Ravishing Maidens: Writing Rape in Medieval French Literature and Law

Conclusion

Conclusion The preceding chapters form a cultural archeology in which we can re­ position the idealization of the feminine that emerges from French medi­ eval courtly literature. When we contextualize the construction of the feminine in courtly love discourse among other contemporary discourses, their complicity in naturalizing what seems to have been the common prac­ tice of violence against women isrevealed. This book has attempted to dislodge two persistent myths about men, women, and sexual discourse in medieval France. The first is the notion that women enjoyed unparalleledsexual power and freedom in the days of courtly love. The second is the converse belief that rape was commonplace in the Middle Ages because societywasso barbaricthat men "did not know any better." The first myth holds that courtly love literature reflects historical reality. Joan Kelly's landmark article "Did Women Have a Renaissance?"is an ex­ ample of research inflected by this idealistic view of the Middle Ages as a time in which women enjoyed great sexual freedom: "Medieval courtly love, closely bound to the dominant values of feudalism and the church, allowed in a special way for the expression of sexuallove by women."1 The myth of a medieval society virtually ruled by women who enjoyed sexual parity with men is almost as misleading as the myth of ignorant sexual barbarism. While Kelly's impressive accomplishments in her study, the findings concerning women in the Renaissance, remain as valid as they are precious to us, they are nevertheless grounded in a limited reading of medieval culture. Kelly cites literarytexts almost exclusively. Furthermore, from the wide range of medieval literary genres, she metonymically takes two parts for the whole: courtly romance and troubadour lyric. Moreover, Kelly regards literature as reliably mimetic. Adultery, for example, is rep­ resented as tolerable; Kelly thus assumes that men tolerated it in women. By reading a wider varietyof discourses, such as court records, we discover the striking medieval practice of punishing wives severely for adulterous 142 Conclusion practices that are widely tolerated among husbands. Furthermore, as the records of Cerisy showed, even female rape victims are fined and punished for their "involvement" in sexual assault.2 According to the second perception, the criminality of sexual violence was invisibleto people in the Middle Ages. The modern notion of the droit du seigneur—a lord's right to deflower the bride of his peasant on their wedding night—typifies this myth of the acceptabilityof rape in medieval society. The texts studied in this book reveal that nothing could be further from the truth. Medieval discourse suggests that men were not only aware of the criminality of rape, they were also keenlyconscious of its importance as a legal and social issue. As early as the tenth century, Hincmar of Reims cried out against the abusivepracticeand toleration of sexualviolence.3 The great jurists of the twelfth century struggled to redefine rape and focused on the heated issue of just punishment as well as the difficult question of compensating the victim.4 In the thirteenth century, canonists were so at­ tuned to the subtler forms of sexual abuse that they attempted to create laws against fraudulent seduction.' It may be objected that the legal community, well­educated and trained to wrestle with ethical considerations, cannot be taken as an index of gen­ eral societal attitudes. Does the literature of medieval France, created within and for a much broader audience,contradict these findings? On the contrary, it displays the same preoccupation with sexualviolence as do le­ gal texts. Medieval poets seem highly cognizant of the complexities of dis­ cussing sexualviolence. Their representationsof rape are neither simplistic, undifferentiated, nor thoughtless. Not only does medieval literature wres­ tle with the broad social implications of sexual violence, but it frequently formulates this cultural preoccupation in legal terms. Le Roman deRenart offers the clearest example of the interest of poets and audiences in the defining and treatment of rape. As late as 1405, Christine de Pizan places rape law on the platform of her reform campaign in the Book of the City of Ladies. Christine wants to take the authors of courtly discourse at their word and to turn their talk of reverence, respect, and devotion into real social practice. Christine seizes upon the courtly doctrine of the importance of women and politicizes it. In one passage, Christine's baffled persona discusses myths about sexual violence with Lady Rectitude: "Si m'anuye et m'esgriesve de ce que hommes dient tant que femmes se veullent efforcier et...