Carnival at Court: Performing Injuria in the Cantigas de Escarnio e Maldizer

The satirically insulting cantigas de escarnio e maldizer at the court of Alfonso X of Castile appear to flagrantly contradict the laws on injuria outlined in the Siete Partidas, the statutory code compiled under that very same king. Considering the importance of gesture to the crime of injuria, it is reasonable to assume that the performers of these linguistically transgressive poems also embraced gestural insult. By reading the cantigas directed at Maria Perez Balteira, a well-known soldadera, in the context of the laws with which segreles toyed, this essay begins to reconstruct the illicit poetic performances that may have been enacted in the Alfonsine court. Despite their elite, intellectual audiences, such transgressive performances encourage the reading of these poems through the lens of the carnivalesque. This essay goes on to argue that the suspension of decorum and regulation functioned as a safety valve—a cathartic release from social pressures—to solidify the king's authority as poets competed for his patronage. Even at court, then, it is impossible to separate medieval laughter from a temporary suspension of the status quo, in the ultimate service of power.