William the Lion. Kingship and Culture, 1143-1214 (review)

Reviews 193 Owen, D. D. R., William the Lion. Kingship and Culture, 1143-1214, East Linton, East Lothian, Tuckwell Press, 1997; paper; pp. xiv, 218; 8 b / w plates; R.R.P. £14.99. Enjoying a reputation second to none among British Arthurian specialists, Emeritus Professor Roy O w e n continues to dominate twelfth-century scholarship. After a life-long dedication to the works of Chretien de Troyes, and following his brilliant study Eleanor ofAquitaine, Queen and Legend (Oxford, 1993), he now draws new readers to his side with his latest monograph on a colourful contemporary, William the Lion. O w e n observes that there is 'no accessible biography of independent Scotland's longest-reigning monarch', so he sets about creating a readable and entertaining, yet accurate, account of William's rule. W e are gradually introduced to his temperament and political aspirations through a series of chronological chapters which closely integrate literature and governance. From ancestors and early life, the perspective is broadened to the cultural vogues of the day. The young king's first nine years after reaching his majority are confined to the third chapter, allowing O w e n to develop a separate focus for the ensuing fourteen years 'of maturity'. Vicissitudes multiply in the last twenty-five years of William's reign: his liege-lord, Henry II, dies, Richard and John curry favour each in turn, his o w n health,fails, and in mid-winter 1214 he is buried before the high altar in the very abbey he founded at Arbroath. From here O w e n turns to a literary evaluation of the romance Fergus of Galloway, which he is careful to label a 'legend'. Guillaume le Clerc's work was long thought to be of Continental origin, but O w e n established the poefs identity in 1994 as William Malveisin, Bishop of St Andrews. The cleric enjoyed favorable relationships with the Scottish court of William the Lion, and with other ScottishNorman dioceses. Earlier critics had passed over or were not aware of the Scottish cultural perspective exemplified in the composition of Fergus. The tale of Fergus is briefly recounted, its place in medieval romance firmly established and its wider cultural links delineated with an accuracy which inspires confidence. But Owen's study contains much more: the final chapter, headed 'The Legacy7 , is as bountiful in new material and literary trails as the earlier ones. The author surveys references and allusions to Scotland in contemporary works and in post-Fergws creations. These include the anonymous lays of Doon, Gurun and Desiri, Le Bel Inconnu, and Guillaume d'Angleterre, lon attributed to Chretien de Troyes, but whose 'subject matter, style and probable circumstances of composition make his authorship most unlikely', according to Owen. A n unexpected text with Scottish scenes and topography, the Manekine, by a certain Philippe de Remi, occupies a broad canvas also in the study, to enable O w e n to argue for the Vita Offae Primi as a source. I feel the same chapter could have been enhanced still further by reference to other thirteenth-century works, such as Joufrois and Sone de Nansey, which had already been noted by P. Rickard, Britain in Medieval French Literature, 110 194 Reviews 1500, (Cambridge, 1958)—a title not included in Owen's bibliographical profiles. Later French romanciers also regaled their listeners and readers with comments about the Scots and displayed awareness of the terrain, its towns and ports, e.g. Froissart's Meliador, the anonymous Perceforest and Ysaie le Tr Apart from Froissart, another chronicler w h o had first-hand knowledge of the Scots was the Northumbrian knight, Thomas Gray. During confinement in Edinburgh Castle in c. 1355, he compiled a Scalacronica in French, purporting to be a history of Great Britain from early times. The subject for discussion in the Appendix is the thirteenth-century mirrorcase preserved in the Perth M u s e u m and Art Gallery. It represents a scene— the earliest recorded in medieval art—of the 'Tryst beneath the Tree' motif belonging to the Tristan legend. Owen's research convinced him 'of its significance in Scotland's cultural history of the...