French chansons de geste and the Matter of France. In the legendary material, as elaborated and expanded in various medieval texts, Aymeri is a knight in the time of Charlemagne's wars with the Saracens after the Battle of Roncevaux Pass. He is son of Hernaut and the grandson of Garin de Monglane. He conquers the city of Narbonne, marries a princess named Hermengarde or Hermenjart, and fathers seven sons, the most famous being Guillaume d'Orange, the hero of several popular chansons de geste.

The Chanson de Guillaume or Chançun de Willame is a chanson de geste from the first half of the twelfth-century. The work is generally considered to have two distinct halves: the first tells of Guillaume of Orange, his nephew Vivien and the latter's young brother Gui and their various battles with Saracens at L'Archamp; in the second half of the poem, Guillaume is aided by Rainouard, a giant.

The Charroi de Nîmes, is an Old French chanson de geste from the first half of the twelfth-century, part of the cycle of chansons concerning Guillaume of Orange, generally referred to collectively as the Geste de Guillaume d'Orange.

Gormond et Isembart is an Old French chanson de geste from the second half of the eleventh or first half of the twelfth century. Along with The Song of Roland and the Chanson de Guillaume, it is one of the three chansons de geste whose composition incontestably dates from before 1150; it may be slightly younger than The Song of Roland and, according to one expert, may date from as early as 1068. The poem tells the story of a rebellious young French lord, Isembart, who allies himself with a Saracen king, Gormond, renounces his Christianity, and battles the French king. The poem is sometimes grouped with the Geste de Doon de Mayence or "rebellious vassal cycle" of chansons de geste.

Murgleys, or Murgleis is the sword of Ganelon, a traitorous French (Frankish) count and nemesis to the titular hero of the epic La chanson de Roland.

Aiquin, subtitled La conqueste de la Bretaigne par le roy Charlemaigne, is a medieval Old French chanson de geste about the rivalry between a Saracen king, Aiquin, and the Christian emperor Charlemagne. The French medievalist Joseph Bédier called it a "consolidation of history and legend in an imposing ensemble." It survives in one fifteenth-century manuscript, BnF fr. 2233, now in the Bibliothèque nationale de France. It is usually attributed to Garin Trosseboeuf, possibly a cleric of Dol, and was probably written in the late twelfth century. It is the oldest extant French text from Brittany.

Aiol and Mirabel is an Old French chanson de geste. Originating probably in the late twelfth century, the oldest copy in Old French dates from circa 1220. It was translated into Middle Dutch, Italian, and Spanish. The narrative recounts the adventures of the young knight Aiol who attempts to restore his father's fiefdom, and along the way marries a Saracen princess.

Edmond-René Labande (1908-1992) was a French archivist and historian.

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 Bossuat, Robert (1941). "Rev. of Edmond-René Labande, Étude sur Baudouin de Sebourc, chanson de geste, légende poétique de Baudoin II du Bourg, roi de Jérusalem". Bibliothèque de l'école des chartes. 102 (1): 229–30.
  2. ↑ Cook, Robert F. (1989). "Baudouin de Sebourc: Un poème édifiant". Olifant. Société Rencesvals. 14 (2).
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Claassens, G. H. M. (2000). "Baudoin de Sebourc". In Willem Pieter Gerritsen. A Dictionary of Medieval Heroes: Characters in Medieval Narrative Traditions and Their Afterlife in Literature, Theatre and the Visual Arts. Anthony G. van Melle, Tanis Guest. Boydell & Brewer. pp. 53–54. ISBN   9780851157801.
  4. ↑ Kibler, William W. (1970). "The Unity of Baudouin de Sebourc". Studies in Philology . 67 (4): 461–71. JSTOR   4173696.

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.